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m 
 
 AGGEESSIYE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ^ 
 
 0t 
 
 PRACTICAL SERMONS 
 
 BY' 
 
 MRS. CATHEKIXK BOOTH. 
 
 WITH AX IXTliODUGTIOX BY 
 
 DANIEL STEELE, I). D. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 
 WILLIAM P>RIGGS, 
 
 78 .S:; 80 King St., Kast. 
 MONTREAL: HALIFAX: 
 
 C. W. COATES. s. F. IIUK8TLS. 
 

 Ki.terc.l. acconliiiK lo Act of (on-n..s. in the year l.ss;j, 
 
 nv AF<I)OXALI) .V (ill.I.. 
 In the Office cf the Librarian uf Cungu... at ^Va.hin;.t..n. 
 
PUBLISHERS* 1 'T?. EFACE. 
 
 Our attention was first called to tliis book by Eev. Daniel 
 Steele, D. D., and after a careful, and, to us, profitable read- 
 ing, we yielded readily to his persuasion to give it to the 
 American Churches, being assured that its practical, burn- 
 ing truths, nuist arouse all to a clearer apprehension of 
 their duty and privilege. 
 
 These sermons are a marvel of direct, earnest appeal to 
 the hearts of all who seek to Imow the way of the Lord 
 more perfectl}'. Ko one can read them without being \)vq- 
 foundly stirred, and scrij^turally enlightened. They are 
 suited to arouse the dormant energies of all classes to a 
 better and more useful life. 
 
 The Introduction, by Dr. Steele, sets forth in earnest 
 words the religious character of the author, and the excel- 
 lencies of these sermons. "We give them to the })ublic with 
 the prayer that their perusal may kindle a fiame of revival 
 in all the land by stirring up the people to seek the pente- 
 
 costal baptism. 
 
 :McDOXALD & GILL, 
 
 l)0ST()x, Mass. 
 
 ■ 
 
■1 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The Addresses contained in this little volume were deliv- 
 ered daring a series of services at the West End of London, 
 in the cummer of 1880. That they were used tlien of the 
 Lord I had abundant evidence, and on that aec;ount I have, 
 consented to their reproduction in this form, ho];)ing tliat 
 lie may still speak through them to many souls. 
 
 I only regret that pressing public duties have prevented 
 the shorthand writer's notes being revised as thoroughly as 
 I could have wished, especially as they are reports of what 
 were themselves largely unpremeditated utterances. 
 
 Catherine Booth. 
 London^ DecembfTf 1880 
 
 
 ' i I 
 
 m 
 
t 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I 
 
 This volume is reprinted in America at my oft-repeated 
 suggestion. When the reader has fniished these sermons he 
 will not ask why I have urged the publication of an Ameri- 
 can edition. The sermons will have spoken for themselves. 
 To induce the Christian public to read this book, a few 
 words of information respecting its gifted author, her excel- 
 lencies as a preacher, and the wonderful work in which she 
 is engaged, will be our only argument. 
 
 IMrs. Catherine Booth is the wife of Rev. William Booth, 
 formerly a Primitive ]\Iethodist preacher, but now the 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Salvation Army. Converted 
 at fifteen, her piety till several years after her marriage 
 was like a shaded lamp, shining only upon the narrow 
 circle of the parsonage and parish. She says : " I was one 
 of the most timid and bashful disciples the Lord Jesus ever 
 saved." For ten years the daily battle of her life was with 
 the duty of giving public testimony with her lips to the 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 INTUO AUCTION. 
 
 
 Dowrr of Christ to save. ITer vintory at last, and lier rf* 
 iiiaikaldo call to proach when the mother of four childrcu 
 under five years of age, and tlio spiritual power of her min- 
 istry, [\vv. thrillingly detailed in the sermon on ''Witnessing 
 for Christ." Slio has been a })reaeher twenty-three years, 
 and lias brought up nine ehihlren to preaeli the Gospel. 
 
 !My iirst knowledge of jNIrs. Booth was obtained in 1880, 
 from a letter of a strait-laeed Presbyterian doctor of divin- 
 ity, published in one of the organs of that denomination in 
 Kew York. lie had listened to all the celebrities in Lon- 
 don, not excepting Spurgeon and I'arker, but had heard no 
 speaker who luid moved him so deeply as a woman preacliing 
 in a hall in the West End of London. The woman was ^Irs. 
 Booth. This confession by a minister who would have been 
 subjected to ecclesiastical censure if he had introduced a 
 woman into his own pulpit, so excited my interest that I 
 began to inquire abo>it this new light which had arisen upon 
 England, and to wonder whether the printing press would 
 not soon reflect its rays upon our western world. I could 
 not wait for an American reprint, but immediately sent for 
 the volumes of her sermons. Having feasted upon them 
 for several months, I am constrained to invite my fellow- 
 Christians in America to the banquet. The volume entitled 
 " Godliness " is not on the table, but is in course of prepara- 
 
INTnODTTTI«»\. 
 
 I 
 
 tinu l»y MfOonald iV (Jill, and will Ik- t'agcily sought for iiy 
 ;ill who liavc lastcnl of '' Aggn'ssivo Cliristianit}'." 
 
 ^.)ne of tlic bishops of tlu' Church of I'^ngland has rei-eiiL- 
 ]y issued a letter to tlie clergy of his diocese, urging them, 
 if they would be aroused and stimulated to go out and ccmu- 
 pel th(^ unchurched and i)prishing masses to come to tlie 
 gosi)el feast, to study the discourses of ]\Ir.s. Uootli. Hero 
 they -would lind inspiration and incentives to this long- 
 neglected wor\'. 
 
 Tlie relation of Mrs. liooth to the Salvation Army may 
 lead some to suppose that lier sermons arc; only frothy rant- 
 ings addressed to vicious and illiterate crowds, <Mho un- 
 washed mob" of the metropolis of England. This is a 
 great mistake. While General Booth was iireaching in 
 Mile End, letting down the Gospel plummet to sound the 
 depths of the slums in eastern London, his wife -was gath* r- 
 ing the cultured and aristocratic class in tjie western part (-f 
 the city, attracting such intellects as Erancrs I'ower ('()l)be, 
 the admirer and correspondent of Theodore I'arker. This 
 Unitarian lady, whose fame as a Hfcrdfeur has reached all 
 parts of the I'.nglish-speaking "world, says of ^Irs. r)Ooth's 
 preaching: "The combination of fervent zeal with practical 
 good sense, in her extempore discourses, must be admired 
 even by those who differ most widely from her views." 
 
iO 
 
 INTIIODUCTION. 
 
 ^ .)' 
 
 It has been truthfully said that woman excels in insight, 
 in her power of intellectual penetration, in the instantane- 
 ous, intuitive discernment of truth, like that of St. John, 
 and that tlie masculine mind is superior in the discursive, 
 or dialectic faculty, in the Pauline ability to forge and weld 
 together the successive links of a chain of reasoning. Mrs. 
 Dooth combines both these qualities. She is Pauline and 
 Johannean in the cast of her mind. He will be happily 
 disappointed who opens this volume expecting to find only 
 what Kenan sneeringly styles — when he characterizes the 
 resurrection message of Mary Magdalene — "the hallucina- 
 tion of an excited woman^s imagination." The reader must 
 look elsewhere for the gospel of gush. In these sermons 
 there is no incoherency, no rhapsody, no rhodomontade, but 
 sound theology in consecutive prepositions set forth in nat- 
 ural and logical sequence according to the laws of thought, 
 the whole delivered with Divine unction, a river of truth 
 set on fire by the Hol}^ Ghost, bearing down or burning up 
 everything before it. One element of her power is her 
 plain, stoat, terse Saxon speech, not slang, but the language 
 of the home, the shop, and the street. Her sermons are 
 theology in homespun. She eschews a scholastic form of 
 theology in buckram and broadcloth. 
 
 This volume is rightly named. For two reasons the sub- 
 
up 
 her 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 11 
 
 ject of the first sermon may well be applied to the entire 
 book. First, the preacher insists that the Gospel, when it 
 enters the heart, should be aggressive till it conquers the 
 last lurking foe, through the power of the Holy Spirit wholly 
 sanctifying it by an instant.ineous finishing stroke given to 
 original sin, as taught by John Wesley. This is a cardinal 
 doctrine of the Salvation Army, and the secret of its con- 
 quering power. A meeting specially for the promotion of 
 this experience is held weekly in everyone of their barracks. 
 In the second place, the Gospel is to be aggressive till it 
 subdues the whole world to Jesus, its r'gh^.ful King. The 
 mighty faith of ^Irs. Booth grasps this glorious consumma- 
 tion, as within the reach of the present generation of believ- 
 ers, if they yield themselves fully to the impulses of the 
 Holy Spirit. She is no gloomy pessimist, bewailing the de- 
 cny of Christianity and dishonoring the dispensation of tlie 
 Paraclete by postponing the world's conversion till after 
 Jesus shall descend from Heaven, and in person set up a 
 visible kingdom on the earth. These sermons are a health- 
 ful antidote to this paralyzing error, and a mighty stimulus 
 to missionary activity. Christians are exhorted to a grand 
 evangelistic assault upon whole communities, imposing the 
 Gospel upon them. While I am writing, detachments of 
 the Salvation Army are attacking all the principal towns in 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
12 
 
 ENTltODUCTION. 
 
 England and Scotland, and columns are marcliing on France^ 
 Sweden, Switzerland, North America, South Africa, and In- 
 dia. They exemplify their own doctrines respecting the 
 two-fold aggressive power of Christianity. They have lifted 
 it out of its century-worn ruts, put a steam-engine beiiind it, 
 and set it running everywhere at will, like a pioneer's wagon 
 on a wild prairie. God speed the ne Gospel chariot, till it 
 bears King Jesus round the world ! 
 
 Long have we mourned over the religious apathy which 
 deadens the zeal of American Christianity. On all her 
 church doors have I, in thought, seen this advertisement : — 
 
 * ! 
 
 WANTED! 
 
 EELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 Inquire within. 
 
 This book comes knocking at these church doors with ability 
 to answer this universal call. If Christians would read it 
 and become imbued with the spirit of its consecrated author, 
 there would be an uprising of a slumbering host and a spir- 
 itual Waterloo would ensue, "putting to flight the armies of 
 the aliens." 
 
 An English essayist has well said : " A great evil, to which 
 lunnan beings are by their make subject, is, that they can 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 13 
 
 f 
 
 % 
 
 4 
 
 ;l 
 
 i 
 
 talk of things, kuow things, and understand things, without 
 feeling them in their true importance — without, in short, 
 realizing them. There appears to be a certain numbness 
 about the mental organs of perception ; and the man who 
 is able to /^if^ iltings so strikingly, clearly, pithily, forcibly, 
 glaringly, whether these things are religious, social, or politi- 
 cal truths, as to get through that numbness, that crust of 
 insensibility, to the quick of the mind and heart, must be a 
 great man, an earnest man, an honest man, a good man. I 
 believe that any great reformer will find less practical dis- 
 couragement in the opposition of bad people, than in the 
 inertia of good people." At just this point lies the obstacle 
 to the advance of the Gospel. All forcible opposition has 
 ceased, but a greater peril threatens us — "the inertia of 
 good people." The sermons which I am now introducing 
 to the good people of America have this desirable quality, 
 they pierce religious numbness to the quick, and make the 
 mind realize Gospel truth. May this realization inspire 
 intense activity in plucking lost men as brands from the 
 eternal burnings ! 
 
 I have often endeavored in imagination to transport my- 
 self to the first Christian century, when Christianity in the 
 zeal of her Pentecostal baptism, was going forth as an army 
 unincumbered with a baggage train and a host of non-com- 
 
14 
 
 INTliODUCTION. 
 
 a i 
 
 II 
 
 ! i: 
 
 I 4 * : 
 I 
 ( 
 
 I I 
 
 batants, to conquer the world. I have always failed to ru 
 produce the scene. The sermons of this eloquent woman 
 now come to my help. They show me what Christianity is 
 when stripped of a cumbersome ceremonialism, a deadening 
 formalism, a crushing ecclesiasticism, cut loose from the bag- 
 gage train of church debts engineered by rich and worldly 
 men, and relieved of a host of nominal Christians impeding 
 her march, pleased only with dress parades, and raising a 
 panic whenever the sham fight for a moment becomes real. 
 I now see as with anointed vision that a regenerated Chris- 
 tianity would speedily conquer the world. John Goodwin, 
 more than two centuries ago, saw he need of a doctrinal re- 
 generation of Christianity, clearing it from the errors of 
 Calvinism. He wrote his " Redemption Hedeemed, wherein 
 the most glorious Work of Redemption of the World by 
 Jesus Christ is vindicated by the Encroachments of latter 
 Times." A similar work has Mrs. Booth wrought in her 
 Bermons, in her Redemption of the Gospel from its bondage 
 to enfeebling proprieties and churchly fashions and unspirit- 
 ual and worldly tastes and maxims, ^he has demonstrated 
 that the simple Gospel, preached in faith in the streets of 
 London, without the sanction i*? eccicdiastical or civil au- 
 thority, without wealth, without learning and the patronage 
 of the upper classes, is just as powerful as it was when it 
 
 i- ! 
 
INTRODUCTION. l,") 
 
 stood up alono in the streets of Jerusalem, leaning only on 
 the arm of a Jewish fisherman, stammering with a Galilean 
 brogue. 
 
 Peahodyy March 1, 1883, 
 
 DANIEL STEELE. 
 
 i 
 
 tbi 
 
 
 i 3 11 
 
 ' m 
 
 
I;i 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SF:R.>rox r. 
 
 A CCUKSSIVE CIIlilSTL I XITV. 
 
 SEimox II. 
 .1 PCIIE GOSPEL. 
 
 SEIi.MuN ill. 
 
 ADAPTATmx OF MEASUUKS. 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 AssrnAxcE of salvatiox. 
 
 SEUMON V. 
 //Oir (lIUrsT TRAXSCEXDS THE LAW 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 THE FRvrrs OF uxiox WITH ciuiTsr, 
 
 ser:\ion VII. 
 WITXESSIXG FOR CHRIST 
 
 SER.AION vin. 
 
 FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 
 
 17 
 
 Hi 
 
1;' 
 
 18 
 
 c'(jnti:n'is. 
 skumon ix. 
 
 THE WOULD' S XEKI). 
 
 f '■ 
 
 SEU.M(JN X. 
 
 !■* 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 i \ 
 
 1 
 
 
 . 1 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 t I 
 
 ' i 
 
 1 
 
 
 THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 ■ii.L 
 
SEllMON I. 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CIIMSTIANITY. 
 
 Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. — Mauk 
 xvi. 1."). 
 
 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And lie said, 1 am Jesus whom thou perse- 
 cutest. Dut rise, and stand upon thy feet : for J have ai)i)eared unto theo 
 for this purpose, to njake thee a nunister and a witness both of these things 
 whieli thou iiast seen, and of those thint^s in tlie wlueli 1 will appear unto 
 thee: Delivering thee from the >eople, and from the Gentiles, unto whom 
 now 1 send thee, to open theii v,yes, and to turn them from tlarkness to 
 light, anil from the power of Satan unto God, that they may reeeivo for- 
 giveness of sins, and inheritance among them which arc sanctitled by faith 
 that is iu me.— Acts xxvi. 15-18. 
 
 Suppose we could blot out from our minds all knowledge 
 of the history of Christianity from the time of this Inaugu- 
 ration Service — from that Pentecostal Baptism — or, at any 
 rate, from the close of the period described in the Acts of 
 the Apostles ; suppose we could detach from our minds all 
 knowledge of the history of Christianity since then, and 
 take the Acts of the Apostles and sit down and calculate 
 what was likely to happen in the world, what different re- 
 sults we should have anticipated, what a different world we 
 should have reckoned upon as the outcome of it all. A 
 system which commenced under such auspices, with such 
 assumptions and professions on the part of its Author (speak- 
 ing after the manner of men), and producing, as it did, in 
 the first century of its existence, such gigantic and moment- 
 ous results. We should have said, if we knew nothing of 
 what has intervened from that time to this, that, no doubt, 
 the world where that war commenced, and for which it was 
 organized, would have long since been subjugated to the in- 
 
 19 
 
 t 
 
20 
 
 AQGIJESSIVE CUUISTIANITY. 
 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 ' 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 ^i; 
 
 HI 
 
 fluoncc of thiit system, and brought under tho power of its 
 great Originator and Founder! I say, from reading these 
 Acts, and I'runi observing the spirit whieh animated the early 
 disciples, and from the wtiy in which everything fell before 
 them, we should have anticipated that ten thousand times 
 greater results would have followed, and, in my judgment, 
 this anticipation would have been perfectly rational and 
 just. 
 
 We Christians profess to possess in the Gospel of Christ 
 a mighty lever which, rightly and universally applied, would 
 lift the entire burden of sin and misery from the shoulders, 
 that is, from the souls, of our fellow-men — a panacea, we 
 believe it to be, for all the moral and spiritual woes of hu- 
 manity, and in curing their spiritual plagues we should go 
 far to cure their physical plagues also. We all profess to 
 believe this. Christians have professed to believe this for 
 generations gone by, ever since the time of which wc have 
 been reading, and yet, look at the world, look at so-called 
 Christian England and America, in this end of the nineteenth 
 century ! The great majority of the nations utterly ignor- 
 ing God, and not even making any pretence of remembering 
 Him one day in a week. And then, look at the rest of the 
 world. I have frequently got so depressed with this viev/ 
 of things that I have felt as if my heart would break. I 
 don't know how other Christians feel, but I can truly say 
 that " rivers of water do often run down my oyes because 
 men keep not Ilis law," and because it seems to me that this 
 dispensation, compared with what God intended it to be, has 
 been, and still is, as great a failure as that which preceded 
 it. 
 
 Now, I ask, how is this ? I do not for a moment believe 
 that this is in accordance with the purpose of God. Some 
 
 , I 
 
 
AOaUESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 21 
 
 J eoplo liave a very convenient way of liiding boliind (lod's 
 |iuri)()S(»ri, and saying, *' Oil ! He will flo Ili.s own will." I 
 ^^ isli lie did ! Thoy say, '' You know (lod's will is dono aft»'i 
 nil." I wish it. wt-ro ! He says it is not dono, and over and 
 ovor again laments tl.e fact that it is not done. I To wants 
 it to be done, but it is not donk ! " It is of no use to stand 
 up and propound thoori(\s that are at variance with things 
 as they are." There has been a great deal too much of this, 
 and it has had a very bad elTeet. Tlu; world is in this con- 
 lition, and here is a system launched under such ausjjices, 
 with such purposes, with such promises, and with siudi jji-os- 
 pects, and yet nearly nineteen hundred years have rolled 
 away and here we are. How little has been done, com- 
 paratively. What a little alteration has been effected in 
 the habits and dispositions of the race. 
 
 But some of you will say, " Well, but there is a good deal 
 done." Thank God for that. It would ' 3 sad if there were 
 nothing done ; but it looks like a drop in the ocean compared 
 with what should have been done. Now I cannot accept 
 any theory which so far reflects upon the love and goodness 
 of God as to make Illm to blame for this effeteness of Chris- 
 tianity, and, so far as my influence extends, I will not allow 
 the responsibility and the blame of all this to be rolled back 
 upon God, who so loved the world that He gave His only 
 Son to ignominy and death in order to redeem it. I do not 
 believe it for a moment. I believe that the old andi-enemy 
 has done in this dispensation what he did in former ones — 
 so far circumvented the purposes of God, that he has suc- 
 ceeded in bringing about this state of things — in retarding 
 the accomplishment of God's purposes and keeping the 
 world thus largely under his own power and influence, and 
 I believe he has succeeded in doing this, as he has succeeded 
 
22 
 
 A(JUU1':SSIVE CIIUISTUNITY. 
 
 
 alwiiys beforo, by dkckivii^o ood'.s own pkoi'lk. TT(; has 
 jil ways (lono so. II«^ lias always f,'ot up a caricature of (Jod's 
 real tliiuj,', and tlic nearer he can ^'et it to be like the original 
 the more successful ho is. lie lias succeeded in deceiving 
 God's peoide : — 
 First: — As to tiik standakd of their own lucLKiious 
 
 LTFR. 
 
 And, Secondlt/, he has succeeded in deceiving them as to 
 
 Tlir.IIl DUTIKS AND OHIJOATIONS TO THE WOULD. 
 
 II(; has succeeded, first, in deceiving them as to the stand- 
 ard of their own religious life. He has got the Church, 
 nearly as a whole, to receive what I call an '' Oh, wretched 
 man that I am*' religion ! He has got them to lower the 
 standard which Jesus Christ Himself established in this 
 ]')0()k — a standard, not only to be aimed at, but to be attained 
 unto — a standard of victory over sin, the world, the flesh, 
 and the devil, real, liruir/, reigning, triumphing Christ Ian It y ! 
 Satan knew what was the secret of the great success of those 
 early disciples. It was their whole-hearted devotion, their 
 absorbing love to Christ, their utter abnegatipn of the world. 
 It was their entire absorption in the salvation of their fellow- 
 men and the glory of their God. It was an enthusiastic 
 religion that swallowed them up, and made them willing to 
 become wanderers and vagabonds on the face of the earth — 
 for His sake to dwell in dens and caves, to be torn asunder, 
 and to be persecuted in every form. 
 
 It was this degree of devotion, before which Satan saw 
 he had no chance. Such people as these, he knew, must 
 ultimately subdue the world. It is not in human nature to 
 stand before that kind of spirit, that amount of love and 
 zeal, and if Christians had only gone on as they began long 
 since, the glorious prophecy would have been fulillled. The 
 
 t. 
 
 Hill 
 
AOaUKSSIVE CHUISTIANITY. 
 
 2'3 
 
 kiiigrlnms of this world would have bccoinc? tlie kingiloina 
 of our lord and of his Ciirist. 
 
 Therefore, the areh-enemy said, " What must I do ? I 
 sliall be defeated after all. I shall lose my supremacy as 
 the god of this world. What shall I do? No use to bring 
 in a gigantic system of error, whieh everybody wdl see to 
 be error." Oh, dear, no ! That has never been Satan's way ; 
 I)Ut his j»l;in has been to get iiold of a good man here and 
 there, who shall creep in, as the Apostle said, unawares, and 
 preach another doetrine, and who shall deceive, if it were 
 possible, the very elecrt. And ho did it. He accomplished 
 his design. He gradually lowered the standard of ('hristian 
 life and character, and though, in every revival, God has 
 raised it again to a certain extent, we have never got ba(;k 
 thoroughly to the sinipli(nty, purity, and devotion set before 
 us in these Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles. And 
 just ill the degree that it has ai)proximated thereto, in every 
 age, Satan has got somebody to oppose and to show that this 
 was too high a standard for human nature, altogether beyond 
 us, and that, therefore, Christians must sit down and just 
 be content to be " Oh ! wretched man that T am " people to 
 the end of their days. He has got the Church into a con- 
 dition that makes one sometimes positively ashamed to hear 
 professing Christians talk, and ashamed, also, that the world 
 should hear them talk. I do not wonderat thoughtful, intelli- 
 gent men being driven from such Christianity as this. It 
 would have driven me off, if I had not known the power of 
 godliness. I believe this kind of Christianity has made 
 more infidels than all the infidel books ever written. 
 
 Yes, Satan knew that he must get Christians do\vn f i-om 
 the high pinnacle of whole-hearted consecration to God. He 
 knew that he had no chance till he tempted them down from 
 
24 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 '1 
 
 ,11 
 
 r 
 
 that blessod vantage ground, and so he began to spread those 
 false doctrines, to counteract whicli «Tohn wrote his epistles^ 
 foi', before he died, he saw what was coming, and sounded 
 down the ages : — " Little children, let no man deceive you : 
 he that doeth rigliteousness is rigliteous, even as he is 
 righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the 
 devil sinneth from the beginning. Tor this purpose the Son 
 of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of 
 tlie devil." The Lord revive that doctrine ! Help us afresh 
 to put up the standard ! 
 
 ( )h ! the great evil i? that dishonest-hearted people, because 
 they feel it condemns them, lower the standard to their mis- 
 erable experience. I said, when I was young, and I repeat 
 it in my maturer years, that if it sent me to hell I would 
 never pull it down. Oh ! that God's people felt like that. 
 There is the glorious standard put before us. The power is 
 proffered, the conditions laid down, and we can all attain it 
 if we will ; but if we will not — for the sake of the children, 
 and for generations yet unborn, do not let us drag it down, 
 and try to make it meet our little, paltry, circumscribed ex- 
 perience. LET US KEEP IT UP. This is the way to get 
 the Avorld to look at it. Show the world a real, living, self- 
 sacrificing, hard-working, toiling, triumphing religion, and 
 the world will be influenced by it; but anything short of 
 that they will turn round and spit upon ! 
 
 Secondly : — Satan has deceived even those whom he could 
 not succeed in getting to lower the standard of their own 
 lives with respect to their duties and obligations to the 
 world. 
 
 I have been reading of late the New Testament with 
 special reference to the aggressive spirit of Primitive Chris- 
 tianity, and it is wonderful what floods of light come upon 
 
AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 L\j 
 
 L those 
 )istles 
 )unded 
 e you : 
 
 he is 
 for the 
 he Sou 
 3rks of 
 
 afresh 
 
 >ecause 
 nv mis- 
 repeat 
 would 
 e that, 
 ower is 
 ttain it 
 lildren, 
 down, 
 3ed ex- 
 '■ to get 
 ig, self- 
 )n, and 
 lort of 
 
 e could 
 ir own 
 to the 
 
 it with 
 Chris- 
 e upon 
 
 you when you read the Bible with reference to any particular 
 topic on which you are seeking for help. When God sees 
 you are panting after the light, in order that you may use 
 it, He 2^0 ID'S it In upon you. It is an indispensable condition 
 of receiving light that you are willing to foHow it. People 
 say they don't see this and tliat, no, because they do not 
 wish to see. They are not willing to walk in it, and, there- 
 fore, they do not get it ; but those who are willing to obey 
 sliall have all th-^ light they want. 
 
 It seems to me that we are come infinitely short of any 
 right and rational idea of the aggressive spirit of the New 
 Testament saints. Satan lias got Christians to accept what 
 I may call a namby-pamby, kid-glove kind of system of pre- 
 senting the gospel to people. "Will they be so kind as to 
 read this tract or book, or would they not like to hear this 
 popular and eloquent preacher ? They will be pleased with 
 him quite apart from religion." That is the sort of lialf- 
 Irightened, timid way of putting the truth before unconverted 
 people, and of talking to them about the salvation of their 
 souls. It seems to me this is utterly antagonistic and re- 
 pugnant to the spirit of the early saints : " Go ye and preach 
 the gospel to EVERY CltEATUUE;" and again the same 
 idea — "Unto whoui now I slmuI thee." Look what is 
 implied in these commissions, it seems to me that no 
 people have ever yet fathomed the meaning of these two 
 Divine commissions. I believe the Salvation Arm}' havt) 
 come nearer to it than any peoj^le that have ever preceded 
 them. Look at them. Would it ever occur to you that 
 the langutige meant, '' Go and build chapels and chi'tches 
 and invite the peoijle to come in, and if they will noi, 'et 
 them alone." -'GO i'E." If you se^L your servant to do 
 something for you, and said, " Go and accomplish that piece 
 
26 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 *: 
 
 
 il 
 
 of business for me," you know what it would involve. 
 You know that he must see certain persons, running about 
 the city to certain offices and banks, and agents, involving a 
 great deal of trouble and sacrifice ; but you have nothing to 
 do with that. He is your servant. He is employed by you 
 to do that business, and you simply commission him to " Go 
 and do it." What would you think if he went and took 
 an office and sent out a number of circulars inviting your 
 customers or clients to come and wait on his pleasure, and 
 when they chose to come, just to put your business before 
 them ? No, you would say, " Ridiculous." Divesting our 
 minds of all conventionalities and traditionalisms, what 
 would the language mean ? " Go ye ! " " To whom ? " 
 " To every creature." " Where am I to get at them ? " 
 WHERE THEY ARE. " Every creature." There is the 
 extent of your commission. Seek them out ; run after them, 
 wherever you can get at them. " Every creature " — 
 wherever you find a creature that has a soul — there go and 
 preach my Gospel to him. If I understand it, that is the 
 meaning and the spirit of the commission. 
 
 And then again, to Paul, he says, " Unto whom now I 
 send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn thevi from dark- 
 ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." 
 They are asleep — go and wake them up. They do not see 
 their danger. If they did, there would be no necessity for 
 you to run after them. They are preoccupied. Open their 
 eyes, and turn them round by your desperate earnestness 
 and moral suasion and moral force ; and, oh ! what a great 
 deal one man can do for another, it makes me tremble to 
 think ! " Turn them from darkness to light, and from the 
 power of Satan unto God. How did Paul understand it ? 
 He says, "We persuade men." Do not rest content with 
 
 i ! 
 
 M 
 
le 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CIIRISTIANITT. 
 
 27 
 
 just putting it before them, giving them gentle invitations, 
 and then leaving them alone. lie ran after them, poor 
 tilings, and pulled them out of the lire. Take the bandage 
 off tlieir eyes which Satan has bound round tliem ; knock 
 and hammer and burn in, with the fire of the Ploly Ghost, 
 your words into their poor, hardened, darkened hearts, until 
 they begin to realise that they are ix daxgek ; that there 
 is something amiss. Go after them. If I understand it, 
 that is the spirit of the Apostles and of the early Christians ; 
 for we read that when they were scattered by persecution, 
 they " went everywhere^ preaching the Word." The laity, 
 the new converts, the young babes in Christ. It does not 
 mean always in set discourses, and public assemblies, but 
 they went after men and women, like ancient Israel — 
 "Every man after his man," to try and win him for Christ. 
 Some people seem to think that the Apostles laid the 
 foundations of all the churches. They are quite mistaken. 
 Churches sprang up where the Apostles had never been. 
 The Apostles went to visit and organise them after they had 
 sprung up, as the result of the work of the early laymen 
 and women going everywhere and preaching the Word. 
 Oh ! may the Lord shower upon us in this day the same 
 spirit ! We should build churches and chapels ; we should 
 invite the people to them ; but do you think it is consistent 
 with these two commissions, and with many others, that we 
 should rest in this, when three parts of the population ut- 
 terly ignore our invitations and take no notice whatever of 
 our buildings and of our services ? They will not come to 
 Its. That is an established fact. What is to be done ? 
 They have souls. You profess to believe that as much as I 
 do, and that they must live for ever. Where are they going ? 
 What is to be done ? Jesus Christ says, " Go after them." 
 
28 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CmaSTUNITT. 
 
 w 
 
 
 "When all tlie civil metho^ls have failed ; wLen tlie genteei 
 invitations have failed ; when one man says that he lias 
 married a wife, and another that he has l)ought a yoke of 
 oxen, and another tliat he lias bought a piece of land — tlien 
 does tlie ^Master of the feast say, " The ungrateful wretches, 
 let thein alone ! " "No." lie says, " Go out into tlio high- 
 ways and hedges, and compel them to come iu, that my 
 ]iouse may be filled. I will have guests, and if you can't 
 get them in by civil measures, use military measures. Go 
 and COMPEL them to come in." It seems to me that we 
 want more of this determined, aggressive spirit. Those of 
 you who are right with (iod — you want more of this 
 s])irit to thrust the truth upon the attention of your fellow- 
 men. 
 
 reoi)le say, you must be very careful, very judicuous. 
 You must not thrust religion down people's throats. Then, 
 I say, you v/ill never get it down. What ! am I to wait till 
 an unconverted, Godless man wants to be saved before I try 
 to save him ? He will never want to be saved till the death- 
 rattle is in his throat. What! am I to let my unconverted 
 friends and acquaintances drift down quietly to damnation, 
 and never tell them about their souls, until they say, "If 
 you please, I want you to preach to me ! " Is tliis anything 
 like the spirit of early Christianity ? No. Verily we must 
 wal-e them look — tear the bandages off, open their eyes, 
 make them bear it, and if they run away from you in one 
 place, meet them in another, and let them have no peace 
 until they submit to God and get their souls saved. This is 
 what Christianity oitr/ht to be doing in tins land, and there 
 are plenty of Christians to do it. Why, w^e might give the 
 world such a time of it that they would get saved in very 
 self defence^ if we were only up a.nd doing, and determined 
 
AGGRESSIVE CHIilSTIANITY. 
 
 29 
 
 that tliey should have no peace ia their sins. Where is our 
 zeal for the Lord ? We talk of Old Testament saints, but 
 I would we were all like David. " Kivers of water ran 
 down his eyes because men kept not the Law of his God." 
 IJut you say, " We cannot all hold services." Perhaps not. 
 Go as you like. Go as quietly and softly as the morning 
 dew. Have meetings like the Fiiends, if you like. ONLY 
 J)0 IT. Don't let your relatives, and friends, and acquaint 
 aliens die, and their blood be found on your skirts ! ! ! 
 
 I shall never forget the agony depicted on the face of a 
 young lady who once came to see me. ^Rly heart went out 
 to her in pity. She told me her story. She said, " I had a 
 proud, ungodly father, and the Lord converted me three 
 years before his death, and, from the very day of my con- 
 version, I felt I ought to talk to him, and plead, and pray 
 with him about his soul, but I could not muster up courage. 
 I kept intending to do it, and intending to do it, until he 
 was taken ill. It was a sudden and serious illness. He lost 
 his mind; and died unsaved," and she said, " I have never 
 smiled since, and I think I never shall any more." Don't 
 be like that. Do it quietly, if you like ; privately, if you 
 like; but do it, and do it as if you felt the value of their 
 souls, and as if you intended to save them, if by any pd- 
 sible means in your power it could be done. 
 
 I had been speaking in a town, in the West of En^diind, 
 on the subject of responslhlUti/ oi Christhms for the salvation 
 of souls. The gentleman with whom I was staying liad 
 winced a bit under the truth, and instead of taking it to 
 heart in love, and making it the ineans of drav*'ing him 
 nearer to God, and enabling him to serve Him 'setter, he 
 said, " I thought you were rather hard on us this -norning." 
 I said, "Did you ? I should be very sorry to bf harder on 
 
1)0 
 
 AGGIIESSIVE CHRlSTLtiNlTY. 
 
 ii i^ 
 
 anybody than the Lord Jesus Christ would be." He said, 
 " You can push things to extremes, you know. You were 
 talking about seeking souls, and making sacrifices. Kow, 
 you are aware that we build the chapels and churches, and 
 ])ay the ministers, and if the people won't be saved, we can't 
 help it." (I think he had given i)retty largely to a chapel 
 in the town.) I said, " It is very heartless and ungrateful of 
 the people, I grant ; but, my dear sir, you would not reason 
 thus in any temporal matter. Suppose a plague were to 
 break out in London, and suppose that the Board of Health 
 were to meet and appropriate all the hospitals and public 
 buildings they could get to the treatment of those diseased, 
 and suppose they were to issue proclamations to say that 
 wlioever would come to these buildings should be treated 
 free of cost, and every care and kindness bestowed on them, 
 and, moreover, that the treatment would certainly cure 
 them ; but, supposing the people were so blind to their own 
 interests, so indifferent and besotted that they refused to 
 come, and, consequently, the plague was increasing and 
 thousands dying, what would you in the provinces say? 
 Would you say, * Well, the Board of Health have done 
 what they could, and if the people svill not go to be healed, 
 they deserve to perish ; let them alone ! ' No, you would 
 say, * It IS certainly very foolish and wicked of the people, 
 but these men are in a superior position. They understand 
 the matter. They know and are responsible for the conse- 
 quences. What in the world are they going to do ? Let 
 the whole land be depopulated ? ' No ! If the people will 
 not come to them, they must go to the people, and force 
 upon them the means of health, and insist that proper 
 measures should be used for the suppression of the plague.^' 
 It needed no application. He understood it, and I believe, 
 
AGGRESSIVE CHKISTIANITT. 
 
 31 
 
 by the spirit of God, he was enabled to see his mistake, to 
 take it home, and set to work to do something for perishing 
 souls. 
 
 Men are preoccupied, and it is for us to go and force it 
 upon their attention. Remember, you can do it. There is 
 some o?ie soul that you have more influence with than any 
 other person on earth — some soul, or souls. Are you doing 
 all you can for their salvation ? Your relatives, friends, and 
 acquaintances are to be rescued. Thank God ! we are rescu- 
 ing the poor people all over the land by t]>oiir.ands. There 
 they are, to be looked at, and talked with, and questioned — 
 people rescued from the depths of sin, degradation, and 
 woe — saved from the worst forms of crime and infamy; 
 and, if He can do that. He can save your genteel friends, if 
 only you will go to them desperately and determinedly.- 
 Take them lovingly by the button-hole, and say, " My dear 
 friend, I never spoke to you closely, carefully and prayer- 
 fully about your soul." Let them see the tears in your eyes; 
 or, if you cannot weep, let them hear the tears in your voio , 
 and let them realize that you feel their danger, and are in 
 distress for them. God will give His Holy Spirit, and they 
 will he saved. 
 
 I was going to note that both texts imply opposition — 
 for. He adds, " Lo, I am with you always, even to the end 
 of the world." As much as if He had said, "You will have 
 need of my j)resence. Such aggressive, determined warfare 
 as this will raise all earth and hell against you ; " and then K? 
 says to Paul, " I will be with thee, delivering thee from the 
 people and the Gentiles unto whom I send thee." Why 
 would they need this ? Because the Gentiles would soon 
 be up in arms against him, and indeed they were. 
 
 Opposition ! It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this 
 
 : I tj 
 
 'HI 
 
 i8ii 
 

 AGGRESSmS CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Iff 
 
 
 
 'i P 
 
 i 
 
 
 ,1 
 
 t 
 
 
 ( 
 
 
 if 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 i 1 
 
 1 
 
 ill; ', I 
 
 day that it provokes so little opposition. If there was no 
 other evidence of it being wrong, I should know it from 
 that. When the Church and the world can jog along com- 
 fortably together, you may be sure there is something wrong. 
 The world has not altered. Its spirit is exactly the same 
 as it ever was, and if Christians were equally faithful and 
 devoted to the Lord, and separated from the world, living 
 so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the 
 world would hate them as much as ever it did. It is the 
 Church that has altered, not the world You say, " We 
 should be getting into endless turmoil." Yes ! " I came 
 not to lu'ing peace on the earth, but a sword." There 
 would be uproar. Yes ; and the Acts of the Apostles 
 are full of stories of uproars. One uproar was so great 
 that the Chief Captain had to get Paul over the shoulders 
 of the people, lest he should have been torn in pieces. 
 "What a commotion!" you say. Yes; and, bless God, if 
 we had the like now we should have thousands of sinners 
 saved. 
 
 "But," you say, "see what a very undignified position 
 this would bring the Gospel into." That depends on what 
 sort of dignity you mean. You say, "We should always 
 be getting into collision with the powers that be, and with 
 the world, and what very unpleasant consequences would 
 result." Yes, dear friends, there always have been unpleas- 
 ant consequences to the flesh, when people were following 
 God and doing His will. " But," you say, " would'nt it be 
 inconsistent with the dignity of the Gospel?" It depends 
 from what standpoint you look at it. It depends upon what 
 really constitutes the dignity of the Gospel. What does 
 constitute the dignity of the Gospel ? Is it human dignity, 
 or is it Divine ? Is it earthly, or is it heavenly dignity ? 
 
 m .1 
 
AGGRESSIVE C1I1USTL\NITY. 
 
 33 
 
 It was a very undignified thing, looked at liunianly, to die 
 on the cross between two thieves. That was the most un- 
 dignified thing ever done in this worhl, and yet, looked at 
 on moral and spiritual grounds, it was the grandest spectacle 
 that ever ejirth or heaven gazed upon and methinks that 
 the inhahitints of heaven stood still and looked over the 
 battlements at that glorious, illustrious Sufferer, as He hung 
 there between heaven and earth. The Pharisees, 1 know, 
 sjiat upon the humbled Sufferer, and wagged their heads and 
 said, " He saved others, himself He cannot save.'' Ah ! but 
 He was intent on saving others. That was the dignity of 
 Almighty strength allying itself with human weakness, in 
 order to raise it. It was the dignity of eternal wisdom 
 shrouding itself in human ignorance, in order to enlighten 
 it. It was the dignity of everlasting, uaquenchable love, 
 baring its bosom, to suffer in the stead of its rebellious 
 creature — man. Ah! It was incarnate God standing in 
 the place of condemned, apostate man — the dignity of love ! 
 love! love! 
 
 Oh, precious Saviour! save us from maligning Thy Gospel 
 and Thy name by clothing it with our paltry notions of 
 earthly dignity, and forgetting the dignity which crowned 
 Thy sacred brow as Thou didst hang upon the cross ! That 
 is the dignity for us, and it will never suffer by any gentle- 
 man here carrying the Gospel into the back slums or alleys 
 of any town or city in which he lives. That dignity will 
 never suffer by any employer talking lovingly to his servant 
 maid or errand boy, and looking into his eyes with tears of 
 sympathy and love, and trying to bring his soul to Jesus. 
 That dignity will never suffer even though you should have 
 to be dragged through the streets with a howling mob at 
 your heels, like Jesus Christ, if you have gone into those 
 
:m 
 
 AGORESSIVK CimiSTIANITY. 
 
 fh 
 
 f 
 
 ill' 
 
 streets for the souls of your fellow-men and the glory of 
 God. Though you should be tied to a stake, as were the 
 martyrs of old, and surrounded ])y laughing and taunting 
 fiends and their howling followers — that will be a dignity 
 which shall be crowned in heaven, crowned with everlasting 
 glory. If I understand it, tJiat is the dignity of the Gospel 
 — the dignity of love. I do not envy, I do not covet any 
 other. I desire no other, — God is my witness, — than the 
 dignity of love. 
 
 Oh, friends ! will you get this Ixiptism of love ! Then you 
 will, like the Apostles, be willing to push your limbs into a 
 basket, and so be let down by the wall, if need be, or suffer 
 shipwreck, hunger, peril, nakedness, fire, or sword, or even 
 go to the block itself, if thereby you may extend His king- 
 dom and win souls for whom He shed His blood. The 
 Lord fill us with this love and baptise us with this fire, and 
 then the Gospel will arise and become glorious in the earth, 
 and men will believe in us, and in it. They will feel its 
 power, and they will go down under it by thousands, and, 
 by the grace of God, they SHALL. 
 
 |r, , I 
 
SERMON' II. 
 
 A rURE GOSPEL. 
 
 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And lie said, I am Jesus whom tliou norso- 
 cutest. Dut rise, and stanil upon tiiy I'cct : for I iiavi; ai)i)t'an'd unto tlu-i' 
 for this purjjose, to make tliee a nunister and :i witn<'ss botli oi these tilings 
 whicli thou li'ist seen, and of those thinus in tlie wliitii I will apjiear untt 
 thoc : Delivering thee from the people, and from tlie (lentihs, unto whoii* 
 now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn tliem from darkness to 
 lij;ht, and from the power of Satan unto (Jod, that they may receive for- 
 giveness of sins, and inheritance ainont^ them which an* sanctified l>y faith 
 that is in me. Whereupon, (J king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the 
 heavenly vision: but shewed lirst unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusit 
 »eni. and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to t'lo Gentiles, that 
 they should rei)ent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.-- 
 Acts xxvi. 15-20. 
 
 The second indispensable condition we are going to note, 
 this afternoon, to Aggressive Christianity is, a Pure 
 Gospel. I mean by that, God's own pure metal — the una- 
 dulterated Gospel of «Tesus Christ. 
 
 There seems, now-a-days, in the Church and the world; as 
 many different views of the Gospel as there are of secondary 
 matters and of minor doctrines. One person has one notion 
 of the Gospel, o-nother has another, until there has come to 
 be a fearful distraction in the minds of many who are con- 
 stantly listening to vvhat is called the Gospel. May God the 
 Holy Ghost help us to look at it impartially and carefully ! 
 
 First, let me try to define tvhat is the Gospel. "Oh!" 
 people say, "it is good news." Yes, thank God, it 
 is good news, indeed — news without which we must all 
 have been lost. It is the news of the free, measureless, un- 
 
 8B 
 
 
 ' 1. } 
 
 \\ 
 
.3G 
 
 AOGUKSSIVK CIIUISTIAXITY. 
 
 1 
 
 flosorvod, rccoiiniliiij^ morcy of Cod, ofForod to mo tlirongli 
 tlio vic.'irious, iiiiiiiito, i^lorious s;i(;rili(;« of His Son, to tlie 
 end that I iimy lUC SAVKI) from sin liere and fioni llidl 
 heroaftor ! ! Hut tliis n<'w.s involves a groat dfiil. It is thn 
 news of a deiinito, i)i'a('ti(!al end, involving conditions; for, 
 evon good news tome, involves certain conditions on my 
 part, if I am to ])rocnre the good Avhich the news brings. 
 Sarm}(]lij, \ will try to explain the conditions on whiuh 
 the Gospel is available to me. 
 
 Let me illustrate this ; and I am ])articularly anxious that 
 you should all understand me. Sup[)osing that a province 
 of this empire were in rebellion against our Sovereign. Suj)- 
 posing that the people of that province had tram[)led under 
 foot our laws, and set up their own in opposition — and sup- 
 pose the Queen, in her gracious clemency, desired not to de- 
 stroy these rebels, but to save them, what would be the 
 necessary and indispensable condition in the very nature of 
 the case, in order for lier to save tliem ? Not merely a proc- 
 lamation of pardon. That would be a glorious movement 
 towards the result, but there would want something else; 
 for a proclamation of pardon merely, whilst the rebels re- 
 main in an unchanged state, would only bo giving thom 
 greater facilities for further rebellion. Evidently, in the 
 nature of the case, it is a necessity that a chancre of mind 
 should be produced in the rebels themselves, ^or the Queen 
 not only wants to save them from destruction, but to restore 
 them to allegiance and obedience to herself, and, unless she 
 does this, they will never become dutiful and obedient sub- 
 jects. There will never be anything but anarchy, confusion 
 M"d rebellion in that province unless those rebels undergo a 
 cliango of mind. They must be brought back to allegiance 
 nnd obedience to the Queen. 
 
 
n 
 
 A PUUK (JOSI'KL. 
 
 37 
 
 Just' HO witli God's procl.'iin.'ition of salvation. Tho iiiis- 
 eliicf is ill us. Take the illustvatiou of tho l*ro(li,L,Ml Son. 
 The uiis(;hic'f was all in him — not in his fatlicr. TIk^ rather 
 loved iiini before ho went away, and the father lov«'d liini 
 jifterwards. The father's benevolent heart yearned over him 
 all tho time ho was away, and many a time, [ji-ridianee, he 
 went to the roof of liis house to look over tho exi>anse of 
 country over which the relxdlious lad had gone, and womlered 
 whether ho would ever come back. Tho father's heart was 
 yearning over him all tho tim(\ Ilow was it that ho could 
 not bo reinstated in tho father's love and in tho family priv- 
 ileges ? liecause there needed a change of heart — a change 
 of mind in iiim. If ho hatlcomo back to tho old homestead 
 with the same rebellious spirit in him, tho same desire tolx^ 
 free from the father's oversight, the same unwillingness to 
 bo put under tho Fatiiku's dominion and discu'link, he 
 would still have been a rebel and a prodigal. In the very 
 nature of the case, until there was tho necessary change, a 
 wise and righteous father could not pardon him; ho must 
 insist, though ho loves him dearly, upon a certain change of 
 mind before he can consistently pardon him. 
 
 Just so. The laws of mind are the same when operated 
 upon by either God or man. This is not laying luiy neces- 
 sity upon God any more than lie has laid upon lliinstdf. 
 He has made us with a certain mental constitution, and 
 therefore He must adapt the conditions and means of (mr 
 salvation to that mental constitution, otherwise He would 
 reflect upon his own Avisdom in having given it to us at the 
 first. Therefore when he purposes to save man He must 
 save him as man — not as a beast or a machine ! He must 
 save him as man, and he must propound such a scheme as 
 will fit aud adapt itself to man's nature. Just as the father 
 
 ■Mi 
 
r^ 
 
 38 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CIIKISTIANITY. 
 
 li 
 
 Vi i 
 
 ■i ■'.■ 
 
 \$ 
 
 lil 
 
 iiiiLjlit iu)t panlon tlie prodigal, irrespective of the prodigal's 
 state of mind and heart, so neither can God pardon the sin- 
 ner irrespective of the state of his mind and heart. 
 
 I know, by personal contact with hundreds of souls, that 
 there is an alarming amount of misunderstanding and of 
 what I consider false apprehension of the Gospel of Christ 
 at this point. Hence, you have speakers saying, without 
 anything to guard or qualify their words, ''Only believe, and 
 you shall be saved; " "Whosoever believeth hath everlast- 
 ing life. " Blessed and glorious truth, ivhen rlghtlij applied, 
 and applied to the rigid characters, but dangerous error, in 
 my opinion, when applied indiscriminately to unawakened, 
 xmrepentivg, rebellious sinners. I have met with disastrous 
 consequences of this all over the land — so disastrous that 
 I would not like to repeat them here. Now, I say, we should 
 be careful to let the x>eople understand what we mean by the 
 Gospel : I dare not do any other. I am so satisfied of the 
 thousands of souls that are deceived at this point, that, while 
 God gives me voice to speak, I dare not but try to warn 
 them, and show them their fatal mistake. 
 
 Ketuining to our illustration — yoa say, "The man is, so 
 to speak, dead in trespasses and sins. How can he see his 
 own error ? How can he lay down the weapons of rebellion? 
 How can he, by himself, come back to the Father ? " Grant- 
 ed. Hence, God, in his wisdom and love, has provided for 
 that incapacity which man has induced by his rebellion, by 
 the gift of His Spirit. You say, " The parallel is not perfect 
 between your illustration and the thing illustrated." No, 
 it is not in that i)oint ; because temporal rebels can find out 
 by themselves the insanity and wickedness of their cou/se. 
 They can see where it will lead them. They can see the 
 destructive, consequences, and be sorry for the course they 
 
A PURE GOSPEL. 
 
 3D 
 
 have taken. They can lay down their weapons of rebellion, 
 and they can conform to the conditions on which the Queen 
 issues her proclamation. You say, " Yes, they can do it, but 
 man cannot." Of course, because he has so hardened his 
 heart that even if he caji, he never will without the Holy 
 Spirit of God. Hence, God has taken compassion on us, and 
 sent His Spirit into the world for this purpose — "To con- 
 vince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." 
 Thus he opens our eyes, and shows us our lost estate. Hav- 
 ing, by the Holy Ghost, made ns realize our desperate condi 
 tion, then comes the Gospel to meet us just where we are, 
 on condition that we abandon our evil ways, and do the 
 works meet for repentance, which we are cdle to do by the 
 power of the Holy Spirit, as well as to lay down the weapon.s 
 of our rebellion and accept of Christ, put our neck under his 
 yoke, and pledge ourselves in heart to follow Him all the 
 DAYS OF our life. Thcsc are the conditions involved, and 
 this is the end the Gospel contemplates, and there you see 
 the Gospel accomplishes its end in this case. The heart of 
 the rebel is won back to its Lord, and the indisj)ens:ible 
 change has taken place in the belnf/ hlmaelf. He has come 
 back to CJod. His eyes are opened to see the evil of sin, 
 and the desperate state he is in. Tired of himself, and tired 
 of his evil ways, as the Prodigal was of the swine-yard, he 
 arises, leaves them and ;;oes to his father. 
 
 But now I must stop to meet a difficulty which I know 
 will arise in many sincere minds. I feel myself such a 
 tender jealousy for the glory of God, that I do highly re- 
 spect this feeling in others, and if anyone disagrees with my 
 views, or my way of putting them, through a feeling of 
 jealousy for the glory of God, they havo my profound re- 
 spect. You will say, ''If we are able to abandon our evil 
 
 U. 
 
40 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CIIKISTIANITY. 
 
 II 
 
 courses, and lay clown the weapons of rebellion, is not that 
 saving ourselves?" No, dear friends; it is altogether 
 different. You see it is the indispensable condition of sal- 
 vation in everyone of the nine passages we read, and in 
 n»any others — that we abandon our evil ways. Now, what 
 does that mean ? A gentleman in a letter to me said, " We 
 cannot save carselves from heart sins." Granted; but we 
 can will to be saved from tliem. Then, there is a great dis- 
 tinction between those sins of the heart which are involun- 
 tary, and those deliberate transgressions of God's law which 
 unregenerate men commit. God requires me to abandon 
 all that I CAX, as a condition of salvation, and then, when Ho 
 saves He will giv3 me power to abandon all that I could not 
 before. The Prodigal had to come away fiom the swine- 
 yard, the lilth, and the husks, before he got into the father's 
 house, and sat down at the father's feast, but when he had 
 done so, then the father said, " Come in," and he brought 
 the best robe and put it on him, and killed the fatted calf, 
 and put the ring of forgiveness upou his hanci. Hence, as 
 the old divines used to put it, "Yea Uiust wait for the Lord 
 in the path of His ordinances," the path of obedience, as far 
 as is possible to you. And is there any other way ? Can 
 the drunkard wait for Him while he abides at his cup? 
 Can the thief wait for \V\.,.\ while he continues in his diaboli- 
 cal trade ? Can any man indulging in absolute open sin 
 find the Lord ? IMust he not, as the Saviour says, cut off 
 that right hand, and pluck out that riglit eye ? He never 
 can cleanse his guilt, but he CAN cut off his hand, and 
 when he does that, the Holy Spirit will come in and apply 
 the lUood, cud do the cleansing. 
 
 Therefore, you perceive, I take the Gospel to be aiming 
 not merely at saving, but restoring us. If it were merel}' to 
 
'^ 
 
 A PURE oospe:.. 
 
 41 
 
 as 
 iord 
 far 
 Can 
 up? 
 loli- 
 sin 
 off 
 ver 
 and 
 
 img 
 
 save me without restoring ine, what wouhl it do for nu^ ? 
 As a moral agent, if the Gospel fails to TUT aME IIKJUT, 
 it will fail eternally to make me happy; and if you were to 
 transpkint me before the throne, and put me down in the 
 inner circle of archangels with a sense ol' wrong in my heart, 
 being fnoi'ally out of harmony with the laws of (hxl, and tlie 
 moral laws of the luii verse, I should be as miserable as if 1 
 were in Hell, and shouhl want to get away. I must be 
 MADE iiioiiT as well as treated as if I Avere right. I nuist 
 be changed as well as justilied. This is the Gospel put as 
 clearly in our text as it could be, and also the Epistles 
 written by the Apostle Paul, the great expounder of the 
 doctrine of justification by faith. It was through the lips 
 of the glorihed Lord Himself, after He had risen, to the 
 great Apostle of the Gentiles, after the Gospel dis])ensation 
 was fully opened, that this unmistakable commission was 
 given, " Unto whom I now send thee to open their eyes.'- 
 ^Vhat to, their sins ? As Peter opened the eyes of the nuirder- 
 ers of our Lord, on the Day of Pentecost, '' Whom ye have 
 crucilied and slain; " driving in the convicting truth of God 
 until, in their agony, they cried out, "WHAT UUST WE 
 DO?" He tore off the b.mdages which Satan had wra^iped 
 around them, and drove them as with the schoolmaster's 
 lash, imtil he drove them to the cross of the crucilied One. 
 *' Open their eyes" — that is the first thing. Oh! how my 
 soul has often shrunk and wept under the sense of the awful 
 responsibility this brings upon us Christians. The world is 
 asleep. Yes, friends, your relations, j^our neighbors — they 
 are asleep. They are preoccupied. They are full of the 
 world, and the things of the world. They will not think — 
 they will not see — they will not look into the Word of Life. 
 Your responsibility comes here tenfold. Go and wakp 
 
 ; : 
 
1 
 
 42 
 
 AGGKESSIVE CimiSTL.\.Js*lTY. 
 
 them! you can DO IT, if you have the Holy Ghost 
 ill you! 
 
 Some people would have saiu to the Lord Jesus, ^' What 
 a great deal you are making of human agency, for, after all, 
 Paul is Ijut a man, and you are setting him to open the 
 eyes of the unconverted, and turn them fj'om darkness to 
 light, and from the power of Satan unto God : are you not 
 making too mucli of human effort?" But the Lord Jesus 
 knew what lie was about. lie knew that Paul harl a power 
 in him which every really renewed child of God has — the 
 Holy Ghost — to equip him for this work, and He says, 
 " Unto whom now I send thee to open their eijesP Go and 
 awake them to a sense of their danger. Take them, meta- 
 phorically speaking, by the collar and shake them and make 
 them realize their i)eril, as you would if they were asleep in 
 a burning house ! ! And then when you have awakened 
 them, what are you to do ? Leave them alone ? No, no, for 
 Christ's sake, no. Take hold of them by the mighty power 
 of your moral suasion and zeal, and love, and energy, and 
 turn them right "round from sin and Satan unto God." 
 
 Jesus Christ set Paul to do this, and Faul did it. He 
 says, " Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we per- 
 suade men." His was no meek and mild putting of the 
 truth, and leaving people to do as they liked. "Knowing, 
 therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, 
 because we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all 
 dead;" and, oh ! what success the Lord gave him in his 
 desperate enterprise. What multitudes did he persuade, and 
 succeed in turning round from darkness to light, and from 
 the power of Satan unto God ! Turn them round ! " Oh ! 
 but," you say, "if they are turned round from darkness, 
 which represents evil, to light, which represents righteous- 
 
 
A rUUE (JOSPKL. 
 
 43 
 
 ness, are they not saved ? " Xo, not yet. This is only the 
 chiuigo elTected in their will, which is beautifully exeniplitied 
 by l*aul in llonians vii. — willing to keep the law, willing 
 to obey God, willing to do His will, and follow Hini, yea, 
 struggling, but yet unable, though they are brought round 
 from the voluntary choice or embrace of evil, and the volun- 
 tary service of the Devil, round to the voluntary choice and 
 end)race of righteousness and the service of God, they are 
 not yet ((hie to do it. 
 
 Now, don't say I said they we re able. Don't mis- 
 represent me, as some people do. I will try to be clear, and 
 I say f lie re is all the dljf'erenee In the world hetirecn lu-nxc; 
 
 WILLING TO LET JkSUS ClIKIST SAVE ME FItOM MV SINS, AND 
 
 SAVING MVSELF FiioM THEM. It Is cxactly tliis chaugc in 
 the attitude of the will which God demands as a COX- 
 DITION OF THE EXERCISE OF illS POWER. It is so 
 in all the miracles. ^-Wilt thou be made whole?" lie 
 says to the man with the withered hand, " Stretch out thy 
 withered hand.'' The man might have said, "-'Lord, what 
 an unreasonable re(piest. Are you come to mock me in my 
 misery ? " Oh ! but Jesus Clirist knew what He wanted in 
 the man. He wanted the response of the man's will. He 
 wanted the man to sa}', '• Yes, Lord ; " and when he said 
 that, the Lord put the strength into the shoulder-bone, and 
 he stretched it out, and it was made whole. There are manv 
 souls just there — they will not say, '-Yes, Lord," to some 
 condition which the Spirit puts upon the.n. I could give 
 you some heart-rending illustrations on this point. I am 
 satisfied tint this Gospel-enlightened England of ours is full 
 of people just at this point who come crying, and praying, 
 and longing, as they call it, after God. They come up to 
 Jesus Christ again and again. They try to believe; they 
 
44 
 
 AddKKS.SIVE CIIKISTIANITV. 
 
 Mil 
 
 want to follow Iliin, but they are kept back by the right 
 hand and the right eye which the Holy Ghost has told them 
 they must cut off and pluck out before He will receive them. 
 They will not do it, and so they are ever learning, and never 
 able to come to a knowledge of the truth. You must re- 
 nounce evil in your will. You must iri//. to ''ol)ey the 
 truth." You must say, " Yes, Lord." 
 
 I remember, on one occasion, in the West of England, I 
 had been delivering we(?k-day morning addresses. We had 
 a blessed meeting on this particular day. We began at half- 
 past ten, and the Lord was so with us that He su[)[)lied the 
 want of refreshment till we had it at 5.30. He made up for 
 the want of dinner or tea. A gentleman was there, with 
 whose a[)pearance I was struck. He was tall, and intelligent, 
 a nmn of about forty or forty-five. He knelt down without any 
 emotion, more than deep solemnity, at the end of the Com- 
 munion rail. I had been talking about the reason people 
 walked in darkness — controversy with the Holy Spirit. I 
 said to him, "^ly dear sir, have you had a controversy with 
 the Holy Spirit ? " " Yes, " he said ; " I have had one for 
 fifteen years. T am ashamed to say it, and it has eaten up 
 all the joy and power of my Christian life, and I have been 
 a useless cuuiberer of the ground." I did not know till after- 
 wards that he was a deacon of the church, and had come up 
 there in the sight of all the congregation. I said, " Well, 
 my dear sir, you know the Gospel as well as I do. It is of 
 no use to preach faith to you until you are willing to renounce 
 your idol." I le said most emphatically, '• I know it." I said, 
 " Are you willing ? " Oh, with what tenacity the human 
 heart holds on to its idols ! Though he had come up to the 
 rail in the face of that congregation, so deeply was he under 
 the power of the Spirit, yet he hesitated. I said, " Well, my 
 
A PURE GOSPEL. 
 
 45 
 
 dear sir, you must make up your mind. Tu your case, it is 
 betweeu the choice of this, whatever it may be, aud Christ ;" 
 and I retired under the pulpit jjillars for a minute, and left 
 him to himself and the Lord. I lifted up my heart to God 
 for him, and then I went back, and said, "Will you renounce 
 it? "and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, and bringing his 
 liand down upon the Communion rail, he said, " By the grace 
 of God, I do," and his whole frame heaved with agony, but 
 he stepped into immediate liberty. His blessed Saviour was 
 waiting with arms wide open. There was only this accursed 
 thing which had stood between them, and when he trampled 
 it under his feet, and was willing to forsake it, as a natural 
 consequence, he sprang into the everlasting arms, and received 
 the assurance of salvation. It was all over the town for the 
 next fortnight. People remarked, " Did you ever see such a 
 change come over a man as has come over Mr. So-and-so; he 
 is like a new man. He prays in the prayer-meeting with such 
 fervor. He was at the chapel doors, speaking to the uncon- 
 verted, and inviting tliem to come back. He is visiting up 
 and down the town — why, he's a new man!" Was there 
 any change in the gospel ? Had he received any fresh light ? 
 It was only the old story — only that he had put away the 
 idol, and trampled underfootthat which was keeping the life- 
 power of God out of his soul. 
 
 Here is another case. At some services in the West of 
 England, a gentleman largely interested in an unlawful busi- 
 ness, came every night for live weeks, and used to sit there, 
 the picture of despair and wretchedness, till after ten o*clo(;k. 
 lie went on in this way until his friends thought he would 
 lose his reason. He was walking about his bedroom 
 with his Bible open, kneeling down every now and then, 
 struggling and wrestling and trying to believe j but every 
 
 ii 
 
 :k 
 
4G 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 time ho thought of this ungodly business which he couhl not 
 give up, despair seized him (for he thought of his money — 
 he thought of the consecpicnces to his family), until at last 
 he said, '' Money or no money, I will settle it." He gave it 
 up, came out, and got saved at once. 
 
 Now I think these illustrations make clear what I mean, 
 by the ab;indonment, the turning from the embrace of evil 
 to the embrace of righteousness as an indispensable condition 
 of forgiveness. Hence the Holy Ghost has carefully main- 
 tained this order — "to open their eyes and to turn them 
 round from darkness to light, and . .'om the power of Satan 
 unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an 
 inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is 
 in me." You see what a different thing this is to presenting 
 Christ to people just as they are, where they are, dolnrj/ ivhat 
 they like. You see what a different Gospel it comes to, in- 
 sisting upon a thorough renouncement and abandonment of 
 evil as a condition of Jesus Christ receiving the sinner. 
 This was Paul's Gospel. Will you give me any other defi- 
 nition of it ? Can you explain it in any other way ? Paul 
 goes on to show us how he understood : — " AVhereupon, 
 King Agrippa ! I was not disobedient unto the heavenly 
 vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus and Jerusa- 
 lem and then to the Gentiles, they should repent and turn 
 to God, and do works meet for repentance." Was this like 
 saying " Only helieve^^ without respect to any antecedent 
 change of mind ? Can anybody show rae anything here in 
 the slightest degree approximating to the Antinomian 
 Gospel which has been grafted on to some other of Paul's 
 utterances ? And yet surely the Apostle could not contra- 
 dict himself. His writings about faith must be in harmony 
 with this most unmistakable putting of the Gospel to both 
 
A PURE GOSPEL. 
 
 47 
 
 Jews and Gentiles. Moreover, did he tell Ai^rippa and 
 Festus to believe ? No, he left thein trembling at it, because 
 they were not willing to abandon their sins and put away 
 the aecursed thing, but to the Philip})ian gaoler, who said, 
 "Men and brethren, what must I do?'* and who brought 
 them out and began to wash their stripes, thus doing works 
 meet for repentance at once, he said, "lU'lieve on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and thou slialt be saved." Ah ! my friend, 
 you may try to get hold of Christ to your dying hour and 
 at the last be lost, while you are holdiug on to your idols. 
 If he could have saved us after that fashion we eeded no 
 Christ, we could have gone into heaven without a Saviour; 
 but He came to save His people from then' sins, and while 
 you are in love with your sins you may struggle and tixMuble 
 as Agrippa and Felix did, and as the young ruler did, and 
 you will meet a similar fate. You nuist let go your iduls 
 and be willing that Jesus should come and save you, not 
 down among the dirt and mud of sin, but lift you out of it, 
 wash you, make j'ou clean, and keep you clean, circumcise 
 your hearts, and put His law in them, and then you sliall 
 know the gladness of His salvation ! 
 
 I have some people writing to me in this condition. If 
 they are here let me say to them — This is what you 
 have to do — let go your idols and say as the gentle- 
 man said of whom I told you, "Poverty or no poverty, 
 business or no business, position or no position, suffering or 
 prosperity never mind — Christ, Christ, I let go all for 
 Thee!" 
 
 Have you forsaken evil ? Have you cut off the right 
 hand ? Have you plucked out the right eye ? I have 
 people coming to me in services of this character, groaning 
 and sometimes worn to skeletons. They tell me they are in 
 
 It 
 
 
■18 
 
 ACKJKKSSIVK CIIKISTIANITY. 
 
 distress, tlioy have i^'ot into bondage, they want the joy of 
 tlie Lord and His daily fellowship, and when I ask the 
 reason, they generally say, "Well, J don't know, but it 
 seems to be want of faith." Now I say to sucdi people : — 
 
 Now let us see what this want of faith aiises from. 
 There must be a eause. I am afraid that sin lieth at the 
 door, and when we come to elose quarters we generally find 
 ther'^, is some idol, some course of conduct, or some doubtful 
 conduct whi(!h kee])s God out of the soul, and. when this is 
 confessed and renoiuiced, people get the presence of God and 
 go away rpjoi(ung in Ilim. It is so in n(!avly every case. 
 Ciod does not arbitrarily withdraw Himself from His people. 
 He wants to dwell with them. We are His proper abode. 
 He has promised to come and abide with His pe()[)le, and if 
 He does not, depend upon it there is something in the 
 Tem[>le offensive to Him, something with which He will not 
 dwell. Will you put that away, and consecrate your liearts 
 this day unto the Lord to be His temple. His temple only, 
 and leave consequences with Him. He will be able to look 
 after His own. 
 
 Then, lastU'', when you have come to this decision, then 
 look and live ; take the final leap into the arms of a crucified 
 Saviour. With some souls who have been the subjects of 
 the drawings of the Spirit for years, the difficulty is in the 
 surrendering their wills. They have learned to reason with 
 God ; they have lost the little children's way ; they are 
 afraid to take the final leap, and there they stand before 
 the Cross, not conscious of anything between them and 
 Christ. What are ?/oi« to do ? What Paul told the Philip- 
 pian gaoler to do — "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ;" 
 and you say, " What is that, and how am I to believe?" 
 Wonderful how it has got mystified ! Believe what ? That 
 
 !l 
 
A PURE GOSrKL 
 
 40 
 
 then 
 ifiecl 
 of 
 the 
 fcvith 
 are 
 (fore 
 land 
 |ilip- 
 
 re?" 
 
 'hat 
 
 IIo just means what ITc says ; and that when you pome, 
 lie does receive — not He will to-morrow, not He did yestcM*- 
 day, hut that He docs now, tliis moment. AVIkmi did He 
 receive the sinners who came to Him on earth? AVhen 
 they came. Just the same will He receive you. *H)h! 
 hut," you say, " 1 do not feel right." No, of course not. 
 Do you not see, you are to he saved hj/ faith. \i you are 
 to he saved hy faith, you must exercise faith hefore you 
 will he savech If it is hy faith you are to he saved, you 
 nnist believe first, and be saved afterwards, if it is only the 
 next second. "Ihit," you say, "I do not feel it." No, but 
 you will feel it when you have got it. You must believe it 
 before you get itt, on the testimony of His Word — "I will 
 in no wise cast you out;" "Him that cometh;" "Now I 
 come, Lord, T come. I have put away my idols ; I have put 
 away everything that consciously stood between me and 
 Thee. I will to serve Tliee, I will to follow Thee, I will to 
 })ut my neck imder 71iy yoke forever, asking no more questions, 
 but being Avilling for Thee to lead me whithersover Thou wilt. 
 Now, Lord, I come — Thou dost receive." Leap olT the poor 
 old stranded wreck of your own effort, or your own righteous- 
 ness, or 3'our own sinfulness, or your own unworthiness, or 
 anything else of your own, into the glorious lifeboat. It is on 
 the top of the Avave this afternoon — another step, and you 
 will be in — one bound, and you will feel the loving arms of 
 your Saviour around you. Faith is trust, trust. He will do 
 for you what he promised. Believe that God does 7ioiu accept 
 you ivhoUiifor the saJce of ^he sacrift -e of Ills blessed Son ; that 
 He justifies you freely from all things from which you could 
 not be justified by the law. You stand a condemned, guilcy, 
 hell-bound criminal, and nothing but His free, sovereign mer- 
 cy can save you. Throw yourself upon this, and the moment 
 
 w 
 
50 
 
 ACOnKSSIVK CiriasTIAXTTV. 
 
 I! 
 
 
 you do so in real fiiitli you will bo saved. l*erliaj)S you will 
 say, as a eurate of the Church of England, writing to 
 mo last week, said, "I refuse to be saved by logic." So 
 did I, and I struggled for six weeks because I refused to 
 be saved by logic — because I would have a living, personal 
 Christ. I admire your d(»cision, my brother, if you are liere, 
 but let this logic help you; nevertheless, Jesus Christ has 
 promised, if I come, that lie will receive me — then, T do 
 come, and He does receive me, for He cannot lie. Let that 
 help you. Faith is not logic, but logic may help faith. 
 
 Oh! how T should rejoice if some of you were to launch 
 into the arms of Jesus this moment. It often happens that 
 while I am speaking souls do get into the aik of God's mercy, 
 and come, or write to tell me afterwards that the S[)irit has 
 come, and he is crying '• Abba Father," and now they know 
 chey have passed from death unto life. They don't want 
 logic then. It is a matter of demonstration with them. 
 When you have come up to the place where saving faith is 
 possible to you, you have no more to do, no more to sulfer, 
 no more to pay. By simple trust we are saved. This is the 
 wny every saint on earth was saved. This is the way every 
 saint in glory was saved. This is the way we are kept 
 saved, too, by livixcj, dailv, ouedient faith. The Lord 
 help you just now. Let the idol go. I*ut away tlie ungod- 
 ly companion. Give up the unlawful business, or the 
 worldly conformity. Put away whatever has stood between 
 you and Jesus. Trample it under foot and press through 
 the crowd of difficulties as the woman dul, and go right up 
 and touch Tlim with this touch of faith, and j'ou sliall ltvk 
 and KNOW that you are healed. Then this Gospel will 
 be good news indeed to you, and Jesus will be the Author 
 of salvation to you, because you OBEY HIM ! 
 
SERMON IIL 
 
 ligli 
 up 
 
 [VK 
 'ill 
 
 lor 
 
 ADAPTATION OF MEASURES. 
 
 I h;ivo clioson five or six (litrcrcnt passages, all exhibiLiiig 
 the principle of Adaptation, on which I am to speak. The 
 first is 1 Cor. ix. 20-22:— - 
 
 '• And unto the .Tow I became as a Jew, tliat I nii<;ht gain the .lews ; to them 
 that are under the law, as un<ler the law, that I might gain them that 
 are under the law ; to them that are without law, as without law ,belug 
 not without law to (lod, but under the law to Christ), that 1 might gain 
 tlu'm that arc without law." 
 
 To them that are without law as without law, but here he 
 carefully guards himself ly a parenthesis, lest he should 
 seem to favor a lawless Antinomian gospel, "not without 
 law to God, not independent of the great nu)ral law, but un- 
 der the Itv.v to Christ," in which is fulfilled all law. 
 
 •'To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak : I am made 
 all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 
 
 " To the weak became I as weak," — masterpiece of human 
 humility ! Most people want to appear strong, but here is 
 a man coming down, and appearing a weak man, that he 
 might win the weak. That is the humility of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Lord give us the like spirit ! Again, 1 Cor. xii. 4-G : — 
 
 " Now there are diversities of gifts, but the sanie spirit ; and there are dif- 
 ferences of administration, but the same Lord ; and there are diversi- 
 ties of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." 
 
 Some people want the Spirit to work in everyone alike, 
 and in all times the same, but He chooses to have diversities 
 Again, Galatians iii. 27-28 : — 
 
 • 
 
iii^^' 
 
 til' 
 
 ilj 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 62 AGGRESSIVE CIIKISTIANITY. 
 
 ••For a3 many of you as Jiave been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 
 There is neither Jew nor Grecli, tlicre is neitlicr bond nor free, there ia 
 neither male noi female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." 
 
 That is, SO far as the privileges, duties, and obligations of 
 Christ's kingdom are concerned. There is neither national- 
 ity nor sex ; and Galatians v. G : — 
 
 "For in Chrii;t Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircum- 
 cision ; but faith which worketh by love." 
 
 All mere ordinances and cei-emonies come under circum- 
 cision. And 2 Timoihy iv. 2 : — 
 
 "Preach the word : be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, 
 exhort with all longsufTering and doctrine." 
 
 What a liue-and-cry there is because the Salvation Army 
 people save men out of season ! And Jude 22, 23 : — 
 
 "And of some have compassion, making a difference : and others save witu 
 fear, pulling them out of the tire." 
 
 " Oh, no," say some of our conventional friends, "you shall 
 not make a difference!" Now, in all these six texts, the 
 principle of Adaptation is most distinctly laid down. 
 
 Now we have spent the two last Sabbath afternoons in 
 trying to point out our view ot the characteristics of a pure 
 Gospel, and I think we have succeeded in doing this so clear- 
 ly that no persc/i who followed us carefully can imagine for 
 a moment that we would hold, or teach, any adaptation of 
 the Gospel itself. As Ave stated before, we deemed this so 
 above all adaptation — so above any change, that we would 
 not be responsible for transposing its order, much less alter- 
 ing its matter ; that we would not take a dot off one of the 
 "i's," so sacredly intact do we believe the Gospel of Christ 
 in its matter ought to be kept. AVe believe al.o that the 
 ORDER of God ought to be strictly maintained; that it is as 
 rational and true in philosophy as it is in divinity j and that 
 the way the Spirit operates upon the minds of men is just 
 
ADAPTATION OF MEASURES. 
 
 53 
 
 so 
 lid 
 ter- 
 tlie 
 •ist 
 tlie 
 as 
 hat 
 lust 
 
 the same as ever. This we clearly and most carefully 
 pointed out, so that what we have to say now you will 
 ploase bear in mind, has nothing to do with the GOSPEL 
 MESSAGE ITSELF. We have tried to show our idea (or 
 what we believe to be the Holy Spirit's idea) of a pure Gos- 
 pel ; but when we come to speak of modes and measures, 
 that is quite another thing. I think, from the texts we have 
 read, and from many others equally plain and relevant, that 
 we find it a most easil3'' gathered truth, running all the way 
 through the New Testament, that forms and ceremonies are 
 nothing except as they embody and express real spiritual 
 life and truth. That circumcision is nothing, and that un- 
 circumcision is nothing; baptism is nothing, and being un- 
 baptized is nothing ; the Lord's Supper is nothing, and ab- 
 staining from the Lord's Su2)per is nothing, in itself as a 
 form, for he embraces under circumcision all mere outward 
 forms and ceremonies ; and all these are nothing, but " keep- 
 ing THE COMMAXDMEXTS OF GOD :" that is, you may have 
 all these performed upon you, and regularly perform them 
 yourselves, and be but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, 
 if you keep not the commandments of God;" for circumcis- 
 ion availeth nothing, in another place, and uncircumcision 
 availeth nothing, but faith — what sort? — that work- 
 ETii BY LOVE : that proves its obedience by its deeds. There- 
 fore, we start with that lying clearly before us as a funda- 
 mental truth in every page of the New Testament, that forms 
 and ceremonies, whatsoever they may be, are nothing except 
 as they embody and represent real spiritual life, and 
 truth and action — action! Now, it was the great sin — 
 the crowning condemnation of the Jews — that they had 
 frittered away the spirituality and practical bearing of the 
 Divine Law, clinging on to those forms and ceremonies 
 
54 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 !! 
 
 wliich wore instituted only to embody and symbolise it. 
 Would to God they had let go the form when they let go 
 the spirit. Jesus Christ Avishes they had. He tells them 
 it would have been far better. He told them they were 
 children of the devil, notwithstanding their holding on to 
 their relationship to Abraham and all the spiritual forms 
 and ceremonies of their ritual. 
 
 They lui<l better have come out and avowed themselves un- 
 believers, than have gone on professing to be the children 
 of God while they were doing the work of the devil. But 
 they would not receive this teaching. It was too cutting for 
 them., and so they would not have it. It was true, neverthe- 
 less. They frittered away the spirituality of the Divine 
 Law, and its practical bearings, and still held on to those 
 forms and ceremonies which were instituted only to symbol- 
 ise and represent it, hence making, as Jesus said, " His Fath- 
 er's house a den of thieves." They held on to the form 
 whilst the spirit had gone. They were making "Clean the 
 outside of the platter, while inside it was full of rottenness 
 and dead men's bones." And, dear friends, all corpses are 
 very much alike, when the spirit is gone out of them — one 
 is found to be about as good as another. 
 
 Alas ! there is this tendency still in our fallen human 
 nature. It is so much easier, or satan makes it look so much 
 easier, to an unregenerate man, to rest in a form than to seek 
 till he finds the spiritual grace which that form represents. 
 That is to say, it is so much easier for an unregenerate man 
 to be circumcised or to be baptized, as the case may be, to 
 partake of the Lord's Supper, to keep outwardly the Sabbath 
 Day, to abstain from acts of immorality and open sin, antl 
 to be decently moral and religious — all this he can under- 
 stand and do for himself, and it looks to him so much easier, 
 
ADAPTATION OF MEASURES. 
 
 55 
 
 and so it is, in the first instance, tluin bringing his evil, un- 
 regenerate heart to God for Him to circumcise it, and write 
 His law in it, as he promises to do under the new covenant. 
 
 'Now, that is what God wants every man to do. He wants 
 him to bring this heart to Hlnij and let Illm renew it. He 
 says, " I will circumcise your hearts to keep my law." I>ut, 
 no! the unregenerate man rests in the outward form. Ho 
 will not be at the trouble to sacrifice his idols, and cry might- 
 ily unto God. He will not seek until he attains the fulfil- 
 ment of these promises ; so he sits down and rests in the 
 form. 
 
 Alas ! alas ! how many thousands in this so-called Christian 
 
 ft/ 
 
 land of ours to-day are just there. They have got the 
 form ; they are like the Jews — they are Pharisees with a 
 Chiistian creed instead of a Jewish, the same in ciiakactek, 
 only different in name. That is all the difference, hanging on 
 to the creed of Jesus Christ, while they know nothing of its 
 spirit, the form without the power; and then deny their 
 professed Lord every day. Oh ! are there any of this class 
 here ? My friend, my friend, if you never find it out until 
 you come to die, you will find it out then, but it may be too 
 late. May God, the Holy Spirit, help you to find it out this 
 day, and bring thai: unrenewed, uni-epentant, evil heart 
 of yours to the Cross ; bring it to God, and wait, and weep, 
 if need be, and struggle, and knock, and cry, as He tells you, 
 until He does renew it and write His law in it; then the 
 outward form will be the expression of the inward grace. 
 Then the fruit will be good, because it springs from a good 
 root inside. The Lord help you ! 
 
 This tendency to rest in form is just as great as ever, and, 
 instead of putting away their idols, and bringing their con- 
 science to be cleansed and kept clean by the precious blood. 
 
 I ! 
 
 ■ 
 
56 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 
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 :!i^ 
 
 IM 
 
 prayerfully and carefully walking before God, striving in 
 all things to please Ilim, people get an outside form, but 
 LIVE just like the world around them, calling Jesus, "Lord 
 Lord," but not doing the things that lie says. Now, I say 
 that a pure Gospel requires that we bring our evil hearts 
 to God to be renewed, and that we resolutely put away our 
 idols, and that we wait on Him by the Cross until lie re- 
 news our motives, tempers, tendencies, feelings, and dis- 
 positions, and makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. 
 Instead of doing this, people go on being circumcised or 
 baptized, as the Jews did, and they call themselves " Israel," 
 as they did ; whereas, of the spiritual Israel they are utterly 
 ignorant. They are the children of Ilagar (as Paul says). 
 and not the children of the promise. INIay the Lord help you 
 to come and be made children of the promise ! 
 
 Now, as in the individual, there is such a tendency to rest 
 in form, so in the church collectively, hence this tendency 
 to a formal religion. Just as it was with the Jews — their 
 Temple service and the paraphernalia of Judaism — was all 
 in all to them, and tliey thought that Jesus Christ was the 
 most awfully severe and uncharitable person who ever 
 ai)pearod on the face of the earth, because He told them the 
 truth. And the same class of character presents the same 
 attitude now. We shall see when we get to the Judgment- 
 seat of Christ which is the true charity — that which covers 
 up things, or that which tears off the bandages, and shows 
 people their hypocrisy, and, as we have just read, reveals to 
 them the secrets of their hearts. I fear that we are very 
 largely in the same condition as the Jews were when Christ 
 came. I say " very largely," for I know that there are grand 
 and glorious exceptions ; but I speak of the great whole, and 
 I am backed up in this opinion by some of the most thought- 
 
ADAPTATION OF MILVSUllES. 
 
 57 
 
 fill and spiritual men of this age. It is the lamentation 
 everywhere — this formality ami death. It reaches us from 
 all parts of the land, yea, from all parts of all lands. I on(;e 
 heard a great divine, a leader of spiritual thought in liis 
 day, who has recently passed to heaven, say, " I consider 
 that the writings of the Trophets are far more ai>plicable to 
 the state of the churclies now than the writings of the New 
 Testament, for we are in the same lapsed and faUen con- 
 dition, as churches, as Israel of old was." So many tliink, 
 and so many teach. 
 
 If this be the case, WHAT IS TO BE DONE ? What 
 would strike you should be done in this state of comparative 
 — spiritual eclipse? Evidently it would be madness to go 
 on as we are. That will mend nothing ! Somebody must 
 strike and do something worthy of the emergency. " There 
 is no improving the future, without disturbing tlie present," 
 and the difiiculty is to get people to be willing to be dis- 
 turbed! We are so conservative by nature — especially 
 some of us. We have such a rooted dislike to have anything 
 rooted up, disturbed, or knocked down. It is as mucli the 
 work of God, however, to "knock down and pull up, and 
 to destroy," as to build up, and God's real ambassadors fre- 
 quently have to do as much of one as of the other. This is 
 not pleasant work; but what is necessary to be done ? Is it 
 not manifestly necessary that we should go back to the 
 simplicity and spirituality of the Gospel, and to the early 
 modes of propagating it amongst men ? 
 
 In the two last discourses we tried to show what was 
 the pure Gospel — calling men to forsake their sins, to 
 cast away their idols, come out from the world of the 
 ungodly and be separate in order that their sins might be 
 forgiven, and that God might receive them, and they become 
 
 1 
 
58 
 
 AGGIIESSIVE CIIRISTI^INITY. 
 
 
 His sons and His daughters. In the last we spoke of faith 
 and what it would do for us. 
 
 Kow, with respect to the outward manifestations and 
 propagation of the Gospel, it is equally necessary to go back. 
 We have such a heap of rubbish to carry away — the ac- 
 cumulated traditionalism of ages to go through and dig 
 under — that it sometimes takes a considerable amount of 
 time, and force of character, and a great deal of the Spirit 
 of God, to enable us to do it. Nevertheless, it must be done 
 if we are to reach a better state of things. 
 
 It seems to me, in order to do this we should not shrink 
 from a recognition of our lapsed and fallen condition. That 
 was what the Jews did at the teaching of Jesus. They 
 would not have His reproach. They would not have the 
 light because it condemned tliem. They rejected it. They 
 persisted they were the children of Abraham — the children 
 of the promise. They persisted they were all right, and 
 they pointed to the Temple and to their ceremonialism as a 
 proof of it; they would not have His testimony, would not 
 admit that they were wrong. Do not let us imitate them. 
 ]jet us recognise this state of things. Let us look it fairly 
 in the face. Honesty is always the best policy both in 
 spiritual and in temporal things. There is nothing gained 
 by ignoring a disagreeable truth. It is best to face i+". 
 Xow there it is, and the best way is to hail any ray of light 
 that comes to us from any part of the heavens, even though 
 a carpenter should bring it, as He brought it to them — or a 
 lisherman, or a woman. Never mind — let us hail the light 
 and apply it to ourselves. Let us bring our hearts and 
 lives out into its blaze, and examine them by it, and improve 
 it to our own salvation and to the salvation of others. If 
 tne Jews had done that they would have been saved and 
 
 ^11 
 
ADAPTATION OF MEASURES. 
 
 50 
 
 their Dation. "Oh, if thou hadst known, eveu in this thy 
 day, — this twelfth hour of the hist day — the things that 
 belong unto thy peace, but now, because of thy obstinate 
 rejection, they are hid from thine eyes!" The Lord hrlp 
 us to take the light home to ourselves, each one. 
 
 We have seen that it is clearly laid down in the texts I 
 have read that the law of adaptation is the only law laid 
 down in the New Testament with respect to inodcs and 
 measures. I challenge anybody to lii'd me any other. 
 While the Gospel message is laid down with unerring ac- 
 curacy, we are left at perfect freedom to adapt our measures 
 and modes of bringing it to bear upon men to the circum- 
 stances, times, and conditions in which we live — free as 
 air. "I became all things to all men." The great Apostle 
 of the Gentiles who had thrown oif tie paraphernalia of 
 Judaism years before, yet became as a Jew that he might 
 win the Jews. The great, strong intellect became as a 
 weak man that he might win the weak. He conformed 
 himself to the conditions and circumstances of his hearers, 
 in all lawful things, that he might win them ; he let no 
 mere conventionalities, or ideas of propriety, stand in his 
 way Avhen it was necessary to abandon them. He suffered 
 his limbs to be thrust into a basket, and himself let down over 
 the wall, when necessary, for the success of his work. He who 
 was l)rave as a lion, ana hailed a crown of martyrdom like a 
 conquering hero, as he was, yet was willing to submit to 
 anything when the requirements of his mission rendered it 
 necessary. He adapted himself to the circumstances. He 
 was instant in season and out of season. Oh ! what a hue- 
 and-cry there is about out of season Christianity ; " of some 
 making a difference " — pulling them out of the fire by the 
 hair of the head, if needful, — nevermind — save them, save 
 
 ■ 
 
-—*'"- — ^— _ 
 
 60 
 
 AGGRESS1V1-: CIIiaSTlANlTY. 
 
 t:^ 
 
 THEM. That is the great desideratiiin. Save thorn — pall- 
 ing them out of the fire. Adapt your measures to your 
 circumstances and to the necessities of the times in which 
 you live. Now here it seems to me that the church — I 
 speak universally — has made a grand mistake, the same 
 old mistake which we are so prone to fall into of exalting 
 the traditions of the elders into the same importance and 
 autliority as the Word of God, as the clearly laid down 
 principles o^ the New Testament. 
 
 People contend that we must luive quiet, proper, decorous 
 sei vices. WHEIIE JS YOUR ATTTIIORITY FOR 
 THIS ? "N"ot \if^i\}. I defy any man to show it. I have a 
 great deal more authority in this book for sucli a lively, gush- 
 ing, spontaneous, and what you call disorderly service, as the 
 Army services sometimes are, in this 14tli of Corinthians, 
 than you can find for yours. The beit insight we get into 
 the internal working of a religious service in Apostolic times 
 is in this chapter, and I ask you — is it anyJiing like the 
 ordinary services of to-day ? Can the utmost stretch of in- 
 genuity mal< e it into anything like them ? But that, even, 
 is not complete. We cannot get the order of a single ser- 
 vice from the New Testament, nor can we get tlie form of a 
 single church government. Hence one denomination think 
 theirs is the best form, and another theirs ; so Christendom 
 has been divided into so many camps ever since ; but this 
 very quarrelling shows the impossibility of getting from the 
 New Testament the routine, the order, and the fasliion of 
 mere modes. They cannot get it, because it is not t'lere ! ! 
 Do you think God had no purpose in this omission ? The 
 form, modes, and measures are not laid down as in the Old 
 Testament dispensation. There is nothing of this stereo- 
 typed routinism in the N<^w Testament. Why ? Now 
 
ADAPTATION OF MILrXSUKES 
 
 tliere may be some wlio may h ivo ilifliculties in this matter. 
 T said to a gentleman, who came to me with this and that 
 difficulty about our modes and measures, "I will meet your 
 difficulties by bringing them face to face with the bare i)rin- 
 ciples of the New Testament. If I cannot substantiate and 
 defend them by that I will give them up for ever. I am not 
 wedded to any forms and measures. To many of them I 
 liave been driven by the necessities of tlie case. God has 
 driven me to them as at the point of the bayonet, as well as 
 led me by the pillar of cloud, and when I have brought my 
 reluctance and all my own conventional notions, in which I 
 was brought up like other ppople, face to face with the naked 
 bare principles of the New Testament, I have not found any- 
 thing to stand upon ! I find things here far more extrava- 
 gant and extreme, than anything we do — looked at careful- 
 ly." Here is the principle laid down that you are to adapt 
 your measures to the necessity of the people to whom you 
 minister ; you are to take the Gospel to them in such modes 
 and halntudes of thought and expression and circumstances 
 as will gain for it from them a iikauixg. You are to speak 
 in other tongues — go and preach it to them in such a way 
 as they will look at it and listen to it ! Oh ! in that lesson 
 we read what beautiful scope and freedom from all set forms 
 and formula there was. AVhat freedom for the gushing fresh- 
 ness, enthusiasm, and love of those new converts ! What 
 scope for the different manifestations of the same spirit ! 
 Everything was not cut and dried. Everything was not pre- 
 arranged. It was left to the operation of the spirit, and the 
 argument that this has been abused is no argument against 
 it, for then you might argue against every privilege. Here 
 is abundant evidence that these new converts, each one, had 
 the opportunity to witness for Jesus, opportunity and scope 
 
.■^mm 
 
 62 
 
 AGGUKSSIVK CillUSTIANllT. 
 
 I ' •' ; 
 
 ,i' 
 
 to give fortli the gusliing iittenince of his soul, uid tell otl* 
 er peojile liow he got saved, or the experience the llo\y 
 Ghost hud wrought in him. And look at the result! "If 
 those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, come in, they are 
 convinced of all, judged of all ; and thus the secrets of their 
 liearts are made manifest, and falling down on their faces, 
 they will worship God, and report that God is in you of a 
 truth." What unkind things have been said of the Salva- 
 tion Army because people have fallen on their faces under 
 the convicting power of the Spirit at our jneetings ; but you 
 see this is Apostolic ! And, oh, friends, what a glorious 
 service this would be ! You say it would look so strange. 
 More the pity. More the i)ity that this natural, easy, do- 
 mestic, familiar kind of testimony and witnessing of divine 
 things should have become strange. ^lay it not be because 
 the experience which promoted it has become strange ? ^lay 
 it not be that there is no more desire to testify because there 
 is little to testify about ? ]\Iay it not be that there is want 
 of the utterance of the Holy Spirit through the tongue be- 
 cause there is less of it in the soul ? Oh ! then, should we 
 not make haste back to those days of simplicity and power ? 
 Should we not pray to be set free from the traditionalism 
 and routinism in which Satan has succeeded in lulling us to 
 sleep? I ask any saved man — Do you not remember the 
 gushing love and enthusiasm of your first-found liberty ? 
 how 3^ou longed to tell everybody, and if you had been placed 
 in such circumstances as these Corinthian converts, how 
 gladly you would have testified to what Jesus had done for 
 you. . It was only the repressing, keeping down, and ulti- 
 mately, I am afraid, the ail-but extinguishing of the Holy 
 Spirit's urgings that has led to the state in which many of 
 you now are, and also the dead way in which many of our 
 services are conducted. 
 
ADAITATION OF MEASUIIKS. 
 
 G3 
 
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 ed 
 low 
 Tor 
 ilti- 
 oly 
 y ot 
 our 
 
 Now let us look fairly at these tliiiiijs. 1 maintain that 
 the only qualilieatiou — the only indispensable (lualitication 
 
 — fo** witnessing for Christ, is the Holy Ghost. Paul, ex- 
 pressly, over and over again, abjures all merely human equip- 
 ment, lie expressly deelares that these things were not the 
 power, even when they existed, but that it was the Holy 
 Ghost. Therefore, give me man, woman, or ehild with the 
 Holy Ghost, full of love and zeal for (Jod, and I say it is a 
 great strength and joy to that (convert to testify to the (diureh 
 and to tlie world, and it is the bounden duty of the ehureh 
 to give him the oi)p()rtunity to do so. The Lord is going to 
 demonstrate in this land, that He is not going to evangelize 
 it by Hnished sermons and disquisitions, but i)y the simple 
 test Imoni/ of people saved from sin and the devil ^ bf/ Jflspoioer 
 and Ills (/race. He is going to do it by witnessing, as He 
 began. 
 
 Now I say, read your New Testament on this point, and 
 you will be struck with the amazing amount of evidence for 
 this unconventional kind of service. The world wants some 
 more Pentecosts, — when Peters and Marys shall be so filled 
 with the Spirit that they canrioc help telling what God has 
 done for them — male and female, men, women, and children 
 
 — like the woman of Samaria, who, when she had found Him 
 of whom ]\Ioses and the Prophets wrote, went and fetched 
 her fellow-townsmen and women to hear Him. He wishes 
 you to do the same, and this is the way the Lord is going to 
 gather out His great and glorious kingdom in these latter 
 days by the power of testimony in the Holy Ghost. He 
 only wants witnesses to be able to go and say, " We speak 
 that we do know" — that is the qualitication. The Lord is 
 multiplying such witnesses. Bless His holy Name. 
 
 But you may say — what did the ^Master Himself do? 
 
 ■ 
 
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 AUdUESSlVE CH1U8TIANHT. 
 
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 Well, lio .'ulopted these very iiK^iisures. T was so struck with 
 this, when soineone said, "Why, you are seudinj,' jx'ojjle to 
 preach who nannot read or write ! " For a luoiiient I was 
 staggered, but I asked liim, " How many of the Ajjostles do 
 you sup[)ose could read and write when they were first sent 
 out ? " And then it was the questioner's turn to be staggered. 
 There is no reason to suppose, with but two or three excep- 
 tions, that any of them could. Education then was far more 
 uncommon than now. It was not rejiding and writing that 
 was the great qualiHcation for preaching Christ; it was 
 KNOWING AND sKKiNG? It was uot the powcr of cloqucuce, 
 it was being able to cast out devils; th.it was the test. Give 
 me somebody able to cast out devils, and I don't care wheth- 
 er they can read or write, or put a grammatical sentence to- 
 gether. That is of no consequence whatever. Why did not 
 Jesus Christ call the doctors and scribes of I lis day ? There 
 were plenty of them — highly educated men with trained 
 and disciplined minds. lie was amongst them in the Tem- 
 I)le, when He was twelve years old. lie knew them. How 
 was it he did not select these ? lie who couhl have com- 
 manded a legion of angels, could surely have commanded a 
 few scribes and doctors to go to preach the Gospel. Why 
 not ? lie acted on the law of adaptation. lie Avanted His 
 Gospel preached to the great masses — not to the select few. 
 Not to the educated "upper ten," but to the great masses 
 of mankind. How was he to have his Gospel so preached, 
 but by men like unto themselves ? They fled from the edu- 
 cated doctors. They would not listen to the doctors, and 
 they will not now. It may be very wicked, and obstinate 
 and foolish, but such is the fact — they never have and they 
 never will. Hence, Jesus Christ, instead of working a mira- 
 cle, which he never did when it was unnecessary, chose the 
 
 f 
 
 I'll. 
 
ADAPTATION OF MKASURKft. 
 
 G5 
 
 weak things of the earth to confoiuid the mighty. 1 le woiiM, 
 ill the other case, have had first to have untaught all those 
 scribes and doctors almost all they had h'arned. II(» would 
 liave had to set them free from the honds of traditionalism. 
 He would have had to remould their minds, and then <'(juip 
 them. There was no necessity for this when Jle found the 
 lishermen ready to His hand. They wen? just the nu'u He 
 wanted. They only required tempering with the I loly (Miosl, 
 and they were ready for the work. They thought as the 
 people thought; they spoke with and associated Avith the 
 people, and, in fact, were of them. As he wanted the masses 
 of men evangelized, he chose men from amongst the masses 
 to evangelize them. Here was infinite wisdom. "I thank 
 Thee, oh. Father, that Thou hast hid these things from the 
 wise and prudent^ and hast revealed them unto babes. Even 
 so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." But he had 
 a purpose in it, and the purpose was this — that the Gospel 
 might be propagated in all climes and conditions of men, 
 through any kind of an agent — Greek, Jew, Barbarian, 
 Scythian, man, woman, child. Any person who has experi- 
 enced its power in their souls may go and speak it to any- 
 body they can get to hear them and everywhere ! We are 
 free as air and sunlight as to our choice of agencies, and it 
 is time the Church woke up to this. The Lord have mercy 
 on us ! Is there not work enough to do ? It makes my ears 
 tingle and burn with shame when I hear people saying, " You 
 must not send agencies here and there, and we can't have 
 our organization interfered with." I say, " Are all the sin- 
 ners converted in your neighbourhood ? " Nay ; has every 
 poor, lost, wretched soul heard the name of Jesus, and the 
 testimony of His Gospel ? Are there not teeming thousands 
 round about you wdio never heard His name, and who care 
 
 ■ 
 
 1 '^ 
 
C6 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CKItlSTIANITY. 
 
 iia.i 
 
 I i I 
 
 'N 
 
 nothing for Him, who live every day trampling His law un- 
 der their feet? For ChrlsVs sake, send somebod?j fterthem. 
 If they will not have your doctors of divinity and your pol- 
 ished divines, get hold of fishermen and costermongers and 
 send them ! Let the people have a chance for their souls. 
 Let them hear, for if they hear not, how shall they believe ? 
 Oh, they are dying for lack of knowledge — they are, friends ; 
 thousands are dying for the lack of knowledge. It is quite 
 a common thing for us to get people into our services who 
 say, '^ I never knew there was anything so pretty as that in 
 the Bible. I didn't know you were reading from the Bible. 
 We never heard anything like that before.'' Hundreds of 
 men in this country were never in a place of worship, save 
 to be christened or to be married, and a good many, sad to 
 say, are living without being married While we have been 
 standing upon our dignity, whole generations have 
 GONE TO Hell! — if the Bible is true. How much longer 
 shall we stand there ? If Jesus had stood upon His dignity 
 He would never have come to die between two thieve:. The 
 whole work of redemption is a work of humiliation, self-sac- 
 rifice and suffering ; and if we are not willing to follow Him 
 in that, we may as well give up professing His name. 
 
 The Lord help us to go down, down amongst the fishermen, 
 amongst the poor, the weak, the unlearned, the vulgar, to 
 "condescend to men of low estate." 
 
 I 
 
 Hi 
 ii.. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 
 
 " For what the Law could not do, in that it wr..s weak through the flesh, God 
 sending His ovn Son in tlie likeness of siuiul llcsli, and for sin, condcnnu'd 
 sin in the flesh : That the righteousness of the Law niight be fulfilled in 
 us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." — Kom. viii. 3, 4. 
 
 I will try, by God's grace, as rauoli as in me lies, to deal 
 with this subject in a way that shall not provoke contro- 
 versy. I do deplore this. I wish there was a way of 
 improving the future without disturbing the present, but it 
 is a misfortune, I suppose, that there is not, and, however 
 carefully we may guard ourselves in trying to lead the Lord's 
 people higher, there is always somebody who will quibble 
 and mahe objections and take exceptions. But we cannot 
 help this. We must be true to our convictions of God's 
 truth, and to what lie has taught us, and revealed to us by 
 His Spirit, for we speak the things that we do know, and do 
 see, and do handle, of the Word of Life. However, I will 
 try to keep to ground on which I think all reall}' spiritual 
 people will be agreed. And, oh ! may the Holy Spirit give 
 us one mind and help us to see in His light, and if there is 
 anything we do not see in His light, oh! that this very hour 
 He may show it to us, for He knows that we are all willing 
 to see, and only longing and desiring to know the whole 
 truth, as it is in Jesus. Let every sincere soul put up this 
 jirayer for himself and for me, as I put it up for myself and 
 for you, that the Holy Spirit may lead ub into all truth, at 
 
 67 
 
 ■ 
 
68 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CIUUSTLVNlTir. 
 
 any rate as far as it is important to our own salvation and 
 our practical exhibition of the salvation of Christ to other 
 people, for a dying world is hanging upon our skirts. They 
 are looking at us to find out what religion is. They 
 will not come to this Book. They will not even hear about 
 it, but they are looking to us to find it out : how momentously 
 important it is that we should be truly living epistles, 
 known and read of all men. We are epistles, whatever sort 
 of doctrine our lives teach. We cannot help ourselves, for 
 while we profess to be the Lord's, we are living epistles, 
 known and read of all men. 
 
 Specially, then, I want first to look at the 3rd verse of 
 the 8th chapter. Now, I thought it would, perhaps, be the 
 most profitable way to look at this and meet the experience 
 of some who I know are here, by trying to answer the 
 question — 
 
 Wherein does the law fdil to save us? Then we shall be 
 able to see wherein and how Jesus Christ transcends the 
 Law, 
 
 First, then, the Law does not fail in giving a knowledge 
 of sin, for it is by the Law, as the Apostle says, that I know 
 sin. Without the Law I was dead, so dead in sin that I did 
 not realize it at all. Its x^ower was so complete over me 
 that I did not realize it was sin, and, therefore, was asleep 
 and comparatively happy, but when the commandment 
 came, "sin revived and I died" — that is, to all hope of 
 making myself righteous. The commandment showed me 
 the awful chasm there was between me and it. The Holy 
 Commandment, just and pure and good — and myself un- 
 lioly, impure, and unrighteous. A light flashed upon it, and 
 I died in despair and utter helplessness. Thus, I say, the 
 Law does not fail in giving knowledge of sin, for it is by 
 tlic Law that I get the knowledge of sin. 
 
ASSURANCE OF SALVATION. 
 
 60 
 
 I me 
 jep 
 mt 
 of 
 I me 
 
 lun- 
 md 
 
 Itlie 
 by 
 
 Secondbjy — Neither does the Law fail in begetting a sense 
 of guilt and C4 ndemnation on account of sin, for it is by the 
 Law again that I get this. I not only get the knowledge of 
 sin by the Law, but I get the sense of guilt and condem- 
 nation for sin by the Law, for the Law comes in and con- 
 demns me. It is the spirit of death and cond(!mnation to 
 me : it says, " You should have done this, and because you 
 have not done it you shall die." I feel that the Law is just 
 and good, and yet I feel that I do not keep it, and, there- 
 fore, I have the sentence of condemnation upon me because 
 I do not keep it. Then the Law does not fail in begetting 
 a sense of condemnation and guilt on account of sin. 
 
 TJu'^dlu, — Neither does the Law fail in producing desire 
 after rigJiteousness and effort to attain it. The Law begets 
 in me the desire after righteousness, by contrasting my 
 condition with the purity and holiness of God's Law. I 
 see the Law to bo good and holy, I see it to be desirable, 
 and I desire to attain the righteousness of the Law. I am 
 speaking now of a convicted sinner, as the Apostle did when 
 speaking of the same character. A convicted sinner sees 
 the righteousness and beauty of the Law of God. He sees 
 that it is holy, just, and good. He sees that it is intended 
 to make him holy, just, and good, for the Law is not sin, as 
 the Apostle says, but is ordained unto righteousness, but 
 the sinner has failed to attain it because of weakness, but 
 he struggles to attain it. The hrst thing is to set himself 
 to strive to attain the righteousness of the Law by his own 
 efforts. This was the case with the Apostle. He 
 longed to do what he could not, and he constantly did what 
 he would not, and, as it was with the Apostle, so it is with 
 every convicted sinner on earth. We were constantly long- 
 ing after righteousness. We could not help looking on the 
 
 1 
 
70 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ft 
 
 m 
 
 "Jill 
 
 > f 
 
 m 
 
 beautiful, pure, and holy law of God, and we longed co keop 
 it, and tried again and again until we were tripped down 
 again and again, and died in utter despair, never being able 
 to attain it for ourselves and of ourselves. So you see the 
 Law begets first a knowledge of sin ; secondly, it begets 
 guilt and coademnation on account of sin ; and, thirdly, 
 desire after righteousness and effort to obtain it. 
 
 Thus far I think we must all be agreed. Wherein does the 
 Law fail ? It does all this for me. It brings me right up, 
 as it were, — my schoolmaster lashing me right up to the 
 cross, opening my eyes, creating intense desire after holiness 
 and efforts for it, — and then it just fails me. Whore ? At 
 the vital point. It cannot give me power. That is where 
 the Law fails. It cannot give rae power to fulfil itself. I 
 am strengthless through the w akness of the flesh and the 
 sinfulness of my nature to keep it, and so I struggle and 
 wrestle for power to keep it, but I have not power. " What 
 the Law could not do, in Lhat it was weak, God sent His 
 Son to do," and I maintain HE DOES IT, and thai is the 
 one vital point where the Son transcends the Law. 
 
 But there is a Gospel now-a-days, a Law-Gospel. A 
 great deal of the Gospel of these days never gets any 
 further than the Law, and some people tell me that it is 
 never intended to do so, and then I ask. Wherein does 
 Christ Jesus advantage me ? What am I better for such a 
 Gospel it my Gospel cannot deliver me from the power of 
 sin ? If through the Gospel 1 cannot get deliverance from 
 this " I-would-it-1-could " religion, this " Oh !-wretched-man- 
 that-l-am " religion, wherein am 1 benefitted by it ? AVherein 
 does your Gospel do more for me than the Law ? The law 
 convinced me of sin and set me desiring and longing after 
 righteousness, but wherein is the superiority of Jesus Christ 
 
ASSUBANCE OF SALVATION. 
 
 71 
 
 if He cannot lead me further tliau that ? And I say, very 
 well ; your faith is vain, and Christ died in vain, and you 
 are yet in your sins if that is all it can do. If that is all 
 Jesus Christ can do, His coming is vain, and I am yet in 
 my sins and doomed to hug this dead corpse to the last, and 
 go down to hell, for death will never do for me what the 
 blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ cannot do for me. If 
 Christ cannot supersede the Law then I am lost, and lost 
 forever. Wherein, then, does this " Oh !-wretched-man " 
 Gospel supersede the Law ? Will anybody point it out to 
 me ? 
 
 Oh ! but the real Gospel does. The Gospel that repre- 
 sents Jesus Christ, not as a system of truth to be received 
 into the mind like I should receive a system of philosophy, 
 or astronomy, but it represents Him as a real, living, 
 MIGHTY Saviour, able to savk me now, 
 
 I said to a lady once, who was seeking this deliverance 
 and who was struggling and wrestling, as I kneeled by her 
 side, — " Wait a minute. Suppose Jesus Christ were here in 
 His flesh, as He once was. Suppose he was to come to your 
 side now, and put His hand upon you and say, ^ Hush ! I 
 know your desire ; I see your heart ; I know what you are 
 longing after. You are longing to be delivered from every- 
 thing that grieves Me, upon which My pure eyes cannot look 
 with allowance. You are wanting to be brought into full 
 conformity to ^ly will, and that is what I have come to do 
 now. I have come to live with you. I am taking up my 
 abode under this roof, and I will never leave your side. I 
 will be with you by day and I will be with you by night. I 
 will sit at the dinner-table and at the tea-table with you, and 
 walk out with you, and go to bed with you, and rise up with 
 you. Don't be troubled. I will never leave you and never 
 
 ■ 
 
72 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANltT. 
 
 i\i 
 
 1 
 
 w 
 
 I 
 
 k 
 
 III 
 
 forsake you/ Do you think if He were to come and say 
 that, you would be able to trust Him ? " 
 
 "Oh! yes." 
 
 " You would not be afraid ? " 
 
 "Oh! no." 
 
 "Now, what would it be that would save you ? Would it 
 be the bodily presence of Jesus, which they laid in the sep- 
 ulchre and which was as dead and helpless as any other clay 
 when the spirit was gone out of it ? No. It would be His 
 spiritual presence, would it not ? and His spiritual eyes see- 
 ing you, and His spiritual tongue speaking to you ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, then, this is just the presence that He has prom- 
 ised to be with everyone of His people, and now He is here 
 and able to do this, and will abide with you and enable you 
 to abide in Him if you will just trust Him. Now, just trust 
 Him." And the Lord, by His blessed Spirit, did take and 
 reveal this truth unto her, and just then and there she did 
 leap into th«^ arms of Jier Saviour and realize that He did 
 save her. 
 
 Uh ! friends, some people think we do not make enough of 
 Christ. We make all of Christ ; only it is a living Christ 
 instead of a dead one. It is Christ in us as well as for us. 
 We believe in Christ for us, and we should not have been 
 here at all but for Christ for us up there for ever and ever, 
 and no one will hasten to throw the crown at His feet readier 
 than I shall ; but we believe in order to do it we must have 
 Him in us, and if He is not in us, then it is sounding brass 
 and tinkling cymbal to call upon Him for us. He must be 
 in us. Christ in us as well as for us, and those whom He is 
 not i7i He will not be for. If He dwell not in you, ye are 
 reprobates. But Christ in us, — an ever-loving, ever-pres- 
 
ASSURANCE OP SALVATION. 
 
 7:3 
 
 ent, Almighty Saviour, is just able to do wluit the angols 
 said He should do, that for which lie was called Jesus, to 
 save His people from their sin. 
 
 Then how does lie do this ? Wherein does he supersede 
 the Law ? Wherein does Christ do for me and is made to 
 me what the Law could not do ? We have seen what the 
 Law could do and how far it could go. Xow we see it fails 
 just at the vital point of power. Now, how docs Christ be- 
 come this power to me ? How is He made unto me — not 
 forme — up in Heaven (He is there, too), but how is He 
 made unto me down here — wisdom, righteousness, sanotifi- 
 cation, and redem.ption ? How does He deliver the people 
 from their sins ? How does He save us from the power of 
 sin ? Now, you who are longing to get free, try and listen 
 to me, and oh ! maij the Holy Ghost teach us I 
 
 He does this first by giving 
 
 Assurance of salvation. He saves and then He makes us 
 conscious of the fact, which the Law could not do. All it 
 could do was to set us struggling after it. It could not give 
 us assurance. Now, by assurance, I mean the personal reali- 
 zation of my acceptance in Christ; my acceptance by the 
 Father; my present acceptance — I mean the inward assur- 
 ance which men and women find for themselves, or have re- 
 vealed in tliemselves, which they know as a matter of con- 
 sciousness. Not that which their minister tells them ; not 
 that which they learn from books, not that even which the 
 Bible tells them only, for there are thousands of people who 
 read the Bible who are not saved, and who know they are 
 not. You all know there are thousands of people who be- 
 lieve it in vain. 
 
 I was walking down the anxious room at one of Mr. 
 Moody's meetings, when two ladies came and said — 
 
 ■ 
 
74 AGGRESSIVE CIIIUSTIAXITY. 
 
 " Will you i)lease speak to us ? '* 
 
 I don't know wliy they came to me, except it was my 
 plain dress which made th.'.n think I ought to know, even 
 if I did not, how to deal with souls. We took three chairs 
 and sat down. The youngest was a lady about SO or 33, and 
 very intelligent, evidently an educated person, and the 
 elder was an old lady, gorgeously attired. They sat down ; 
 and as to the younger one, there was no mistake about her 
 earnestness. Mr. Moody ho- be^' vreachi'jg on "The 
 Cities of ji.^fuge," and ;howin.. .^ tho soul who desired to 
 to be saved had nothing to c ) sli . igl.ing to suffer, but only 
 to run into the Cities of Refuge and be ^..ved — a beautiful 
 sermon for convicted sinners — and this lady said to me, 
 almost passionately, — "How is it? there must be some- 
 thing wrong somewhere ; there must be a mistake some- 
 where. I believe all that Mr. Moody has been saying, every 
 word of it. I have believed every word since I was a little 
 girl; in fact, I believe the whole of the Xew Testament — 
 all about Jesus Christ, and I believe, moreover, that He 
 died for me, and that He makes intercession for me, and 
 yet I'm not saved a bit. I have no more power over sin 
 than other people, and I know I am not saved. Now, 
 what can be the reason ? I am afraid it is want of faith.'* 
 
 That is the universal resort to fall back upon by all souls 
 in that condition. I said, — " Will you be honest with me ? 
 Ic is of no use coming to a spiritual doctor any more than 
 to a physical doctor if you are not frank ; you would only 
 mislead him. If j^ou really want to be saved, be honest 
 with me, and I will try, by the help of the Spirit, to help 
 
 5> 
 
 you 
 
 " I do indeed want to be saved, " she said. " I often go 
 into my room, and weep and struggle, and pray for hours. 
 
 u 
 
ASSURAJfCE OF SALVATION. 
 
 78 
 
 le 
 
 id 
 
 in 
 
 'St 
 
 l"S. 
 
 T try to believe. I think I have believed, and I come out 
 and I am no better." 
 
 "Oh," I said to myself, "alas! here is the experience of 
 t'lousands." "Tell me, in these times when you say you 
 {. into your room, and struf^gle, and i)ray, and strive, and 
 believe; teU me, is there anytanig that comes up before the 
 p e of your soul as an obstacle and difficulty that has to be 
 i)ut away or er* braced j anything that comes up and that 
 the Spirit of God says 'you must sacrifice this, or cut off 
 that, or do the other ? ' Just tell me that." 
 
 She was quiet for a moment and speechless. She waited ; 
 then she drew her breath and said — "Well, y^ , ^ am 
 afraid there is." 
 
 "Ah!" I said, "that is it; it is not want of ;aiih, it is 
 ^ant of obedience. Now you may go on anothex* U ' years, 
 going into your room, struggling and striving, u- 1 until you 
 "■ram pie that under your feet and say, 'Lord, 1 .v'lil follow 
 Thee at all costs,^ you will not bo able to believe. I don't 
 want you to tell me what it is ; sufficient that you know it, 
 and that the Lord knows it; but, after an experience of 
 dealing with hundreds of souls just at this point, I tell you: 
 you must give that up or embrace it, whatever it may be ; I 
 believe that is the cause of your trouble." 
 
 " Then,", she said, " I will make no secret of it. I am 
 the only member of an unconverted family that has any 
 desire after God. My husband is a worldly, unconverted 
 man, and I am in a worldly, unconverted circle, and always 
 when I come to the Lord Jesus it comes up before me that 
 I will have to confess Him and to live like a Christian, and 
 I am not willing to do so." 
 
 " Then, my dear lady, it is the old story over again of the 
 young ruler. Now, you know, I should be untrue to your 
 
 ■ 
 
Ii 
 
 76 
 
 AGGllESSIVE CIIIUSTLVNITY. 
 
 t 
 
 
 soul if I were to go on plastering you with untompeied 
 mortar. There you are, make your ehoice. You cannot be 
 a Christian, and not confess Christ. You cannot be a 
 (Christian, and not live like one before your unconveiled 
 relatives, and, therefore, if you are not willing to take up 
 the cross and follow Ilim, you cannot become His disciple." 
 
 Then I went down on my knees with her, and we talked 
 and prayed, and, at last, slie said, — 
 
 ** By the grace of God, I will confess Ilim." 
 
 Bless the Lord t and the light of salvation soon gladdened 
 her eye, for it si one through her face. She found herself 
 able to believe at once, and this is just the condition of 
 thousands of souls. She got assurance then. She got saved. 
 Before, she had been tiying to believe she was saved, when 
 she was not — quite a different thing co getting saved and 
 then knowing it. People are told to believe this, that, and 
 the other. As a gentleman said, at whose house I once 
 stayed — ^ 
 
 " I had a curious episode the other morning. I have had 
 a gentleman here, of some note in the evangelistic world, for 
 two or three days, and he came in the other morning at break- 
 fast time and said, ' I arc. happy to tell you that both j^our 
 gardeners are converted.' I was very thankful to hear it ; and 
 surprised that the work had been so quickly and thoroughly 
 done. "Well, I was walking in the grounds, and saw one of 
 the gardeners. ' John,' I said, ' I am glad to hear the happy 
 news.' He didn't seem to know what I meant. 
 
 "* What news, sir?' 
 
 a ( Well, I hear you have given your heart to God this 
 morning. You are converted, saved ? ' 
 
 " * Well,' John said, ' I could hardly say that, sir.' 
 
 " * Then what has happened ? Something has happened 
 in your experience — some change taken place ? ' 
 
assut^a:^ce op salvation. 
 
 TT 
 
 ;liis 
 
 " ' Well/ he said, ' I don't liardly know that. The gontle- 
 mau brou^lit a Bible to mo and road two or three versos, and 
 asked nie if I believed, and talked very nicely to nie, and 
 asked nie again if I believed; then I said I did, and then ho 
 said I was all right, but I can't say I feel any different.'" 
 
 Now, I am afraid there has been sadly too much of that. 
 There is all the difference between believing the letter of the 
 Word and knowing tlu.u you are saved. I say, that man 
 was not saved — was he ? I say, the lady who spoke to me 
 in the anxious room, was not saved — was she ? And I say 
 there are, alas ! thousands to-day in just that position. They 
 are not saved. They manifest it by their fruits. They ''on- 
 fess it. They 'vvTito it to me in their letters on the right 
 hand and on the left. Members of churches ten, fifteen, and 
 twenty years, sonic of them ministers of the Gospel, and yet 
 they tell mo they are not saved ! ! 
 
 Thus, you sec it is something more than the belief after 
 all. It is something more than what my minister tells me, 
 something more than what books tell me, and what the Bi- 
 ble tells me. It implies and includes this ; but something 
 more than this; yea, very much more. It is believing 
 in a living, personal, and almighty Saviour, nnd believing in 
 Him now, and that faith brings the realization. TJlc other 
 hrhigs nothing. When people believe thus, the Spirit comes 
 into their hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!" To them there 
 is no condemnation. They have the witness of the Spirit 
 that they are in Christ Jesus. The Spirit of the Son comes 
 into their hearts, crying, " Abba, Father ! " and they know 
 by demonstration, by inward consciousness, that they havo 
 passed from death unto life. You see there is all the differ- 
 ence between the means of salvation and salvation itself. 
 The means of salvation is not salvation. The moans only 
 
 ■ 
 
78 
 
 A(J(1U1:SS1VE CUUISTIANITY. 
 
 ! 
 
 brings Scalviition. "Thy faith hath saved thee." "I5y faith 
 aro ye saved," and when you arc saved by faith, then con- 
 sciousness attests the fact. Your own spirit attests the fact, 
 and God's Spirit attests the fact, and you know it beyond 
 controversy. You liave assurance, aud this is the first indis- 
 ])ensable condition of power over sin, for while I reniaiu un- 
 assured of my salvation, oh ! what power the devil has over 
 nie. " Oh," he says, "you're not saved at all. What is the 
 good of your standing out on this point, for you are not 
 saved at all. You may as well go all the way. You are 
 under the power of sin, and may as well remain there. You 
 have not got the witness of your salvation, and, therefore, 
 what is the use of standing )iere or there ? " But when 
 we have the witness of the Spirit in our souls of our accept- 
 ance with God, that he does now for Christ's sake pardon 
 and receive us, what power it brings. This is what the old 
 divines called assurance of faith, a conviction wrought in 
 the soul by the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ has given Him- 
 self for me, that God has accepted that offering in view of 
 my sin and transgression, and for its sake, and its sake onhj^ 
 has justified me freely from all things by which I could not 
 be justified by the Law of Moses, and that in Him God be- 
 comes my Father, and now accepts me and looks upon me 
 well pleased — a conviction wrought in my soul by the Holy 
 Spirit; for, as the Apostle says, "No man can call Jesus 
 ' Lord ' but by the Holy Ghost." There must be the spirit- 
 ual realization of Him as Lord. Why, anybody can call 
 Him " Lord." Tens of thousands of people call Him " Lord " 
 now-a-days, whom nobody pretends have the Spirit. AVhat 
 did he mean ? He must have meant spiritual revelation, 
 knowing Jesus Christ as its salvation — its Lord, such as 
 He was revealed to Thomas, when he said, "My Lord and 
 
ASSUILVNCE OF SALVATION. 
 
 •',) 
 
 hat 
 
 my Cod I " — really knowing him, and to this the Holy Ghost 
 alone can testify. Do not tell aiiybody they are saved. 
 I never do. I leave that for the Holy Ghost to do. I tell 
 them how to get saved. I try to help them to the way of 
 faith. 1 will bring them np as close as ever I can to the 
 blessed broken body of their Lord, and I will try to show 
 them how willing lie is to receive them, and I know that 
 when really they do receive Him the Spirit of (Jod will teM 
 them qnickly enongh they are saved. He will not want any 
 assistance about that. 1 have proved it in hundreds: of 
 cases. Nobody knows the soul but CJod. Nobody can see the 
 secret windings of the depraved heart but (Jod. Nobody 
 can tell when a full surrender is nuule but (Jod. Nobody can 
 tell when the right hand is cut olr, or the right eye plucked 
 out, but God. Nobody can tell when a soul is whole-hearted 
 but God, and as soon as He sees it, He will tell that soul it 
 is saved ; but, if God has not told you, be up and doing and 
 strive to make your calling and election sure, for you are 
 not saved yet, or you would know it. AVhat are you to be- 
 lieve unto ? Hope ? Oh, dear no 1 you don't believe unto 
 hope. Effort ? Oh, no ! you had that before in the Law. 
 Salvation ? Yes ! and if you believe unto salvation you 
 will get saved, and if jou are not saved you hav. ~^«ver be- 
 lieved unto salvation. Instead of trying to make yourseit hap- 
 py in this state -^i' uncertainty and misery, for Christ's sake, 
 get up and get saved. It is a great deal easier to get saved 
 than it is to make yourself believe you are saved when you 
 are not. The o '^ is a philosophical impossibility; the other 
 is a glorious possibility at any moment when you get low 
 enough before God, and give up all and take His Son as your 
 precious and almighty Saviour. God's Gospel is beautifully 
 adjusted to the laws of our mental constitution. He who 
 
 !( 
 
 ■I 
 
-v*^<*»' 
 
 80 
 
 AfJClUKSSlVE CIIIIISTIANITY. 
 
 wrote, framod, and conceived it, created us, and He has 
 made it like a key to fit the lock, and knows just the condi- 
 tions that are necessary, and He has conformed His Gospel 
 to those conditions. 
 
 ^ly friend, if yon w.mt to know you are saved, this is the 
 only resi)onse 1 can give, and the only way I know, and 
 I have talked to hundreds of souls of all grades and con- 
 ditions, to many ministers of the Gospel, deacons and lead- 
 ers, in just this state. For years my labors were exclusively 
 carried on in churches and chapels, vdiere, nacurally, church 
 members have come, and they have told me by hundreds 
 vrith their own lips tliat they have been members so many 
 years and were never saved. iSTow I am not, therefore, 
 speaking without experience in this matter. I tell you 
 when you believe in a Scriptural sense, you will get saved 
 in a Scriptural sense. When you put out of your head all 
 these new-fangled notions about faith, and cease to believe 
 in any faith that does not save the soul and bring it into 
 conscious union with Jesus Christ, and resolve to have it, then 
 you will get it. I never knew a soul come to that in my life 
 who did not get it. I have had people before me who were 
 worn almost to skeletons and were driven almost mad, and 
 the first thing they have said has been, when I have asked 
 the reason, *^ Oh ! I have no faith. It is want of faith ! " 
 This is the universal lament, and, when we have come to 
 close quarters, I have invariably found it has been no such 
 thing, but want of OIJEDIENCE, which spiritual teachers 
 have not had the wisdom to discern as Christ did in the 
 heart of the young ruler, " Yet one thing thou lackest." 
 He saw that }oiing man's besetting sin was covetousness. 
 I do not know that He would have said that to every rich 
 man, but in the case of the young ruler He saw that the 
 
 . 
 
 f 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 h 
 B 
 
 
ASSURANCE OF SALVATIOX. 
 
 81 
 
 love of his possessions was so paramount that unless he let 
 them go and made a clean sweep he could not follow Him 
 and be a consistent disciple, and so lie said, "Sell all, and 
 come and follow ]\Ie," and the young man went away sorrow- 
 ful ; and, mark you, Jesus Christ did not call him back, and 
 yet He looked after him and loved him. llis great, benevo- 
 lent heart panted after him, and He desired to have him ; 
 but He saw it would be a greater evil to call him back and 
 compromise the conditions of salvation than to let him be 
 lost. And yet, methinks, if there was any case in which 
 a compromise could be made, it would have been in this. He 
 did not do a? many would have done in our day — called 
 him back and said, " Here, young man, I think I have been 
 a little too hard on you. You shall sell half, and keep the 
 other half, and come and follow ]Me." Oh, no ! Everybody 
 would be saved at that rate. There would be no test of 
 whole-hearted consecration to Him then. H you can let 
 people into heaven on terms like these, they would be only 
 too ready to close with them. But whether ministers teach 
 people the truth or not, the Holy Ghost does ; and He puts 
 His linger on the sore spot, and says, " If you want to follow 
 me, you will have to renounce this, and give up that, or em- 
 brace the other," and if the soul says, " No, Lord ; I would 
 follow, but suffer me first to go and hug this idol ; " then 
 Jesus Christ says, " Very well, go ! " That is the sort of 
 faith people are resting in. 
 
 I see we shall not get any further than assurance of sal- 
 vation. You are panting after it. You are longing for it. 
 You may have it. God wants every one of His people to 
 have it. Get saved, and you will know it. Use your 
 Heavenly Father's letter to find your way up to Him. It is 
 not the letter you are to rest in : it is the God who wrote 
 
 ■I 
 
^itf^ 
 
 82 
 
 AGGRKSSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 it. Use the letter to get at the Spirit, for the letter will 
 not save you — it is the Si)irit that saves you. Hug tliis 
 volume to your heart as the expression of your Father's 
 will and the record througli which you are to believe on His 
 Son, but it is the Sou who is to save you. People talk 
 about exalting Christ. I tliink this is His glory, that He 
 can save His people and make them kno>v it, and make 
 them feel it, and carry them as He did Paul and Sila? 
 through the prison and tlie stocks, singing His praises and 
 making them inexpressibly happy in His love. Assurance 
 of Salvation ! Everybody wants it when they come to die. 
 Why don't people get it while they live ? Did you ever 
 know a professing Christian come to die who did not 
 want it ? Did you ever know one dare to die without it ? 
 and, if you ever did, you know what a miseraljle death it 
 was. Then, I contend, what is necessary to die with, is 
 necessary to live with. Why not get it while you live ? 
 Assurance I Assurance! And you can have it just now. 
 Hallelujah I Amen. 
 
 _ 'f 
 
 ii= 
 
SE'iMOX V. 
 
 HOW CHRIST TRANSCENDS THE LAW. 
 
 In answer to letters received since last Sabbath, I would 
 just say that the writers tell me that they have been strug- 
 gling for years for assurance ; that they do receive the testi- 
 mony of God concerning His Son ; that they do believe that 
 Jesus Christ died for their sins ; still they have no peace or 
 joy. I want you to mark well tliat assurance of salvation is 
 the testimony of God's Spirit to a fact which has transpired, 
 and if that fact has not transpired God's Spirit will never 
 testify to it. You may think you believe ; but, oh, I feel 
 sure numbers of people are deluded here. They think they 
 believe because they receive into their minds the written rec- 
 ord that God has given of His Son ; but they have not be- 
 lieved and rested on the promise in such a way as to bring 
 the witness of the Spirit. They have stopped short of that. 
 They have been satisfied with the letter. 
 
 Now, do not think that I underestimate the letter. 
 Perhaps few of you, if any, value this Word more than I do, 
 lut I have known very few people who have rested merely 
 in the letter (and I have known many), who, when I have 
 come into close conversation with them, have not been mis- 
 erably dissatisfied, unassured, sin-conquered souls ; and that 
 fnct alone teaches me that there is something wrong. Kow, 
 
 83 
 
 ■ 
 
84 
 
 AGGRKSSIVE CIIiaSTIAMTY. 
 
 m 
 
 that is not the glorious liberty of the cliildren of God. That 
 is not knowing God in the scriptural sense. 
 
 Take God's way, and then the witnessing Spirit will come. 
 Of course people are not assured because they have nothing 
 to be assured of ! Thoy have no salvation, and, therefore, 
 they cannot be assured of it. Get salvation and you will 
 get assurance. This is what you want. It is fou you. 
 Here it is. There is no other religion recognized in this 
 Book. All the saints to whom Paul wrote knew they were 
 saved. Here and there was an exception, where they had 
 fallen back and got into bondage, as some of you have ; but, 
 as a rule, he recognizes the fact that they all were saved, 
 were rejoicing in the assurance of It, and this is the normal 
 condition of the cliildren of God. I do not Fay such a person 
 may not occasionally slip. He may occasionally. He may 
 lose his scroll, as Pilgrim did, but he cannot, will not rest 
 till he finds it again ! 
 
 Then you say, ' T am n^*; to believe, T suppose." Oh, 
 yes ! you are. Take the blessed record to your heart, but 
 do not rest in the letter. Go on until you find the 
 substance of things hoped for — the substance. There 
 is a substance in spiritual things quite as much as there 
 is in natural things, and those who really and truly be- 
 lieve, know it. No one can testify when you do really and 
 tmly believe but God's Spirit, for the things of a man know- 
 eth no man save the spirit of a man that is in him, and just 
 so with the things of God. He searcheth the hearts and minds, 
 and knows when you are sincere and real and true ; and when 
 you seek Him with all your heart you will find Him, and He 
 will come and testify to that fact — and oh ! if you have not 
 this testimon Vj su":. pect yourself. Do not throw discredit upon 
 God. Begin ov •' agaiii and get assurance. ' 
 
IIUW CHIUST TRANSCENDS TIIK LAW. 
 
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 on 
 
 Oh ! what 1*0WER assurance of salvation gives ! when the 
 individual can say I know ; — not merely I believe, but I know. 
 Faith is the means to assurance, but assurance is not faith, 
 and faith is not assurance. Assurance is the result of faith, 
 and when you have the right sort of faith you will have 
 assurance, and until you get assurance do not trust yourself. 
 Persevere until you get it. God will never leave a sincere 
 soul in the dark. You nuist v;ome down to the foot of the 
 cross in the little children's way — give up all for Christy and 
 make up your mind that you will follow Ilimatall costs, and 
 then cast your guilty soul upon His broken, bleeding sacrifice, 
 and, as soon as you do this, God will send the answer of His 
 Spirit. 
 
 But I want to go a little further in showing how Christ 
 supersedes the Law. 
 
 We have noted in a former sermon that He does this, first, 
 by giving assurance. 
 
 Secondly, I want to show, by giving TOWER OVER SIX. 
 Now we shall be safe here. I trust this will not be contro- 
 verted ground. I believe He can do a greot deal more for His 
 people than this, but we will stop here this afternoon. By- 
 and-bye we may, perhaps, go further. Christ gives His people 
 power over sin. Kow, this is a necessity of our j^osition. 
 AVe have, as we have seen, been all slaves of . Sin 
 is, indeed, the sting of death. Now, how is it if tl e is no 
 deliverance from this dreadful plague and scourg -,£ God's 
 people—how is it that the Holy Ghost sets every real child 
 of God struggling after it ? Wiiatever may l»e a n in's theory 
 in his creed, you get him on his knees, and he WiU begin to 
 pray to God to save him from sin Sin is the abominable 
 thing which he hates, and longs to be delivered from ; and 
 the universal experience of God's people is that the Spirit 
 
 '\ 
 

 i i 
 
 1 ! 
 
 ^T) 
 
 !if^ 
 
 : 
 
 1 
 
 i! 
 
 AGGKKSSIVE ClIKISTIA : IT '/. 
 
 urges them to seek to be saved from sin. I have heard peo- 
 ple argue powerfully against the possibility of being delivered 
 from sin, and the next time I have heard them pray, they 
 have asked God for the very same thing, and I have said, 
 " Thank God, that is the Holy Ghost teaching him now ; he 
 cannot help praying for it, whether he believes in it or not." 
 If I have been under the power of sin, so as to become its 
 complete slave, and Jesus Christ comes and pardons me for 
 the past, and delivers me from the guilt and condemnation 
 which came upon me in consequence of the past, what do I 
 want ? I want some new power. I want something besides 
 pardon. I want power, or I shall be down again the next 
 minute. 
 
 What God does for us through Jesus Christ outside of us 
 is one thing, and whcit He does in us by Jesus Christ is an- 
 other thing, but the two are simultaneous, or one so imme- 
 diately succeeds the other that we hardly discern the differ- 
 ence. Now, I say, I want power to enable me to meet that 
 temptation which is cominc^ on me to-morrow, as it came on 
 me yesterday, and, if Jesus Christ pardons evor so, and leaves 
 me uii'lsr the reigning i)ower of my old appetites, what has 
 he done for me ? I shall be down in tlie mud, and to-morrow 
 night I shall be as great a sinii^r as ever. I wantpoiver. I 
 want regeneratian — as the Holy Spirit has put it. I want 
 the renewing of the spirit of my mind. I want to be created 
 anew in Christ Jesus ; " made a new creature." 
 
 Now, this is where Jesus Christ transcends the Law. The 
 Law could not renew the spirit of my mind. It could only 
 show me what a guilty rebel I was. It could not put a better 
 spirit in me. It could not extract the venom, but only show 
 it to mt, and make me writhe on account of it. But Jesus 
 Christ comes and does this for me — gives me power. How ? 
 
 
now CUIIIST TRANSCENDS THE LAW. 
 
 87 
 
 Now, I hope those friends who think that I do not suffi- 
 ciently exalt the Saviour, will mark this. How does He give 
 it to me ? lie unites me to Himself. I am dead to the Law. 
 He delivers me from the condemning power of the law when 
 He pardons me, and then He does not leave me there, but 
 He marries me to Himself. Ho unites me to another hus- 
 band, and then I attain power to bring forth fruit unto God. 
 A beautiful — a wonderful figure! We may not pursue it; 
 but, oh ! what a wonderful figure ! Alone under the Law's 
 power, my old husband, I could do nothing but agonize, 
 wrestle, and desire. There was no power in me ; but when 
 Jesus Christ comes and unites me to Himself, then He gives 
 me power to bring forth fruit unto God. It is by the UNION 
 OF MY SOUL WITH IILM. You say, "Explain it!" I 
 cannot. God Himself cannot explain it We cannot explain 
 it, but we know it. As Jesus said to Nicodemus- "The 
 wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou h^ar.^st the sound 
 thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it 
 goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit." The mys- 
 tery is too great to be explained, but there is the beautiful 
 illustration, united to Christ I have power to conquer, to sub- 
 due, to trample under foot those things which heretofore have 
 been my master, and by virtue of Him I retain the power, 
 and in no other way. Oh ! dear friends, what a delusion there 
 is on the subject of Christian knowledge. If knowledge 
 could save people, what a wonderful world we should have 
 to-day I 
 
 Knowledge is as powerless as ignorance, A man is not a 
 whit nearer God, or more like Christ, because he has his head 
 crammed with this Word. In fact, some I have known who 
 have been best acquainted with tho Word, have been the 
 greatest slaves of sin, and even ministers of Jesus Christ 
 
 • 
 
* 
 
 s$ 
 
 AGGIiESSIVE CUIUSlLiiNITY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 »d to me tliat they have been bond-slaves of some 
 It is not in knowledge, and God is raising up 
 of iriti;e«3es t.<s> this fact, that it is not in knowl- 
 bion with Hju, and the little child in intellect 
 and int- ,^ wj^^ who has t*fcie real vital union with Jesus, 
 has more ^umer im his little finger than tlie most eminent 
 tlieologiaD kastn hm whole bodj without Christ. The things 
 of God can f^dj ^ «6ders^*^d bj those who have the Spirit 
 of God. Thic -wftwW ^ wisdfwn knows not God any more now 
 than it did in v"" vs of old. TWi thiii|pB of the Spirit are only 
 spiritually compreheiniK^. Heiiiee this beautiful union can- 
 not be explained, but I 6ifdy know it is spoken of r^ll through 
 the Bible, both in th^ (M Testanaent a»d in the Kew, as 
 knowing God. After (J^A Jias sum>«aed up the failures of 
 His people, lie gives them a pipoim^e, and Mfs, " I will be- 
 trotl" Miee unto Me in righlMMHBesB for ever, aind thou shalt 
 KNOW the Lord,'* as though th^ went the e»d #1 the whole 
 matter, coming really and truly *>>•> >nlo^v Hii; When they 
 come to that living union of soul s H. it uringsi^Tte vital 
 sap like the branch of the tree — anoti«<«grcrf his own be^irtiful 
 illustrations. "Abide in mo. and I in f^9^ As the ., ^ueh. 
 cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abybufm uUe vine u<^ 
 more can ye, except ye abide in me." Yon kvum wh^ the 
 branch is when it is broken off. It is a branch, 
 the form of a branch, and, for a while, the beauty a«i^ 
 ness of a branch, but it is broken off. There is no p wrgy -jai 
 it. Suppose it could maintain that form. Alas ! liumaii 
 branches often do, and maintain those green leaves fragrant 
 in beauty, as it was when it was first lopped off. It can never 
 bear fruit. Why ? Because the communication is cut be- 
 tween itself and the vine, and there is no sap in the fibre. 
 It .'.s cut off. Now, my friends, you can see why a soul who 
 
now cimiPT riJANscENDs the law. 
 
 89 
 
 has never been truly united to Christ in thid living, spiritual 
 marriage, cannot bear fruit unto God. 
 
 You can be like a branch. You can get so niucli scriptural 
 knowledge that you can look just like a real Christian. Alas ! 
 You can get many of the feelings of a Christian, and of the 
 sentiments, as well as a great many of the aspirations and 
 desires of a Christian. Yon may bo so like a branch that 
 nobody but Jesus Christ may know you are not in that true 
 Vine, and yet you have never, as the Apostle says, been 
 grafted on to the olive tree. And therefore, you go on weep- 
 ing, and struggling, and trying to perform the function of a 
 living branch, when all the while you are :l dead one. You 
 go on tiyiug to bring forth fmit unto God when t'he one in- 
 dispensable condition of fruitfuluess is wanting. You have 
 got every other condition. You may even be nailed up to 
 the wall close to the vine. You may be such a professor that 
 nobody may ever doubt you. You may be so close to the vine 
 than nobody can detect your want of union but the gardener 
 who comes and closely inspects you, and yet you may not 
 have one fd)re circulating the real spiritual sap. HENCE 
 YOU HAVE NO l^DWER, and down you go when tlio 
 temptation comes. Ah ! what weary years of strife some 
 professing Christians have ! they would be ashamed to tell, 
 only death forces it from their lips before they die — trying 
 to perform all the functiont? of living men when they have 
 MHMIN* been spiritually made alive. All they have ever had 
 Ima been what Paul depicts as the struggle of a poor convict- 
 ed dinner unable to bring forth any fmit unto God. 
 
 N^ipr, yo^i say tl»is union with Him — what is it ? Well, 
 ^mnW0t n|D)Jliitiiii it. Y(m, who ki^^v what it is, cannot ex- 
 j0iff^it<' i#<»ts»w^>e Lord as to be conscious of the liv- 
 
 yowf soul, anointing your eyes 
 
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 i 
 
 In 
 
 I 
 
 90 
 
 A(J(J11KSS1VE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 with eye-sjilve, giving you eyes to see, a voice to speak, feet 
 to run, and hands to serve — niakingyouinalla"newcreatuie/' 
 • Now my dear friends, those of you who have not got this, 
 never mind who comes to you and brings a lUble, and says, 
 "Do you believe this and that, and if you do you are saved.'* 
 Say " Miserable comforters are ye all : I will never be contt^nt 
 until I know God.'* 
 
 I made up my mind to this when I was 15 years of age. I 
 had had the strivings of God's Spirit all my life, since I was 
 about two years old. Mj dear mother has often told me how 
 she went up stairs to find me crying, and when she questioned 
 me, I said I was crying because I had sinned against God. 
 Thaiik the Lord, I do not say this boastingly. I have good 
 cause to be ashamed that I was so long before I fully gave 
 myself up: but all through my childhood I was graciously 
 sheltered by a watchful mother from outward sin, and, in 
 fact, brought up as a Christian. "When I came to be between 
 15 and 16, when I believe, I was thoroughly converted, the 
 great temptatiou of Satan to me was this : " You must not 
 expect such a change as you read of in books. You have been 
 half a Christian all your life. You always feared God. 
 You must content yourself with this." Oh ! how I was 
 frightened ! It must have been the Spirit of God that taught 
 me. I was frightened at it. I said, "No, no." My heart 
 is as bad as other people's, and if I have not sinned outwardly 
 I have inwardly. I cried to God to show me the evil of my 
 heart, and said, " I will never rest till I am thoroughly and 
 truly changed, and know it, as any thief, or any great out- 
 ward sinner." I went on seeking God in this way for six 
 weeks, often till two o'clock in the morning, wrestling, and 
 I told the Lord I would never give up, if I died in the search, 
 until I found God, and I did find him, as every soul does, 
 
now CIIUIST Tll^VNSCKNDS Tllli I«UV. 
 
 01 
 
 Is, 
 
 when it comes to liiiii in that way. I cried for notliing on 
 earth or in heaven, but that 1 niiyht lind Ilini whom my soul 
 panted alter, and I did lind llini, and you ean lind Him. I 
 knew Him. I can't tell how, but I knew Him. I knew Ho 
 was well pleased with me. 1 knew that wo lield sweet con- 
 verse oiten to the small hours of the morning together, and 
 1 know that I was as happy in His love, and far more happy 
 than I ever was in any human love before or since. 
 
 Now, friends, you can all have this luiion. He is no res])ec- 
 ter of persons. Ho has bought it for us. He saw our weak- 
 ness. Ho contemplated our moral inability. He need not 
 have como it we could have known God by the Law. H' the 
 old covenant had been perfect, there would have been no 
 room for a second. It brought us not into the full realizii- 
 tion and enjoyment of God, but the new covenant does. It 
 cleanses the conscience from dead works to servo the living 
 God, and God is henceforth revealed to his people, and they 
 walk with Him. "If any man will do His will, I will come 
 to him, and make My abode with him and My Father," and 
 when a man has got the Father and Son, he is a match for 
 satan and all his forces. Union with Christ! 
 
 Oh! do you think this is a mere allegory of the Apostle's ? 
 It is a beautiful illustration. When he delivers us from the 
 condenming, reigning power oi' the Law, we become married 
 to Jesus Christ. Then we get a power to produce in our 
 affections, and hearts, and lives, and all about us — such 
 things as God delights in. 
 
 Now, mark, all through the New Testament, and, indeed, 
 the Bible, no truth is taught with greater force and frequency 
 than this, that without a vital union of soul with Christ, all 
 ceremonies, creeds, beliefs, professions, church ordinances, 
 are sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, and all who trust 
 
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 in them will be deceived. This is the very essence of the 
 Gospel. This is what lie came for, and all (and, oh! how 
 ray heart bleeds to think and say it) who do not attain to this 
 real vital union with Him will be lost. Everything else 
 falls short of our need and the purpose and end of the Gos- 
 pel of Christ. 
 
 He came on purpose for us to have this union with Him- 
 self. Circumcision, nor uncircumcision, nor anything else 
 availeth anything but this faith, which worketh by love and 
 brings the Spirit of Christ into our hearts. Oh ! bear with 
 me ! Dear friends, have you got it ? Have you got this vital 
 union with Christ ? Are you bringing forth fruit unto God ? 
 If not, I beseech you give up daubing yourselves with untera- 
 pered mortar and trying to make yourself believe you are 
 right when you are all wrong. However much desire, pur- 
 pose, hope, aspiration, struggle, or whatever else you have, 
 if you have not attained to this, you are not suved yet, and 
 you are not in the kingdom. 
 
 In conclusion, bring forth fruit unto (rod, or, as the Apos- 
 tle has it, " having your fruit unto holiness and the end eter- 
 nal life " — and in another place, for the ^'' end of the com- 
 mandment, the purpose of the commandment, the ultimatum 
 of the commandments is, charity, love out of a pure heart," and 
 so in many other passages ; but we just take these at random. 
 
 The result! What is the result? That we may bring 
 forth fruit unto God. Jesus Christ in this union recognizes 
 the fact that we are still in the body ; still in the world ; and 
 that we are open to the attacks of Satan. He knows — has 
 foreseen, and has provided for the temptations of the flesh — 
 that is, the temptations which come to us through our natur- 
 al appetites, and instincts, and desires, as they came to Him. 
 He was hungry, and after enduring the gre it temptation in 
 
HOW CmilST TKANSCENDS THE LAW. 
 
 93 
 
 Ind 
 las 
 
 ur- 
 m. 
 in 
 
 the wilderness. There was no sin in being hungry. He 
 was intensely hungry, for He had nerves, and a brain, 
 and a heart, as we have. He was a perfect man, and He 
 suffered all the consequences of that lengthened strain 
 upon His nervous system, and the Devil took advantage of 
 the existence of that intensely excited condition of His body 
 by tempting Him unlawfully lo gratify it. For he said, 
 " Command these stones that tufiy be made bread." This 
 was unlawful under the circumstances (we will not stop to ex- 
 plain why), and, therefore. He said, "Get thee behind me, 
 Satan." He would rather suffer the hunger than unlawfully 
 gratify it, and therefore. He did i:ot commit sin. It matters 
 not (and this will meet the case of some who have written to 
 me) how intensely excited any physical appetite may be — 
 that is not sin. The more you suffer through excitement of 
 the physical appetite, whatever kind it may be, the more 
 Jesus Christ sympathizes with you, for He was tempted in 
 all points, like as we are, yet without sin, and if you en- 
 dure unto blood He will sympathize with you more than with 
 the man who does not have to endure and resist. You do 
 not sin because of the appetite merely being excited. I think 
 Satan gets some sincere souls to bring themselves into con- 
 demnation when God does not condemn them. If you 
 resist as He did ; if you say, " Get thee behind me, Satan," 
 you sin not. What was Eve's sin ? Unlawful self-gratifi- 
 cation. The Devil might have tempted her until now, if she 
 had lived so long ; if she steadily resisted him she would not 
 have brought sin into the world. 
 
 Under the law it is sin, and you struggle against it, but 
 you have no power and down you go. United to Christ you 
 see it is sin, and you have power, and you resist it, and 
 the Devil runs away, and that is the difference. You are 
 
 •il 
 

 1 
 
 94 
 
 AGGREJJSIVE CHIIISTIANITY. 
 
 married to a new husband now, and he is more than a match 
 for the okl Devil. He is a conquered foe, while you abide 
 in Christ. He can torment, harass, and excite you, stimulate 
 your natural appetites, but he cannot make you sin while you 
 abide in Christ. " Little children, keep yourselves from idols.' ' 
 
 Then, again, we are open to the temptations of the world, 
 but this is provided for. Jesus Christ knows that we are 
 susceptible to the liking of nice things like other people, and 
 great things, and ambitious schemes, and the world's praises 
 and censures. God's people are only sadly too familiar with 
 this, and the weak part of their nature would respond to it, 
 and they would fall, but now they are united to Christ, He 
 opens their eyes to see that it is Satan and the world. When 
 the Devil takes them to the top of the pinnacle, and shows 
 them all the glory of the world, he tries to make them think 
 it would be very nice to have it ; he tempts them to think it 
 hard that they should be regarded as such paltry and mean 
 people because they belong to Christ ; but when they are 
 throughly and truly united to Jesus, He gives them power 
 to say as He did, "Get thee behind me, Satan," for it is writ- 
 ten, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt 
 thou serve'' — not Him and the world. Oh! thank God, if 
 you have got there. Praise the Lord if you understand that. 
 
 Then he comes not only through these avenues ; but he 
 comes again with direct, subtle, spiritual influence, with his 
 old insinuation, as he came to Eve, and says, " Hath God said 
 this and that ? " He tries to inject doubts as to God's good- 
 ness and veracity into the believer's soul, as he used to do 
 under the Law, and under the Law the convicted sinner's soul 
 used to swell with rebellion, and say, " Yes, it is a hard case." 
 
 Satan comes and vomits these thoughts, and tries to 
 excite these ill feelings and these chargings of God foolishly 
 
HOW CHKIST TRANSCEMXS THE LAW. 
 
 95 
 
 56/ 
 
 to 
 
 in the believer's soul, but by virtue of liis union with Clirist, 
 who came not to do His own will, but His Father's, and who 
 spoke only the things that his Father bade Him, the believ- 
 er says, "Though lie slay me yet will I trust Him, and shall 
 not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " and the Devil is 
 gone. And then when the Devil is foiled at all these points, 
 he tries higher ground. '' Really you are a wonderful Chris- 
 tian — you are. You have had special grace, for surely very 
 few people can have resisted the amount of temptation that 
 you have. Really you must be one of God's specially favour- 
 ed ones. Now cast yourself down. It is written, ' He shall 
 give His angels charge concerning you.' " Spiritual presump- 
 tion next. When he is foiled through the world, and the 
 flesh, and tlie Devil, then he doffs his old robe and comes 
 as an angel of light. But the soul's Bridegroom is hard by, 
 and he says, " Be not ignorant of Satan's devices. Behold 
 I am thy salvation. Trust, and be not afraid." And so the 
 soul refuses to cast itself into unnecessary troubles, and is 
 content to abide in and walk with its Lord. That is how 
 He gives us the victory. He shows us Satan's devices, and 
 gives us power. I cannot tell you how. We don't know 
 how. We only know He gives it to us, and we only know 
 that one instant separated from Him we fall and become as 
 other men. We only know that in those seo.sons when our 
 faith has relaxed its grip we have gone down in the mud and 
 been overcome as others. It is by faith we stand, and while, 
 like Peter, we keep our eye on Him, and hold Him fast, the 
 waves may roar, and the winds may howl, but He holds us 
 by virtue of this union, and we bring forth fruit unto God. 
 We have power over the Devil. He said, " I will give you 
 power over all the power of the enemy, and I will make you 
 conquerors." This is the deliverance of the saints. This 
 
 ■ 
 
 <ij 
 
96 
 
 AOr.RESSIVE CimiSTIANITY. 
 
 
 V ' 
 
 is the life of the saints. Tliis is the fight of faith. This is 
 
 the SORT OF IIKLKJIOX THAT DOES TO DIE WITH ! ! I 
 
 People all f" v the land are astounded at our poor, weak, 
 illiterate Salvation Army soldiers. A gentleman in a meet- 
 ing on Easter Monday, a leading man of thought and expe- 
 rience in the holiness world, who was there all day — when 
 my daughter said, " Why don't you speak ?" said, " One feels 
 as if one can't speak in these meetings." " Why ? " These 
 people have such unction from the Holy One that they are 
 wiser than their teachers. Another gentleman, of consider- 
 able position, too, in the religious world, said, " I feel like 
 getting down at their feet. I feel as if they could teach me." 
 How is it that they have such power — those babes in intel- 
 lect and intelligence ? All over the land people say this to 
 me. People who talk and go ahead in other meetings, when 
 they get into our meetings, say " I can't. They are so far 
 ahead of me that, to tell you the truth, I have nothing to 
 say." I say, the Lord have mercy upon you, and make haste 
 and come up after them. Only get down from your high 
 mightiness as low as these people, and you will get it. It is 
 not because they are poor and illiterate that they have power, 
 but because they are babes in spirit. Even as Christ said, 
 *' I thank thee, oh ! Father, that Thou hast hid these things 
 from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
 babes." The simple spirit, the teachable believing soul — oh ! 
 how much more it learns of God, in one hour's precious com- 
 munion, than Doctors of Divinity learn in weeks of close 
 study, who have not got it, because it is the SPIRIT that 
 teaches the things of God. This is union with Jesus that 
 bringetli forth fruit unto God, and oh ! the wondeiful things 
 it enables us to bring forth. If you would all follow me, as 
 far as I have gone this afternoon, and make the resolution I 
 
HOW CIIUIST TU.\-NSCENDS Till': LAW. 
 
 1)7 
 
 J) 
 
 made at 15 years of age, not to be i)ut off with theories, but 
 that you will know the Lord, that you will have this Divine 
 union, and that you will never rest till you get it and 
 know you have it. If we could all get thus far saved, 
 what happiness there would be amongst you. There would 
 be some Hallelujahs. ]Many of you would be surprised how 
 you would lind your tongues. A gentleman once said to me, 
 "I never did shout in my life, but upon my word I couldn't 
 help it." I said, ^'Amen. It's time, then, you began." 1 
 hope it may be the same with many of you. When the Lord 
 comes to His Temple and fills it with His glory you won't 
 know what to do. You must find vent somewhere, or you 
 will be as the poor old negro said he was — " Ready to bust 
 his waistcoat." We feel so about temporal things. People 
 drop down dead with joy. People shriek with grief. Peo- 
 ple's hearts stand still with wonder at the news they have 
 heard, perhaps from some prodigal boy. I heard of a mother, 
 not long ago, whom someone injudiciously told of the sudden 
 return of her son, who dropped down dead and never spoke. 
 And when the blaster comes to His Temple, that glorious 
 blessed Holy Saviour, whom you profess to so long after and 
 to love, and who has been absent so many years, and whom 
 you have been seeking after with strong crying and tears, 
 comes, do you think it will be too much to shout your song, 
 or go on your face, or do any extravagant tiling? Oh ! no, 
 if there is reality, you cannot help yourself. The manifest- 
 ation will be according to your nature. One will fall down 
 and weep in quietness, and the other will get up and shout 
 and jump. You cannot help it. Like the two martyrs, one 
 rejoiced in the realization of God's presence, and the other, 
 who was in darkness, yet did not deny his Lord and turn his 
 back upon Him. He continued in the way of obedience, and 
 
 ' 
 
 ) »< 
 
98 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the otlier was encouraging him to hope and believe the ^las- 
 ter would come ; but lie did not come until they started from 
 the dungeon to the stake ; so they fixed upon a sign, and 
 the one said to the other, "If He comes you will give me the 
 sign on the road." The blaster did come, but the martyr 
 could not confine himself to the sign. lie shouted, raising 
 his arms to his fellow mart}^', " He's come, He's come, He's 
 come ! '' He couldn't help it. When He comes you won't 
 be ashamed who know it. When you really get a living 
 Christ for your husband you will be more proud than the 
 bride is who has got a husband worth being proud of, and 
 you will love to acknowledge and praise Him, and the day 
 is coming when you will crown Him before all the host of 
 heaven. The Lord help you to accept Him, and put away 
 everything that hinders His coming. Amen. 
 
SEBMON VL 
 
 THE FRUITS OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 
 
 "That the righteousness of the Law lui^ht he fulfilled In us, who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." — Kom. viii. ; 1. 
 
 We dealt, on Sunday week, witli " What the Law could 
 not do ; " and last Sabbath afternoon wc dealt with " What 
 Jesus Christ could do," by uniting us with Himself and 
 giving us power. I want, this afternoon, to direct your 
 attention to the fruits of this union — the law p^ulfilled 
 IN us. What does it mean? 
 
 First. — I want just to say two or three words about Law 
 in the abstract. There seems to me to be an awful miscon- 
 ception of the Apostle's writings respecting the Law, caused 
 by "wresting" and misapplying what he says on justification 
 by faith, reopl'3 should bear in mind that much of this 
 Epistle, and some others, was written on purpose to meet 
 the extreme legal notions of the Jews, who had no other 
 idea of righteousness than that of their own efforts to keep 
 the Law (Romans ix. 3), and that, therefore, the Apostle 
 was bound, as any other writer would be in such circum- 
 stances, to put the extreme view on the other side. Many, 
 not considering this, separate these passages from their 
 explanatory connections, and from all the rest of the Word 
 of God, and preach now-a-days that we have nothing to do 
 with the Law. Hence, there has come to be a spirit of An- 
 
 90 
 
 ■i 
 
iHiii 
 
 100 
 
 AGuIlKSSIVK ClIKISTIANITT. 
 
 J 
 
 ra 
 
 < -J 
 
 tinomianisra abroad in the land, rompnrod with whicli the 
 Antinoniianisni of bygone ages was innocteney its(df. God 
 hiilping nie, I sliall never cease to lilt up my voiee against it. 
 Now, please, first note that there is, in this writing, talk- 
 ing, and singing about the Law, a great deal of mental fog 
 and confusion. People should be very careful, when they 
 come to such matters as these, to be clear in their own minds 
 as to what the Apostle is Avriting about; but I find frequent- 
 ly in such writings and songs a total misapprehension as to 
 the meaning of the Apostle, and a total confounding of the 
 floral with the Ceremonial Law. Now, always mind, when 
 you read anything about the Law, to examine and find out 
 whi(di Law is meant, whether it is the great ^Moral Law, 
 which never has been, and never can be, abrogated, or the 
 Ceremonial Law, which, in Christ, certainly was done away. 
 ]\Iind which, because j'our salvation may depend upon that 
 point. If you make a mistake there you may be lost through 
 it; therefore be very careful. Now, I say that people con- 
 found this, and, consequently, there is a perfect hodge-podge 
 of theology in this day, Avhich I defy anybody to understand 
 People do not know what they are to believe, or what they 
 are not to believe. As a gentleman said, not long ago, "it is 
 confusion confounded. I go to one meeting and hear this, 
 and then I go to another meeting and hear that, and, very 
 often in the very same meeting, the speakers will get up and 
 flatly contradict each other ! " " Exactly," I said, " but you 
 liave got the Bible. Why don't you study that for yourself ? 
 "Why not use common sense — why not let your conscience 
 speak ? " " But," said he, " why do not our ministers do it ? " 
 ''Because," said I, "many of them do not know it them- 
 selves. Let your conscience speak, and God will not let you 
 go wrong." It is an honest heart people want, and then 
 
TIIK FRUITS OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 
 
 101 
 
 rery 
 land 
 
 nice 
 
 9" 
 
 • 
 
 [cm- 
 you 
 Ihen 
 
 they will get the light. People sing about the Liiw, talk 
 about the Law, and glory iu being free from the Law, iu a 
 lawless, Antinomian spirit, as far from anything l*aul ever 
 wrote or meant as hell is from heaven! Oh, it is au awfully 
 bad sign when people are out of love \vith the Law of God! 
 David made his boast in tlie Law of his God, he meditated 
 on it by day and by night, and its precepts were his delight; 
 he loved it with all his soul, and so did David's Son, and he 
 is too much in love with his Father's Law and Will, to hold 
 fellowship with anybody who does not love it. As lie said 
 to the Jews, " lie that is of CJod, heareth God's words; ye, 
 therefore, hear them not, because ye are not of God;" and, 
 again, of His disciples, '• For I have given unto them the 
 words which Thou gavest me." So, mind, if you do not love 
 the words, the expression of the will of God, you do not love 
 God, and if you do not love the Father neither do you love 
 the Son. This is the very a(!Cusation which lie brought 
 against the Jews, that they had made void Ilis Father's 
 Law. Let us mind, then, the distinction always made be- 
 tween the great IMoral and the Ceremonial Law. 
 
 In the second place : I want you to note, that when you 
 have ascertained that the Apostle is speaking of the floral 
 Law — and he appears to speak disparagingly of it — he is al- 
 ways referring to its inability to justify a sinner, or to pro- 
 duce spiritual life. This, he says, it could not do ; but he 
 never speaks disparagingly of it as the guide and standard of 
 spiritual life after it is given. No ! he goes back to it as the 
 only standard, and so did Jesus Christ. They continually 
 refer to the Law as the highest expression of the holiness 
 and righteousness of God, and as the standard by which we 
 are to set our souls and consciences. What other standard 
 have we but the Law ? How am I to judge of my thoughts, 
 
 ' 
 
102 
 
 AGGRESSn'E CIIinSTlANITT. 
 
 » fii. 
 
 words, and actions, but hy tlio Law? Where has Jesus 
 Christ given me any other guage? And if people wouhl but 
 read on, and let tlie Apostle exjdain hiuistdf, they would un- 
 derstand him better, and not get into smdi tanglements and 
 mazes! I'aul is most careful to guard himself against tho 
 Antinomiau eoncdusions whicdi he saw might be drawn from 
 isolated jjarts of his writings. JI(5 says, "Do we, then, make 
 void the Law through faith ? nay, we establish the Law." 
 
 And, again, " Wherefore tho Law is holy, and tho com- 
 mandment holy, just, and good ; " and, again, when he says, 
 that " To them that are without Law he became as without 
 Law ;" he guards himself by a parenthesis, " Being not with- 
 out Law to God, but under the Law to Christ." That is, 
 under the great universal Law of love, which fullils ail other 
 law; for "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." Love is the 
 very spirit and essence of the Law. The Law is to mo the 
 highest expression of what I ought to be, in my relations to 
 my Creator and in my relations to my fellow creatures. 
 Now, can what ought to be ever be abrogated ? Does it 
 stand to sense ? Can the rightness of things ever be altered ? 
 Can God ever make two and two five, and can God make 
 evil good and good evil ? He can make an evil person good, 
 by saving him from the evil and making him good ; but God 
 cannot make evil itself good, and good evil, and He never 
 professes to do it. 
 
 Oh, this confounding of things ! how it does ruin and be- 
 fog poor souls ! How can it ever be less the duty of the 
 creature to love and serve the Creator than it was when he 
 first came pure and spotless from His hand ? How can it 
 ever be less my duty to love my neighbour as myself than it 
 was at the beginning, or how can I satisfy my conscience 
 with less than loving all men with a pure, benevolent love^ 
 
 Lilii 
 
THE FRUITS OF UNION WITH CillUST. 
 
 103 
 
 be- 
 tlie 
 L he 
 n it 
 111 it 
 3nce 
 ove; 
 
 sucli as God bears to them iii my measure, ami according to 
 my capacity ? The same stamhird remains, and the differ- 
 ence between God's scheme of salvation and the scheme of 
 salvation so (almost) universally preached now, is that 
 man's scheme proposes to get me into heaven without fullil- 
 ling this Law, while God's scheme proposes to give mo 
 power to FULFIL IT. Alas ! I am afraiJ many will not 
 lind out which is the right one till they get to the Judgment 
 Seat and lind it is too late ! 
 
 Now, I say, that there is not a word, rightly understood 
 and interpreted by correlative Scriptures, in the whole New 
 Testament that disparages or sets aside the Law of God — 
 not a word ! Do you think the Apostle was as unphilosoph- 
 ical as man}' now-a-days ? Did he not know what he wrote ? 
 Is he not as clear as a bell? And now he comes to the 
 climax of his argument, the great end and purpose towards 
 which he has been advancing in his preceding reasonings: 
 
 "That the righteousness of the Law might he fulfilled 
 in us." As though he had said, " This great and glorious 
 end which was lost in Adam shall be re-found and restored." 
 So the old serpent shall bo circumvented at last, and God's 
 people shall be able to fulfil this beautiful ideal of rectitude 
 and righteousness which God has planned for man — Jesus 
 Christ shall destroy the work of the devil, restore man, and 
 enable him to walk in the light even as He is in the light. 
 What the Law tried to do by a constraining power from 
 without, the Gospel does by an inspiring power from within. 
 That is the difference. I could not keep it in the letter, but, 
 united to iny heavenly Bridegroom, I can keep it in the 
 Spirit. He fills me with His love, and this enables me to 
 keep the Law, for love is the fulfilling of the Law» " Love 
 worketh no ill to his neighbour' " of any kind, and, again, the 
 
 ■ 
 
rtT^i*^ 
 
 104 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 great Teanlier said, "For all the Law is fulfilled in one word 
 — Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." If you do 
 that, will you injure your neighbour ? See how the spirit 
 fulfills the Law ! If you love your neighbour, will you mis- 
 represent him, cheat him, envy him anything that he pos- 
 sesses or enjoys ? " No," you say, " of course not; it is n 
 contradiction." Very well, then, get this love in your soul 
 and you will fulfil the Law. Love is the fulfilling of the 
 Law, and he that loveth in this sense dwelleth in God and 
 God in him. Love is the fulfilling of the Law, and the 
 great glory of the Gospel of Christ is that it brings us back 
 to love His Law, and, as the angels delight in it, and, as all 
 holy intelligences delight in it, so we delight in it; and the 
 righteousness of the Law — high, deep, and broad, and long 
 as it is — shall b( fulfilled in us, "who walk not after the 
 flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
 Then, I say, the Apostle evidently considered this fulfil- 
 ment of the Law of Righteousness in us as the highest end 
 of our existence and of redemption : for, he says, it is all to 
 be, that the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us. 
 Mark, not that its claims sljall be abated. Oh! not one jot 
 or tittle shall ever be abated. They cannot. God could not 
 abate them. Not that the righteousness of the Law shall 
 cease to have a claim upon you. Oh ! if He could have saved 
 us like that, Christ need not have come at all. He could 
 have saved us without a Mediator. No, no ! but that the 
 righteousness of the Law ma}' be fulfilled in us as it was 
 in Him. That we should be brought to the full stature of 
 men and women in Christ Jesus, that we should have this 
 spirit of our heavenly Bridegroom, by which we fulfil the 
 Law, and the servant, in his measure, shall be as his Lord. 
 
 How ? As I explained, last Sunday, first : We shall be 
 
THE FRUITS OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 
 
 105 
 
 US. 
 
 delivered from the reigning, condemning power of the Law 
 by virtue of an infinite, vicarious sacrifice punished in our 
 stead, and then, mariied to Him, we shall serve in the new- 
 ness of the spirit, and rot in the oldness of the letter. 
 
 I want to be eminently and intensely practical, for the 
 sake of the hungering and thirsting souls who are asking me 
 in their letters, " Tell me how ? Help me V " 
 
 Just let us look at this result (in fourth verse). People 
 talk about glorifying Christ; but, it seems to me, this does 
 glorify Him. It seems to me here is something to glory in, 
 that He has circumvented the old serpent and snatched the 
 prey from his teeth, and restored it, and enabled man, after 
 all, to fulfil the righteousness of God. Not only in what 
 Christ does for us ; but what He does in us, that God should 
 look on you and say, '^I am well pleased. There is nothing 
 there contrary to my will." He will give you the testimony, 
 as He did Enoch, that your ways please Him, that your 
 thoughts please Him, that your motives, and purposes, and 
 desires, and actions please Him. That is what the Gos- 
 pel proposes to do. We have seen how this spirit is pro- 
 duced. Now let us look at the fruits, and first 
 
 This fruit is brought forth in THE AFFECTIONS ! 
 
 Those people who are thus united to Christ fulfil the Law 
 in their affections. You know it is commonly said, that if 
 you get hold of the affections of a man or a woman you get 
 hold of him or her. So you do. This is the touchstone, 
 and there is nothing in which I have been so grieved and 
 disappointed as in the manifest want of qui(;kness, livingness 
 in the affections of God's people for Him. Oh ! how I have 
 seen this come out. The coldness, the unsympathetic cha- 
 racter of a great many people's religion, and yet people 
 vvhom one would not like to unchristianize. I cannot ex- 
 
 ■I 
 
106 
 
 AGGIIESSIVE CHlllSTlA>'lTy. 
 
 plain it by any better term than want of quickness. I have 
 often been struck with the difference when you toucli indi- 
 viduals on some point that affects them personally and on 
 those which relate to the Kingdom of God, and have been 
 tempted to say with the Apostle : " All men seek their own., 
 and not the things that are Jesus Christ's." You talk with 
 a lady about the salvation of her chi] Iren's souls, the souls 
 of her neighbors, and her servants, or about the cause of God 
 in general, and she will talk "good" with you, so to speak, 
 and you will feel, yes, it is all very well, but it doesn't seem 
 to come up from the depths, it seems to come from the 
 throat, so to speak ; a sort of superficial, surface kind of 
 thing. But, if a child is dangerously ill, how quick the 
 mother's sympathies, how ready to listen, how willing to do 
 anything that you suggest to help the child. If the business 
 is in danger, if a man has got into difficulties and you can 
 suggest any plan by which he may get out of them, how 
 quickly his attention is aroused. His interest doesn't flag, 
 because the subject touches him to the quick. It is his con- 
 cern, and just so in nmny other things. God forbid I should 
 judge all Christians. No, no, no! — there are many blessed 
 exceptions. There are many like David — rivers of water 
 do run down their eyes ; bat I am speaking of the mass of 
 professors. I am afraid that in their affections there is a 
 great deal of this lukewarm superficiality. Why is it ? Be- 
 cause such people do not abide in Christ, if ever they were 
 in Him. They do not keep the freshness and the quickness 
 of the Spirit of Jesus. They do not give themselves time 
 to do it for one thing, or care about it for another. We want 
 the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit to quicken our 
 spiritual perceptions and keep us awake. It is Satan's great 
 desire to rock us to sleep, and there is no quality in which 
 
THP] FRUITS OF UNION WITH CKHIST. 
 
 107 
 
 the disciples have been more conspicuous than in going to 
 sleep since the time when the professed watchers went to 
 sleep in the garden ; but Jesus, in his mercy and love, is al- 
 ways wakening them. But, oh ! this disposition to go to 
 sleep, to lose our quickness of perception. Now, friends, what 
 must you do ? You must do as you did at first. Cry and 
 believe till your soul is filled with the love of God. 
 
 I shall never forget reading, when only fourteen years of 
 age, a sentiment of a precious and valiant soldier of the Lord 
 Jesus, who is now in glory. Speaking of putting a test, he 
 said that people might easily find out whether they loved 
 God or themselves best : '*' Suppose you were in business in 
 a little village and were doing pretty well, and everything 
 was going smoothly with you j but there was nothing for you 
 to do there for the Kingdom of God, no particular way in 
 which you could serve or glorify God ; and suppose there 
 was another little village hard by, where there was nothing 
 whatever doing for the Kingdom, and you felt it laid upon 
 your soul to go there in order that you might preach to un- 
 converted people and raise a church, and do something for 
 souls. Ah ! but you have got a nice business and you don't 
 know whether you would prosper or not in the other village. 
 Now you may know whether you are serving God or yourself 
 first, by this test. If you are seeking God, you will be ready 
 to go to that strange village and trust Him with the conse- 
 quences ; but, if you are serving yourself, you will stop where 
 you are." The Lord has helped me to apply that many a 
 time to many things beside business, and to keep the King- 
 dom of God FIRST, as I made up my mind it should be first 
 always — not in time merely, but in degree — all the way 
 through. If I love Him best, I shall feel for Him deepest, 
 and shall act for Him first. If I love Him best, I shall feel 
 
 t^i 
 
 ■I 
 
108 
 
 AGOIiESSIVE C1I.UISTIAN1TY. 
 
 I 
 
 for Ilim more deeply than for my husband or chiklren, ncai 
 and precious as they are, and dearer than my own life a thou 
 sand times; but lie will be dearer still and His interests^ 
 and if, as Jesus Christ says, His interests require me to sac- 
 ritice these precious and beloved ones of my soul, then I shall 
 sacrifice them ; for the philosophical reason that I love Him 
 better than I love them, and, therefore, I shall lay them on 
 His altar to promote His glory. If I understand it, this is 
 the fruit of the Spirit in the affections — God first. I am 
 afraid, in a great many instances, it is husband first, wife 
 first, children first, and, I am afraid, in some cases, business 
 first, and then God may take what there is left, and be thank- 
 ful for that ! Now, anybody in this condition need not ex- 
 pect joy, peace, power. You will never get it, if you do. 
 God will have to make you over again before }^ou can get it, 
 and to alter the conditions of His salvation. Oh ! but if 
 you will lay it all down, that is quite another thing. 
 
 As I said to a lady, a little time ago, " The Lord can take your 
 husband, if you refuse to give him to Him ; '* and I am afraid 
 God's people often compel Him to take their darlings, because 
 they make them idols ; whereas, if they had laid them on 
 His altar, they might have them back, as Abraham received 
 back Isaac. I said to a gentleman, '* Mind, God does not 
 burn down your barns, wreck your ships, and take away your 
 riches. God loves your soul enough to do it, if you let these 
 things prevent that whole-hearted consecration which He re- 
 quires." We are in His hands. "Whom He loveth He 
 chasteneth," and if you want to keep the precious things you 
 have, oh ! put them at His feet, and hold them in subordin- 
 ation to Him. First, in your affections ! He is a jealous God. 
 and jealousy in God is very much like jealousy in us. It is 
 the same characteristic of mind, only purified from solfislv 
 
Tin: FIIUITS OF UNION WITH CIIIUST. 
 
 100 
 
 ness. lie is a jealous God, and if you will love these tilings 
 better than Him, and if you will not give Ilim your affections, 
 then He will chastise you, or, what is worse still, lie will take 
 His Holy Spirit from you. 
 
 Fruit in your affections. Oh, if Christ had your affections, 
 how it would operate in everything ! The wife would not 
 be always grumbling because the husband had to go out three 
 or four evenings a week on the Lord's errands — only let them 
 be the Lord's errands. The husband would not grudge to 
 give his wife up to go to help to win souls, because it de- 
 prived him of her society or a few comforts that she might 
 provide for him if she were near. The parents would not 
 grudge to restrain their children as Eli did. He did not re- 
 strain them from that which they liked, and you know the 
 fruit it brought. Parents who love God best will not allow 
 their children to learn anything which could not be pressed 
 into the service of God. They do not allow them to run with 
 the giddy multitude, to dance or do anything the devil might 
 inspire them to desire. "No ! " they will say, " my children 
 belong to God, and I am going to train them for God and 
 God only." Bless the Lord, He helped me to make up my 
 mind to do that before I became a mother ; and he has helped 
 me to keep that promise (though I have not been as faithful 
 to it as I ought), casting aside resolutely every temptation 
 to the contrary. And now He is giving me the fruit of my 
 self-denial in the souls and labors of my precious children. 
 One after another, as they grow up, they take their natural 
 place in the temple of the Lord, and I believe they shall 
 go out no more forever. Oh, that parents would do it! 
 Parents might save their children. I know what a mother's 
 feelings are. I know the temptation there is to see them shine 
 in competition with others, and to excel others. I know it 
 
 ■ 
 
tevmrnr- 
 
 110 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CIIIIISTIANITY. 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 all; but T said, "Ko; ^ Get thee behind me, Satan.' " I will 
 keep them for God ; and He has enabled me to keep them 
 for Ilim. lUess Ilis holy name ! 
 
 I loved Ilim better than I loved them, and, much as I 
 loved them (and tliose who know me know I do love them), 
 I would see them in a row laid in their coffins before I would 
 sacrifice His interests and lose their souls. Do you love Him 
 best ? Test yourself. Do you love Him more than all else ? 
 Are you holding everything in subordination to Him ? 
 
 Further, this fruit will come out in our members — our 
 bodies ; and oh, there is a deep spiritual meaning which, I 
 trust, many of you know, in those words of the Apostle, " For 
 the body is dead because of sin ; but He hath quickened even 
 3^our mortal bodies by His Spirit, which dvvelleth in you." 
 It is killed to the Devil, as well as to sin, and all the uses 
 of Satan ; but it is quickened by the Spirit for the use of God 
 so that you can render not only the calves of your lips, but 
 your hands, and eyes, and brain, and heart, and feet, and the 
 whole of your body to Him — your members instruments of 
 righteousness unto God. Hence, such a person will not feel 
 their eyes are their own, to rove at random wherever they 
 list. Such a person will not feel his tongue is his own, to 
 speak as he pleases. He will "bridle it," as Jamos says, 
 when tempted to speak unadvisedly. Such a person will not 
 feel that his hands are his own, to waste the time, in which 
 he ought to be doing something for God. Such a person will 
 not feel that his feet are his own, to carry him where he lists, 
 but where his Master would have hira go — his whole body 
 consecrated, and, especially his tongue — consecrated to God, 
 to testify for Him. He will feel that he must feed his body, 
 as my husband often says, on the same principle that a man 
 feeds his horse — to keep it in the best working condition for 
 
TlIE FRUITS OF UNION WITU CHRIST. 
 
 Ill 
 
 God — never rating anything that will bring the devils of 
 dysj^epsia dancing round his soul. And, not ordy so with 
 eating and drinking, hut all his surroundings and deportment 
 must be in keeping. It is the Lord's body ; and if you love 
 Him best, you will keep it for Him. 
 
 This fruit will also appear in our family relations. We 
 shall fulfil the Law to our neighbours. You see, God wants 
 only what we have. He is not a hard master, and the Great 
 Teacher said, "This is the law and the prophets." Tliis is 
 the great commandment, embracing all the rest, " Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and mind, and soul, 
 and strength," and the second is like unto it, "And thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself;" and the man who does that is a perfect 
 man, fulfils the law ; and when you have the fulness of love 
 that enables you to love God best and your neighbor as your- 
 self — enables you to do for the souls and bodies of your 
 fellows what you would that they should do for you, if they 
 had your light and were in your circumstances, then the law 
 is fulfilled in you. Such people cannot sit 3G5 days in the 
 year at the table with unconverted people and never try to 
 get them saved. Such people cannot abide in the same house 
 with unbelievers and not make them miserable. Oh, no. 
 The unconverted say, "It^s too wretched to live here. I must 
 get out of this crying and praying for me all day long." As 
 a servant once said, she couldn't stand it. She had had 
 praying enough at home, without coming there to have it. 
 She did stand it for six weeks, and broke down at family al- 
 tar, GOT SAVED, and became a preacher afterward. This spirit 
 of love will make every unconverted sinrer within your reach 
 80 miserable that they will have to be converted or run away. 
 How would you do if he were dying? You would run 
 about in every direction to get a minister. What a pity 
 you did not feel like this twelve years ago. You might 
 
 • 
 
ff 
 
 112 
 
 AGGIIESSIVE CIIKISTIANITY. 
 
 liave got tlie siinicr (;oiivorted then, and lie have been serving 
 the Lord all th's time? J>ut, now he is dying, what a stir 
 you make. What a jnirely sellish religion that is. You 
 want him savcul, so that he may get into IIkavkx, not that 
 lie might serve, honour, and glorify God. You don't care at 
 all about that. lie might live on in disobedience. Oh, be as 
 mueh concerned for the honour of God as you are for your 
 friends' salvation at the last, and then God will know how 
 to save them. 
 
 This fruit will also appear in your church relations. It 
 will bring forth fruit. As the Apostle says, "Exhorting one 
 another daily, not suffering sin in your neighbour; reproving 
 each other, and confessing you faults the one to the other." 
 Where is any of it done ? I should like very much to attend 
 such a meeting, if you invite me, where Christians really and 
 honestly confess their faults one to the other and pray for 
 one another, beseeching the Lord to heal them in those par- 
 ticular points where they have failed, telling one another of 
 the deep things of God, and talking lovingly and freely to 
 one another as they used to do. The communion of saints — 
 exhorting one another daily. The devil is at it daily. The 
 world is plying for us daily. The flesh is there daily. Every- 
 thing else goes on daily. Why should not this exhorting 
 one another, confessing your faults to one another, and pray- 
 ing for one another, go on daily, too ? 
 
 Is it a fact that we are each other's keeper ? Is it a fact 
 that God will require for our influence over other souls ? I 
 believe it is. 
 
 Then in our relations to the world . But I forestalled 
 
 this in my address on "Aggressive Effort.'^ And now let us 
 go down on our knees before God and ask Him to work this 
 love in us, and give us this spirit, that we may thus FULFIL 
 THIS LAW in all its relations. 
 
♦ ♦ 
 
 f^KRMON VII. 
 
 WITNESSING FOR CHRIST. 
 
 
 " Ye shall be witnesses unto mo both in Jerusalt'in, and in all Judea, and in 
 
 Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." —Acts 1. 8. 
 " And yo arc witnesses of these things." — Acts v. 32. 
 
 Again and again the same vocation and commission is be- 
 stowed upon the apostles and disciples. To the ends of the 
 earth and to the end of time this commission comes down 
 to ever^^oue of the Lord's own, for He says : " Go ye into 
 all the world and preach the Gospel to eveiy creature, and, 
 lo, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the 
 world." That embraces us. And to every disciple who 
 has preceded, or is to follow us, is promised His Divine 
 Pi-esence in this glorious work of testifying for Him. 
 
 God needs witnesses in this world. 
 
 Why ? Because the whole world is in revolt against 
 Him. The world has gone away from God. The world 
 ignores God, denies, contradicts His testimony, misunder- 
 stands His character, government, and purposes, and is 
 gone off into utter and universal revolt and rebellion. Now 
 if God is to keep any hold upon man at all, and have any 
 influence with him, He must be represented down here. 
 There was no other way of doing it. If you get a province 
 of this realm in anarchy and rebellion, unless there be a 
 party in the province to represent the Queen and the govern- 
 
 113 
 
 • 
 
114 
 
 AQGUKSSIVE CIIIlIST[AKmr. 
 
 in 
 
 1'. 
 
 ^i 
 
 ment, it will go jiltogotlior and be lost to the kingdom for 
 ever; tliere must bo a party to represent tlui riglitfnl 
 sovereign, the law and the government. So God must be 
 lepresented, and, praise His name, He lias had His faithful 
 witnesses from the beginning until now. As the Apostlo 
 says — "He loft not Himself without witnesses." I)ow!i 
 from the days of Enoeh, who walked with God, to this 
 j)resent hour, God has always had His true and faithful 
 witnesses. In the worst times there have been some burn- 
 ing and shining lights. Sometimes few and far between, 
 sometimes, like Noah, one solitary man in a Avhole gener- 
 ation of men, witnessing for God — but there has been one. 
 God has not left Himself -without witnesses. 
 
 But Jesus Christ the S(m, the well-beloved of the Father 
 — He was the great Witness, He came especially to mani- 
 fest, to testify of, and to reveal the Father to men. This 
 'vas His great work. He came not to testify of Himself 
 out of His Father, not to speak His own words, but the 
 words His Father gave Him to speak. He came to reveal 
 God to men. He was the great Witness. And when He 
 had to leave the world and go back to His Father, then He 
 commissioned His disciples to take His place and to be God's 
 witnesses on earth. And oh ! friends, God's real iieople are 
 His o/i/?/ witnesses. He will not allow angels — we do not 
 know why — to witness for Him here. He has called man 
 to witness for Him, — His people — "Ye are my witnesses." 
 
 Jesus gave a good testimony — did He not? He wit- 
 nessed noblj'", constantly, bravely of His Father, and sealed 
 His testimony with His blood. The world treated Him as 
 it has treated most of God's faithful witnesses from the 
 beginning ; it persecuted Him ; it slew Him, as it would 
 every faithful witness for God — if God allowed it — and 
 
WITNESSING Foil CIIUIST. 
 
 Ilo 
 
 would leave itself without a singl(j 8i)iritual light: for the 
 si)irit that worketh in the ehihlreii of (lisobedituiee hatli an 
 eternal and devilish hatred of every real, living, spiritual 
 child of God. It hates Him as it hated the Son Himself, 
 and it is not the devil's fault if he does not extinguish and 
 exterminate every such witness. It is because God will not 
 allow him, hut holds us, keeps us, saves us, in spite of him. 
 
 The Lord commis.''ioned, then, His disciples to be His 
 witnesses, and He said — oh! beautiful words, and yet, how 
 much they involve which few understand — " As Thou hast 
 sent ^[e into the world, even so send 1 them into the world." 
 Even so : as Thou hast sent Me to be Thy representative in 
 the world, to spend and be spent for Thee, an»l shed My 
 blood for Thee, if necessary, so send I them; — and so He 
 did send them, and they had just the same fare as thiir 
 blaster, and many of them just the same end. But they 
 were faithful witnesses, and they went forward and testified 
 everywhere, to the Jews and to the Gentiles, in the Temple 
 and in the market-place, by the wayside and in the high- 
 ways and hedges — they went and testified of this Saviour, 
 and charged the wicked Jews with His crucifixion, and God 
 accompanied their testimony by the Spirit, and thousands 
 upon thousands were converted — turned from their rebel- 
 lion to God. 
 
 Now, the fact that witnessing is necessary shows that 
 there is controversy going on in the icorld as to the things and 
 claims of God — that there are two sides to this, as to every 
 other case. The great mass of mankind say that God's 
 truth is a lie. They say it virtually, if they do not say it 
 in words, and many thousands of them, alas ! in words, also. 
 They deny, many of them. His ver}^ existence, and say 
 there is neither Heaven nor Hell — that Jesus Christ was a 
 
 ■ 
 
«P7^ 
 
 116 
 
 ACiCiUK-StJlM-: ClllClSTIAMTV. 
 
 .■ lit,: 
 
 1 t 
 
 iiw'1'0 man — tliat religion is a mytli, iind iliat there is no 
 swell thing as tlie knowledgo of iorgiveness of sins — that 
 this \vitn(?ssing is a grand delusion, and that tluu'u is nothing 
 of th(5 kind ! 
 
 Now, Christ rails His peoplo to go and ho witnesses to 
 these facts. Witnesses, you know, must deal with factts, not 
 theories — not what they think and believe, mendy, hut 
 what they htiotv. Now, (Jod wants His people to witn»*ss to 
 faets — to something that has Immmi done, and is being done 
 — something that is, and continues to be — fact. 
 
 And llo wants us to bo (iooo witnesses, too. Oh! how 
 much depends upon the charact<'r of a witness oven in an 
 earthly court. If you can cast a reflection upon tlu^ previous 
 character or veracity of a witness, you shake his testimony, 
 and take away its value. Oh! how important that Christ's 
 witnesses should be good witnesses — that is, that they 
 should fairly and truly represent Him and Ilis truth — for, 
 if they misrepresent Iliin, somebody is sure to be damned 
 through their inconsistency — and, oh! to have the blood of 
 souls upon our skirts ! To misrepresent a man, or woman, 
 or child, is bad enough, but to misrepresent God ! — to show 
 a caricature of tho religion of Jesus Christ! — to say to 
 people, virtually, "Look at me: this is the religion of Jesus 
 Christ — the way I live and act — what i am." I say, such 
 a man had far better have had a millstone hanged about 
 his neck and been drowned in the depths of the sea. There 
 wouhl, then, be an end of his mischief; but a false witness 
 for Jesus Christ is the greatest traitor on the face of the 
 earth. He does more harm than a thousand false earthly 
 witnesses. Oh! my friends, to be good witnesses for Jesus 
 Christ ! The more a witness is supposed to know of the truth 
 to which he testifies, the greater his responsibility. Oh ! 
 
WITNESSING FOU CHKIST. 
 
 117 
 
 for a ministor to be a. bad witness, as some of tlio prophets 
 of old were. T^ook at tho awful Muiij^s (Jod says about 
 tluMu that load His pooi)lt! into the diUdi, carini,' mor(» about 
 tho fk'0('(^ than th(^ slu'ep — awful! I*\)r a inothrr to \n\ a 
 bad witness in her family, and to take her littlo children, 
 clincjing on to hci" skirts, rij^dit to tin; edge? of the pit ! For a 
 master to be a bad witness — to profess to 1x5 a Cliristi.m 
 and to be a bad witni?ss before; his men; for a Sunday- 
 school teaclier to bo a bad, inconsistt-nt, fals(j witness of 
 Jesus Christ in his class; for members of Christian 
 chundies to be bad witnesses to one another, and to tlie 
 world; who can tell the awful results? Oh I it is this in- 
 consistent witnessing that has lowered and lowewd tho 
 standard of practical Christianity till we have not got any 
 stand.'ird left — till tho landmarks are so obliterated that 
 there are not any to be seen. 
 
 Faithful witnesses! He wants us to be faithful wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 I want to note one or two qu'd'tflrdt'ions of a faithful wlt- 
 nca,^, and, oh, may the Holy Spirit hel[) us. 
 
 Tho iirst qualification, then, of a faithful witness, is, A 
 personal knoirlcxlfja of the facts to whhh he witnesses. If a 
 witness in a court of justice begins to talk of what he 
 thinks, feels, and believes — " oh ! hush, hush,'' says the 
 judge, "we can't have that; we want to know what you 
 KNOW — what you have seen, heard, and felt of this case;" 
 and these are the sort of witnesses Jesus Christ wants, who 
 can get up and say "I know!" The sort of witness that 
 St. Paul was, who could look his judge in the face and say, 
 '' I would that thou w^ert altogether such as I am, save these 
 bonds." What an impudent man he must have been, if ho 
 was not a sanctified man. What a supreme egotist! Those 
 
 ■I 
 
118 
 
 AGGKESSIVE CIIKISTIANITy. 
 
 are the sort of witnesses. How Agrippa must have felt, 
 just tlien. How the tables were turned. " Oh ! I am turned 
 into the dock, and here is the prisoner taking his seat upon 
 the bench." That is the sort of witnessing we want. "I 
 would that thou wert altogether such as I am, except these 
 chains." Could you stand up in the dock and say that ? 
 Could you stand up in your own house and say it ? Could 
 you stand up anywher^ and say it ? That is what the Lord 
 Jesus Christ wants — people who know, who experience, wlio 
 realize, who live the things they witness to. This is what 
 the world is dying for — people who can get up and say, " I 
 KNOW." The Lord wants people to tell the world they 
 are saved. Can you ? They will begin to listen to you, 
 then. You will begin to have some effect upon them. They 
 will begin to open their eyes and ears, and wonder whether 
 it will be possible for God to save them. That is altogther 
 different to a fine-spun theory about religion — telling them 
 that God has saved you. Not what we have learned in 
 books. The world is sick of that. I don't wonder at intel- 
 ligent men flying off from religion. I can make great excuse 
 when I think what many of them have to listen to from 
 Sunday to Sunday. As a gentleman said to me, " It's 
 enough to sicken anybody. We do get something in the 
 papers, but, upon my word, I can't keep awake at church. 
 It is not that I would not, if I could, but I can't." Poor 
 fellow ! — liuv/ I pitied him. 
 
 No ! not what is got from books ; not a dry, fine-spun 
 theory, from mere hearsay. When a witness begins with 
 what he heard someone say, "oh, hush!" says the judge, 
 " we don't want that, we want to know what you have seen. 
 Keep to the facts." Jesus Christ wants you to keep to the 
 facts. Tell them, as John says, what ycu liave seen, and 
 
WITNESSING FOR CHIilST. 
 
 119 
 
 heard, and handled, and realized of the truth of God. Per- 
 sonal knowledge! It is wonderful how simple salvation 
 language is, when you have learnt it by experience, and are 
 prepared to speak plainly to the people. 
 
 Then, a faithful witness must tell the truthjand the whole 
 truth. He must not hold back anytliing on account of per- 
 sonal inconvenience, suffering, loss, or gain — the whole 
 truth. Oh ! I tremble to think what will be the fate of some 
 who set themselves up as teachers, and who have kept back 
 part of the truth because, to their apprehension, it was not 
 palatable or profitable to mankind. What have I got to do 
 with that? I have to preach the truth — the beautiful, 
 whole, round, diamond, luminous with Divine light, and not 
 split down the middle and made into damning error, by 
 which Satan is carrying down thousands to Hell. The 
 whole truth — both sides : the side that relates to God, and 
 the side that relates to man, and be done with the nonsense 
 of making God contradict Himself, for " God is light, and 
 in Him is no darkness at all." If there were contradic- 
 tions, there would be darkness. No ; the darkness is in our 
 own poor, little, puny brains, and not in God or in His 
 Book. In His Book, rightly interpreted, there is no contra- 
 diction whatsoever. The ivhole truth : the convicting truth 
 as well as the healing truth ; the sword as well as the balm ; 
 the running in of the Divine knife as well as the pouring in 
 of the Divine oil. As Paul says, in the 2Gth chapter and 
 18th verse, '^ To open their eyes, and to turn them from 
 darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, 
 that they may receive forgiveness of sins." He says he 
 preached to the Jews and Gentiles that they should repent. 
 This is the Apostle Paul, the great expounder of Justifica- 
 tion by Faith, " That they should repent," and what ? 
 
 ■I 
 
120 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 
 — oh, you legal Paul, what ? — "Do works meet for repent- 
 ance." Oh, Paul, I thought you were saved from works 
 altogether, and had done with the Law. Oh ! you preach 
 works, and doing works meet for repentance. That is not 
 Gospel, Paul ! lie significantly adds, " For this cause the 
 Jews caught me, and tried to kill me : " and for that cause 
 the Pharisees have been trying to kill God's true, whole- 
 truth witnesses ever since, for they don't like the doctrine 
 that cuts idols and sin in twain, and that says, " Bring forth 
 fruits meet for repentance." 
 
 The faithful witness must give the whole truth ; and he 
 must give it personally, too. A faithful witness must give 
 it himself. He can't witness by proxy. He may pay one 
 hundred and fifty witnesses to go and witness for him : that 
 is all right. It is no more tlian he ought to do — two hun- 
 dred and fifty, if he has money enough — because the Master 
 claims all that he has, little or much, every farthing of it. 
 
 Therefore he can never do any more than he ought, when 
 he has done all ; but that will not exonerate him from the 
 obligation. If I have put my candle in you, it is that it 
 may shine for somebody else's benefit. If I have given you 
 the bread of life, it is for you to go and break it to the fam- 
 ishing nmltitudes round about you. Ye are my witnesses. 
 You may pay the ministers and the missionary, but you must 
 do it yourself, too, for how can one witness make up /or two ? 
 True, God wants the minister to witness, and it is no more 
 than his duty if he witnesses all day long as long as he 
 lives. But that will never make up for your lack of ser- 
 vice. YOU must witness ; and there are some souls with 
 whom you have more infiiience than any other living being, 
 
 — some souls that you can better get at tlian any other per- 
 son — some souls that, if you do not save, will, probably, 
 
WITNESSING FOR CHRIST. 
 
 121 
 
 esses, 
 must 
 two ? 
 more 
 as he 
 f ser- 
 with 
 helnf/, 
 r per- 
 bably, 
 
 never be saved at all. Ye are my witnesses, and, if ye have 
 the grace and love and light of God, it is at the peril of 
 your soul if you hide it. 
 
 Then, in the next ^Voice, faithful witnesses must speak out, 
 notmuiee the matter — not "mumble," as tlioy say in court. 
 The judge makes the Avitncss speak u[) so that everybody 
 may hear him. lie must he heard. " Speak out." And why 
 should not the Lord's witnesses speak out ? 1 wonder when 
 we shall be done with this sneaking, hole and corner, shame- 
 faced religion! I wonder when Christian England will 
 cease to be ashamed of its God ! ! The only nation under 
 Heaven ashamed of its religion and its God is the one that 
 has got the true God to worship and to love. What an an- 
 omaly ! Speak out ! ! 
 
 David knew nothing about this mincing, half-anddialf, 
 milk-and-water sort of religion. David rejoiced to tell of 
 His righteousness before the great congregation. He was 
 always telling about His goodness, and His law, and singing 
 about it all the day long, dancing be for* > the ark sometimes, 
 and doing all manner of demonstrative things to glorify his 
 God. And that was not enough, for when he had called 
 upon all human kind to praise Him, he called on the hills 
 and the trees to clap their hands and to dance for joy. We 
 want some of that sort of religion now-a-days. Talk of the 
 new dispensation, I wish we could get a bit of that back. 
 
 The interests of truth demand this outspokenness. How 
 is error to be met but Ijy the bold proclamation of the truth ? 
 How are the emissaries of Satan palming upon mankind his 
 lies — always at it, night and day — how are they to be 
 silenced but by witnesses faithfully crying in their ears, 
 " This is a lie, and that is a lie. This is the truth and this 
 is the way ; we know, we see, we feel — walk ye in it." 
 
 i 
 
lii' • 
 
 122 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die ? They want out- 
 spoken witnesses. There are plenty of false witnesses now 
 as there ever were, and what does Jesus Christ want ? He 
 wants His true witnesses to come out and face tliem, and be 
 a match for them, — not to sneak away in holes and corners, 
 and be ashamed of it and talk about an unobtrusive religion 
 — unobtrusive nonsense I There is no such thing! Come 
 out before the world. If He be God, speak for Him. As 
 Elijah said, ''If He be God serve Him, but if liaal, serve 
 iiiM." Then away with all this nonsense, your sanctuaries, 
 and Bibles, and profession — have done with it all and follow 
 Bial. Be one thing or the other. If he be God serve 
 him. And methinivb there wants an Elijah now to come 
 and ring it all through England. I would like to see any 
 man get up and make a straightforward recognition of and 
 appeal to, God, in our Houses of Parliament, and I would 
 like to see how he would be greeted. 
 
 I was thinking, as I was passing theEoyal Exchange, and 
 saw on the top " The earth is the Lord's and the fullness 
 thereof," how many believed it who walked beneath its 
 shadow. I wonder what anyone would be thought of were 
 he practically to recognise the fact. " Oh ! " they would say, 
 "he's not lit for his post — you'll have to take him away; 
 he's a little affected in his head." Oh! you know it is so; 
 but God is not mocked, though men think He is. God sits 
 in the circle of Heaven, and though the people do rage, and 
 the heatlien imagine a vain thing, and the kings of the earth 
 set themselves. He is laughing at them, and by-and-by will 
 come their calamity. 
 
 We say the world is dying ; — what for ? Sermons ? No. 
 Periodicals? No. Beligious stories ? Oh! dear, no. There 
 is no chance of a want of them for many a long year to come. 
 
WITNESSING FOR CHRIST. 
 
 123 
 
 . sits 
 and 
 arth 
 will 
 
 Dying for disquisitions ? No. For line-spun theories ? No. 
 For creeds and faiths? Oh! you might have them by the 
 dozen. What is it dying for ? — downriglit, straightforward, 
 honest, loving, earnest test niony about what God can do 
 FOR SOULS. That is what it wants. That is what those poor 
 men in the shops, those walking up and down Oxl'ord Street, 
 in the theatres, in the dancing saloons, in the concert rooms 
 — everywhere, that is what men want: somebov^y to come 
 and take them lovingly by the collar, and tell them that 
 God is God, and that He can save them. *' lie has saved 
 me, my brother, and He can save you!" That is what the 
 world wants. One word like that is better tlian a sermon, 
 and it will do more for God and the salvation of the world. 
 Oh, yes, men are saying, in fact all over this land --thou- 
 sands, "Here I am; I am a poor slave of sin. I know it." 
 They say it in their consciences tliough they do not say it to 
 you. They say it often to us when they are pushed into a 
 corner by the sword of the Spirit. " I know I am wrong, 
 sinful, wicked." As that dear John Allen, whose life I have 
 been telling about, said once when sitting swearing, surround- 
 ed by his companions, and somebody said to him, " Jock, 
 if you were to die, what would become of you ? " "I should 
 go to hell, straight ! " He was an honest fellow. He knew 
 where he was going, and he said it. 
 
 I said to a gentleman, " Mr. So-and-so, what about your 
 soul?" He said, "It's in a devilish state." Poor man! 
 He knew where he was going, and there are thousands like 
 him. Do you think they don't feel their bondage ? Have 
 they not got a mind and a conscience ? Have they not a 
 better side, as you call it, to their nature ? Has not God 
 flashed the light of His Holy Spirit upon their dark souls, 
 and have they not struggled and striven ? Yes, but they say, 
 
 ' 
 
124 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 t| 
 
 " There is no health in us ; there is no help for us. We 
 have done making resolutions and trying to be better; we can- 
 not. There is no hope in us." And there they are, waiting 
 for somebody to come and tell them there is HELP IN GOD. 
 They say, " I see precious little difference in you religious 
 folks ; 1 have never known anybody that religion has seemed 
 to do nmch for." And, when they are told to believe, they 
 laugh at you, and I don't wonder at it. The poor human con- 
 science is better instructed than many of its teachers. It 
 wants to be put right, and it says, is there any hope ? Can 
 God save such as I am ? Has lie saved anybody like me 
 from this thraldom, from this slavery, from this misery, 
 from this constantly going down in the mud ? Did he ever 
 save anybody like me ? And sometimes he goes to chapel 
 or churcli, and hopes the minister will tell him, when lo, he 
 begins a dissertation about the resurrection, or the divinity 
 of Christ, or something the man has believed all his life, and 
 so he is disappointed again, and he says, " This is of no use 
 to me." Oh ! friends, I speak the things I know from the 
 testimony of scores of souls. In fact, I could not repeat it, 
 it would make your faces burn to hear what men of intelli- 
 gence, thought and standing, have said to me in many an 
 ante-room where I have been labouring. It is time there 
 was a change. The world is famishing for lack of real spir- 
 itual bread. It wants something to eat, and you give it a 
 stone ! but God is raising a people who know what it wants 
 and how to giue it, who know how to break the bread of life, 
 and testify what God has done for them, and what he can do 
 for other poor famishing souls j who can say : " Here, my 
 friend, He can save such as you. I was such an one once. 
 I was a slave of sin, the slave of drink, or a blasphemer, or 
 a liar, or a thief, or addicted to some bad secret habit worse 
 
WII-NESSING FOR CHRIST. 
 
 125 
 
 y 
 
 ir, or 
 
 than any of these. 1 was such a slave, and he has saved 
 me. lie has broken my fetters and set me free, and I am 
 the Lord's free-man. He has saved me and He can save 
 you." That is wliat the world wants — TESTIMONY AVIT- 
 NESSING. 
 
 Has He saved any of you? Are you testifying to your 
 poor, famishing, sinking fellow-men ? r>c you ever look at 
 them and think where they are going ? Do you pity them, 
 love them, long after them in the bowels of Jesus Christ? 
 Do you know anything of that longing ? K so, how can you 
 forbear testifying ? " Ye are my witnesses of these things," 
 everywhere, at all times, amongst all people ! ! 
 
 It is in the nature of the case that a ivltncss must witness 
 before other people, before living hearers. That is the place 
 to witness, and before enemies, and when he does not know 
 w^hich way the wind will blow, or how the words of God will 
 be received. He must be a true witness, even if he has to 
 seal his testimony with his blood. 
 
 This was the kind of witnessing the martyrs did. I often 
 wonder whether there would be any martyrs now. Some- 
 times I think that the greatest boon to the Church of Christ 
 would be a time of persecution. I believe it would. I be- 
 lieve it would drive us up to God and each other. We 
 should find out, then, whether we were willing to forsake 
 all to follow Him. You know that if the martyrs had taken 
 the standard of religious life that exists now, they would 
 never have been martyrs. They would have looked after 
 their own skins, and left the Lord to look after the Gospel. 
 If they might have been allowed a little latitude, and gone 
 half Avay, there would not have been any martyrs, because 
 they could nearly all have got off with that; but they felt 
 it necessary to be faithful right through, and to stand by 
 
 i 
 
firi^- 
 
 126 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ill 
 
 < 
 
 1 • 
 
 i 
 
 ' 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 > I i| :. 
 
 f I 
 
 m^ 
 
 tlio tnitli to the very last jot and tittle, aiul when they 
 could liJivc got oir by saying three words on a paper, they 
 refused to do it, and went to the stake, and let the llames 
 lick up their blood. Those are the witnesses the Lord 
 wants — outside, everywhere, always at it. Always wit- 
 nessing. '* Always ?'' you say. Yes; always. Why? JJe- 
 cause mm are always dying and being damned! — if the 
 Bible is true — everywhere — your friends and your neigh- 
 bors around you. You get a letter : "Oh! Mr. So-and-so is 
 dead — only ill three days — thirty-six hours — twenty-four 
 hours — gone!" Ah! and the echo in many a soul after- 
 wards is, " What would I give to go and have one talk with 
 him." ])ut he's gone — somewhere! Where is he gone? If 
 he were unwashed and unpardoned and unsaved — where is 
 he gone ? I got so wrought up once upon this point that I 
 thought I should have lost my reason. I could not sleep 
 at night with thinking of the state of those who die unsaved. 
 Dare I think about it? Where is he gone? 
 
 Oil! it was this view of tlie case that led me to open my 
 month first in public for God. 
 
 I have promised some friends here to-night to give this 
 illustration from my own experience, or else I rarely refer 
 to it. I had long had a controversy on this question in my 
 soul. In fact, from the time I was converted, the Spirit of 
 God had constantly been urging me into paths of usefulness 
 and labour, which seemed to me impossible. Perhaps some 
 of you would hardly credit that I was one of the most 
 timid and bashful discii3les the Lord Jesus ever saved' 
 For ten years of my Christian life my life was one daily 
 battle with the cross — not because I wilfully rejected, as 
 many do, for that I never dared to do. Oh, no ! I used to 
 make up my mind I would, and resolve and intend, and 
 
WITNESSING POK CHRIST. 
 
 12' 
 
 this 
 
 refer 
 
 n my 
 
 it of 
 
 ilness 
 
 some 
 
 most 
 
 aved« 
 
 daily 
 
 ed, as 
 
 ed to 
 
 . and 
 
 then, when tlie hour came, T used to fail for want of cour- 
 age. I need not liave failed. I now see how foolish I was, 
 and how wrong; but, for some four or live months before I 
 commenced speaking, the controversy had been signally 
 roused in my soul which God had awakened years before, 
 but which, through mistaken notions, fear, and timidity, I 
 liad almost allowed to die out. I was brought to very severe 
 lieart-searchings at this time. I had not been realizing so 
 much of the Divine presence. I had lost a great deal of 
 the power and happiness I once enjoyed. During a season 
 of sickness, one day it seemed as if the Lord revealed it all 
 to me by His Spirit. I had no vision, but a revelation to 
 my mind. He seemed to take me back to the time when I 
 was fifteen and sixteen, when I first gave my heart to Hira. 
 He seemed to show me all the bitter way, how this one 
 thing had been the fly in the pot of ointment, the bitter in 
 the cup, and prevented me from realizing what I should 
 otherwise have done. I felt how it had hindered the reve- 
 lation of Himself to me, and hindered me from growing 
 in grace, and learning more of the deep things of God. 
 He showed it to me, and then I remember prostrating 
 myself upon ny face before Him, and I promised Him 
 there in the sick-room : " Lord, if Thou wilt return unto 
 me, as in the days of old, and re-visit me with those urgings 
 of Thy Spirit which I used to have, I will obey, if I die in 
 the attempt. I care not ; I will obey." However, tho Lord 
 did not re-visit me immediately. He let me recover, and I 
 went out again. About three months after that I went to 
 the chapel of which my husband ^ras a minister, and he had 
 an extraordinary service. Even xhen he was trying some- 
 thing new to get the outside people. They were having a 
 meeting in which ministers and friends in the town were 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
m- 
 
 IL'S 
 
 AGCJUESSIVE ClUUSTLiLNlTY 
 
 :f ' 
 
 taking i)!ii't, and all giving their testimony and spciddng for 
 God. I H'as in the minister's pew, witli my ehk'st boy, then 
 four years old, and there were some thousand people present, 
 I felt much more depressed than usual in spirit, and not 
 expecting anything particular, but, as the testimonies went 
 on, I felt the Spirit come upon me. You alone who have 
 felt it know what it means. It cannot be described. I felt 
 it to the extremities of my fingers and toes. It seemed as 
 if a voice said to me, " Now, if you were to go and testify, 
 you know I would bless it to your own soul as well as to the 
 souls of the people," and I gasped again, and I saul in my 
 soul, " Yes, Lord, I believe Thou wouldst, but I cannot do 
 it." I had forgotten my vow — it did not occur to me at all. 
 All in a moment, after I had said that to the Lord, I seemed 
 to see the bedroom where I had lain, and to see myself as 
 though I had been there prostrate before the Lord promis- 
 ing Ilim that, and then the voice seemed to say to me, " Is 
 this consistent with that promise ? " and I almost jumped 
 up and said, "I,o, Lord, it is the old thing over again, but 
 I cainiot do it," and I felt as though I would sooner die 
 than do it. And then the Devil said, " Besides, you are not 
 prepared to speak. You will look like a fool, and have 
 nothing to say." He made a mistake. He overdid him- 
 self for once. It was that word settled it. I said, "Ah! 
 this is just the point. I have never yet been willing to be 
 a fool for Christ, now I will be one ; " and without stopping 
 another moment, I rose up in the seat, and walked up the 
 chapel. My dear husband was just going to conclude. He 
 thought something had happened to me, and so did the peo- 
 ple. We had been there two years, and they knew my 
 timid, bashful nature. He stepped down to ask me, " What 
 is the matter, my dear ? " I said, " I want to say a word." 
 
WITNKSSIXr, FOR CHIIIST. 
 
 129 
 
 :ig for 
 , then 
 esenc. 
 id not 
 I wont 
 have 
 I felt 
 led as 
 estify, 
 to the 
 in my 
 not do 
 at aU. 
 jeemed 
 self as 
 )romis- 
 e, "Is 
 umped 
 in, but 
 ler die 
 ire not 
 I have 
 1 him- 
 « Ah ! 
 ; to be 
 opping 
 up the 
 e. He 
 le peo- 
 BW my 
 ' What 
 word." 
 
 Ho was so taken by surprise, ho eoidd only snv, "My dear 
 wife wants to say a word/' and sat (hnvn. Ho hadboiMi try- 
 ing to persnudo me to do it for ton years, llo and a lady in 
 the chureh, only that voiy week, had boon trying to per- 
 suade me to go and address a little eottago mooting, of some 
 twenty working i)ooplo, but eould not. I got up — (hxl 
 only knows how — and if any mortal ever diil hang on the 
 arm of Onini[)oten('e, I did. I folt as if I wore clinging 
 to some huiu.'Ln arm — and yet it was a Divine arm — to 
 liold me. I just got up and told the people how it came 
 about. I confessed, as, I think, everybody sliould, whon they 
 have been in the wrong and misrepresented the religion of 
 Jesus Christ. I told the people, although I ha<l been occu- 
 pying all the ordinary positions of a minister's wife, though 
 I was young then I had been doing a groat deal more than 
 many an elderly one does in the church of God, in the way 
 of meeting believers, and visiting and working behind the 
 scenes, so that they had all been regarding me as a very de- 
 voted woman, and 1 told them so. I said, '• I dare say many 
 of you have been regarding me as a very dcn-oted woman, 
 and one who has been living faithfully to God, but I have 
 come to know that I have been living in disobedience, and 
 to that extent I have brought darkness and leanness into my 
 soul, but I promised the Lord three or four months ago, and 
 I dare not disooey. I have come to tell you this, and to 
 promise the Lord that I will be obedient to the Heavenly 
 vision." 
 
 But oh! how little I saw then what it involved. I never 
 imagined the life of publicity it was going to lead mo into, 
 and of trial also ; for I was never allowed to have another 
 quiet Sabbath, when I could speak or stand up. All I took 
 there was the present step. I did not see in advance, but 
 
 i 
 
i:)0 
 
 AOGUKSSIVK <IIKISTIANI'IY. 
 
 tlic Lord, as Ilf always does, ^v lie ii His people aro lioiicst 
 with lliiu, uiid olicdiinit, opcMicd the win(h>\v8 of Heaven, 
 an<l poured out such a bk'ssiiig, that there was not room to 
 contain it. 
 
 Tliere was more weeping, they said, in tlie eliapel that 
 day than ever tliere had been before. Many dated a renew- 
 al in ri^^hte()usn(!ss from that very moment, and began a life 
 of devotion and c;onseeration to God. 
 
 Kow, I might hav(^ "talked good" to them till now, and 
 that would never have ha}>pen('d. That honest confession, 
 coming out and testifying the truth, did what twenty years' 
 talk would never have done. 
 
 Tlie work went on. AVlnuiever I spoke, the chapel used 
 to be crowded to its utmost cai)a(!ity, and nund)ers were con- 
 verted. Not to m<', but to God be all the glory. Shame to 
 me that T did not begin sooner. It was not I that did this, 
 but the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 The Lord dealt with me in a very wonderful way. Three 
 months after this, my dear husband fell sick the first time, 
 and he was obliged to go away into the country. A depu- 
 tation waited on me, to ask me to take his town appoint- 
 ments. I said 1 could not think of such a thing. What 
 could I do with that great congregation? ineymust not 
 ask me — and away they went. They came back again to 
 know if I would take the nights, they implored and im- 
 portuned me until I promised. So you see, God forced me 
 to begin to think and work. I wos obliged, and I did it 
 with four little children, the eldest then fouv years and 
 three months old. It looked an inopportune time, did it 
 not, to begin to preach ? It looked as though the Lord 
 must have made, a mistake. However, He gave me grace 
 and strength, and enabled me to do it ; and while I was 
 
WlTXKSSINa FOU ciiinsT. 
 
 1,^1 
 
 con- 
 
 was 
 
 mirsiiig my l)iil»y, luiiny atiiin' I was thinkinj^of \vli;it I was 
 goinij to say next Sunday, and bi'twccn times noU'd down 
 with II jjrncil th(5 thoughts as they struck mo. And then I 
 wouhl appear sometimes, with an outline seratcdird in 
 l)en('il, trusting in tlio Lord to givo mo tho power of His 
 Holy S[)irit; and 1 think I can say that from that day — 
 and it is about nineteen years and nine months since — lie 
 has never allowed me to open my mouth without giving nie 
 signs of His i)resen(;(3 and Messing. Don't you see that 
 while \\w devil kept mo silent, Ik; kept mo comparatively 
 fruitless; now I have ground to hope and ex})eet to meet 
 liundreds in glory, whom (jod has made mo instrumental in 
 saving. The Lord dealt very tenderly with uw : giving me 
 great encouragement, but some things were dreadful to me 
 at first. I would not go into pulpits till the people demand- 
 ed it. And the first time I saw my name on a wall! — [ 
 shall never forget the sensation. Then my dear husband 
 said, '• AVhen you gave yourself to the Lord, did you not 
 give Ilim your name?" Thus he used to go from one 
 thing to another, until now I liave learned to glory in the 
 Cross. "When a dear friend was talking, the other day, 
 about the tremendous undertaking it was to go to France 
 and begin there, I said, "My dear sir, I should not feel any 
 more discomposed to go to France, and open there next 
 Sunday, than I should to ai)pear in St. Andrew's Hall, 
 simply for this reason, that I believe God is the same in 
 every place, and the same faith, and the same truths and 
 the same faithfulness will bring Ilim to our help." " Ye 
 are my witnesses,'' saitli the Lord, " And, lo, I am with you 
 ALWAYS ! '^ 
 
 AVill you be encouraged, my sister ? Never mind tremb- 
 ling. I trembled. Never mind your heart beating. Mine 
 
 i 
 
ifrfit 
 
 T^'i^r-ht*" 
 
 132 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIAXIXr. 
 
 beat nearly through. Never mind how weak you are. 1 
 have gone many a time from the bed to the pulpit, and back 
 from the pulpit to bed. It is not by human power, wisdom, 
 might, or strength — it is by My Spirit, saith the Lord. He 
 loves to use the weak things, that the excellency may be 
 seen to be of God. Were your neighbors sick of some devas- 
 tating })lague, and you could go and help tliom, would not 
 you do it ? Would you say, " I am only a woman, and I can- 
 not ?" " Oh," you would say, " let me go, like i\liss Night- 
 ingale did to the sick and wounded soldiers. Lot me go." 
 And these are not the bodies, but the souls. They arc dying. 
 They are going to an eternal death. Will you not rise up ? 
 Oh ! suppose all the Christians in this hall to-night were to 
 begin, from this hour, to be faithful, and consistently testi- 
 fying everywhere for Jesus, what a commotion there would 
 be ! How many, think you, would be converted in a month's 
 time? How would they begin flocking like doves to the 
 windows ? How would the ministers, some of them, begin 
 to wake up ? The people would go and beseech them morn- 
 ing, noon, and night. God wants you to witness right out 
 everywhere, in the darkest courts and alleys and in Oxford 
 Street alike. Begin, and the Spirit of God will fall upon 
 you, and however they may try to get rid of the Holy Ghost, 
 they will not be able to do it when God has got hold of them. 
 We catch thousands of people in this wa}^ who never intend- 
 ed to be converted. Every day I live the more I am con- 
 vinced that if God's people were to be in desperate earnest, 
 thousands would be won ; but they are not likely to be won 
 by the genteel fashion of putting the truth before them — 
 so couimon now-a-days — because nobody thinks they are in 
 danger ! If you believe it, her/ in. The Apostle says you are 
 to be good, valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ; the old Chris- 
 
WITNESSI,\G FOR CUEIST. 
 
 133 
 
 tmns were all this; they fouglit a good warfare, and they 
 overcame the devil by the "blood of the Lamb and the u-ord 
 of their testimony :' Be soldiers for the Lord, and He will 
 give the victory, and you shall go and take pi-isoaers. Great 
 big giants, black-hearted infidels, black-hearted blasphemers 
 they shall go down before you like little children, because 
 the Lord of Hosts will put His Spirit in you. " Ye are My 
 witnesses!" WITNESS of Me everywhere and always 
 The Lord help you. Ainen. 
 
 'i 
 
Btnwrrt^tftfci i- 
 
 
 SEIiMON VIII. 
 
 FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 
 
 " And bcir g assembled together with them, conimanded thorn that ihoy should 
 not depart from .lerusalem, but wait for the i)romise of tlie iratl^er." — 
 Acts i. 4. 
 
 «• lie filled with the Spirit." — Ephesians v. 18. 
 
 I tlioiightj perhaps, it would meet a difficulty of some 
 who are present this afternoouj to state, with respect to last 
 Sabbath's address, tliat this exhortation, t be filled with the 
 Spirit, is given broadly to all be-ievers. If my remarks, at 
 that time, conveyed the idea to anyone, tliat there were 
 merely a privileged few who were called to be thus filled 
 with the Spirit — to be, as it were, the leaders of the rest, 
 and others were to nbide, and must abide, on a lower plat- 
 form of Christian experience, I certainly did not intend 
 them to do so. God forbid that I should insinuate anything 
 of the kind, l)ecause I do not believe it. I believe that this 
 injunction is given broadly to all believers everywhere, and 
 in all times, and it is as much the privilege of the youngest 
 and veakest believer here to be filled with the Spirit, as 
 it is of tlie most advanced, if the believer will comply 
 with the conditions, and conform to the injunctions of 
 the Saviour, on wdiich lie has promised this gift. I do 
 not find two standards of Christian experience here at all. 
 I do not believe God ever intended there should be a lower 
 
FILLFD WITH THE SriRlT. 
 
 135 
 
 life and a higher life, and I am afraid that those people who 
 rest in the lower life will find themselves awf'iUy mistaken 
 at last. I believe that religion is all or nothing. God is 
 either first or He is nowhere with us, individually. The 
 very essence and core of religion is, " God first," and alle- 
 giance and obedience to Ilim lirst. 
 
 If I cannot keep my father and mother and be faithful to 
 God, then I must forsake iny father and mother. I f I can- 
 not keep my husband or wife, and be faithful to Ilim, them 
 I must forsake husband or wife. If I caiuiot keep my 
 children and be faithful to Him, then J(^sus Christ says, 
 forsake them. And if I cannot keep my houses and lands 
 and be faithful to Him, then I nuist forsake them. If I can- 
 not keep my business and be faithful to Him, then I must 
 sacrifice my business, and if I cannot keep my heidth and 
 be faithful to Him, then T must sacrifice it, and, last of all, 
 if I cannot keep my life and be faithful to Him, then I must 
 be prepared to lose it, and lay my neck on the block, if need 
 be. This is my religion, and I do not know any other. I 
 do not believe anv other will stand on the ri-dit hand of the 
 throne ; and, if that be so, why, all other sorts must stand 
 on the left. If this be not true, I am utterly and thoroughly 
 mistaken in the first principles of Christianity, and I will 
 come and sit down at anybody's feet who can convince me 
 that I am wrong. So, pray, do not attach that idea to me 
 that I think that any person can sit down, providing he has 
 light, or with opportunities of getting light, witliout em- 
 bracing this higher-life religion, and then get into Heaven 
 in this shame-faced, sneaking way. Xo, no! — God will 
 have you or He will not have you. He will knov/ you or 
 will say, " Depart from me, I know you not." The Lord 
 help you every one. 
 
 ■ 
 

 13G 
 
 A G (J I JESSI VK CHRIST! AXITY. 
 
 
 Tills ]\Mit('fost is offered to all believers. It comes, or it 
 would coiiio, in the exi)erieiice of every believer, if he would 
 have it. God wants you to have it. God calls you to it. 
 Jesus Christ has bonglit it for you, and you may have it and 
 live in its power as much as these apostles did, if you will 
 — every one of you. My dear friends, you may have it, be 
 filled with it, and no one but God knows whiit lie would 
 do with you and what he would make of you if you were 
 thus filled, for the experience of Peter shows you liow 
 utterly different a man is before he gets a IVntecostal bap- 
 tism and cffter he gets it. The man who could not stand the 
 questionings of a servant-maid before he got this power, 
 dared to be crucified after he got it. I may just sa}'', that 
 here is the great cause of the decline of so many who begin 
 well. " Ye did run well," we might truly say of thousands 
 in this land to-day, " Ye did run well." They begin in the 
 Spirit, and then, as the Apostle says, " They go on to be 
 made perfect by the flesh." How is this ? IJecause, you 
 see, the Spirit puts before every soul this walk of full con- 
 secration and whole-hearted devotedness to God, and instead 
 of being obedient to the heavenly vision, the soul shrinks 
 back and says, "That is too much — that is too close — that 
 is too great a sacrifice" — and they decline, and instead of 
 giving up a profession and going back into the world (there 
 would be ten times more hope of them if they did this), 
 they cling ol to their profession and kiiulle a fire of their 
 own, and walk in the sparks they have kindled. But He 
 says He is against them, and " they shall lie down in sor- 
 row." Oh ! there is a deal of this. People must have a 
 God and a religion. They will have one, and when they 
 shrink from the true one, and will not follow the Divine 
 counsel, then they make one for themselves, and a great 
 
FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 
 
 137 
 
 or it 
 k'ould 
 to it. 
 t and 
 I will 
 it, be 
 rt'ould 
 were 
 I how 
 
 I bap- 
 id the 
 )ower, 
 Y, that 
 ) begin 
 LIS and s 
 in the 
 
 to be 
 e, you 
 
 II con- 
 nstead 
 
 irinks 
 
 — that 
 
 ead of 
 
 (there 
 
 this), 
 
 their 
 ut He 
 n sor- 
 lave a 
 
 they 
 F)ivine 
 
 great 
 
 many of them go to sleep and never wake again. They go 
 out of the world comfortably under the influence of nar- 
 cotics, and they never wake. They die deceived ; or, if they 
 do awake, we know what sort of an awakening it is, and 
 what sort of a deathbed theirs is. Our poor Salvation Army 
 people — these ''fishermen," — these young women — arc 
 sent for to pray with these j)eople when they get awakened. 
 And oh ! what scenes are witnessed. Oh ! see to it that 
 you get awake and keep awake, and be willing to follow the 
 Spirit's teaching in everything, at all costs and sacrilices. 
 
 I want you to note, first, how these people waited. 
 "Tarry at Jerusalem till ye be endowed with rowEii." 
 ^lark, that is not truth merely. They had got truth before. 
 There is something besides truth needed. Paul says his 
 Gospel and his preaching were not merely in word, but in 
 jyower, and in the demonstration of the Spirit. Wiat 
 would be the first thing that would strike 3'ou that these 
 disciples would be thinking of, as they wended their way 
 back from Olivet, — having taken leave of their now glorified 
 Master, — back again to the upper room at Jerusalem ? 
 Imagine what state of mind would be theirs. IIow would 
 they wait for the promise ? 
 
 Methinks the iirst feeling would be that of deep self- 
 ahasement. As they thought of the past; now that the full 
 glory of Ilis Divinity, and the Divinity of Ilis mission had 
 burst upon them, and, as they thought of their three years* 
 sojourn with Hi m, and of all their darkness and blindness 
 of heart, and all they had lost — all that they might have 
 known — all He would have revealed to them, if they would 
 have received it — as the thought of it all burst upon them 
 just as, next day, when you find out who a person was, or 
 some particular circumstance respecting a person that you 
 
 ■ 
 
138 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CinilSTIAXITY. 
 
 
 I 1' 
 
 
 did not fully understiind at the time, and, when the person 
 is gone, and it all breaks upon you, you say, '' What a fool 
 I was ! '* and so methinks these aj)ostles would say. Indeed, 
 as lie said, " Oh, fools, and slow of heart to believe ! '* They 
 were cured — Peter certainly was — of self-sufficiency, of 
 pride, and all of them would go back again in deep self- 
 abasement. 
 
 Can you not thiidi you see them as they assembhnl in 
 the upper room ? I should not be surprised at all if Peter, 
 with his impulsive nature — and it is a glorious thing to 
 have an impulsive nature when it is impulsive for good — 
 to be zealously affected always in a good cause — threw 
 himself on his face before his risen Master in deepest hu- 
 miliation and broken-heartedness for his base ingratitude in 
 having denied ITim. And how do you think Thomas and all 
 of them v/ould feel as they remembered the scene in the 
 Garden, and how they all in the hour of His agony forsook 
 Ilim and fled ? How would they all feel ? Oh ! they 
 would feel indeed unholy, untrue, cowards, and would go 
 down, over and over again, on their faces, to wait in deep 
 self-abasement. 
 
 And now, friends, this is the very first and indispensable 
 condition of receiving the Holy Ghost. You must first 
 realize your past impurity, unholiness, disobedience, and 
 ingratitude. You must not be afraid to know the worst of 
 yourselves. You must look back at the time when your hand 
 has been with Him on the table, and yet you have virtually 
 betrayed Him. You must look at your unfaithfulness and 
 disobedien(;e, at your shrinking from the cross, at your cleav- 
 ing to the world, and if you want to be filled with the Spirit, 
 you must be willing to know the worst of yourself, and tell 
 the Lord the worst of yourself. You must say, "Now,. 
 
FiLLKD WITH Tin: sriiiiT. 
 
 130 
 
 of 
 
 :'sook 
 
 tlioy 
 
 Id go 
 
 deep 
 
 Lord, ain I low enough ? Now, Lord, am I down far enough 
 in tlie dust for Thee to eonie and lift nie up? I ablior my- 
 self. I loatlie nivself in. dust and ashes, and I want Thee to 
 come and iill me witli Thy Spirit." You will liave to be 
 emptied of self. When people are self-sufficient, God al- 
 ways leaves them alone to prove their self-suiHeienc.y. When 
 people think they can do for tliemselves. Tie lets them fall 
 down and see their weakness. We must realize our utter 
 lielplessness and weakness — we must be utterly lost in our 
 own sight. Some of you, I think, liJive come to that, and 
 others are not quite low enough. You must get down 
 lower, my brotlier. God's way to exidtiition is tlirough the 
 Valley of Humiliation. You nuist get lower — lower. You 
 can neve" get t(jo low in your own estimation in order to be 
 filled with the Spirit of God. 
 
 They waited, secondly, in earnest appreciation of its im- 
 portance. Ah ! they had enough to make them do it. 
 How do you think tliey felt when they got into the upper 
 room ? We are told that there were about 120 of them. 
 How do you think they felt as they thought of the past, 
 remembered the ignominious crucifixion of their Lord, 
 looked forward to the future, and contemj)lated the work to 
 which he had called them ? And what was it ? It was not 
 to go and set up an idol of Jesus Christ alongside of other 
 idols in the temples of heathen gods, but it was to go into 
 the city of Jerusalem, where they had just crucified Him 
 between two thieves, and proclaim Him as the long-expected 
 ^Messiah of the Jews. It was to begin to set up this royal 
 spiritual kingdom in contradistinction to their temporal and 
 earthl}^ kingdom, and tlien to go out from Jerusalem and 
 subjugate the world to His sway! How would they feel ? 
 Poor Feter, and Thomas, and John, and Mary and the rest 
 
 I 
 
140 
 
 AGGUKSSIVK CillUSTIAXITY. 
 
 
 ! 1, 
 
 i , 
 
 of llie wonion (thiiiiks to tlio Holy (Jliost, H'.' lias tiiknii 
 care to i)ut it in tli:it they were there) — liow would they 
 feel ? They would feel, " We might as w(dl stop and die 
 liere, as go out as we are, until we do get the eipiipnient of 
 jiower. We want something more than we have got." And 
 there they waited, and they said, '"'Lord, pour it out upon 
 us; we are ready. We are helpless, we arc powerless — we 
 can do nothing. Thou knowest what Thou hast called us to 
 do, and Thou hast promised this power to perform it. Now, 
 here we are. It is useless for us to begin until we get 
 })0wer." They appreciated its importance. God never gave 
 this gift to any human soul who had not come to the point 
 that he would sell all lie had to get it. Oh ! it is the most 
 jirecious gift He has to give in earth or in Heaven — to be 
 filled with the Spirit, iilled with Himself (as we said last 
 Sunday), taken possession of by God ; moved, inspired, ener- 
 gized, empowered by God, by the great indwelling Spirit 
 moving through all our faculties, and energizing our v;hole 
 being for Him. This is the greatest and most glorious gift 
 He has. He is not likely to give it to people who do not 
 highly appreciate it, and so highly that they are willing to 
 forego all other gifts for it — everything else, creature love, 
 creature comfort, ease, enjoyment, and aggrandizement for 
 this one thing. Have you come to that ? Are you telling 
 the Lord so ? Are you sincere ? If you are really sincere 
 in what some of you write me, then some of you have come 
 to it; — but, oh, how people can deceive themselves! My 
 heart has been greatly pained during this last week with one 
 or two instances of this kind that have come to my notice. 
 1 liave been half the week, I think, with Elijah under the 
 juniper tree. I have cried, "Lord, who hath believed our 
 I'cpoit?'' Who will thus take hold of God for this special 
 
FILLKD WITK TIIK sriltlT. 
 
 Ml 
 
 they 
 d die 
 >nt of 
 
 And 
 
 upon 
 — we 
 I lis to 
 
 Now, 
 ve got 
 ;r gave 
 
 3 most 
 -to be 
 id last 
 ^1, ener- 
 Spii'it 
 whole 
 ius gift 
 do not 
 ling to 
 l-e love, 
 lent for 
 telling 
 I sincere 
 re come 
 ! My 
 ritli one 
 notice, 
 ider the 
 IV ed onr 
 special 
 
 and full salvation? Ahis ! liov/ few. Oiio draws Irdck fur 
 one i'(.';ison and another for another. One; feels how far they 
 come witli us. You can hear the tread of their fi'et, and 
 you can hear how they falter and draw hack. None hut 
 those who travail for souls can ever understand the a<;onv 
 of feeling that souls are drawing l)a(dc when you have; 
 brought them on the road so far. I have thought nmny 
 a time of tlie Saviour, when so many who had been hearing 
 Him forsook Him and (led. It was Jifter . e had been trying 
 to lead them higher, even to real spiritual union with Him- 
 self. 
 
 They were not willing to go all the way — to pay all the 
 price — to sutfer all the consequences — but, if you want 
 this blessing, I know no other way. I had to come to this 
 before I crot it. The last idol of mv soul had to bo re- 
 noune.ed, and it was hard work, as it always is, because we 
 lovo idols. Idols would not be idols if they were not be- 
 loved. But we have to lav our real Isaac, our beloved and 
 only Isaac, upon the altar. It is hard work, but it has to 
 be done, because He is a jc^alous God. and v.ill have no 
 rivals. Do you so appreciate this blessing that you are 
 willing to give u[) your Isaac ? If so, 3'ou may have it this 
 afternoon. He will fill you with His Spirit. 
 
 Third, and lastly, they waited hi oJxdient fdlth. How do 
 we know ? Because theij did as lie bid thou — that is the 
 evidence. He said, *' Go, tarry in the city of Jerusalem." 
 Peter might have said, when he had seen his Lord off to 
 Heaven, "Well, whnt am I goiag to do now? I liave been 
 a long time running after the Lord, in Palestine, I must 
 betake myself to the fishing. I can wait as well on the sea- 
 beach as in Jerusalem. I wonder why the Lord told me to 
 go to Jerusalem? I think it v/as rather unreasonable. He 
 
 
142 
 
 AG(JUK.SS1VE ClUUSTIANITY. 
 
 ^^1 
 
 ;f 
 
 f 
 
 l:,l 
 
 >j 
 
 I f- 
 
 rin;^'lil li;iv(.' tlioiiLjLt of my old fiithcr and motlior at homo. 
 I tliinlc I sliall go l);i(;k to my lishirig-ncts." No, no, they 
 liiid hccu cun'd of their luilxdicf hy tlie hist f(;\v (hiys ex- 
 perience, 'i'hey liad h*arned better tlian to di(rtate to their 
 Master, and they knew He li ad a good purpose in sending 
 tliein to Jerusalejn, and so tln^y went there and did as lie 
 ^^ado them — straight l)aek to that upper room they went. 
 Mary miglit have said, " I liave been running about minister- 
 ing to tlie Saviour a long time, I'm afraid my friends will tliink 
 I am neglecting home duties and the claims of old friends. 
 I really must go home and see to nuitters a bit : I may as 
 well wait there for the Holy Ghost as at Jerusalem," No, 
 Mary liad learned better. She went bacdc to Jerusalem. 
 We have got their names. And they entiM-ed into the upper 
 room, and shut the door, and waited — obedient faith! 
 Some of your poets said — 
 
 *' Obedient faith tliat waits on Tliee, 
 Thou never wUt reprove." 
 
 No, it is the disobedient faith that is sent empty away. 
 Oh ! people are crying out about their faith, but it is their 
 disobedient faith. If the Lord has told you to wait in any 
 particular place, or way, or company, or time, and you dis- 
 obey llim, you will never get it, and you will have to come 
 to those conditions at last, even if it is on your dying bed ! 
 Obedient faith ! While there is a spark of insubordination, 
 or rebellion, or dictation, you ..ill never get it. Truly 
 submissive and obedient souls only enter this kingdom. 
 Anywhere He tells you to go, anything He tells you to 
 sacrifice, or fly from, you will have to do. This is one ot 
 His choice gifts that He has reserved for His choice ser- 
 vants, those who serve Him with all their hearts. Obedient 
 fuitli ! 
 
riLLEI) WITH Tin: Sl'lKlT. 
 
 14.3 
 
 away, 
 their 
 |ii any 
 lU dis- 
 co me 
 bed! 
 at ion. 
 Truly 
 'jfdom. 
 ou to 
 ne ot 
 ser- 
 ledieut 
 
 r)iit you say, "How do you know it was faitli ? Oil, 
 fjccause wo know tliey did as He l)ade llujni. Now faitli is 
 inseparable from expectation. Where there is real faitli 
 there is always expectation, and wlieii [ licar pe()[)le praying, 
 as I often do, from their throats, for the Holy (ihost, and 
 see how they talk the minute they get up from their knees, 
 and know how they live and whom they associate witb^ and 
 how they spend their time, I say, " Yes, you may i)ray till 
 your dying day, but you will never get it." H' they expect- 
 ed anything, they would wait for it: common sense tells us 
 that. 
 
 Those people waited. How long ? What a hue and cry 
 there is now about the Salvation Army people spcniding whole 
 nights in ])rayer. ]*eoi)le — Clu'istians, grey-headed Chris- 
 tians, up and down the country — say to me, ^' I don't know 
 how you get the time over. It must be such an immensely 
 long time. Do you really mean to say that you spend all 
 night in prayer?" I siy, ''Yes, with just an interval for 
 putting the truth and showing the people liow to apply it to 
 their own consciences." Then they say, " It must seem an 
 awfully long time." I suppose it does, to them, to spend 
 one whole night in prayer ; but liere, we are told, they 
 waited ten days, till the Day of Pentecost was fully come. 
 I have no doubt they went as far into the night as they 
 could keep their natural 2)0wers awake. They waited. 
 They did not set the Lord a time. They were wiser. They 
 did not say, "Now u«^ will go and liave a couple of days of 
 it. That will be a long time. We will just shut out all 
 else and wait on the Lord for a couple of days, and if He 
 does not come by that time, it will be outrageous to wait 
 beyond it. Whoever heard of a prayer-meeting two days 
 and two nights long ? " They did not set the Lord a time. 
 They went and waited till it came. 
 
 I 
 
m 
 
 141 
 
 ACJriTlKSSrVK CHItlSTIANITY. 
 
 'i!>/ 
 
 You s.'iy, "No; I liLive not got it." No; because you did 
 not wait until it camo. You j^ot liungry, or you iVll asleep, 
 or liut^'gtMl your idol. You did not wait till it camk. 
 
 Sui)i)oso they had given up on the filth day and said, 
 "There nuist Im; some mistake. He knows we arc here, all 
 ready, and the world is peiishing for our message. Tli(?re 
 nuist be some mistake. Wc had hettt»r begin." lUit no, 
 tlu'y waited on, and on, and on, until it eame. Can you 
 imagine what sort of i)rayers went u^) from the U[)per room ? 
 Do you thiid<^ they were the lazy, lacikadaisicMl i)rayers that 
 we hear every now and then for the Holy Spirit ? 
 
 Oh ! liow would IVter .agonize uid wrestle ! how would 
 Thomas plead ! how would Mary weep, beseech and entreat, 
 and liow were they all of one heart and of one accord. 
 They wanted the one thing, and they were there to get it. 
 They cared for nothing else but that. They cried for it as 
 hungry chihiren cry for bread. The// vuuitcd it. Did the 
 Jjord ever disapi)oint anybody who waited \\\w that? Can 
 anybody say so here ? Did you ever hear of such a case ? 
 Never. Hk came. 
 
 Oh ! but there are some people, now-a-days, who set God 
 times in everything. They think a good deal more about 
 their dinners than about Him. They think a great deal 
 more about intercourse with their friends and doing the po- 
 lite to them, than they do about the precious waiting Holy 
 Spirit of God. They think a great deal more about their 
 businesses. " Oh ! " they say, " it is business, and business 
 nuist be attended to." But what about the Holy Ghost and 
 the Kingdom ? Must not the Kingdom of God be attended 
 to ? Must not your soul be saved, and must you not become 
 a temple of the indwelling Spirit of Go 1 ? Put a must in 
 there, if you please. Far more impo'-tant is the soul than 
 
FiLi.Ki) WITH tin: SlMKir. 
 
 M.* 
 
 »u dill 
 sleep, 
 
 said, 
 IT, all 
 TheiHi 
 lit no, 
 !i yoii 
 [•ooiu ? 
 s that 
 
 would 
 
 iitroat, 
 
 accord. 
 
 get it. 
 
 ov it as 
 
 )id tlie 
 
 Can 
 
 case ? 
 
 let God 
 about 
 lit deal 
 :he po- 
 IIf»ly 
 It their 
 lusiness 
 )st and 
 ^tended 
 become 
 usT in 
 ill than 
 
 the body. Friends, are these? tilings so, or am I only imag- 
 ining them? Are these great triitlis, or are they Tables? 
 These are the most eommonsense, sim[)le exhibitions and 
 illustrations of these truths that could possibly be given. 
 \Vas it not so? Did they not thus \v;iit, ami did nf»t tht» 
 Holy (ihost come? — and when He (uime lie snt iqion thou 
 each. Jiless his name ! 
 
 l*eo[)le have a wonderful habit of losing sight of the little 
 words of the Ilibh; — the peo[)le who make a great to-do 
 about the word in other ways, often say, ^' I never saw that 
 till you directed my attention to it." Sup[)Ose I were to 
 say that this afternoon someihing hap[)eiied to each person, 
 would you imagine [ nii-ant the men and not the women? 
 Of course you would say I meant everyone. And it filled 
 them all — the women as well as the men, and they began 
 to speak with other tongues, as the S[)irit gave them utter- 
 ance. Jfe came. 
 
 And, my friends, He comes yet. ^ly bodily senses have 
 been quite cognizant of His coming sometimes. We only 
 know that we feel something tliat m) intluences our bodies 
 that we cannot describe it. 
 
 In the North, when I was there, we had an all-night ol 
 prayer, at which one thousand people, admitted by ticket, 
 waited all night on God. The meeting began at ten, and 
 went on until six in the morning, and there were strong men, 
 men in middle life and old men, lying on their faces on the 
 lloor. There were doctors there, who examined them and 
 tried to account for it from physical causes, but they could 
 not. It was the 2)owev of God. The Holy Ghost does come, 
 and because, in coming thus into our souls, and thus filling 
 us, He sometimes prostrates our bodies, people rebel, as they 
 did on this occasion, and rt^ject the manifestation, and say, 
 
 I' 
 
 tti 
 
146 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 :ll 
 
 [If: 
 
 i:' 
 
 IV 
 
 1 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 1 ■; 
 
 1^1 
 
 "Excitement! fanaticism!" What right have you to say 
 that the Holy Spirit coming into a human soul can operate 
 upon that soul to the full extent without, to some degree, 
 prostrating/ the body ? We know hovr people fall under 
 great emotions of anger, grief, and joy. Why? Because 
 the influence of the mind has so affected the body that the 
 body cannot bear it, and when the Holy Spirit of God 
 comes into a human soul and opens its eyes, and quickens 
 its perceptions, and enlarges its capacity, and swells it with 
 glory, is it an unlikely or improbable thing that the body 
 should sometimes be prostrated under His power ? What 
 did Paul say ? — " I bear in my body the marks of the Lord 
 Jesus, and I have been into the third heaven and heard 
 things that it was unlawful (or impossible) to utter." Do 
 you think God intended sucli experiences and visions only 
 for Paul and the apostles ? Ah ! there have been many 
 since his day who have had such experiences, and many 
 more of God's people might have them, if they would, but 
 they are not willing to be wrapt in His arms; tliey are not 
 willing to be pressed to His bosom ; they are not willing to 
 know Hiiii in a Scriptural sense ; they are not willing to 
 be given up and consimied by His Spirit. Their heart and 
 flesh do not cry out after the living God, as David's did. 
 They are not panting after Him as the hart after the water- 
 brooks. They are not longing to come and appear before 
 God, If they were so longing that they could not live 
 without it, then God would come to be revealed to them. 
 Will you, then, wait in obedient faith? 
 
 Oh ! I have the most awful realization that you will be 
 eternally better or worse for these services, and so I want you 
 to come up higher. I don't want you to go back, and get cold 
 and indifferent to these things, because here is the hope of 
 
FILLKD ^VITH THE SPIRIT. 
 
 147 
 
 > say 
 
 erate 
 
 'gree, 
 
 mder 
 
 cause 
 
 it the 
 God 
 
 ckens 
 
 ; with 
 body 
 
 What 
 
 ! Lord 
 
 heard 
 
 " Do 
 
 s only 
 ruciny 
 many 
 d, but 
 ve not 
 
 ling to 
 ing to 
 ;t and 
 [s did. 
 Iwater- 
 Ibefore 
 It live 
 1 them. 
 
 the world, if there is any hope for it, in people getting filled 
 with the Spirit, people getting so woke up to God and His 
 glcry, and the interests of His kingdom, that they should 
 be just as anxious for souls as other people are for sov- 
 ereigns. Filled with the Spirit, liaving eyes to see spiritual 
 sights which others do not see, ears to hear the crying of the 
 famishing multiuules who are dying for lack of knowledge; 
 hearts to feel so that they could go and weep over them. 
 Hands to break the bread of life, and, if need be, a zeal that 
 will lead them to die for them. This is what we want, and 
 it only comes with the fulness of the Spirit. 
 
 • Are you willing, my brother? Are you willing, my sis- 
 ter ? Tf so, stop with us this afternoon. Never mind the 
 dinner; never mind the tea. You have taken care of the 
 outer man long enough, now look after the inner man. 
 Never mind the children, m.other, just now, the Lord will 
 take care of them. Never mind anything, you who are 
 athirst, but getting this blessed Holy Spirit of God, thi3 
 full baptism of it on your souls. The Lord help you* 
 Amen! 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■' t 
 
 rill be 
 jit you 
 ^t cold 
 Dpe of 
 
if:< 
 
 
 SERMON IX, 
 
 :i ,. 
 
 THE WORLD'S NEED. 
 
 
 f 
 
 ■U ■' 
 
 •* Son, go work to-day in my vineyard." — 7>Tatt. xxI. 28. 
 
 "And the Lord said unto the servant, (Jo out into the higliways and hcdgeo, 
 and compel them to come in, that my house may be lilled." — Lukk xiv. 23. 
 
 We might have enumerated other texts, teaching tlie same 
 trutii. Tliere are plenty of them, but the general tenor 
 and bearing of the "Word of God, especially of the New 
 Testament, is more significant tlian even direct and isolated 
 texts. It seems to me that no one can disinterestedly and 
 dispassionately study the New Testament without arriving 
 at the conclusion chat it is a fundamental principle, under- 
 lying the whole, that His light and grace is expansive: 
 that is, God has, in no case, given His light. His truth, and 
 His grace to any individual soul, without holding that soul 
 responsible for communicating that light and grace to others. 
 Real Christi;inity is, in its very nature and essence, aggres- 
 sive. We get this principle fully exhibited and illustrated 
 in the parables of Jesus Christ. If you will study them, 
 you will find that Wq has not given us anything to be used 
 merely for ourselves, but that we hold and possess every 
 talent which He has committed to us for the good of others, 
 and for the salvation of man. If T understand it, I say 
 this is a fundamental princi[)le of the New Testament. 
 
 How wonderfully this principle was exhibited in the lives 
 
 148 
 
iicdges, 
 xiv. 23. 
 
 ! same 
 tenor 
 Kew 
 olated 
 y and 
 riving 
 nider- 
 iisive : 
 11, and 
 It soul 
 ithors. 
 liX^res- 
 Itrated 
 them, 
 used 
 every 
 (tliers, 
 I say 
 int. 
 lives 
 
 TKIE WORLD'S NEED. 
 
 ir.) 
 
 } 
 
 of tlie apostles and early Christians ! I low utterly careless 
 they seemed to be of everything compared witli this — this 
 was the first thing with them everywhere! How l*aul, at 
 the very threshold, counted nothing else of any consecpumce, 
 but willingly, cheerfully gave up evTry other consideration 
 to live for this ; and how he speaks of other apostles and 
 helpers in the Gospel who had been, nigh unto deatli, and 
 laid down their necks for the work's sake ; and we know 
 how he travelled, v, orked, prayed, we[)t, and suffered, bled 
 and died, for this one end. And so with the early Chris- 
 tians, who were scattered through the persecutions, how 
 they went everywhere preacdiiiig the Word; how earnest 
 and zealous they were, even aft^^er the apostolic age, we learn 
 from ecclesiastical history — how they would i)usli them- 
 selves in everywhere ; how they made converts, and won 
 real, self-denying followers even in kings' courts: how they 
 would not be kept out, and could not be put down, and 
 could not be hindered or silenced. " These Christians are 
 everywhere," said one of their bitterest persecutors. Yes, 
 they were instant in season and out of season ; they won 
 men and women on every hand, to the vexation and annoy- 
 ance of those who hated them. Like their blaster, they 
 could not be hid ; they could not be repressed, so aggres- 
 sive, so constraining was the spirit which inspired and 
 urged them on. 
 
 It becomes a greater puzzle every day to me, coming in 
 contact with individual souls, how people read their JJibles ! 
 They do not seem to understand what they read. "Well 
 might a Philip or an angel come to them and say, " Under- 
 standest thou what thou readest ? " Oh ! friends, study 
 your New Testament on this question, and you will bo 
 alarmed to find to what an awful extent you are your broth- 
 
 •I 
 
 :'" 1 
 
 
Wff 
 
 ^'\t-. 
 
 150 
 
 A(JGIli:SSIVE CHRISTIANS IT Y, 
 
 er's keeper — to what au awful and alarming extent God 
 holds you rtsponsihle for the salvation of those around you. 
 
 I want to ghmce, first, at our call to work for God ; and, 
 SECONDLY, at two or three Indlspenaable qualifications for suc- 
 cessful labour. 
 
 And, first, as I have just said, we are called by the "Word 
 not only in these direct ])assages, but by the underlying 
 princiide running through it all, and laying upon us the oh- 
 ligation to save men. In fact, the world is cast upon us j we 
 are the onhj people who can save the unconverted. 
 
 Oh ! I wish I could g(^t this tliought thoroughly into your 
 minds. It has been, perhaps, one of the most potent, with 
 respect to any little service I have rendered in the vine- 
 yard, — the thought that Jesus Christ has nobody else to 
 represent Him here but we Christians ; nobody else to 
 work for Ilim. These poor people of the world, who are in 
 darkness and ignorance, have nobody else to show them the 
 way of mercy. If we do not go to them with loving earn- 
 estness and determination to rescue them from the grasp of 
 the great enemy ; if we do not, by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, bind the strong man and take his goods, who is to 
 do it ? God has devolved it upon us. I say this is an 
 alarming and awful consideration. 
 
 Secondly, we are called hy the Spirit. The very first aspi- 
 ration, as I said the other night, of a newly-born soul, is after 
 some other soul. The very first utterance, after the first 
 burst of praise to God for deliverance from the bondage of 
 sin and death, is a prayer gasped to the throne for some other 
 soul still in darkness. And is not this the legitimate fruit 
 of the Spirit ? Is not tliis what we should expect ? I take 
 any one here, who has been truly saved, to record if the 
 first gushings of his soul, after his own deliverance, was not 
 
 / 
 
 1 I 
 
THE WORLDS KEED. 
 
 151 
 
 aspi- 
 
 after 
 
 first 
 
 ige of 
 
 lotlior 
 
 fruit 
 
 take 
 
 If the 
 
 IS not 
 
 1 I 
 
 i 
 
 for somebody else — father, mother, child, brother, sister, 
 friend ? 
 
 Oh ! yes, some of you could not go to sleep until you had 
 written to a distant relative, and poured out your soul in 
 anxious longings for his salvation ; — you could not take your 
 necessary food until you had spoken or written to somebody 
 in wliose soul you were deeply interested. The Spirit began 
 at once to urge you to seek for souls ; and so it is frequently 
 the last cry of the Spirit in the believer's soul before it 
 leaves the body. You have sat beside many a dying saint, 
 and what has been the last prayer ? lias it been anything 
 about self, money, family, circumstances ? Oh ! those things 
 are now all left behind, and the last expressed anxiety lias 
 been for some prodigal soul outside the kingdom of God. 
 When the light of eternity comes streaming upon the soul, 
 and its eyes get wide open to the value of souls, it neither 
 hears nor sees anything else ! It goes out of time into 
 eternity, praying, as the Kedeemer did, for the souls it is 
 leaving behind.* This is the first and last utterance of 
 the Spirit in the believer's soul on earth ; and oh ! if Chris- 
 tians were only true to the promptings of this blessed 
 Spirit, it would be the prevailing impulse, the first desire 
 and effort all the way through life. It is not God's fault 
 that it is not so. In personal dealing with souls no 
 point comes out more frequently than this : nothing which 
 those wdio have really been converted and become backslid- 
 ers in heart more frequently confess and bemoan than their 
 unfaithfulness to the monitions of the Spirit with respect to 
 other souls. In fact, backsliding begins here in thousands 
 of instances. Satan gets people to yield to considerations 
 of ease, propriety, being out of season, being injudicious, and 
 
 •Thus died David Stoner. 
 
 ■ 
 
 M 
 
152 
 
 AOGRESSIVE CHIUSTIANITY. 
 
 ■j 
 
 ■ 'ii 
 J. 
 
 1; 
 
 Ill 
 
 ' ) 
 
 SO on ; and they lose opportunities of dealing with souls, 
 and so the Sjiiiit is grieved and grieved. Oh! what num- 
 bers of people Iviva confessed this to me. 
 
 A gentleman, in advan(!ed life, said: "When I was a 
 3^oung man, and in my lirst love, the zeal of the Lord's 
 house so consumed me that I used to neglect my daily busi- 
 ness, and could scarcely sleep at night; but alas ! that was 
 many years ago." " Was it not better with you then than 
 now?'^ I asked; and the tears came welling up into his eyes. 
 Oh, yes! the Lord says of him, "I remember thee, the 
 kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when 
 thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was 
 not sown ; Israel ivas holiness unto the Lord, and the first 
 fruits of His increase." And, alas ! there are many such 
 to-day. They have it all to do over again ; they have to 
 repent and do their iirst works ; they have to come back and 
 get forgiven, and washed, and saved, if they are to go into 
 the kingdom on high, all for want of systematically an 1 
 resolutely obeying the urgings of the Holy Spirit toward.* 
 their fellowmen. 
 
 Now, you have, some of you, been hearing, the last few 
 Sundays, about grieving the Spirit, and about being filleJ 
 with the Spirit ; and some of you are puzzled as to how you 
 ought to wait — whether you ought to go on with your law- 
 ful avocations and wait. I say : INIy friends, I could quite 
 justify the position I took up last Sunday, but I will lu-t 
 stop, for I do not care about circumstantials ; but mind, t/i/'ji 
 is the great point — you must so wait, wherever it may be : 
 so plead and wrestle, and believe, THAT YOU GET IT.' 
 Then I care not whether it be in Jerusalem, in the Upper 
 Koom, or anywhere else — onl//, get it. Don't let us lose the 
 substance in quibbling about the way. Wait in that way 
 
TIIK WOIILDS KKED. 
 
 153 
 
 congeniiil to your present circumstances ; but, oU ! wait for 
 it until you get it, fur this is the life of your souls, and the 
 life of many souls, perchance, besides yours. You want this 
 spirit — the spirit that yearns over the souls of your fellow- 
 men ; to weep over them as you look nt tliem in their sin, 
 and folly, and misery; the spirit th.at cannot be satisfied 
 v/itli your own enjoyments or with feeling that you are safe, 
 or even that your cliihlren are safe ; but that yearns over 
 every living soul while there is one left unsaved, and can 
 never rest satisfied until it is brought into the kingdom. 
 
 Such are the urgings of the Spirit; and if people would 
 only be obedient to them, they would never lose these urg- 
 ings. Why, wliat an anonuily it is ! Does it look reasona- 
 ble, or like God's dealings, that people sliould begin, like tho 
 old man felt when he was young, and, instead of waxing 
 stronger, and having this holy zeal and desire increased, get 
 weaker and weaker, and less and less ? Does it look like 
 God's way of doing things ? Oh, no ! This eclipse is 
 through grieving and quenching the Spirit. 
 
 Now, my friend, you are called by the Spirit to this work. 
 Obe}' the call — do it. Never mind if it chokes you — do 
 it. Say, "I had better die in obedience than live in disobe- 
 dience.'* Oh! these everlasting likes and dislikes. "lean- 
 not speak to that person." " I cannot write that letter." 
 "Oh! you don't know whit would be the consequences." 
 Never mind the consequences — do it. God will stand 
 between you and the consequences; and, if lie lets you 
 suffer, never mind — then suffer; but obey the voice of the 
 Spirit. There would have been thousands of souls saved if 
 all those who have had these urgings had obeyed them. 
 Pray, where do these urgings come from ? Do they como 
 from your oavu evil hearts ? Then you are better than the 
 
 ( 
 
w 
 
 154 
 
 AGGUESSIVE CHIllSTIANITY. 
 
 I). 
 
 Ml 
 
 i,;ifc .; 
 
 Apostle. Separ.ited from the Spirit that dwells in yoii, aiiJ 
 disunited fiom Christ, your living Head, you are selfish, 
 deuUish. ''I'hen where do these urgings come from ? Do 
 they eome from the devil? Satan, then would indeed be 
 divided against himself. AVhere do they come from ? It 
 is the Spirit of the living God that is urging you to come 
 out aid seek to save the lost. AVill you obey these urgings ? 
 Will you give up your reasonings ? Will you give up your 
 likes and dislikes and obey ? If you will, then He will 
 comn to yoti more and more, till, like David, you will feel 
 the interests of Jiis kingdom to be more to you than meat 
 or drink, than silver or gold. Nay, you will become like 
 him who said, 'The zeal of Thine hou^e hath eaten me 
 up." 
 
 But, further, we are called to this luork h>j ivh.at He has 
 done for us. And what is that? Oh; you say, I cannot 
 telL No, no; we shall hdve to get home first, and then we 
 shall never be able to tell. We shall never be able to cast 
 \ip that sum, not even for '.he gratification of the angels. 
 That will remain an unexplored quantity for ever, what Ho 
 has done for us ! ! We shall have to find out what it would 
 liave been to have been lost ! and what it is to be saved in 
 all its fulness and eternity, before we can tell what He has 
 done for us ! ! 
 
 What has He done for us ? Oh ! if we had a tithe of the 
 love to sinners that He had for us, of His fo> bearing pa- 
 tience^ of His persevering effort, when He followed us day 
 and night, reasoned and reasoned with us, wooed and al- 
 lured us, what could we not do ? 
 
 I remember reading, somewhere, the story of a nobleman * 
 who was (I think) a backslider. He was stopping at some 
 
 •Count Zinzendorf. 
 
TILE WORLD'S NEED. 
 
 155 
 
 country inn, and lie went up into a room in which, over the 
 mantelpiece, there was a very good picture of the crucitixion 
 by a good old muster, and under it was written, "I sutTered 
 this lor thee — what hast thou done for me ? " Tliis question 
 went home. It struck deep, lie thouujht — Yes, what 
 indeed ? lie went out into the stables to his liorses, to try 
 to get rid of the uncomfortable impression, but h(» could not 
 forget it. A soft, pathetic voice seemed to follow him, — 
 " I suffered this for thee — what hast thou done forme!'* 
 At last it broke him down, and he Avent to his knees. He 
 said : '' True, Lord, I have never done anything for Thee 
 but now I give myself and my all to Ihee, to be used in 
 Thy service." 
 
 And have you never heard that voice in your soul, as you 
 have been kneeling at the Cross ? Did you ever gaze upon that 
 illustrious Surferer, and hear His voice, as you looked back 
 into the paltry past ? What hast Thou done for me ? 
 
 Now, there have been, at least, something like 350 people, 
 who have come forvyard, so far, in these services, professing 
 to give themselves afresh and fully to Jesus. I am sure, in 
 the main, they havei)een sincere. They have come for the 
 witness of the Spirit to their adoption, and for power for 
 service. Now, friends, I want to know what this is to come 
 to — what is to be the end of i. ? 
 
 •I 
 
 **^Yliat are you going to do, brother ? 
 What are you going to do ? " 
 
 And sister, too. Is it going to die out in sentiment ? Is it 
 going to evaporate in sighs and wishings, and end in 
 "Icaxxot"? God forbid! What are you going to do? 
 What HAVE you been doing for Him the last week? Ask 
 yourselves. You say — "Well, I have read my Bible more." 
 
 'V 
 
 
i.^e 
 
 AfJOHKSSIVK ClfniSTlAKlTY. 
 
 'ii 
 
 'h 
 
 ■il 
 
 ■ i 
 I 
 
 Very good, so fur as it grjes. AVliiit Ikivo you tviu\ it, for? 
 "Well," you say, "to got to know tlie Lord's will and to get 
 instruction and comfort." Ayo, exactly, but that is all for 
 yoursrJf, you see. " I have; prayed a greiit deal." Very 
 good, [ wish everybody would pray. TIk; apostles say all 
 men evei-y where ought to p' ly. "I have been asking the 
 Lord for great things" Very good, praises the Lord; but 
 those are for yourself, nuiinly. If you have been led 
 out in ag(»uizing sup[)li(;ati()n for souis, thank (lod for it, and 
 go on, and, as the Aposth; says, "Labour thereunto, with all 
 perseverance, praying in the Holy Ghost;" but if it has been 
 merely to get all you can for yourself, what prolit is that to 
 the Lord ? r>ut you say — " I am bringing \\\) my family." 
 Exactly; so are the worldly people around you, but what 
 for ? For God or for yourself ? Oh ! let us look at these 
 things, friends. I am afraid a great deal of religion is a 
 nuire transition of the selfishness of the human heart from 
 the world to religion. I am afraid a great deal of the 
 religion of this day ends in getting all ^''ou e;in and doing as 
 little as you can — like some of your servants. You know 
 the sort, who will do no more than they are forced — just 
 get thrcuigh, because they are hired. There is a great deal 
 of that ki4id of service in these days, both towards man and 
 towards God ! 
 
 Now, friends, what have you been doing for Him — for 
 the promotion of If is blessed, glorious, saving purposes iu^ 
 the world? What have you been denying yourself for the 
 sake of His kingdom ? What labor have you gone through 
 of mind, or brain, or heart? How many letters have you 
 written? How many people have you spoken to? How 
 many visits have you nuide? What self-denying labor have 
 you been doing for Him who has done (as you say) so much 
 
THE W';uIJ)S NKKD. 
 
 167 
 
 for? 
 1 get 
 I for 
 Very 
 
 y ^^^ 
 
 ,' the 
 ; but 
 I led 
 fc, anil 
 th all 
 3 been 
 lat to 
 
 inily." 
 
 what 
 
 these 
 
 1 is a 
 
 from 
 )f the 
 ling as 
 
 know 
 just 
 It deal 
 m and 
 
 — for 
 
 Ises in^ 
 lor the 
 [rough 
 [o you 
 llow 
 have 
 much 
 
 for you? "What hav(^ you been sulTcnng forlliui? Have 
 you been trying, in some little measure, to fill up behind 
 the measure of His sufferings "for His body's sake, the 
 church?*' Have you been carrying tln^ sins anc'. sorrows of 
 a guilty world on your heart before (iod, and i>h'ading with 
 Him for His own Name's sake, to pour out His Spirit ui)on 
 the ungodly multitudes outside, and to (]ui('ken half-asleep 
 j)rofessors inside? Have you been subjecting yourself to 
 reproach and contempt — not only from the world, but 
 from Jialfdiearted professors and IMiarisee^^, bearing the 
 Cross, enduring the shame of ludvind reproa(!hes in living 
 and striving to save them ? Oh, what have you been doing, 
 brother and sister ? 
 
 Come, now, friends, I want a i)ractical result. lie 
 suffered that for you. He is up yonder, interceding for 
 you. Five bleeding wounds Hi^ always bears in the i)res- 
 ence of His Father for you. H" He were to forget you lor a 
 single moment, or cease His ii-tercession, what would 
 happen ? What arc yor doing for Him ? He has left you 
 an example that you should follow in His steps. What 
 were they ? They were blood-tracked ; they were humble 
 steps. Tliey were steps scorned by the world. He was 
 ignored, and traduced, and rejected of men. He had not 
 where to lay His head. He carried in His body and in His 
 soul the sorrows and sufferings of all our race. He was a 
 man of sorrows — not His own. He had no reason to be 
 sorrowful. He was the Father's own beloved, and He kn(nv 
 it, but He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. 
 The griefs of this poor, lost, half-damned world He bore, 
 f.nd they were sometimes so intolerable that they squeezed 
 the blood through His veins. Have you been following in 
 His footsteps, in any measure ? He lived not for Himself, 
 
 i 
 
158 
 
 ACGUKSSIVE ClIKISTIANITY. 
 
 i 
 
 hi 
 
 Ho canio not to bo niinistcrod unto, but to minister, and 
 took upon I lini the form of a servant. What are you doing ? 
 Oh I my friends, up, up, and bo doing. Begin, if you have 
 not begun — begin to-(hiy. Ask Him to baptize you with 
 His Spirit, and let you begin at once to follow Him in the 
 regeneration of the Spirit. You are called by what Ho did 
 for you ! 
 
 Then, you are called by the wants of the world. I have 
 said so nuich about this at otlier times that I will not say 
 more now, only methinks it is a theme that is never ex- 
 hausted, and never will be while there are any more sinners 
 to save. Oh ! the wants of the world ! To me it is an 
 overwhelming, a prodigious thought, that He shed His 
 blood for every soul of man, and that as He hung there. He 
 saw, under all the vileness, and sin, and ruin of the Fall — 
 the luiman soul created originally in His own image, and 
 capable of infinite and eternal development and progress. 
 The soul to be rescued, washed, redeemed, saved, sanctified, 
 and glorilied — He saw this glorious jewel and He gave 
 Himself for it. Look at these souls. There is not one of 
 them so mean, or vile, or base, but can be rescued by the 
 power of His Spirit, and by His living, glorious Gospel 
 brought to bear upon them. The Saviour, quoting from the 
 Prophets, says, '-Ye are gods (and adds) the Scriptures 
 cannot be broken." He had no such little, mean, insignifi- 
 cant estimate of the worth of human souls as some people 
 have now-a-days, who consign whole generations to hell 
 without any bowels of mercy or compassion. Oh ! the 
 Lord fill us with the pity of Jesus Christ, who, when He 
 saw the multitudes, wept over them. 
 
 Oh ! friends, think of one such soul ! What is your gold, 
 or houses, or lands — what your respectability, what your 
 
THK WORLIVS NEKD. 
 
 169 
 
 , and 
 
 ing? 
 havo 
 with 
 I the 
 3 did 
 
 have 
 
 t say 
 
 er ex- 
 
 imera 
 
 is an 
 
 d His 
 
 le, He 
 
 j^all — 
 
 e, and 
 
 igress. 
 
 ititied, 
 gave 
 
 >ne of 
 )y the 
 
 gospel 
 >in the 
 ntures 
 Ugnifi- 
 )eople 
 hell 
 ! the 
 ;n He 
 
 gold, 
 your 
 
 reputation, wluit all tlio lu'izes of this woi Id ? We talk 
 about it, but who realizes it — w/to, wiio ? — the value of one 
 precious, immortal soul saved, redeemeil, sanctified. Oil, 
 tlie wants of the world ! They are dying, tufa' auk dvino ! I 
 When people come to me with their fastidious objections, I 
 say — "My friend, all I know is — souls are dying, dying." 
 
 If your homes were being decimated by the cholera, you 
 would not be very particular about the means you used to 
 stay it, and if anybody catne with objections to the rough- 
 ness of your measures, you would say, '' th(* pco[)l(; are dying, 
 they are dying," and that would be tlu^ end of all argument. 
 I say, they are dying, and they auk to be saved. Satan is 
 getting them: I want God to have them. Jesus Christ has 
 bought liieni. He was the propitiation for the sins of the 
 whole world. They belong to Him, and Hf* shall have ever}'- 
 one I can reach, and everyone I can inspire others to reach 
 also. 
 
 The world is dying. Do you believe it ? You are called 
 by the wants of the world. Begin nearest home if you like, 
 by all means: I have little faith in those people's ministra- 
 tions who go abroad after others, while their own are perish- 
 ing at their firesides. Begin at home but do not end there. 
 " Oh ! 3^s," people say, *^ begin at home," but they end there ; 
 you never hear of them anywhere else, and it comes to very 
 little what they do at home, after all. God has ordained 
 that the two shall go together. Get them saved by all means, 
 but somebody else saved as well. Set yourself to work for 
 God. Go to Him to ask Hira how to do it. Go to Him for the 
 equipment of power, and then begin. Xever mind how you 
 tremble. T dare say your trembling will do more good than 
 if you were ever so brave. Never mind the tears. I wish 
 Christians would weej) the Gospel into people ; it would often 
 
 I 
 
IGO 
 
 a<h;rkssive Christianity. 
 
 !i!^! 
 
 111 
 
 ^''^ 
 
 ■4 
 
 If 
 
 ■fri; 
 
 H' 
 
 4^ 
 
 go deeper tlum it does. Never mind if yon. do stammer. 
 They will believe you when it eomes from the heart. They 
 will say, "lie talked to me quite natural," as a man said, 
 some time a,G:o — wonderin.c; that he should be talked to 
 about relij^ion in a natural way ; but mind, no mock feeling, 
 for they will detect it in a minute. Go to the closet until 
 you get iilled with the Spirit, and then go and let it out 
 upon them. Finney says, " I went and let my heart out on the 
 people." (iet 3'our heart full of the living water and then 
 open the gates and let it flow out. Look them in the face 
 and take hold of them lovingly by the liand and sa}^, "My 
 friend, you are going to everlasting deatli. If nobody has 
 ever told you till now — I have come to tell you. jMy friend, 
 you have a precious soul. Is ic saved?" They can under- 
 stand tliat ! not beginning in a roundal)out way, but talking 
 to them straiglit : — " Do you ever thinlc about your precious 
 soul? Is it saved? Are your sins pardoned? Are you 
 ready to die ? "' Your rich neighbors and y^ur servant girls 
 and your stable-men alike, can understand that. 
 
 A lady said to my daughter, " I have begun talking to peo- 
 ple about their souls in quite a different Avay to what I used. 
 I begin asking them if they do not know they are sinners 
 and if ready to die, and it produces quite a dilTerent effect." 
 For one reason, she has her own heart full of the love and 
 Spirit of God, and iliat burns her words in. JU'gin in that 
 way and see what God will do through you, foi, of course, 
 I only recognise you as the instrumentality which He has 
 chosen, and those who reflect upon the instrumentality, re- 
 flec^t upon His wisdom. You go and put your hand to the 
 plougli and He will give you strength to push it along. 
 
 The Lord help you to go home thinking aliout the wants 
 of the worhl, and the next Sabbath we will consider the 
 qualifications for labour. 
 
 it 
 
SESMOJSr X. 
 
 THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 re- 
 |o tlie 
 
 rants 
 ir tlie 
 
 "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you : but tarry j-o !n the 
 ciij of Jerusalem, until yo be endued with power from on high." — Ldkb 
 xxiv. 49. 
 
 "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." 
 AOTS I. 8. 
 
 Friends who were present at former services will remem- 
 ber our line of thought, without my st()[){)ing to recapitulate. 
 My chief reason for taking up this subject again, after having 
 preached four sermons on it, is to meet the diiHculties of some 
 whom I believe to be anxious and honest entjuirers. Taking 
 those who have written and spoken to me as representatives- 
 of a class, it occurred to me that there might be many 
 others in a similar state of mind, and it is a great joy to me 
 if the Lord uses me to meet real difficulties, and to help 
 those who are exercised by them into a higher state of grace, 
 and a more thorough and complete devotion to the Lord. 
 This is my end. God is my witness in every service. 
 
 Now, I do not want to make any reflections, and will not 
 
 do so any further than I can help; but in dealing with such 
 
 a subject we cannot avoid this, to a certain extent, as I have 
 
 said before; if the truth reveals error, and if trying to get 
 
 into a better track necessarily in some measure reflects on the 
 
 old track — we cannot help it, and we must not eschew tha 
 
 former for the latter. It must be manifest, I think, to every 
 
 ici 
 
 
I!: 
 
 Ill' 
 
 IC2 
 
 Ar.r.KKssm: cimisTiANiTT. 
 
 i'l:. 
 
 m 
 
 spiritiKil and thoughtful Christian that there is a great want 
 somewliere in connection with the preaching of the Gospel, 
 and the instrumentalities of the church at large. That there 
 are many blessed exceptions I joyfully and gladly admit. 
 No one hails them with greater gladness than I do. That 
 there are blessed green spots here and there in the wilder- 
 ness is quite true, and when these are gathered together and 
 descanted on in articles, they look very nice, and we are apt 
 to take the flattering unction to our souls that things are not 
 so bad after all ; but, when we come to travel the country 
 over and find how few and far between these green spots are, 
 and hear what a tide of lamentation and mourning reaches 
 us all round the land as to the deadness, coldness, and 
 dearth of Christian churches, we cannot help feeling that 
 there is a great want somewhere ! This is not only my 
 opinion but it is almost universally admitted, that, with the 
 enormous expenditure of means, the great amount of human 
 effort, the multiplication of instrumentalities during the past 
 century, there has not been a corresponding result. 
 
 People say to me, on every hand, we have meetings with- 
 out number, services, societies, conventions, conferences, but 
 what comes of them all, comparatively? And I may just 
 say here that numbers of ministers and clergymen, in private 
 conversation, admit the same thing. In fact, none are more 
 ready to admit this comparative lack of results than many 
 dear spiritual ministers. They say, when talking with us 
 behind the scenes — "Yes, it is a sad fact. I think I preach 
 the truth. I pray about it. I am anxious for results, but 
 alas ! alas ! the conversions are but few and far between." 
 And then, not only are those conversions few, but in the 
 mass of instances superficial — we should expect from such 
 a putting of the truth as that we have been reading about, 
 
TUD nOLY GTIOST. 
 
 1G3 
 
 numerous and continunl tnrninc:s to tlie Lord as in those davs 
 
 — we should expect men coming out openly from sin and 
 from God-dishonoring courses, businesses, and professions 
 
 — coming out from fashionable and worldly circles, abjuring 
 the world, and literally and absolutely following Christ as in 
 those days. That is what w^o have a right to expect, and 
 yet how comparatively rare they are, so that when peojde do 
 this, there is quite a commotion, and it is talked about all 
 over the land. This, I say, is universally admitted, and it 
 behooves us to ask before God, and with an earnest heart, 
 yearning, desiring to improve this state of things — where 
 is the lack, what is the want ? 
 
 Note, secondly, this want is not the truth. Oh ! wdiat a 
 great deal of talk we have about the truth, and not any too 
 much. I would not yield to any man or woman in my love 
 for this Bible. I love this Word and regard it as the stand- 
 ard of all faith and practice, and our guide to live by; but 
 it is not enough of itself. The great want is not the truth, 
 for you see facts would contradict this theory. If it were 
 the truth, tlien there would be no lack at this day, compared 
 ■with other times, because we never had so much of the truth. 
 There never was so much preaching of the truth, or such a 
 wide dissemination of the Word of God, yet, comparatively, 
 where are the results ? — Further, not only as to quantity, 
 but as to quality, am I discouraged. Not only are there com- 
 paratively few conversions, but a great many of these are of 
 a questionable kind. AVe should not only ask — are people 
 converted, but what are they converted to ? What sort o^ 
 SAINTS ARE TUFA' ? bccausc, I coutcud, you had far better let 
 a man alone in "'in than give him a sham conversion, and 
 make him believ< he is a Christian when he is nothing of the 
 kind. So you see we must look after the quality as well as 
 
 ( 
 
104 
 
 AGGRESSIVIi: CIIRISTIAXITT. 
 
 
 1 ( 
 I.' 
 
 t ' 
 
 ■ \\' i 
 
 1 
 
 the quantity, and I fear, we have an awful amount of spuri 
 ous production, and it behooves us — and 1 will for one, if I 
 were to be crucified for it to-morrow — be true to what the 
 Spirit of God has taught me on this point, I will never pan- 
 der to things as they are for fear of the persecution which 
 follows trying to put them right. God forbid ! 
 
 Then, 1 say, the lack is not truth. There will be thousands 
 of sermons preached to-day — the truth, and nothiug but the 
 truth. Kobody will i)rotend to say they were not in perfect 
 keeping with the Word of God ; and yet they will be perfect 
 failures, and nobody will know it better than they who preach 
 them ! These are facts. 
 
 1 was talking, on this point, awhile ago, with a good man, 
 who said, "Ah! yes, I have not seen a conversion in my 
 church for these two years." Now, what was the reason ? 
 There was a reason, and I am afraid many might say the 
 same. Yet there are the unconverted. They come to be 
 operated upon. Take a church where there is a congregation 
 of, say 800 or 1,000, suppose with a membership of UOO or 
 300. What becomes of the 500 or 700 unbelievers, who come 
 and go, Sunday after Sunday, like a door on its hinges, nei- 
 ther better nor worse ? — nay, God grant it might be so, but 
 they are worse. They get enougli light to light them down to 
 damnation, but they do not g(^t enough power to lift them 
 into salvation. What is Tin-: mattkk? There must be 
 something wrong. AVill 3'ou account for it. It ought to be 
 accounted for ! It ought not so to be. God is not changed. 
 Surely lie is as anxious for the salvation of men now as lie 
 ever was. Human hearts are not changed; they are neither 
 better nor worse; they are depraved, vile, devilish — just 
 the same. The Gospel is just the same power it ever was, 
 rightly experienced, lived, and preached. It is still the 
 
 ' 
 
 fl '• 
 
THE nOLY GHOST. 
 
 ICo 
 
 power of God unto salvation. Then what is tho laattor ? 
 Tho truth is proachocL The peoph^ hear it, and yet they 
 remain us they were. Where is the hick ? 
 
 Now, I say, and I most unhesitatingly assert, that the great 
 want is rowEii — this power of which wo have been reading. 
 And I want to remark, thirdly, that this power is as distinct, 
 and definite, and a separate gilt of God as was this Dook, as 
 was tho Son, or any otlier gilt whicli llv. has given us ! 
 
 It is distinctly recognized, not only in our texts, but, as we 
 read to you again and again, as a distinct and delinitc gift 
 accompanying the efforts of those who liveou tho conditions 
 on which God can give it to tlicm. AVe cannot explain this 
 gift, but it is the power uf tlic Holy Spirit of God in the soul 
 of the speaker accompanying ILis word, making it cut and 
 pierce to the dividing asunder soul and spirit. "Ye shall 
 receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." 
 
 "Ye shall be endued with," — not the truth, not faith 
 (they had faith before that), but, " Ye shall be endued with 
 power, and, as He says in another place, '^vhi("h all youi ad- 
 versaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist." Though 
 they may stone you, as they did Stephen, they shall be cut 
 in their hearts, and made to feel the power of your testi- 
 mony. 
 
 Now, I find people who go to work, whi(di is all right, be- 
 cause the power comes to us in obedient faith ; but they go 
 trusting in their own efforts. They are without this endow- 
 ment of power, and they see no result, 1'he work is a com- 
 parative failure. Oh ! what numbers of people liave come to 
 me who have been at work in different directions, in 
 churches, as ministers, elders, deacons, leaders, Sabbath 
 school teachers, tract distributors, ami the like, confessing 
 that they had been working for more or less lengthened 
 
 t 
 
lOT 
 
 MWWI 
 
 166 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CIIKISTIANITY. 
 
 vn i 
 
 pf^riods, and liad seen comparatively little result. They say, 
 " Do you think tliis is liglit ? Do you think I ought to go 
 on ? " Go on, assuredly, but not in the same track. Goon 
 most decidedly, but seek a fresh inspiration. There is some- 
 thing wrong, or you Avould have seen some fruit of your 
 labour — not all the fruit. God does not give to any of us to 
 see it all ; but we do see enough to assure us that the Holy 
 Ghost is accompanying our testimony. God's people have 
 always done that when they have worked in conformity 
 with the conditions on which the power can be given. 
 
 Now, this is how I account for the want of results — the 
 want of the direct, pungent, enlightening, convicting, restor- 
 ing, transforming power of the Holy Ghost; and I care not 
 how gigantic the inteiy'^ct of the agent, or how equipped 
 from the school of human learning, I would rather have a 
 little child, with the power of the Holy Ghost, hardly able 
 to put two sentences of the Queen's English together, to 
 come to help, bless, and benefit my soul, than I would hav^e 
 the most learned divine in the kingdom without it, for " it is 
 not by might, nor by power, but by ]\Iy Spirit." Oh ! that 
 you would learn it. When you have learnt that, you will 
 be made; when you experience it, you will lay hold on God. 
 It is not by might — might of intellect, or learning, or elo- 
 quence, or position, or influence ; it is not by might, nor by 
 power — man's power — of any sort, but by IMy Spirit. That 
 is as true as it ever was. Here is the secret of the 
 Church's failure! She is like Israel of old : " She hath 
 multiplied her defenced cities and her palaces, but she hath 
 forgotton the God of Israel, in whom her strength is." If 
 you will read the history of the church from the begiiniing, 
 you will find it is true what I say, that just to the degree 
 that the church has increased in the material, she has de 
 
THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 167 
 
 creased in the spiritual. I do not say it ought to be so ; I dc 
 not say that is a necessity. I only give you a significant 
 fact that it has been so. 
 
 You say — "How do you account for it ? " I account for 
 it because we poor, wretched, tiny, helpless creatures, can- 
 not get anything good in tlie creature, but we begin to tiiust 
 in it. But when God teaches us that we liave nothing to 
 trust in, when He makes us realize our own nothingness and 
 utter helplessness, and gives us hold of Him with the grasp 
 of despair, then we will begin to be of some use — and never 
 till then. It is God that worketh in us and by us. The 
 Apostle labours all the way througli to show and convince 
 everybody that it was God in him and not of himself at all. 
 Though he could have preached with enticing words of 
 man's wisdom, and, no doubt, had many a temptation to do 
 it, as everybody has who has dipped into the flowery paths 
 of human rhetoric and learning, but he eschewed this as he 
 would the devil. He said, " no — this one thing I do " — put- 
 ting aside absolutely all else, he went on straight to that 
 work till they cut his head olf. 
 
 I believe you do perceive, but, if you do not, take the Book 
 and examine it yourself, — be at the trouble, — you will not 
 get at the mind of the Lord without a great deal of trouble 
 on these matters of power, sjjiritual union, and the like. 
 Take the Bible with you on your knees before the Lord ; show 
 Him the words, and say, " Now, Lord, show me the meaning 
 of this." Wait, and there will come a voice from the excel- 
 lent glory. There will come as light from the Shekinah, 
 which will reveal it in your spiritual consciousness, and you 
 will thus know that thing forever. You will be wiser than 
 youj teachers with respect to that particular point. 
 
 Further, you say, " Can we have this power equally with 
 
■il 
 
 1G8 
 
 AGGUESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 U' 
 
 \[>( 
 
 If 
 
 
 
 if 
 
 
 J 
 
 the early discnj)los ?" I say, reasoning by analogy, assum- 
 ing tliat what God h; s done in the past Jle will continue to 
 ('o in the future, is it not likely that He will give it tons, 
 because we equally need it? — we poor things, in our day, 
 as they did in theirs, we equally need it: first, because the 
 character of the agents is the same. We are very much like 
 them, and they were very much like us. This has ol'ten en- 
 couraged me. If they had beer men of gigantic intellects 
 anr^ extraordinary tduc 'I'or. ai- ing, a ad poj 'tion ; if they 
 had possessed aa humi..' < . :,'.iment and qualifications, we 
 might have looked baciv th. :^ii •'I ? ages in despair, and said, 
 " I can never be such as they were. ' Look what they were, 
 naturally, apart from this gift of power. The Holy Ghost 
 has taken care to give us their true characters. They were 
 men of like passions, weaknesses, tendencies, liability to fall, 
 with ourselves — just such poor, frail, weak, easily-tripped- 
 up creatures, and, in many instances, unbelieving and diso- 
 bedient, before Pentecost. Now, x say this is encouraging 
 for us all. 
 
 You remember what Jesus said to Mary — " Go and tell 
 my disciples an^ Petkr." Mary, perhaps, would have left 
 Peter out after his shameful denial of the Lord ; for fear of 
 this, Jesus said, " Go and tell my disciples and Peter." 
 
 Ah ! there are some here saying, " Put Peter was not so 
 bad as I am." "Well, we don't know anything about that, but, 
 whether you are worse or not, the Holy Ghost is equal to the 
 emergency. He can cure you. He can baptize you with His 
 power. You may have denied Him, if not as Peter did, yet 
 practically as bad. It makes no dilference to God whether 
 you have been a little bad or very bad ; whether you have 
 denied Him once or thrice, or whether you have denied Him 
 with oaths and curses. If you will only come, and comply 
 
THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 1G9 
 
 with the coiiiT tions, Tie will look on yon, hoal yon, and bap- 
 tize you with i)owoi'. Did they not all forsako lliui and 
 flee, except a few poor faithful women ? All the world for- 
 sook Iliiji and fled in the hour of His extremity. " Ah ! ' 
 you say, "well, I h /o done the same myself. I would not 
 wacch with Him one hour. I have betrayed Ilim beftre my 
 friends and acquaintances in the world, where I have been 
 brought into circumstances that have tested my fidelity. My 
 courage has failed, and I have failed to witness for Ilim." 
 Yes, I know and agree with you that it was base ingratitude. 
 You v/ere a traitor, indeed ; but still, if y ' will come back, 
 "Peter," and repent, and do your first worns, ie will receive 
 you — baptize you with power. Oh! w^t.' ihey were before 
 Pentecost, and what they were aftci i '* oor Peter, who 
 could not stand the questionings of t servant maid, who 
 could not dare to have it said that lib ,»' is one of the des- 
 pised Kazarenes, what a valiant soldier he afterwards be- 
 came for the Lord Jesus Christ, and how tradition says ho 
 was crucified for his Master at the last. Anyway, we know 
 he was a faithful and valiant soldier to the end of his jour- 
 ney. 
 
 Now, this baptism will transform you as it did them; it 
 will make you all prophets and prophetesses, according to 
 your measure. 
 
 Will you come and let Him baptize you ? "Will you learn, 
 once and forever, that it is not a question of human merit, 
 strength, or deserving, at all, but simply a question of sub- 
 mission, obedience, faith. 
 
 Then we need it because not only are the agents the same, 
 but our work is essentially the same. 
 
 It may differ in its outward manifestations because we live 
 in an age of greater toleration, but it is just the same in es. 
 
Jn^' 
 
 170 
 
 AfUJRESSIVE CIIKISTIANITY. 
 
 
 senco, and I do not Isnow, as to the manifestation, when you 
 come to do it in apostolic fashion, with apostolic spirit, 
 wla-thcr yon do not get very much the same apostolic treat- 
 ment. They gnasii ui)on you with their teeth, and do aa 
 much as the law will let them, and sometinu^s a little more, 
 in the way of stoning and persecuting you. 
 
 Tlic great thing to he done hy this pjower of God is to sub- 
 due the naturally evil, wicked, and rebellious heart of man. 
 Now God alone is able to do that. That is a superhuman 
 work, i^ou may enlighten a man's intellect, civilize his 
 manners, n form his habits, make him a respectable, honest, 
 industrious member of society, without the power of God, 
 but you cannot transform iiis soul. That is too much for 
 any human reformer. That is the prerogative of the Holy 
 Ghost, and I have not a shadow vjf a doubt that the eternal 
 day will reveal every other kind of work to be wood, liay, 
 stubble. All the sham conversions, all the people whose lives 
 and opinions have been changed by anything short of this 
 power, will be wood, hay, stubble. It is the prerogative of the 
 Spirit of God. Therefore, God never pretends to do it by 
 any other means ; and all through the Bible this power is as- 
 cribed to the Spirit of God. Therefore, we want this Spirit 
 to do this work. What ! you set yourself to enlighten a dark- 
 ened human soul, to convince a hardened, rebellious sinner, to 
 convert a rebel in arms against God, with an inveterate hatred 
 in the very core of his soul against God and all about God! 
 You set yourself to bring down that — to transform that evil, 
 wicked heart, to subdue that soul to submission and obedi- 
 ence ! — you try it, try it without the Spirit of God! Oh ! 
 no, you want that Spirit. You want the same measure of 
 that Spirit, just the same, wdiich Paul had. 
 
 And what is our work ? To go and subjugate the world 
 
THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 171 
 
 )irit 
 
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 Ir, to 
 
 Itved 
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 to Jesus ; everybody wc can roach, everybody we can iuflu 
 ence, and bring them to the feet of Jesus, and make them re- 
 alize that He is their hiwful King and hiwgiverj that tlie 
 Devil is a usurper, and that they are to come ami serve; Christ 
 all the days of their lives. Dare any of us think of .t without 
 this equipment of power? Talk about ''Can we have it?" 
 — we are of no use without it. What can we do without it ? 
 This is the reason of the elTeteness of so nmeh professed 
 Christianity ; there is no Holy Ghost in it. It is all rotten. 
 It is like a very pretty corpse — you cannot say there is this 
 wantinj,' or the other wanting, it is a perfect form, but dead. 
 It is like a good galvanic battery. It is all right — perfect 
 in all its parts — but when you touch it there is no effect — 
 there is no lire or shock. What is the matter ? It only 
 wants the lire — the power. 
 
 Oh ! friends, we want the power that we may be able to 
 go and stretch ourselves upon the dead in trespasses and sins, 
 and breathe into him the breath of spiritual life. We want 
 to be able to go and touch liis eyes that he may see, and speak 
 to the dead and deaf with the voice of God and make them 
 hear. This is what we want — tower. 
 
 If we equally need it, is it llkehj that God will withhold 
 it ? The Book, rightly read and understood, is full of prom- 
 ise and exhortation to get it. Is it likely that if we are as frail 
 as they were, if the work is the same, is it likely that the 
 God of all grace, and our Father as much as theirs, and as 
 much in sympathy with the souls of men, will withhold it 
 from us ? Ko, no. But our Saviour distinctly told us that 
 He bought it for us — that it was more expedient that His 
 2)eople should have it than that He should remain with 
 them. It is promised to all believers to the end of time. 
 The conditions you know — sim2)ly putting away everything 
 
172 
 
 A(JGI{i:SSIVi: CirUISTIANITY. 
 
 '!■ 
 
 tli.'it liiiidcrfl, casting usido cvory doiiljtful thing, trampling 
 it in tin; dust; then a full, wliolc-licartcd siiircndcr to Ilim, 
 embracing tlio Cross, embracing His will at all costs and 
 sacriliccs, and then a determined march to the U|.por room 
 at Jerusalem and a determined abiding there until you get 
 it — these are tlie conditions. Anybody can have it on 
 these terms. 
 
 Then, in conclusion, let me remind you — and it makers my 
 own soul almost reel when I think of it — that God holds 
 us responsii)le. He holds you responsible for all the good 
 you might do if you had it. Do not deceive yourself. He 
 I will have thv Jive talents with their increase. He will not 
 have an excuse for (me, and you will not dare to go ip to the 
 throni! and say, "Thou wast a hard master, reaping where 
 Thou dost not sow, and gathei'ing where Tliou liadst not 
 strewn. Tliou biddest me to save souls when Thou kn(»west 
 I had not the power." What will He say to you ? " Wick- 
 ed and slothful servant, out of thine own mouth will I judge 
 thee. You knew where you could have got the power. 
 You knew the conditions. You might have had it. Where 
 are the souls you might have saved. Where are the chil- 
 dren that I would have given you ? Where is the fruit ? '* 
 Oh ! friends, these are solemn and awful realities. Oh, 
 what you might do ! Who can tell ? Who would ever have 
 thought, twenty years ago, when I first raised my voice, a 
 feeble, trembling woman, one of the most timid and brishful 
 the Lord ever saved, the hundreds of precious souls that 
 would be given me ! I only refer to myself because I know 
 luy own case better than that of another ; but, let me ask 
 you — supposing Iliad held back and been disobedient to 
 the Heavenly vision, what would God have said to me for 
 the loss of all this fruit ? Thank God, much of it is al- 
 
 It' ' 
 
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THE HOLY (illOST. 
 
 173 
 
 )wer. 
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 chil- 
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 ready gathered into Heaven, ]>eoj>le who have sent me word 
 from their dying beds, that they blesseil God they had ever 
 heard my voice, saying that they shouhl wait for mj on the 
 other si(Us prepared to hMil me to th<; throno — wliat would 
 have heeome of tlio fruit ? / shouhl not have had it any- 
 way. They wouhl never liave become viy crown of rejoic;- 
 ing in the day of the Lonh Oh, who can tell what (Jod 
 can do by any man or woman, however timid, however 
 faint, if oidy fully given up to Him. ^My brother, my sis- 
 ter, Il«? holds you responsible. lie holds you responsible, 
 my sister — you, who wrote me about your dillieultics and 
 temptations in testifying of Jesus — He liolds you respon- 
 sible. What are you going to do? Ask yourself. It is 
 coming. Vou believe it! You say you do. Unless you 
 are a confirmed hypocrite, you do — that you are going to 
 stand before the throne of His glory. You believe that 
 you are going to stand before Him by-and-bye, when you 
 shall reccMve according to the things you have done in your 
 body. AVhat shall you say ? The world is ci} nig — souls 
 are being damned at an awful rate eveiy day. !Men are 
 running to destruction. Torrents of iniquity are rolling 
 down our streets and through our woii^. God is almost 
 tired of the cry of our sins and iniquities going np into His 
 ears. AVhat are you going to do, brother ? What are you 
 going to do? AVill you set to work? Will you get this 
 power? Will j'ou put away everything that hinders? 
 Will you have it at all costs ? 
 
 We had a letter very recently, about a gentleman who had 
 been reconv« rted in the services of the Salvation Army, tell- 
 ing us that he has relinquished an income of £S00 a year, 
 iu order to keep a conscience void of offence — this ia 
 the result of the power of the Holy Ghost. I lieard 
 

 174 
 
 AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of another gentlemcan who was invited to a party. Aftei 
 dinner, tlie card-table was got out as usual, and when the 
 cards were all spread and everybody was ready to begin, this 
 gentleman jumped up, and pushed it nway, and said, " I have 
 done with tliis for ever.'' The lady who told me said, "He 
 was down on his knees before we had time to turn round, 
 and was praying for us and for all the house. Oh!" 
 she added, "you should have seen tht\n." Yes, of course, 
 every man felt like the people rounc^ che Saviour. Every 
 man's own conscience condemned him. " They went off home, 
 without any more card-playing, or dancing, or wine-drinking 
 that night." Come out from amongst the ungodly. Testify 
 against them. Reprove them. Entreat them with tears ; 
 but be determined to deliver your soul of their blood. God 
 will give you the power, and He holds you responsible for 
 doing this. You have received the light. Will you do it ? 
 If you will, we shall meet again, and rejoice with joy un- 
 speakable. If you do, we shall praise God for ever that He 
 brought us inside the walls of this building long after it has 
 smouldered into dust. There shall be children and grand- 
 children, and great grandchildren from you spiritually, if 
 you will only be faithful. 
 
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