THE i^if^t dki^kdiku CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE, HELD IN SHAFTESBURY HALL, TORONTO, : MONDAY, OCT. 21st, UNTIL FRIDAY, OCT. 25th, 1878 TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE HOUSE, SHAFTESBURY HALL, TORONTO. 1' L-f ' r- .ACC liih-lii^fiKO J^/ii'^F n n V '-I r ':^ o ^' f^ 1 V. f^ i'1" ? ^ H 13 ""] VI. i'.y^p ,01l Soronta : HILL 4 WEIB, STEAM rRIKTEBS, 11 4 IS TIOTOEIA. BTBIIT. ,i^'?£ /tK^V^^^ -^W't.'^ .'?n .'ry; ."(i-.n\'-v.\' :f '•"'•":: ■'^v::- cfet Call, '-''^-'-i^- CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. "'^^^ *' '''"'■''. -y, i .:.) * SHAFTESBURY HALL, ' '' Toronto, 7 J. H. Castle, D.D. ' "! " Thomas Guttery. " J. A. R. Dickson. " John Potts, D.D. ?:J..r'' " D. J. Macdonnell, B.D. John Smith. * Wm. Briggs, " J. Denovan. " Canon Innes, London. " Geo. Burson, St. Catharines. " W. Brookman, M.A. " ■«*.; i^tf^'-^ ■■ IV./Pv'-. '^ Rev. J. Cl..^R''S0N, M.A., Brantford. " RoBT. Cameron, B.A. " " J. W. Mitchell, M,A., Mitchell Hon. John McMurrich. Wm. Gooderham, Junr. Robert Baldwin. .H sit Daniel McLean. ;;■;,:<; jjit tjj T. J. Wilkie. Arthur Burson. Prin. Dawson, McGill Coll., Montreal George Hague, Montreal. George Foster, Brantford. W. A. Parlane, CoUingwood. <('J ,I'f 's.'i'iA :;-;;:i vrtvy ■ * V • • w,! BY REV. J. A. R. DICKSON. The first Canadian conference of Christians of all denomina- tions was held in Shaftesbury Hall, Toronto, from Monday afternoon, October 21st, until Friday night, October 25th. There were three sessions every day ; the first from 9 o'clock till 12 o'clock ; the second from 2.30 till 5 o'clock. The first hour of the morning session was devoted to prayer and praise, when the requests for prayer and notes of thanksgiving were read. The first half-hour of the afternoon session also, was set apart for prayer and the answering of questions. These were a go'-d preparative for the separate sessions. The evening session took the form of an Evangelistic Meeting. There was a large attendance both of ministers and laymen — not only from the city, but from almost every quarter of the country. Overflow meetings to accommodate the multitude that came at night, were held in the Richmond Street Methodist Church and in Knox Presbyterian Church. The last meeting of all was held in the Metropolitan Church, which was filled to its utmost capacity. The spirit that animated the brethren and characterized the proceedings from beginning to end was that of love. And the object around which everything moved, and to which everything led, was Christ ; the living, present, personal Christ. If we were asked wnat the Conference was all about, our answer would be given in one word, " Christ." And it may easily be imagined whal VI. INTRODUCTION. would come out of a week's talking about Him ; it is but a repeti- tion of the old story of the travellers to Emmaus, ♦* Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures." It was a time of blessing: great blessing. We cannot tell how many hearts were quickened and enlarged ; how many received new light ; clearer and fuller light as to the teaching of the Wordjin relation to the Christian's position in the world and his relation to his Lord; how many were baptized with the spirit of separation from the world and consecration to Christ ; how many were lifted up into a h' ■ r plane and into a clearer atmosphere, because they were Drought nearer to God ; we cannot tell ; but all we were privileged to meet had received blessing — great blessing. As we think of the sacred week in which the Conference was held and of the fellow- ship enjoyed, the ancient Psalm expresses best the feelings of our heart : " Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, than ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments : as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion ; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." I ■' We believe the Conference was a time of seed sowing, the harvest of which shall be seen in days to come. It was a grand testimony, too, to the essential unity, the spiritual unity of God's people. It declared the Protestant Churches one in Christ. Men of widely diverse doctrinal sentiments spoke on themes where .; divergences could be most easily seen, but these wfere so small that they were hardly noticeable ; and when once they were, it ',? was because the teaching was couched in theological phrase rather than in Scriptural statement. It was cheering to see how both INTRODUCTION. vU. the written Word and the incarnate Word were exalted. There was no question as to the Divine authority of the Scriptures, that was admitted and joyed in by all ; and there was no doubt as to the divinity oi Christ ; all knew him as the risen Lord, and as the coming King. The days passed in His presence, and the power of the Spirit was manifested every day. It was the confession of Dr. Mackav, of Hull, that though he had been at Christian Con- ferences ever since they were held in Great Britain, he had never been at one where he had experienced so much of God's Spirit, and where the Spirit was so manifestly present as at this one. This was felt by all. And what may account for this is the fact, that from the first, entire dependence was placed in His promise of grace to help in time of need. The Spirit of God was looked unto and trusted in, and followed. And by one Spirit all were baptized into one body : one living brotherhood of Christian men. And by one Spirit all were made partakers of life " more abundantly." -''-'■' ''■'' ''^■'" '■^^-! '"-"■' >■>■'- l^'^^ The result of a Conference of this kind is a deepening interest in the Word of God ; an increase of love to its precious truth, and a desire to enjoy such a season of blessing again. I trust that this will be the case, and that next year we shall have a Con- ference of like character, and, if God will, even more full of spiritual power. But a great danger lies here, namely, that of our trusting in the stimulus of such agencies alone, and resting in the sweet experiences enjoyed, instead of making them helps to higher things still, through our own study, our individual study of the Word in the presence of the Master. The lesson the Conference teaches us is tnis, that in the light — the full light of the Word of God — we are not only shined upon, but shone through, enlightened and warmed, and enlarged at once ; and Jthat a continuance of this state may be had by l"emaining in the light of the Word. Iljifc INTRODUCTION. The manna that was gathered in these days, falls airesh for us every day if we will only come up into the mount ot God. ._.. " Have you felt the Saviour near? Still there's more to follow. ,.> ui..*- Does His blessed presence cheer? Still there's more to follow. t>t'l I i- Have you felt the Spirit's power? Still there's more to follow. '•'•' "^ '• , More and more, more and more ; Always more to follow, Oh, His matchless, boundless love I Still there s more to follow." And now that it is over, with its sweet seasons of prayer, its rich expositions of truth, its delightful fellowships, its thrilling addresses, and powerful meetings, we look for a nobler and purer life, a more entire consecration of heart and spirit, and a greater fruitfulness in service in all who were privileged to be present. May there be no disappointment in this. , . , ,,, The addresses that were delivered were all, without excep- tion, excellent: and it is a great pleasure to be able to present them here, not in the marred and mutilated shape of a newspaper report of them, but as they have been revised by their authors. Not as they were thought to say, but as actually what they did say. Thus the golden pipes through which the oil flowed, and the alabaster boxes that contained the precious ointment are all preserved in their entirety, and are now through the printed sheet put within the reach of all. May the oil flow out still by the blessing of God, into thou- sands of hearts, and quicken them ; and may the ointment anoint many with new power to live and labor for Christ ; may the words be clothed afresh with the energy of the Holy Ghost, and be blest to the reader as they were to the hearer. .;■.■;,'.- ji.t. " /'ll^/it'^HV/ TJ»'^.2^>'"*l^y VI^SIOV^MIP'"^''' ^^' '''■"> ^1 ,! J ', PRAYER AND PRAISE MEETING. '■■'■ -■« .--■■: Itrst fag. The Conference began at three o'clock in the afternoon, in Shaftesbury Hall. Major Cole, of Chicago, presiding. The Chairman said that the meeting would be demoted to praise and prayer, and they would now praise God by singing Hymn 83, of Morgan and Scott's enlarged edition of Songs and Solos. ' l^,•^ " All people who on earth do dwell, ,: * ,,,; * ;_ ,. . i,' Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, . v; ; Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, Come, ye before him and rejoice.'' The Rev. J. Cooi'ER Antliff, of Toronto, m response to a request from the Chairman, engaged in prayer. Hymn 73 was now sung. . " Rejoice and be glad ! The Redeemer has come ! Go look on His cradle, His cross, and His tomb!" The Rev. Robert Cameron, of Brantford, read the xv. chap^ of Exodus, from the first to the twenty-first verse. Hymn 95 was now sung. , ■ " He leadetli me ! Oh blessed thought "^ i. '' ' O words with heavenly comfort fraught ' ' » . ,., :■ > •( Whate'er 1 do, where'er I be, ;,.:'', .'"-v -'j Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me." .-., -i.''' t.v!-* The Chairman then asked the meeting to allow the tender hands of Christ to lead them all through these services. I thank God this afternoon I can put my hands into the hands of the Lord, knowing that "All things work together for good to them that love God." Yes, dear brethren, our Father's at the helm ; He will carry us through. Not long ago, I stood over a dear brother, as he bade good-bye to his wife and four daughters. They intended to go to Europe, and sailed under very auspi- cious circumstances; but, alas, the ship went to the bottom of the deep. A telegram came back from his wife stating, " I am saved, but our darling daughters are lost." I went into his office and said to him, " How is it now brother; can you trust God in this?" "Oh," said he, " It's His own dear hand that leadeth me." Oh, my dear friends, there is no condition in life in which a Christian may be placed, but that he can shoutl and praise God. One morning, shortly afterwards, my wife and lO CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. - - I called to see him ; standing by the piano, I observed some carte de visites lying upon it, and in close connection were some little vases full of beautiful flowers, and they looked so nice and fresh. He had evidently observed their attractive in- fluence, for he said, with such pathos, " Ah, we have no little graves to decorate for our little darlings, for they are at the bottom of the sea, and thus you see we have those little flowers in remembrance of them." And as I looked at his calm face, I said, " I can sympathise with you my dear brother." "Yes," he replied, " God is leading us ; He is good ; He makes no mistakes ; He is kind, for He will take us to our own darlings bye and bye." Thank God for such a religion as this, that enables us, under all circumstances, in all conditions, to praise God from whom all blessings flow. Rev. Dr. Potts read the gSth Psalm, and Mr. A. Burson read from Revelation 21st chapter. The hymn 47, " Oh sing of His mighty love " was then sung. The Chairman said : We shall be glad to have any one give a word of thanksgiving. I am sure we all have something to be thankful for. My heart was touched with hearing of a poor decrepit soldier praising and blessing God as he walked along the road, who said he had good reasons for praising and blessing God always and for everything. We all have something to praise God for. To-day I thank Him for this beautiful sunshine. I thank God for the opportunity I had of speaking to an unsaved man this morning ; it is worth a trip round the world, to try to lead a poor man to the dear loving Saviour. I praise Him for the Christian faces before me this afternoon: there is a link between us. Oh, may we be united with the Holy Spirit from the beginning of these meetings to their end. The Rev. Dr. Potts, of Toronto, said he was thankful to-day for the gathering of so many of God's people ; for the coming of our dear friends from the United States. I praise God for the Spirit that seems so graciously and abundantly to pervade this first gathering of the Conference. I think there is not a heart but realizes that the Lord is leading us in this good assembly. Mr. Arthur Burson directed the attention of the meeting to the words, "And Jesus Himself drew near," and trusted we would see the Lord's name magnified in this and all the meetings. The Rev. J A. R. Dickson, of Toronto, sa: J that he praised God for the holding of this Conference in Toronto, and that it was a joy to realize that Jesus Himself was in the midst, that Jesus was here to impart to each of us the blessing that we want, and that He is manifesting His power as we are singing and speaking of Him. He looked upon the meeting as a prophecy of a larger and greater blessing. Let us look beyond man altogether, unto Him our Saviour, and then we shall have God's richest blessing. An Old Gentleman, sitting near the front, then rose up ;; ; christian conference. ii and said he remembered the time when such a meeting could not be held, and blessed God that he lived to see such a day as this, and prai^d Him for what He had done for his precious soul. It was nearly sixty-seven years since God had, for iesus Christ's sake, pardoned his sins ; he was thankful that is name was written in the " Lamb's Book of Life," and that he had a clear evidence of it in his heart. Tlie Chairman: It is Heaven wherever Jesus is, no matter wherever it is ; and said he was holding a meeting outside of Chicago one evening, and a man came down the aisle, a very fine, noble looking specimen of manhood he was; he came down with a firm step, and as he came to the front he threw his overcoat upon the seat, and said, " I have decided for Christ now, and I would like the Christian friends to pray that I may be a consistent Christian." The next evening he was accompanied by his wife. Three or four nights after I saw a young man evidently exercised about the welfare of his soul, when I spoke to him I asked him if he would like to become a Christian. He said, " Yes ; " he counted himself a sinner before God. We knelt down together, and when we arose from our knees " The load was gone." I said to him, " Do you know that gentleman who is going down the aisle ? " He said, " Oh yes, that's my father." I called the father and said to him, "Allow me to introduce you to your son in Jesus Christ." The father wept for joy, and told his son to run out and tell his mother. Oh, how happy I felt as I saw the boy descending the steps to tell his mother ; the result was a happy Christian family. Oh, my dear friends, what a blessed Jesus we have to make us so happy as this. We made a call upon them soon after this, when a scene occurred, which stirred my heart to the very bottom. The father had been in the habit of leading in a band and was an adept at playing dance music. I asked him how the " Gospel Notes " would sound, and bye and b) e a cornet and an organ were brought into play ; the mother came in from the dining-room and joined the chorus ; the son dragged a bass-viol from the parlor, and of all the harmony that had ever been produced in my presence, this certainly was best of all, but when the children came home and chirruped, in with their sweet little voices, I could not keep still, so we all sang in grand style " Oh, that will be heaven for me.'' A few moments were spent in silent prayer, after which the Rev. J. A. R. Dickson, of Toronto, offered up a short prayer, which was followed by the singing of hymn 48. " Sweet hour of prayer." The Rev. Dr. Green, read the Saviour's prayer for the Apostles, from John xvii.; after which, Mr. A. Burson led in prayer. " Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,' hymn 212, was now sung. la CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. The Rev. Robert Cameron, of Brantford, read a request for prayer f.om London, England, for the " Sailor's Rest, Ratcliffe Highway," and Miss McPherson's work amongst the children. Prayer was then asked .for a gentleman of this city, who was apparently dying, and that God's blessing might rest upon the family. After prayer. The Chairman asked prayers on behalf of a friend of his who was a slave to the intoxicating cup ; his home and all its comfortable surroundings had been broken up. He asked that the Spirit of God might enlighten his heart, and that he might be led to Jesus, who is able abundantly to save, and lift him out of the depth of depravity intu which he had fallen. God grant that his wife and family may be made happy once more. I know that we lose faith sometimes in such cases. My heart trembled a little when I sa\v him, but then again, I thought of God's wonderful power to save. The saddest case I ever saw was that of a young man whom I met in the streets of Chicago, his body seemed to be a perfect wreck, nay I may say, destroyed. It was raining very hard at the time I met him, so after having some talk with him, I gave him my address and told him to call : he called, and was well dressed in a new suit of clothes. Said he wns seekinga situation. Well, after considerable talk, I said I would endeavor to get him one. I did so; but a few months afterwards he lost it on account of his intemperate habits. I saw him again in a worse plight than before. I said, " I am sorry to see you in such a state, Willie ; still I have hope that you will become a follower of Jesus." " No ! never ! " he said. " I will never bow my knee to God. If it was not that I was such a coward, I would kill myself ! There is no hope for me ! I don't want to be saved ! I hate God ! I hate Christians and I wish that I wa,s dead !" "Ah, Willie," I said, "there have been too many prayers offered up for you to die such a death — you are a sad boy, Willie, I hold a letter from your mother, and she says you have squandered a fortune." " Letter !" said he — " I have had letters myself; but I did not read them. I took the money and threw the letters away." "Yes, Willie, the money you have is the mortgage money. You have deceived her, and you are now foolishly spending that money." "Yes," he said " I'm going to have a good time to-night " " Is it possible for a man to fall so low as that ?" I said. I read him his mother's letter, as follows : "Dear Sir: Your letter was received informing me of my son's conduct. My grief is so great that I cannot give it expression. May God grant me faith to believe that my boy may be saved. I send hiPi money to get him out of difficulties. He is the idol of my heart. I pray that God will save him. Please write as soon as possible — Yours, &c." I said to him, " This is from the trembling hand of your mother. Will you not begin a new life ?" •' No sir," he replied emphatically. " I have four hundred and fifty dollars, and I'll have a ' good time' of it.' " A few months CHRISTUM CONFERENCE. " 13 later he again came into my office, his whole frame trembled. He said, " I have one request to make to you sir, and that is : won't you give me a drink, and I'll never ask anything more from you. Just give me money enough to buy one drink." I saw he was a little delirious. I said, " Certainly, I will give you a drink." I gave him a cup of coffee. He said, " That's a poor thing." His will power seemed to be completely gone. He wanted something " hard," something to fire his shattered, nervous system. I kept him under my charge for sometime, until I thought it safe for him to go home. What a sad thing to see a young man, with a brilliant mind, in such a sad condition. We prayed for him morning and night, but he seemed cold and indifferent. There came a morning when I had the pleasure of seeing him on his knees, his eyes turned heavenward. He was saying " Lord save me for my mother's sake, and for the sake of those strangers who have taken me in." I came up quietly and knelt by his side and said, " Say ' for Jesus Christ's sake.'" God heard and answered our prayers. My wife joined us, and we unitedly lifted up our voices in praise and thanksgiving. We had the satistaction of seeing him shortly after seeking lor comfort from God's Holy Book. He said, "I believe the Lord's going to keep me after all." I replied, " God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, not to destroy the world, but that the world through him might be saved." A few weeks later I thought it safe to send him home. I telegraplied to his mother. "Willie on the Vv'ay home." Just a. year from this time a young man came into my office, I saw it was the same young man ; he had his dear mother with him. She held out her wrinkled hand to me, and then she threw her arms round the neck of her dear boy, ejaculating at the same time " My son, my son — my boy is saved. I thank God that you ever talked to my boy. I bless God for saving him." Two verses, first and second of Hymn 140 were sung. The benediction was pronounced by the Rev. J. P. Lewis, and thus closed the first session of the Christian Conference. This, the first session, was a time of spiritual power. Deep interest was manifested by the presence of a large congregation at this session. Ministers and leading men of all denominations being present. X4 ' CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. .Va',-,.:-: -,vv-^v;-v. EVENING SESSION. j;'>>^.;;\ ^^^^ t:>A-' Long before the hour of opening, the Hall was crowded to overflowing. The platform was occupied by the gentlemen who had been specially invited to take an active part in the services, as well as many of the leading clergymen and laymen of the city and country. Among them, Very Rev. Dean Grassett, Rev. Jas. Edgar, Rev. Dr. Taylor, Rev. Dr. Young, Rev. J. A. R, Dickson, Rev. W. J. Taylor, of Alvinston; Rev. J. P. Lewis, Rev. S.J. Hunter, Pev. Geo. Burson, St. Catharines; Rev. W. Brookman, St. Catharines; Rev. W.J.Erdman, Jamestown, N.Y.; Rev. Wm. Short, Walkerton; Rev. J. B. Richardson, London ; Major Cole, Chicago ; Hon. W. McMaster, Messrs. Jas. Campbell, A. T. McCord, Weston Jones, A. Burson, W. P. Crombie, S. R. Briggs, S. Gzowski, W. A.Parlane, of Collingwood, and others. The session commenced at eight o'clock, the Rev. R. Cameron in the chair, who opened the proceedings by reading a few verses of the filth chapter of Romans. Prayer was offered by the Rev. W. J. Erdman, after which the Hymn, "Tell me the old, old story," was sung. Several requests for prayer were read by W. P. Crombie, who afterwards led in prayer. After which an address was given on ' '■ •■ ".. THE TRUTH THAT SAVES, AND HOW TO ^J,,; PRESENT IT. J ^>.,^/ '■/..•• ,v.\. . ;■:',.•,.[ ■; ^"^^ ' ■■'-'.' ■. /■ '• ' BY REV. W. S. RAINSFORD. ,.:;)...,, v K- The truth that saves and how to present it, is my subject this evening. We have learned from our childhood to call it Gospel, and often as we repeated the name have forgotten its power. Let me first of all speak of the message of good news — as it is in truth — a Proclamation. In this aspect (I think I may say) it is, that those who really know the power of Gods Gospel first feel that power a Proclamation ; not concerning a creed, not about a book, but the Father's state- ment of what He has done for men — what He desires to be to men. Before this gospel proclamation rolled forth, there were many voices — preparatory messages leading up as it were to the great announcement — the announcement itself in its completeness could first come from no other lips than those of the God-man. This proclamation was in its extent absolutely universal. Owing to a misapprehension (as I believe it) of God's will towards sinners, many are not a little troubled to determine how far they are authorized in repeating and pressmg this message of good news and good will on all. They seem to be of a like mind with a clergyman I once met, who said, " he could never forget, in proclaiming a free gospel, that he had election up his sleeve." Friend, in all my soul I believe in an honest God. (I speak CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. flij reverently.) I adore Him, as One from whom has emanated all honesty. The foundation stone of the truth is the universality of its good news. To believe in an omniscient Father Almighty is to believe in election. But this has absolutely nothing to say to the question. No shadow of a bond must trammel the freedom of the offer. Salvation is an honest offer to the human race. The commission of the Christian stops not short of the furthest limit of the inhabited globe. To the most vile and degraded, whoever he might be — whatever the character of his past or the degradation of his present, God speaks of free pardon and glad welcome. Far across the gap the sins of years have opened up — a chasm, deep, impassable to the sinner — the reconciled hand of God is stretched. For God is as willing to save the worst sinner on earth as the best saint in heaven. Turn a moment to Acts xiii. 38, and see the gloriously universal sweep of God's pro- claimed pardon : " Be it known unto you, therefore, that through this man is preached (literally, proclaimed) unto you the forgiveness of sins." Lately our papers (English) supplied us with an illustration of such universal proclamation of pardon. After tedious months of border warfare in the African Colonies, a message is sent to the revolted Kaffir tribes, saying that on a' certain day, and for so long a time after, every insurgent rebel who came in and laid down his arms should receive immediate and complete pardon. Now see the state of affairs. If before the issue of such a pro- clamation a Kaffir was seen in front of the British lines, he would have been shot like a dog. Now — the faith of Her Majesty's Government had been pledged, and if there was one atom of faithfulness in that Government of which we are so proud, the most noted Kaffir rebel was as safe as an English soldier inside or outside the English lines. Such is a faint picture of God's proclamation, not to rebel individuals only, but to all our erring race. Oh, friends, the absorbing into our very souls of the glorious universality of the proclamation gives the commonest words, when woven into the " old story," power. Let us drink a long, deep draught, soul-satisfying and refreshing, from the dear old well God has opened up for His people. I see the arms of the Eternal open — to a rebel, nay a revolted race, a self-banished world. " He has devised means whereby His banished be not expelled from Him." These " means " are His last resort to win a backsliding, reprobate earth. His fathomless love cannot be satisfied with the return of a few — one prodigal nation cannot suffice Him — no. I read nothing less than "the nations 0/ them that are saved " walking in the light of the glorious City, can satisfy Christ for the travail of His soul. I believe — I am sure I am right in saying, that it is a hearty, glad statement of this world-wide proclamation of pardon that first causes men to stop, listen, think, believe — God send us all home from our Conference with the reality of His universal offer to all men, branded on our souls. But, secondly, the truth that saves is a Revelation as ^6 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. well as a Proclamation. See Romans i. 16-18. " I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; " " for therein is the righteousness of God revealed;" "for the wrath of God is revealed." Here, then, is a revelation o*" the righteousness of God. But surely that cannot attract fallen anJ lost sinners. A revela- tion of the majesty and power of God Almighty further and further must repel them. Nay, I should be informed as to God's righteousness. If it is far above my sinful grasping, I should be told it. Let me not delude my easily self-satisfied soul, nor lull my conscience to sleep with dreams of senseless optimism. II I am a man made in His image, who is the true end of my being - — and yet by reason of my ruinous fall I can never again offer Him a righteousness sufficient, let me know His demand. Do not con- demn me to toil up a tread mill of useless effort. It were cruel kindness to hide the reality from me till the great day. Yea, if the skies are not silent above us, if God has spoken to man, it is most natural He should speak of righteousness. The truth that would save me must have a clear ring in it here — and so, friends, it has. He has woven a robe seamless and spotless — large and white and fair enough to cover the guilt of all. It is mine on one solitary condition — Submission. See how pointedly Paul puts it, Romans x. i, in his heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel. They have a zeal of God not according to knowledge, ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own right- eousness, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteous- ness of God. Oh, '* truth that saves," so simple, so glorious — too simple to forget it — too glorious to dream ! — the fabrication of the heart of the Eternal, the revelation by Jesus Christ of the right- eousness of God! But this revelation is two-sided. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unright- •eousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. ' Here we need to see the tremendous fact of sin, in all times neces- sary, more so now than ever. Sin can alienate men from God, but with Him to love righteousness means to hate guilt. We are charged, we Christians, with a message from the very God — in our inmost souls we have proved its truth. Our message IS not bound up in any printed form or creed alone. Every sen- tence is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of the Christ — thus it runs. Mercy and righteousness for all sinners — wrath and judgment on sin. For, just as at this moment, all the re- sources of the United States are bent on stamping to death the vampire of fever that is spreading her darkness above the plague- smitten South ; so is God bent on the complete stamping out of the pestilence that has seamed and scarred the face of a creation He has made so beautiful and fair. Yet this speaking of God's wrath against sin is solemn work ; it is an awful subject to handle, for we are men of unclean lips and dwell among a people of un- cleanliness ; and such arraignment of guilt and the guilty, as we had an instance of in John viii., can only end in the great day, as that interview ended, m the confusion of the woe id-be accusers. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 17 The truth that saves needs no bolstering up by crude dogmatism on this point, for it must ever come home to the aroused con- science with the power of conviction. To all men once con- vinced of sin, for all time — the wrath of God to sin — the right- eousness of God to sinners — will seem just, natural and true. I have spoken of the truth that saves in its world-wide aspect as Proclamation and Revelation. It is also a Personal Commu- nication. Take a scriptural illustration. When the prodigal son came home, none could mistake the father's gladness. Seen at so great a distance, no servant could have recognized him as the fallen youth. But the father's eye and heart claim him as his own again. No mistake was possible; unspeakable joy was written on the old man's face. The dignity of the father of an eastern family seems all cast aside — he ran. Behold his arms thrown wide. The son is welcome even as he is. I say there was language in each act and look here that all the rejoicing servants could read. Yet once clasped in those arms, none other than that son himself heard what the father whispered in almost inarticulate love, as he kissed and kissed him. So this blessed truth that saves. Once drawn to our forgotten God by His pro- claimed pardon, hope springs to birth at the free offer of His all- sufficient righteousness. We come near; then, in tender tones, He promises us an immediate, a momentary salvation. First, momentary guidance — not a guide book only, not a map, mark you — earthly love can only supply one with a map ; some- times right, often wrong. All my father could say to me when first I stepped out into the world was, take this turning : avoid that road. But here is a Guide — one who never slumbers, never grows weary of directing stupid wayfarers — a guide for each moment. Second, momentary strength — for momentary • weaknesses — an abiding assurance of needed strength, as we honestly trust Him for it — strength equal to the emergencies of our Christian con- flicts as each one by one rises. Strength for life, strength for death, strength for judgment. Third, momentary cleansing — thank God no sense of unpar- doned transgression need lie heavy on the soul — conscious sin con- fessed and removed is the secret of any abiding joy or peace. This momentary three-fold salvation is too often left out when men profess to proclaim the truth that saves, while in a. full, deep, constant assurance and personal experience of this aspect of the truth lies the secret of power and success, all power and lasting success, I believe, in imparting the Proclamation and Revelation of the great Father to sinners. If all are compelled to notice in us the evidences of this " personal communication " between God and the soul, they are the more ready to accept us as the messengers, honest and faithful, of Him we name ourselves by. But here lies the weak point of the 19th century Christianity: never were the other links in the Gospel chain with which the Church seeks to draw the world to Christ so firmly united. Never before were the a l8 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. historic claims of Jesus so unanswerably urged. Never before have the resources of science been '^o called in to render un- doubted tribute to the truths He lived and died to teach. Never has the Church had champions so learned or so numerous. What is amiss ? Not far to seek — the rank and file of the army of the Lord do Him but little credit. We believe — loudly we assert it — the Lord Jesus is able to save us from our sins. But we are not saved from them. And while pulpits ring with the love of God ta sinners, and the wrath of God against sin, the pews say amen to both, and there the thing begins and ends ; for neither give any satisfactory proof, that they know and submit to a Saviour, who does actually save them from what they feel, and those near them see, to be visible daily sin. If the truth that saves is to be a living power, if it is to enter successfully into competition with the lies and half truths passing round in this present time, it must tell of a Saviour who does save, as really and consciousl)' as in- dulgence brings a momentary gratification. Oh, Lord God, our Father, teach us to live as glad witnesses to thy truth : not to stand before a fallen race as lying witnesses, traitorously defaming both it and Thee. I turn now to the last part of my subject. How to present this truth that saves. There are some general principles we cannot here afford to forget. General principles are not always worth much ; but there are some here on which all must proceed. An old Puritan divine, 1 think it is says, that presenting to men the tnith that saves, seems to him always like making tea. First of all, you must have good tea ; this was a sine qua non. Nothing could be done without it ; he says, good tea means good doctrine. Friends, we cannot afford adulteration here. Though we may not quite agree as to flavoring. The simple ground work of proclaimed pardon and revealed righteousness must be there. Then he says he must have boiling water. Here, too, he is very particular,, and distinctly states he will have none of your lukewarm stuflF. He must have hearts heated through and through — lives conse- crated through and through — filled with holy fervency. Next he declines to hurry matters ; the tea must stand ; too quickly poured out it is generally poor stuff. Boiling water and good tea must be permitted to come to a thorough understanding — you must meditate. To blurt the truth out at first thought is often sheer laziness. I heard of an old German pastor and missionary who had been much blessed in the salvation of souls. He was called to attend a large conference of the clergy, and addressing them on the work of the ministry, among other things, said, how heavily at times the preparation for speaking to immortal men pressed on him. After he had concluded, one of the 5'ounger brethren ventured to suggest to him, that he had only in confi- dence of the Holy Spirit to go into the pulpit, and He would speak to him, telling him what to say. " Oh yes," replied the old missionary, " I would hear the Holy Spirit speaking to me. But he would say : ' Oh Fritz, Fritz, thou hast been lazy, I will not help thee.' " As a rule, the message will be blessed to others just CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. ig in proportion as it has been allowed to bless your own soul. Yes ! the tea must stand. The last direction of the old Puritan is : Be sure and pour the tea into the cups. Some people were spilling it all over the tray. Some preachers pour it out promiscuously all over the tray, allowing every man to take away just what he could get, instead of carefully and wisely filling each cup. These general principles are, I think, very necessary, but to present the truth that saves successfully, we need more than a knowledge of general principles — we need that which is not so easy to attain — knowledge of the individual. You see this in the ministry of the Lord. Here is no mere repetition of an invitation. Take an example, John viii. ii. He speaks to the poor sinner surprised in her sin. He cannot condone the sin, but infinite compassion goes out to the sinner. His eye marks her as one not past reprieve. There have been many ready to push her down the slippery incline whither she has wandered ; the Saviour of the lost has a hand to draw her back. I don't hear any scathing denunciations of sin — her conscience is tender enough just now, it has made a long journey since first she stood half defiant in the presence of her judges. None so tender as Jesus to an aroused conscience. But now pause at verse 44, and listen. Is it the same Lord, all mercy and love ? " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" — ye wish, ye want to do is the exact meaning. Hear Him who knows what is in mar dealing with a hardened and hardening conscience. He marks a will diseased — they don't want to do right. I am not afraid to assert that some cheapen God's Gospel — they make it easier than He does — a plethora of illustration is used to make its acceptance easy. By all means proclaim it to all, tell to each of the gift of God. But then the infinitely strong and wise adds a condition, any man leaving such conditions out, sins against his brother's soul. When any came to Christ, whom He knew to be cherishing sin — the awfully common sin, for instance, of verse 44 — unwillingness to yield to the truth, even if they knew it as such, it is worse than waste of time to repeat the time-worn invitation, — Come — Come — Believe — Trust. He who left us an example did not so — see again Matt. v. 23. If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember your brother has ought against you, you cannot be reconciled to God while you are cheating your brother. Think you any can lay his dastard offering on the altar of the Most High, when right well he knows he is living in sin at home, in business, in secret indulgence ? He is playing the fool with God. Such cases as these, (and who shall say they are uncommon ?) are not to be smoothed down with such expressions as " My dear friend, do give this up. You would be so much happier, so much the better for it ! " Men who are successful in proclaiming the truth that saves are the men that, like Jesus, Paul, John and all the noble army of old, know how to speak to the conscience. Feelings soon die. Impressions, like the dew, melt away ; but the conscience remains God's ally after all, while even feelings are numbed and blunted aO > CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. by long allowed sin. Thereby are we so impotent to move conscience, because our own consciences cry out on us the while. To speak to man's conscience with power, God must be so speaking to my own. As His voice is powerljil within mine, my voice can rouse any iellow man's. You may be surprised to hear me say it, but it is the man behind the message gives force to his words. God forbid that I should ignore the Spirit's work, yet does He use means. Where was the power of Paul's preaching, wherein lay the .great might of this man of contemptible speech ? Hear him ! He calls all Corinth to witness that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdont, but by the grace of God he had his manner of life among all men and more especially among them. He challenges all Asia as he takes leave of the Ephesian Elders, I call ye to witness, I am free from the blood of all men. Here lies his power, they knew he meant it ; he was the man behind the message. Who can tell his secret faults ? None I Yet who among us is willing at least to take David's ground. " Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try (assay) my reins and my heart." (Ps. xxvi. 2.) I may not be great or learned or strong, but am I prepared for this ? Assay me, oh my God, let not secret sin hinder Thy work in me or by me. Assay me, oh God, let not that pass for sound current coin which is but counterfeit. Assay me, oh God, let me not be a living lie ; my word has often been worse than powerless, my life sickly, my love cold, my courage half-hearted, my religion talk. Then, oh my Lord and Father, for Jesus' sake, assay me, even poor worthless me ; none other than Thyself would care to search into a life so inconsistent as mine for a jewel so worthless as my love ; yet since it is so, assay me, oh God, and here and now as we all together bow in thy Holy Presence, I cry, Search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and lead me in the way everlasting. After a few minutes spent in silent prayer, one verse of the hymn, "Whosoever heareth," was sung. Rev. H. M. Pavnter then addressed the meeting as follows : I would not like, my dear friends, to detain you. I find it is half-past nine, and I think it is time to close ; but your Leader hau requested me to say a word or two. If you will turn to the letter to Titus, you will find that the Apostle there states, "But after that the kindness and love of God bur Saviour towards man appeared, etc." The very first thing is the manifestation oi love, and the manifestation of it proclaims grace reigning through righteousness. It is a blessed thing that it is righteousness; it is equally blessed that it is grace, and it is blessed that it is grace reigning through righteousness. Now righteousness is that upon which we stand ; grace is that which is an encouragement to you to go and stand upon that righteousness. Now let us take two illustrations, out of the many, in reference to your responsibilities. You have heard the truth : CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 3X it has been made known to you to-night, as often before. There is no need of any unsaved person going out of this room to-night unsaved. Now, my dear, dying fellow-sinner, will you decide? Let us look at two illustrations from this Holy Word. If you will turn to the case of that woman who became, all uncon- sciously to herself at that time, an ancestress of our blessed Lord, we find that when she was in the position in which you are pro- bably to-night, she acted. Naomi said, •' My daughter, go back again, I am going over there to Bethlehem." That was in effect, saying to her to go back to darkness, to go back to her idolatry, to go back to that sad, sad life that will end in woe. And when Naomi had spoken thus to her, she answered, •' Entreat me not to leave thee, '•»• to return from following after thee ; for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried : the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." Will you to-night, unsaved one, take the position Ruth did, and say in your heart, " Thy people my people ; tjiy God my God. Here in my seat, now at this moment, my purpose is calmly fixed : do not ask me to go away from you, people of the living God : I am going with you." You will observe from the intensity of that woman's language that her whole soul was in her words. Now, dear friend, we do not ask you to join the church simply, many a person joins the church who has no religion ; but these words show that Ruth in her inmost soul was calmly and firmly purposed with her face towards Bethlehem. " To Bethlehem will I go." Now, will you to-night, unsaved one, in the presence of God and angels, and in the presence of that blessed, glorious Christ, who died to save you from sin, like Ruth say " Thy people my people, thy God my God." You may say " Oh, I cannot decide at once about it." Let me give you a single illustration. In one place where I w is holding a series of meetings I was the guest of a widow. She had an only child, a daughter of about eighteen years of age, over whom her heart had yeirned. It pleased the Lord during these meetings to reveal Himself to her : her mother at the time was at home, unable to come to the Church. We walked home, and I never shall forget the scene when we passed into the front hall : her mother's room was at the right side of the hall, and this young woman passed rapidly along the hall until she came to her mother's room, she threw her arms around her mother's neck and the mother's arms were instantly thrown around her child. "Oh, my child, God has saved you, I know it by the way you throw your arms around my neck." May be there is a dear young woman here to-night whose mother would have the same tide of blessedness, if this night you told her that Christ was your's. I will now refer to a case in the New Testament, that of Saul • of Tarsus. Now do not let Satan come and say " That man had aa CHRISTIAN CONPBRBNCR. a vision, and it was that which converted him." My dear friends, the vision did not convert Saul. I do not think any man can be converted by a vision ; we are saved only by truth ; it was truth brought through the vision and in other ways that led to Paul's conversion, that led Paul to ask the question " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ?" If we turn to Acts xxvi. we find Paul saying, •' Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision," that is to say, my mind was made up. In that strange moment of my history I turned right around ; I did not know the consequence to me one way or the other, but I turned right around. Henceforth, come to me what may, great God of Heaven and earth, I will try to learn of Thee ; Thou hast made known, oh Christ, Thy glory to my soul, and henceforward I will follow Thee. Dear brother, O will you to-night decide for Christ ; decide for Heaven ; decide for immortality ; for your own soul's blessed- ness? O man ! O woman ! let this the first night of the Conference be that time when throughout Eternity you can say, " On the night of the 2ist October, 1878, through the Grace of God assisting me, in Shaftesbury Hall, in the City of Toronto, I was enabled to decide for God, for Eternity, for Heaven." After singing " I hear thy welcome voice," the meeting was closed by Dr. Taylor pronouncing the benediction. ft :U: ■>■,:, .>l . « Stronir §^n. ,., > w; MORNING SESSION. . , <./i.v The first hour was devoted to prayer and praise. The Rev. J. H. Castle, D.D., of Toronto, occupied the chair. Meeting opened by singing hymn 72. '■ My G.)d I have found the thrice blessed ground." The Chairman then read the cxxii. Psalm. " I was glad when they said unto nie ; Let us go into the house of the Lord." Also part of the first chapter of the first epistle of Peter, from the third •verse. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc," after which he offered prayer. The Chairman then said: As the object of this gathering is to pour out our souls to our blessed Father above, I shall therefore not fall into the error of wasting your time by making many obser- vations. 1 realize that in song and supplication we will most profit- ably spend our time, but in order to use the language of praise, the heart must have something for which to bless God. In the first verse I have read, there is such a grand thanks- giving, if we get it into our hearts, they cannot but overflow. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." We are made alive in Christ Jesus. We have a hope which is a living hope — and beyond is our great inheritance. Oh ! let us realize how much we have now, and thus grow until we get into the fulness ot joy. After singing the 65th Hymn, the Rev. W. J. Erdman, engaged in prayer. The Chairman read the requests for prayer. The Rev. Robert Cameron, of Brantford, then offered prayer, followed by the Rev. J. Cooper Antliff, and A. Burson. The last stanza of hymn 151 was now sung. " Salvation ! Oh, thou bleeding Lamb, To Thee the praise belongs ; Salvation shall inspire our hearts, And dwell upon our tongues." Pive minutes recess now took place, after which the 24 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Rev. Robert Wallace, of Toronto, took the chair. The meet- ing was resumed by the singing of the 132nd hymn. "Holy Spirit, faithful Guide." The Chairman then read a few verses from John xvi., com- mencing at the seventh verse, after which he made a few remarks, drawing special attention to the office of the Holy Spirit, His first descent at Pentecost, His power since for instruction, sanctification, and for the comfort of the redeemed people of Christ to the end ; also fitting them for eternity. Hymn 153 was now sung. After which the following address waj. given : POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR SERVICE. BY REV. JOHN POTTS, D.D. The Rev. Dr. Potts came forward and said : Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. In view of the nature of the subject that has been entrusted to me for presentation this morning (The Power of the Holy Ghost for Service) it is not my duty to speak to you of the personality, of the Deity or ot the offices ol the blessed Spirit. Doubtless before this Conference comes to a close more than one of my Christian brethren will speak to you again and again of the personality. Deity and mediatorial offices of the Divine Spirit. I propose, therefore, to confine my thoughts to the topic that has been assigned me by the Committee — The Power of the Holy Spirit for Service. My heart is gladdened by the conviction that I am speaking to a praying company, a believing and expectant company. When I touch this all-glorious theme of the Spirit I seem to hear a voice saying to me " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." It will be necessary in the first place to ascertain our need of the Spirit's power for service. The need is seen in the command of Christ. The royal commission was given by Jesus, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Also Jesus gave the glorious promise, a promise which has been the encouragement of the Church for eighteen centuries. " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Yet Jesus added, •' Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." 1 can imagine Peter in the impulse of his zeal for Christ and His cause looking into the face of his Divine Master and saying, " Blessed Master and Lord, souls are perishing, men are going down to death, why should we tarry ? let us go at once and pour the glad tidings of great joy into the ears and hearts of guilty sinners, that they may believe the Gospel and be reconciled to God." The Lord Jesus saw the magnitude of the difficulties which lay in CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. - 2^ their way and the virulence of the opposition that they would have to overcome, therefore He said, '* But tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." The Church has need of the " Power of the Spirit for Service." I argue this need from the coniession of failure which has come down to us all along the ages ol the Church's history. Ministers of the Gospel sigh forth the old lamentation of the prophet, " Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of '\e Lord revealed ?" They tearfully confess their weakness and ability to cope with the mighty obstacles to spiritual progress. ^ce-bearers of all the Churches complain of the absence of the irit's power in the service they render. * listen to the frank utterances of God's people, irrespective of denomination, irrespective ol association or of status in society, and I hear one great and general confession of want of something, and that something is not the spirit of fear, but of power — the power of the Holy Ghost. Then, brethren, I see the need of the power of the Spirit, when the responsibility of the Church is con- sidered. When I look at the position occupied by the Church of Christ, and the design of Christ in founding the Church, I am com- pelled to come to this conclusion, that the Church is responsible before God for all that Grace can enable her to do. It is absolutely needful that v/e have " great grace " to be successful in winning souls, and for having it we are responsible because it is provided in Christ, and offered without money and without price in the exceeding great and precious promises of the Word of God. The work to be done by the Church is no holiday work. It demands the highest attainable wisdom, the bravest type of spiritual heroism, and the most saint-like patience possible. The carnal mind to-day is enmity against God, and to the Church is committed the ministry of reconciliation. There are lost sheep wandering in the wilderness, and it is ours to go after them in the spirit of the Good Shepherd, and seek to bring them back to the fold and pasture of Christ. There are prodigal sons in the far country, and in the spirit of the true, the Heavenly Elder Brother we must seek to win them back to the heart and home of their Father. When I look at the responsibility of representing Christ in the Church and to the world, I come to the conclusion that nothing less than the power of the Holy Ghost can fit us to meet the enormous responsibility which presses upon us. I am sure that it needs no elaborate argument to prove the absolute insufficiency of the Church for her vast and mighty work without the power of the Spirit. For this Divine enduement there can be no substitute. You may bring stores of learning, you may bring reasoning powers clear and vigorous, you may bring an imagination of the most imperial type, you may bring eloquence that can move to tears or smiles at its sovereign will, you may bring sympathy of the most persuasive kind, you may bring zeal that knows no. ■26 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. quenching, and labor that seeks no rest, you bring all these ebments, in which men are wont to trust, to the work of the Lord in saving lost and guilty men ; but all shall be of no avail without the Holy Ghost. Man's best efforts are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal unless rendered efficient by the Almighty Spirit. An army might as well go forth to fight a powerful foe without the munition of war as the Church of Christ to go forth to the moral conquest of the world without the efficient grace of the Holy Spirit. We are positively and absolutely powerless unless made powerful by the might of the Spirit of God. I hope we all feel our need of this, unless we do, we are not likely to tarry first as did the early Church. Having seen, and I trust felt our need, we proceed to consider what is the power of the Spirit for service. Just prior to the ascension of our Lord, as He stood on the Mount of Olives in the midst of His disciples and in response to a curious question, these mighty words were spoken, " But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, in Judaea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Then Christ arose and "entered into Heaven itsell, there to appear in the presence of God for us." Ten days pass by and the Feast of Pentecost has come. In the upper room the disciples are gather- ing for an early morning prayer meeting. Reverently let me say it, I can imagine the High Priest of cur profession within the true " holy of holies " saying to the Father, " This is the day of the Pentecostal Feast, I told them not many days hence, let this be the day when the oft-repeated promise shall be fulfilled, and the Church baptized with the Holy Ghost." It was even as Jesus said, " And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." In the gift of tongues they received the power of the Spirit for service, for a special and significant service to the cause of Christ. With that mighty baptism resting upon them and filling them with joy and gladness, they moved out into the streets of Jerusalem and bore a message of good news in every language represented by the multitude of strangers gathered from all nations to attend the Pentecostal Feast. In this, see the immense advantage to Christianity. All hearing of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ could bear testimony in their own land to the wonderful Gospel of mercy which they had heard in Jerusalem. Thus in that extraordinary way had the Pentecostal Church the power of the Spirit for service. Whatever was miraculous was limited, but whatever was spiritual was intended for the Church in all ages. In this spiritual aspect no one would immediately intrude. While we CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. VJ contemplate the Pentecostal scene with sacred awe, we rejoice that this, the last and crowning dispensation of mercy was so gloriously inaugurated. The power of the Spirit for service was a believing power. We cannot better illustrate this than by reference to the first Christians. Before the day of Pentecost they believed and were known as believers in Christ. Their faith, however, was diuall and mixed with the dross of unbelief. It did not grasp many things nor much of any, yet they believed. See their faith on and after Pentecost. It is large and spiritual and practical. It embraces providing grace and glory. It sweeps as with an eagle eye the whole horizon of truth and grace. The change is accounted for in the possession of power from on high. Brethren, so it is now ; the power of the Holy Ghost in the soul is a believing power, and as such it is a power for service as well as for personal salvation. No obstacle deters it, no enemy con- quers it, no promise is too big for it, no sinner is too depraved for it. It looks at and lays its hand upon all from Christ and upon all for Christ. This power of faith by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost would make the Church mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan. .■■.',■,.;.' " Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, .. r. .p.jj; • ,. And looks to that alone, <.. . ■ '' ■■ !•; Laughs at impossibilities, ' And cries it s/tall be done." Just as the power of the Spirit is received, the faith broadens and deepens and strengthens until the soul thus in union with the Holy Ghost understands by joyous experience the meaning of the words " All things are possible to him that believeth." The bap- tized soul responds to the words of Jesus saying, " Yea, Lord," and receiving the all things of grace. The power of the Spirit for service is a praying power. This is a form of power whose worth cannot be over-estimated in Christian work. We shall be successful in the work of the Lord just as we live and move and have our being in the spirit of prayer. I suppose I speak the experience of not a few in this hall when I say it is possible to enter our room and shut the door, saying to the world, " Stay thou there while I worship the Lord here," and yet to find that even in the attitude of private devotion and while the language of worship is passing through our lips, to be mortified with the humiliating thought that our minds are wandering to the ends of the earth. This promised power is that of concentration in prayer. Such can say, " O God, my heart is fixed." With soul concentration they commune with God. It is the power of pleading and pre- vailing prayer. It asks and receives : it seeks and finds : it knocks and always has the door opened unto it. It sometimes knows the agony of wrestling, and often the rapture of prevailing with God. Many a time in the history of its supplication and intercession is the voice heard, "As a prince, hast thou power with God." In M CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. the possession of this praying power, there will be great variety of experience. At times you will pour out your heart before God in language of intensity; and at other times talk to God as a man doth with his friend in the spirit of communion, while yet at other times you will wait upon- God in silence as to voice, and yet the heart shall speak its own language, and be understood by Him who is the Hearer of prayer. > ;, " Oh, wondrous power of faithful prayer, ,. i, v ' What tongue can tell the Almighty's grace ; i" ;' ' •;''•' God's hands are bound or open are, • ,'' Lj ;;!. As Moses or Elijah prays.'' ''':'■ '■.' • The power of the Spirit for service is a teaching power. "Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth." " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." I appeal to-day to the experience of Chris- tian workers, when I say that often in a way wonderful to us, the word of the Lord — the right word has been applied to our hearts, and through us to those whom we are seeking to win for Jesus. Often as we have read standard works in literature, we have come to passages, when how valuable it would have been to us if we could have had the author's interpretation of them. This is im- possible with the great masters of ancient literature. They are gone, and we must independently of them grope our way, if possible, to a correct interpretation of the meaning. But the text book of salvation is accompanied by its Divine Author. The Holy Ghost who inspired it, interprets its meaning to the understanding of all its devout and believing students. How needful this is in the light of the fact that no two are alike, and each must have distinct and individual teaching. The Spirit knows the peculiarities of each, and if we possess His power it shall prove a teaching power, adequate to reach every case, and enable us to triumph in the name of the Lord. It never was intended that this power should be confined to the pulpit. In the impassioned language of Moses I say to-day, " Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets." Every saved one may have it to the extent of being able to teach a poor sinner the way unto the kingdom of God. The power of the Spirit for service is a witnessing power. " Ye shall be witnesses unto me." Witness bearing for Christ is still the grand mission of the church. "Witnesses unto me." They witnessed unto Christ's resurrection and ascension. They witnessed unto the miracles that He wrought, and the compassion which He manifested. They witnessed that all they accomplished was in His name and by His might. We are still called upon to witness. You say it is impossible to bear such a testimony now, as the day of miracles is past. But by grace we may witness a more glorious testimony than that blind eyes were opened, or that leprous bodies were made clean. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. : 9f" We may witness to the forgiveness of sin, and to the indwelling peace ot God — we may testify to the conquest of Christ in our- selves and in others. " Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord." A witness must know that whereof he affirms. In Christian witness- bearing there needs to be testifying power — the power which is unaffected by the opposition of the world or by indifference in the church, and which can speak for Jesus always and everywhere. Could the Peter of the Judgment ^11 stand in the streets of Jerusalem without the baptism of the spirit, and testify of Jesus and salvation ? He could as easily have created a world. In the Judgment Hall he was cowardly : on the day of Pentecost he was courageous: not with the courage of natural strength, but with that of spiritual power — because he was filled with the Holy Ghost. That same power is needed now to bear emphatic testimony for the Lord Jesus. Without it there shall be cowardly silence, or at best faltering tones, which are little better than spiritual dumb- ness. With this power filling our hearts, there shall be witnessing in the home, in the workshop, in the social party, in the counting house, in the market : in a word, everywhere tongues touched with the Spirit's fire shall utter words of power in testimony of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then indeed the testimony shall be clear, convincing, persuasive, and influential for good. The world is listening to hear the Church's testimony. Let it be heard, not in apologetic tones, not in faltering accents, but in power and love, and they will hearken and believe, and accept our glorious Saviour. This personal testimony for Christ is what is needed for the conversion of the world. The good Lord does not ask us to do anything that is complex or difficult. All that is difficult in salvation He does, only asking that we shall declare what he has done for us. Do I hear some one saying, " But how may I get this power of the Spirit for service ? " I answer. Tarry, wait, look up into the face of the ascended Lord until ye be endued with power from on high. Jesus may keep you waiting until you are ready to ap- preciate and utilize the blessing. Mark, I do not believe that God will give us this power of the Spirit just that we may be happy and in a sort ot Tabor ecstacy eA:laim, " Lord, it is good for us to be here." God gives it for work, and for work only. If we are pre- pared to serve the Lord, we may have it in its fulness for efficient service. Do you ask me how it comes to a waiting soul. There is no fixed form for the incoming of this power. It may come gently as comes the morning light, or noiselessly as falls the evening dew, or it may come like a rushing, mighty wind, as on the morning of the day of Pentecost. Let it come as God may choose, but oh, let it come to all the workers for souls. It comes with as great variety of form as comes converting grace to sinners. To no two does the grace of conversion come alike, but the change in its essence is the same in all cases. The same mighty change was wrought in the 30 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. heart of Lydia at the great Sabbath morning prayer meeting, as in the heart of the trembUng Jailor who cried out, " Sirs, what must I do to be saved." This morning we may receive it. " Assembled here with one accord, '•■■^ '-i >.'..>'•',;•■•... ' Calmly we wait the promised grace; 1 v tK); v.-; i-.'.\.. The purchase of our dying Lord, ■ - -u .: Come Holy Ghost and fill this place." I hear a voice saying to this Christian Conference, on this twenty-second of OctoberA878, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Lord, the Spirit, we receive Thee this morning in all thy offices, in all the richness of thy sanctifying grace, in all the magnitude of thy saving power for service, henceforth to be used by Thee for the glory of Christ in the salvation of souls. Amen and amen. Hymn 29 was then sung. " Brightly beams our Father's mercy, 1 j ',.(..' :< ' From His lighthouse evermore; , , -f, ,, .. But to us he gives the keeping, , Of the lights along the shore. .., .j. "Let the lower lights be burning, '' ! "■ ' "' •■'■"'"'' Send a gleam across the wave; ;?^:;: ' ,• > ^ ^ Some poor fainting, struggling seamen, r" ' •••-■' ' ■ You may rescue, you may save." The Rev. Dr. Young took the chair at eleven o'clock, a.m., when prayer was offered, after which hymn 94 was sung. S. R. Briggs then read a number of requests for prayer. Rev. S. J. Hunter, of Toronto, then engaged in prayer. Hymn 95 was then sung. " He leadeth me ! O blessed thought." After singing, the following address was given : ' ,, WITNESSES FOR CHRIST. mi:' BY DR. W. P. MACKAY, OF HULL, ENGLAND. On being called upon to address you this morning, f found some difficulty in choosing a subject, but while waiting upon the Lord, the thought came into my mind, " What is the reason of our spiritual^ existence ?" Sometimes the question is asked : " What is the greatest good ? What does a man live for ?" Certainly not to feast, to eat, to sleep, and to die. Then what is the reason of our existence ? What is it that gathers us together in this Conference, from across the deep, and from all parts of the world, I may say. My Master, " who was despised and rejected of men," said unto His followers, '• But ye shall receive power, af<^er that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Witnessmg for Christ then is our highest character, so that the world looking upon our conduct might say of us, that is just what Christ would have done had He been here. We are wit- CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Jf nesses that ought to be as salt upon the earth, and as lights in this dark world — salt preserving, and light manifesting; but, alas, as in the former dispensations, so in this, we have sadly failed. This testimony was to be sent to the uttermost part of the earth, and now, after eighteen centuries, we have not reached a tenth part of our fellow creatures, seven hundred millions of whom have not as yet heard the name of Jesus. Our Saviour promised to be with them with all power given to Him in heaven and on earth, but I am inclined to think there must have been dis- obedience even among the apostles, for instead of obeying the royal command and going out into Samaria, Judaea, and the utter- most parts of the earth, they kept together at Jerusalem, and they seemed to be all very comfortable one with another^ but God sent persecution amongst them, and we read, " They were all scattered abroad except the apostles." God has done His part in sending the Spirit ; the failure is on the part of man. We find that after the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost was sent with power for universal application. The law was promulgated to one people only, the Jews ; but we have got the gospel for the re- covery of men, irrespective of national distinction. In the Acts of the Apostles, we find a threefold communication of the Holy Ghost corresponding to the work to be clone, of the people to be blessed, and the testimony to be borno. First, " Witnesses in Judaea and Jerusalem." — Acts ii. 4. They had continued together in prayer for the promise of the Father, and in answer, " They were ail filled with the Holy Ghost." Secondly, " Witnesses in Samaria." — Acts viii. 17. The apostles irom Jerusalem went down to their " brethren, and " laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." Thirdly, "Witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth ; " among the heathen Gentile nations outside of covenants and promises, where there was no God and no hope. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." — Acts x. 44. This is the true Gentile Pentecost. We are to expect the gift of the Holy Ghost now, in, through, and with the preaching of the word. Since the Lord has thus done His part, and has sent power from heaven, it well becomes us to rise and say, How is it that we have not been obedient to His commands? If we are living for anything lower than this, we are living below the dignity of our sonship. Our true motto is, " For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." This IS not what we act, but what we live. We have to confess that we have all come short of God's requirements. Brethren, let us begin here and try ourselves. Begm at home, not expect that coming to Conference meetings and hearing nice songs and hymns is all that we require, but let us go to the Searcher of hearts every one of us; not that we have come to the Conference to get blessings, but also to give blessings, and then we may expect to _ get the blessing. Go straight to God, early in the morning, every man of us, and then we will come here with hearts on fire, and what a blessing it will be, and each will then add his torch to the great fire of love. 32 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Just write on a slip of paper, " For me to live," and then ask, " Is what ? " Many invert this text and make it read, " For me to live is gain, and to die will be Christ." We don't wish merely men that are ready to die, but men that are ready to live Christ. We must not be afraid to show our Christianity, but ought to be anxious to let our light so shine that others seeing our good works might glorify our Father in heaven. Persons who visit Britain would form a very erroneous opinion of the character of the true British soldier if they were only allowed to see the fever patients in the hospital, or the broken legged and armed under the surgeons. We want Christians to live with their armour bright and ready for warfare ; men and women that dare to do anything for Christ and who are not infirmary patients. Too many practically seem to hold for their motto, for me to live is to make money ; let me have gain now. True religion is not like a rose in your Sunday coat. A great deal of religion is like Sunday clothes, which have to be changed on Monday morning, and the living is a diflerent kind of living than living for Christ. I fear it is to make money from Monday morning until Saturday night. For me to live is to go around among my friends to gossip. Is that it ? Very like some of these is the life of not a few Chris- tians. A Christian ought to be like a person who does not seem to belong to this world ; a stranger and a pilgrim here, singing i, .•■•■•■";( r^v ' ■ , "Heaven is my fatherland, .-,i Heaven is my home I " A Christian is a heavenly man, sent back from heaven to testify to the earth. It is our moral character and moral conduct that testifies to the sincerity of our profession. A great deal of the Christianity of the present day is a Christianity without Christ in it. Substract Christ from Christianity and what do you find for a remainder ? / unity. Now what we want is Christ to be restored to Christianity. The Alpha and Omega of Christianity is Christ. Let us all then say, " For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." I find some good men have turned that sentence upside down. They say for me to live is gain, and to die is Christ. In the meantime they say " let us get money ; — as much of this world as we can — live as near it as we possibly can." They say "do you think it's wrong to do this thing and the other : — see no harm in world conformity ; " and no wonder the next day they say " I feel so cold, I don't know whether I'm a Christian or not." Brethren, I feel if we strike the key-note of self- examination, and write " honour bright " between ourselves and God, and hate sham, because He will have truth in the inward parts and not only in the external acting, we shall come to see that we have come lamentably short. I should just like one word or two about the witnessing by the power of the Holy Spirit. In John's Gospel, Christ says, " As thou. Father, sent Me into the world, so have I sent them into the world." There is a deep truth in this. We are sent men. We CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. j| are not natives, we are not citizens here. We should rise up to the dignity of what we are. The world would try and drag us down. We are sent into the world as truly as was Christ himself. His cross took me out of it ; His risen life sent me back to it, to witness as a risen, unearthly, heavenly man. Look at the Gospel of Saint John, iii. 5, "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." We have here the necessity of a man being born again by the Spirit. And when a man partakes of the water of life he feels its energizing power within him, springing up into everlasting life. Thus we have the new fountain in John iv. 14, " It shall be in him a well of water." The Spirit of God is not a filter to make the old man better. He is a fountain springing up into ever- lasting life. The seventh chapter of John tells us the result of it all. " Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Yes, my friends, rivers, not little streams, little jets, ditches or canals. As I was coming up the banks of the St. Lawrence, two things attracted my attention — a river and a canal ; but for beauty of the two, the river was preferable. My dear friends, we are all prone to make God's rivers into square cut exactly measured canals. You never saw a river flowing straight on in your life. And so it is with the divine energy of the blessed Spirit. Some- times it will be spreading out into a majestic river, rushing in a Niagara of power, or calmly spread out in a lake of deepest majesty, like the quiet, still voice of this Conference. Let us not talk merely about death, coldness and indifference. Let us draw near to the source of heat. Get red hot yourselves, my dear Christian friends, and then you will fire up other people. Why, if I were to endeavour to get you warm, I would not always talk about icebergs. Let each individual be determined to live for Christ, and the gain will be sure at death. If we are really black-hearted, really cold — verily, go and tell God so. He likes that. He wants reality. Wants you to unbosom more and more of your badness. Let your prayers be a reality, and the blessing of God will rest upon us at this Conference. After singing, the Rev. Dr. Greene pronounced the benediction. 34 CHRISTIAN CONFBRENCB. AFTERNOON SESSION. From half-past two to three o'clock a praise and prayer meet- ing was held, presided over by Rev. A. H. Baldwin. The pro- ceedings were opened by singing the igoth hymn, '• Man of sor- rows." After prayer by the Rev. Dr. Potts. Hymn 45 was sung : ... "There is a fountain filled with blood." The Chairman read the nth chapter of St. Luke, and he said there were two reasons why the disciples wished to be taught to pray : one was because the disciples of John had been taught to pray ; and the other was, because they had seen the Saviour en- gaged in prayer with his Heavenly Father. That the beauty of our Saviour's answer was this, that not only did He give these \v .4^", which, thank God, every Christian could use, whether he be Protestant or Roman Catholic, but he taught us so beautifully that though earthly friendship might fail, God's friendship never could fail, and that it never could be out of season to pray to our Heavenly Father ; that he was ever ready to answer our requests. And yet, although we were assured of that so forcibly by our bles- sed Redeemer, there was such a tendency to doubt and unbelief. To illubtrate this, the speaker referred to the time when a little conference ol Christians were assembled at Jerusalem to pray that Peter, who was imprisoned, might be delivered, and yet when Peter stood before the door of that house and knocked, and when the young maid wenl*in and told them that Peter stood before the door, they told her she was mad, they would not believe it until they had actually seen Peter. And so how many Christians there were now who were actually astonished at receiving answers to prayer. It was a disgrace, he thought, that we could not trust our Saviour better than we did. Let us pray in faith, and as we ask, know that we shall receive. Several requests for prayer were now read, after which the Chairman engaged in prayer. The Rev. J. A. R. Dickson took the chair. Hymn 106, " I have a Saviour, He's pleading in Glory." Dr. Castle offered up prayer, then Hymn 140 was sung, " Look to Jesus, weary one." After which the following topic was taken up : THE TRUTH FOR SAINTS. BY REV. W. J. ERDMAN. It was announced that I would give an address. I beg leave to say that we will have a Bible reading together instead. Last night the topic was, " The Truth that saves, and how to present ■* CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 35 it," in other words, the subject was " The Truth for sinners." Now we are assembled to look at the Word of God concerning the " Truth for saints." First, let us turn to John xiii. 1-3. [Reads, remarking that the proper reading of the second verse should be, " And supper having begun."] These three verses, my friends, as you plainly see, con- tain this statement, that Jesus Christ had come from God into this world, and again was about to leave the world and return to God. The topic is, " The Truth for saints," and to bring it properly be- fore us let us think ourselves as one with the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we were born of God and yet on our way to God. Up there is our Father, and we started there in the new birth. We have come down and are in this world as Jesus was after he left the Father. My dear friends, we are pilgrims and strangers, we are going through this world of pilgrimage, humiliation, and trial, back again to the Father of whom we were born. Now if you can just lay hold of this simple outline, you will have the heart of all I wish to bring out this afternoon, that we are one with the Son of God, that as sons we start, let me say, on this side of the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ, our old man was crucified with Him, and our old man was buried with Him. Now let us, as believers, con- sider our own old selves as buried in the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ, and let us go like little children to the Word of God, and trace out this blessed outline from Glory unto Glory. We start then with the " Truth for saints" on the resurrection side of the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ. That grave is the place where all the old creation goes in and disappears from God's sight, and that grave is the place whence comes out all of the new creation in Christ Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life ;" then we are risci ones with Him; then we are living ones with Him ; our life has been hidden with Christ in God, " and when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in Glory." We are going to Glory. That is our birth place ; our home. . We are indeed also down here, but we have the Truth to help us along in this pilgrimage, to instruct us, to build us up, to comfort us, to establish us, to make us like the Son of God himself. When Abigail, in that blessed Word of the Old Tes- tament, met David, you remember she said to him, " The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God." Ah, yes, just as she uaid that David's life was bound up together with God, so we believers are bound up together in one bundle of life in the Son of God ; 7e>e are that son of God. We cannot un- derstand Ephesians unless we see one man there, the Son of God. In the i Corinthians xii. 12, we have the words in our translation, " So also in Christ." The Greek has it, •' So also is the Christ." We are one body, but many members. The truth which we, sons of God, need to understand is, that be- fore God we are one with the Son of God. Turn again to John xiii. 3, we read, ''Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went 36 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. to God." [He was going to God.] Now, starting with the 13th chapter, and going through the 14th, 15th, i6th and i7lh chapters, we have the progress of the Lord Jesus Cbrist on His way back to the Father. We read that He washed the disciples' feet. Where was the place for washing the priestly feet ? was it not on this side of the altar of burnt offering ? So, was not the place ol feet washing on this side of the altar of redemption ? Bathed once for all, needing only to wash the feet. In the 14th chapter he said to them, " In my Father's house are many mansions (priestly mansions) ; if it were not so, I would have told you ; I go to prepare a place for you." Now then they went on ; they reached the Father's house at last ; they entered into the Holy Place, where the candlestick is, where the shew bread is, where the altar of incense is, but it was all dark ; they could not see where they were, because the Holy Spirit — the oil — had not yet come to reveal to them their sonship and their oneness with Christ. In the i6th chapter and 28th verse, He says, " I am come forth from the Father, and am come into the world ; again I leave the world, and go to the Fa- ther." And when you get to the 17th chapter He is inside the Holy of Holies, in the glory of the Mercy Seat, offering His high priestly intercession for the sons of God who are on their way to the Glory where the Son of God is now. Jesus loved His brethren to the end. That is good news for me. Jesus loves me unto the end. He has gone back into the Glory, and sent down the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to be with us and lead us on our way. Jesus, the Son of God, loves the sons of God to the end ; He has all things of God the Father for them. He is in the Glory, whence .He came ; we, the sons of God, born of God, are indeed in the world, but are on the way to the Glory. I am reminded in this connection of what Lady Powerscourt wrote in one of her letters. She said that a Christian has the privilege not only of looking from earth to heaven, but of looking from heaven to earth. Why, my friends, if we understood our calling aright we- might say of our- selves, " Now in the morning when I rise, I find myself down here in this world ; before I rose, I was really up there ; for when I was asleep God took care of me ; when I wake in the morning, I am on the earth, and then during the day I am going through my service, my experience, my trials — ^just those which belong to the Son of God ; at nightfall I have the privilege of going home to my Father's house again." In one sense we practically spend only the day down here in this world. We, the sons of God, born from above, are in the world, but on the way to the Glory. Jesus sent .us the Holy Spirit to shed abroad in our hearts the love of God. God loves us. He loves the Son of God. The 8th chapter of Rom- ans, last verse, tells us that nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is mthrist Jesus our Lord. You see that we are all shut up there together, a most blessed family. The Spirit shows us the things of Christ as ours, and leads us into all the truth con- cerning the Son of God, and by means of faith in Him, and the CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. * 37 * '■ ■ t love of the brethren, the effect will be peace, joy, love, the fruits of righteousness, devoted service, patience, long suffering. I can sum up this part of my subject by saying, that God tells you and me to be just what we are. What are we? Look up into that glory ; we are one with that glorious one ; we are children of God ; if so, let us act like children of God, and if we assume the respon- sibilities of children, let us enter into the enjoyments of that rela- tionship. What are we in the eve of God? Holy. Then let us be holy ; that is just what the F-loly Spirit is given us for. If we are the son of God by the grace of God, let us be the son of God. In German the name of a Christian is " Christ." From this general truth, we turn next to the special truths which instruct us, edify us, and help us all in this world. Let us turn to the IS,' Epistle to the Thessalonians, ist chapter, 3rd verse, " Re- membeiiiig without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father." The Holy Spirit, in the first letter that we know of as having been written to a Christian church, in the very opening of that letter divides all Christian life and experience into three parts: (i) The work 0/ faith : that pertains to the realization of our salvation as individuals. (2) The labor of love : the toil of love — th'it is in behalf of others. (3) The patience of hope : that is endurance — patient endurance of all sufferings, and in the hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to change this old body in which we suffer, to remove us from unbelievers who persecute and defame us ; and to deliver us, with this groaning creation with which we are associated and enwrapped. All this is said to be done in the presence of God our Father. If I am a son of God, I must realize my own individual salvation by faith in Christ. If I am a sou of God, I am a servant, and therefore must be faithful in ray service. If I am a son of God, I must be glad to suffer for His name, remembering that all that I do is done before the Father's eye. We are never out of His sight. If we only believe that, and keep looking to Him, when doubts of our salvation come over us, they flee away, and we become full of peace and joy. When called upon to serve, the thought that God's eye is upon us is a powerful incentive to faithful service. When called upon to suffer, if we re- member that we are under our Father's eye, we are then able to endure all things for His sake. Turn to II. Thessalonians i. 11," Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the worlf of faith with power." So again in Philippians ii. 12, " Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have al- ways obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." You have salvation worked in you, therefore work it out — that is the work of faith. The labor of love is spoken of with the patience of hope in Hebrews vi. 10 ; 2 Thessalonians i. 3-5 ; and Romans V. 2-5. 38 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Now notice that these three departments of Christian life and experience relate to the one fact that we are one with the Son of God. Our salvation is His salvation ; our work of love is His work of love; our sufferings (if indeed they are) His sufferings. Now turn to the following passages : Romans vi. 5 ; Colossians iii. 1-5 ; Ephesiansiv. 1-3 ; ijohni. i-2. These passages all link us as believers to the Son of God. Rom, vi. II," Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Dead unto sin ; alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Christ — that wonderful phrase ; that is the sphere in which we live and move ; that is the land we possess. Notice in i John i. 1-3. three steps — (i) There was the eter- nal life with the Father. (2) He was manifested unto us; John speaks of this— he saw Him. (3) Our fellowship is with Him. In the rest of the epistle it divides into two parts : the life eternal with the Father was made manifest ; He declared God to be light — " God is light ;" declared God to be love — " God is love;" it is life maniiesting itself as light and love. If we have fellowship with that Son, we have eternal life. How may you and I prove that we have eternal life ? By manifesting the light of holiness, and the love of God, by loving one another as Christ loved us. This life manifests itself in light, and in love, and if we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, we have life, light and love. We will briefly consider the second branch, viz. : as to service. All service is nothing else but the priestly service of the one body of Christ down here. All members of the one body of Christ, what- ever their service may be, are manifesting the priestly service of the Son of God. Rom. xii. x, " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." In the epistle to the Romans you have five or six words taken from the service of the temple, and this chapter shows that whatever we do is real service only as it springs from our union with Christ as members of the one body ; the services we thus perform are spoken of as gilts. When you minister to a sick one you are showing mercy ; that is one of the gifts spoken of. It is Christ who is at work in all our ser- vice, and in this way it may be said that we manifest the priestly service of Christ. Then in Ephesians we are told to edify one an- other, that is part of our service of love. And how ? With psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In Ephesians we are told to be *^ filled with the Spirit that we might edify one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." In Colossians we are told that ''the word of Christ ought to aboiind in us richly unto all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that we may be able to edify one another," So that we see that we must have the word of God dwelling richly in us in order to minister unto the brethren, and we must have the Spirit of God with that word. We must have the Logos (the Word) which is Christ, and the Spirit of Cl^rist awelling within us / ;,^- - . CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. • 39 that we may perform the service of sons of God. It is Christ, Christ from beginning to end, all and in all ; therefore, we are asked, whatever we do, always to keep our eyes fixed on the Son of God. Last of all, we turn to the department of sufferings — the patience of the sons of God, the one body of Christ. I refer you to Actsix. 5 ; Colossians i. 24 ; i Peter v. i ; i Peter v. 10. In Acts we read that when Paul asked "Who art thou, Lord?" the answer was, " I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." How could Jesus be persecuted ? He was persecuted in His suffering body on the earth. We then see that some sufferings that we are called upon to endure are Christ's sufferings. There are a great many sufferings that people are called to endure, that are not Christ's ; the fact is that Christ-like sufferings are not so very common. But listen to that wondrous word of Paul, who said that he was trying to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the Church. Suppose ten million strokes of suffering were to fall upon the one body of Christ during eighteen centuries, Paul said, " I want to receive as many of those as possible so that the number may be lessened, and the glory come all the sooner." My friends, may not one reason that Jesus Christ has not yet come, be that we have not filled out the measure of His sufferings ? Christ- like sufferings have not abounded in the modern Church of God. We have not been faithful as became the sons of God. Hear Peter say, " The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed." There are the sufferings and glory brought close together. L«t us dwell a moment on another passage in Colossians ii. 6,7, to show that as we began in Christ, so we must continue, " As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Notice the sim- ple figurative language : we are in Christ Jesus, then we are told to walk in Him. As our brother remarked, some staid near the door of the hall in the draft, not far into Christ, whereas it was our priv- ilege to walk up and down in Him. The next figure : " Rooted in Him ;" that refers to growth and fruit. " Built up in Him ;" if you are in Christ, you are then able to build up one another. Again, " Stablished in the faith ;" that is, confirmed in it, and all by the truth pertaining to our dignity and destiny as one with Christ. Time does not permit me to speak of Paul as one of the most wonderful illustrations of his use of his oneness with the Son of God in these three departments. Did he not always make himself one with the Lord Jesus Christ ? You know that the very root and fibre and web of all the truth in all these epistles was part of Paul, and the Holy Spirit inspired him to write these wonderful truths for Christians, to be lived by them ; and we can be Pauls too, and know ourselves one with the Son of God. Turn to ist chapter of Romans and see what a most humble man this was. In the nth and 12th verses he wrote to the Roman 40 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Christians as follows, " For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established ; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." Paul said that he would like to go up to Rome to see those Roman Christians, and to sit down together with them, so that each one might tell what he knew about the Lord Jesus Christ, and so that they might instruct and comfort each other, and establish one another in the faith. Paul says, " I long to see you to impart to you some spiritual gift to the end that you may be established." Then, as if he suddenly recollected that he was only one of the members of the body, he says, " That I might be comforted with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." Also turn to the 15th chapter of Romans, 28th verse, " When, therefore, I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain ; and I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ." And in the 32nd verse, " That I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed." These two verses are a repetition of what is stated in the other two verses from the first chapter. Now turn to the last chapter and 25th verse, where it says, " Now to Him that is of^power to stab- lish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began." My friends, do you know why the Church has become so weak ? It has not been strong as it might have been according to the gospel of the Son of God. It has in some departments attempted to be strong by means of cultured science and of the gospel according to Huxley or Darwin, or some reformer who comes to you as a minister of righteousness, but who is noth- ing else but the devil in attractive disguise. We never can be strong unless we have the Son of God. The Holy Spirit cannot do anything for us unless He is showing us the Son of God ; the only material the Holy Spirit will work with is the truth concern- ing the Son of God. And now to sum it all up, let us turn to 2 Timothy ii. 11-13. I wish here to give an illustration, as I think it is out of the life of the early church, of the manner in which they used to exhort one another, and comfort one another with spiritual psalms and hymns. It begins with the words, " It is a faithful saying." Some scholars say, that in the epistles of Timothy and Titus when you find a passage beginning with these words, that it leads to what was proverbial between believers in that early day. This passage seems to be a fragment of an early hymn. The arrangement of its clauses is rhythmical. It contains the truth of which I have been treating. In the i Timothy iv. 9, also, we read, " This is a faithful saying ;" and here we read, " It is a faithful saying." Now in the I Timothy iv. g, what was that faithful saying ? "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation." What ? " That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." It strikes me that in that early church when believers used to meet, instead of saying, CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 4I ♦' Good morning," as we do, they said, " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," and perhaps when they met together to worship in the morning or anywhere, their first salutation was " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." In 2 Timo- thy ii. II -13, this expression also leads to something with which all were familiar. I will give it a little more literally to make the passage more expressive. " It is a faithful saying ; for if we die with Him," — that ends all in the grave of Jesus, all of the old and sinful — " we shall also live with Him ; if we suffer we shall also reign with Him ; if we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we be- lieve not, yet He abideth faithful ; He cannot deny Himself." Let us pray. ,,,,., ..,„,,,..., After prayer the 50th hymn was sung, "I have entered the valley of blessing so sweet." Rev. Mr. Richardson, of London, then offered up prayer. After which the following address was given : ' ' !' GRACE AND TRUTH. BY DR. W. P. MACKAV. Mr. Chairman and dear friends : I had no knowledge before coming to Toronto late last night that I had to speak on a specified subject, and when I was told, as I stepped off the train, that I was expected to speak upon the subject " Grace and Truth," my feelings could be more readily imagined than described. I have attempted to write Apon this subject, but to condense three hundred or so pages of a book into half an hour's speech was to me impossible ; therefore, you must just take such thoughts as I have been able to put together from that hour until now. And here allc f/ me, dear friends, to say that I would rather lead you and myself (and I have no doubt it is the thought of all my brethren around me) for one five minutes to the realiza- tion of the blessed person of our Lord, than to all the most interesting studies, even of His own Word. The study, even of the Scriptures, in a merely intellectual way, will do us very little good. It is only as we are consciously in the presence of our Lord ; consciously realizing His presence, that any of His truth is of value to us. Intelligence is to be greatly desired, but communion is far beyond all intelligence, — communion with the person of Christ, without which intelligence is worthless. It is, therefore, that His presence may be felt ; that we may lift up our eyes as they did on the Transfiguration Mount and see no man but "Jesus only," that I would wish your minds to be taken up with tnis subject this afternoon, and it is thus we will find the fellowship and the communion with all saints. Here we know of no denominational barriers. I do not know who is a Presbyterian, or who is an Episcopalian, or Congregationalist, nor do I want to know. I want to leave Toronto and know nobody but as in Christ. I feel strongly about respecting every man's denomina- tional ideas. I would not ignore them : I give every man freedom, 42 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. as I take it myself, to say what line of Church polity he adopts. I have very strong ideas about the Church polity I belong to, and I think if you all joined our denomination there would be no denominations in the world. In the meantime, forget about the barriers, and if we cannot remove the hedges, we can at any rate shake hands over the top of them. I will tell you a more expeditious way than trying to get Christendom right, and it is the one we are trying to adopt just now. If we saw a centre light, a light that was to be the centre of us all, and we all approximated nearer and nearer to the light, kept the light in view, the nearer and nearer we got to that centre light, the nearer we would get to one another. The spokes of a wheel are nearest to each other at the hub, at the rim they are far away, and when we are far away from the centre we have time to look around upon our brother, and spy out his faults, but when we get nearer, not to him, but nearer and nearer to the Lord, before we know where we are we will be rubbing shoulders with all sorts of denominational Christians, fighting the battles of the Lord, because we are nearer to the Lord Jesus. Let us not try, dear brethren, to draw near to one another, but let us draw nearer to Christ, until we are all lost in His love and filled \vith His own blessed Spirit. It is when the tide is out that the little crabs and shrimps all get little pools of their own, and they fight about their little pools. One says, " My little pool is the best one," and another says, " My little pool is the best one." But by-and-bye the great rolling tide comes in and they find that they have the ocean to swim in. Now, dear brethren, we have an ocean to swim in — the ocean of His mighty love, an ocean with- out a bottom, without a shore, the love of the blessed Lord. The law was given by Moses : Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ — or rather, were by Jesus — the came is not in the original. Grace and Truth found embodiment in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want to see perfect Grace and perfect Truth in one ? then we find them in the person of the Lord Jesus, and in Him alone. The law was given to prove men. Grace and Truth are here put in contrast to the law. The law was given by Moses : it does not say it came by Moses ; it was given as a test to try what man was. Now we find that Grace and Truth have descended to this earth, and have been fully manifested in the person jfthe Lord Jesus; if you don't see this distinction, you will fc. into constant confusion about the use and place of the law of God. The law of God was not given to save men ; it was given to damn men ; the law was not given to bless men but to curse ; the law was not given with God's thought that we would keep it ; no, but that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. I remember one day when I was crossing from Dublin to England, between Kingston and Hollyhead, in one of the steamers there, I was admiring the beautiful scenery as we were leaving Kingston Harbour, when a gentleman came up to me and CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 43 entered into conversation. He said, " You are admiring the beauties of this Bay." I said, " Yes." I found he was an intelli- gent man, and we commenced to talk about Natural History. I had been that season busily engaged in pursuing my medical studies at the University of Edinburgh. I brought my friend on from one topic to another. I presumed that he was a minister of the Gospel, which I found afterwards to be the case. We tailked about birds and fishes, &c., we did not begin about Theology all at once. Then we got on the subject of Natural Laws, the Darwinian theory. I was telling him that I had been studying this, that, and the other, and we got on to the consistency of God in all kinds of law. He then said something about the moral law: he said, " How is it that when God has made all these physical laws, men won't believe His moral law ? " I let him take the lead ; I wanted to see where we were. He spoke about the obli- gation man was under to obey that moral law. " Where do you find that ? " I asked ; " In the Bible," he said. " The Bible, what book is that ? " I said. He said, " It is a book from God." This was just what I had wished to bring him to, God's righteous demands in law. When thus he began to talk about our moral obligations, and that men were under to keep the law, and about God commanding obedience to its requirements, I turned round to him and said, " Honor bright, have you kept it all from begin- ning to end ? " He replied, " Indeed, I have not." " Very well, then," I said, " it is all up with you, you are done for, if the Bible is true, for that was the Apostle Paul's statement, ' when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died ' ; it was all up with the Apostle then ; it is no use of you going on and asking God to help you to keep it, you have broken it once, if you were to keep it all now to the end of time, it would be of no use, as you have broken it already." He then asked me, " Have you kept it ? " " Oh, not I," I said, " I never professed to have kept it." He then wanted to know what he was going to do. " What you are going to do ! you have done it already, that's enough ; the junction between heaven and earth is broken ; you have broken the connection between you and God ; that's enough ; if I were a stone mason and wanted to build a house, the size of the stones would be a matter of great importance and consequence to me ; but, suppose I was a scientific man, and not a stone mason ; suppose I had to show, not what stone had to do with building a house, but the nature and quality of stone ; if I wanted to deter- mine its specific gravity I would not need to take a stone a ton weight into the middle of the ocean ; I could take a small pebble and drop it into a glass-tull of water and show the specific heavi- ness of stone. The smallest stone could demonstrate the quality of stone equally with the largest mass of a ton's weight. So with sin ; it is not the quantity of sin, but the quality of sin that God considers ; he that offends in one point is guilty of all, there is the Divine statement, and it stands to reason." So I explained to my friend that it was of no use, as far as obtaining pardon was con- 44 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. cerned, of us trying to keep the rest of the law, for we had broken at least part of it, and we were therefore done lor ; if we had broken it in only one point we were done tor. "While I was speaking, I was looking quietly over the bulwarks ; he was getting rather excited. He said, " What then, do you think should be done ? " '< That is a different question," I replied ; " I will tell you — it does not matter what you and I think ; the fact is that the law of God is a sword hanging over both you and me, sus- pended by a thread, and it will be upon us before we know where we are." He wanted to know what was to be done. I told him that the law of God comes as an executioner, and the sooner the offender is executed the better. It is said, " I through the law, am a dead man to the law." " Why," I said, " I was hung with Christ on the cross eighteen hundred years ago, that was the end of me, and the law came and did its worst." '• What is all this ab(iut?"he said. "It is this," I said, "that the sooner you know that the better — that it is all up with you as to law-keeping, and if the sword falls into you personally as you are, you are damned to all eternity." I told h:m that the law came demanding a life, and that life must be given either in the person of the offender or in the person of a substitute, and that our only salva- tion rested in accepting Christ as our Substitute : it was our privilege to accept what He has done and suffered for us on Calvary ; all that He has done in His grace and truth ; all that is true of Him is true of me ; it is on the Cross of Calvary where the demands of the law were satisfied. I was crucified with Christ and buried with Him. He was crucified for me, and His death is mine ; His burial is mine. What the law says to the rebel is, " Thou shalt die." It is no use saying, " I will repent and do better,"—" Thou must die, die in Christ, or to all eternity in your sins ; to die is your doom." I left him for a while and went with some friends of mine to the stern of the vessel. A few minutes after he caught sight of me and came and took hold of me by the arm, " Come here," he said, " I want you to speak to these friends about what you have been telling me — about dying." So I went and spoke to them, and said that I was just upon the A. B, C. of the subject, that God comes demanding my life, and I must give it up either in the person of Christ or in myself to all eternity, when this man all at once said, " Glory be to God, I see the Gospel now as I never saw it before, I am a saved man." When we landed h>^ was so happy that we could scarcely get him ashore ; he was almost leaping and dancing ; he was praising God that the law had done its -vork, that it had demanded his life, and he had given it in the person of his Substitute, Christ. He asked me if I could sing, and he kept me singing until I was perfectly hoarse. He 'ept saying, " I was dead through the law that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ." The law was given to test man, to show man that he could not keep it ; but we find that Christ not only kept the law, but mag- i • CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 45 nified the law. Let me here say, my dear friends, that I believe grace was before law ; the law came in by the way, as it were, parenthetically ; but the first idea of God was grace. I do not believe that grace and redemption were any afterthought with God, but that they were the thought upon which the whole creation was moulded ; that they were in the long eternity of God, before man loved man or before angel loved angel, but that it was only during these six millenniums that the wondrous plan has been worked out ; grace was not known in heaAtfift before. Angels knew the meaning of justice ; they knew the meaning of righteousness — these words so full of awe, when those angels who kept not their first estate were cast out from heaven. Ah ! they then knew what rebellion against the Eternal meant. Well might they weep when they saw our first parents drawn captive by Satan ; is this, they might have wondered, to be another holo- caust ; another manifestation of righteousness merely ? No. God is to show what grace means. I have often witnessed illuminations expressive of the loyalty of the people. At one of these, on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, Sir Walter Scott's monument in Edin- burgh was covered with gas jets from top to bottom, and all Edinburgh was bright as day. But what a daj' that will be, when in the ages to come, there will be an illumination from one end of heaven to the other, when God will show forth the exceeding riches of His grace ; angels will gaze with wonder at the scene. And who will be the little jets sparkling with the manifold grace of God ? You and I, my dear friends, and millions of redeemed sinners, the Manassehs, and the Bunyans, and the Luthers, and a great number that no man can number ; they are to be all filled with the very light of God ; illumined with His grace. Angels will wonder ; seraphs will adore ; cherubs will again rise up in adoration, and the hosts of heaven will strike their harps anew to the glory of the infinite God, and the top stone shall be brought forth with shoutings of grace, grace unto it. T'le great word seen in that heavenly illumination will be GRACE. It is grace that we have been learning somethmg about these six millenniums. And in our evangelistic efforts, my dear friends, we are trying to gather little jets to show forth the riches of His grace. " But God who is rich in mercy." — He is not spoken of as rich in gold ; that is only used as pavement in heaven ; it is of no use for anything else up there. You had better make good use of it here ; as up there it will only be trampled underneath your feet. Send it on then, my friends, to the glory yonder, " Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations." People talked about the Eastern question, and the Afghanistan difficulties and all the rest of it. Well, perhaps, it is just as well that the world should look after these matters, but we too, must look after ours, and this is what we are looking to. What is the rise and downfall of great kingdoms to the grace and truth m 46 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. • Jesus Christ, who came as the great revealer of the deep, deep bosom secret of Almighty God. " Grace and truth came by Jesus Chris-t." And hereletjme say just one word, with all respect to our scientific friends. I love science and profess to be a devoted scholar in the school of science, wherever science can teach me, I love to learn. I love to ponder on the blue depths of the heavens with the tele- scope, or to study the minutest creation of God with my micros- cope. I bel ieve in studying all that my Father has made with all the aids fhkt science can give me. I profess to be a devoted and reverend scholar in the school of science; I believe in science and I believe in scientific men. I am not one of those who say that science is dangerous ; no science is dangerous except science, falsely so called. For instance, I believe in geology, and love to study it ; but the facts of geology are one thing, and the infer- ences of so called geologists are another thing altogether. The facts of geology I love as I love my Bible ; because the one is my Father's building, and the other is my Father's writing. But do you think that I am going deliberately to take the assumptions of men, who perhaps between two editions of their book will be 500,000 years out in their calculations. No, thank you ; I do not believe in such flickering will-o-the whisps, but in suns to guide me. I believe in the facts of geology, and the facts jf geology are not very difficult to find out. They tried to make you believe that their inferences were very perfect and very deep, when they are only muddy ; they would have you think that it is very difficult to find out the facts of geology. Indeed, there are very few facts. Their argument in effect is that as a cook takes a certain time in laying one layer of pastry after another, so God must have taken ages to build the different strata of the earth's crust. Scientists talk about the theory of development, and in some respects what they say seems very feasible, but while Darwin & Company are very good philosophers, they are very clumsy as creators ; while they keep to their own department we will listen to them, but let them not enter into the domain of creating : five minutes with the Creator Himself will tell me better than all their books. I would rather go to Him, if you please, because it is more scientific to go to the Being who was the only one there, than to go to a lot of guessers who have come afterwards — theories indeed, when they attempted to philosophize about creation. In order to help the Creator they bring creation down to the dot of a small microscopic object, or protoplasm as it is called, the minim of creation ; but it must be remembered that it is just as difficult to create this minim as it would be an elephant. We say to science, we believe in what you can teach us, but when we come to our dealings with our Creator, then we come into a domain that you know nothing of. I do not plead either for the reconciliation with revelation, nor do I defend their seeming opposition ; I neither try to say that science and revelation coincide, nor shall I be careful whether I say that science fights against revelation. In the domain we are CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 47 studying this afternoon, the science of man can have no place whatever. I say to science, God gives a revelation that you can either accept or reject, but regarding which you cannot use the methods of science. The foundation truth that I have to plead for in the manifesta- tion of grace and truth is this, that God became man ; that grace and truth thus came by Jesus Christ. Where did ever science hear of that ? It is outside your court, sir; it is beyond the range of your telescope ; it is beyond your measuring line; I cannot listen to thee, oh, science, when thou dost leave thy department. God became man — you have no measuring rod to measure that ; you can only accept it or reject it as a revelation. The second truth is like unto it, that Christ is risen from the dead. These are our two foundation truths. I. That God was manifested as man. f 2. That man was raised from the dead. And these two truths are referred to in the tenth chapter of Romans, where it says, " Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above ; or, who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead." " That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." These are the works that have to be done before any one soul can be saved. Oh, science, whom I love in thine own domain, didst thou ever hear of the resurrection ; of a man taken from the cross and placed at the throne of God ; didst thou ever hear of a sin-burdened man sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven ? When we enter this temple, adieu, — stand aside as long as we are in this holy place. When, again, we meet in our Botany, in our Natural History or wherever thou canst measure and examine, we will be friends again. But in the meantime we are in the domain of the incarnation and resurrection ; the incarna- tion manifesting grace and truth to us ; the resurrection giving us the right to enter into and the title to appropriate all that grace and all that truth. It is a revelation from the Most High, the deepest, the brightest, and the best that ever came down out of the silence above. I have sat in my little observatory, in England, on a ^arlight night watching with wonder and admiration some of the pheno- mena of the heavens, as, for instance, the nebula of Orion with its unnumbered worlds which appear even through a large tele- scope like a film ; and sitting there when all is hushed and no sound of man's voice, no sound of man's tread is heard, I have sometimes felt the silence to be overwhelming. The poets used to sing of the music of the spheres, but it was only a poetical idea, for no sound or utterance comes down. I have then gone to my knees and thanked my blessed God that He has broken the •ilence, and that God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake unto us by the prophets, hath in these days spoken unto us by His Son," the manifestation of the Father, lull of grace and truth. 48 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. The creation that is above me I cannot fathom it ; I feel like a little child tossed upon a boundless sea, the heights and depths are far above me, I have to exclaim, *' How can man by search- ing find out God and who can find out the Almighty to perfection ? " If I look at His blessed law, I find that all the thunderbolts of His justice are against me ; I have deserved them all ; T have deserved His wrath — eternal punishment ; I have deserved weep- ing and wailing and gnashing of teeth ; for His own holy law is against me. But when I hear whispers of love and whispers of grace and truth — a truth that comes to reveal me as I am, and a grace to reveal Him as He is — I stand under the shadows of His love, I feel that I can do nothing but wonder and worship, and the more I wonder the more I worship, and the more I worship the more I wonder at the height and the length and the breadth and the depth of the love of Christ that passeth all knowledge. When Adam had sold his God deliberately ; when he had wandered from God and chosen Satan, God might have left him to himself. But no. God says, If you can do without me I cannot do without you — Adam, where art thou ? What a loving heart is shown in these words : " I want you ; I do not want you to go to Satan." There was an exhibition of grace and truth, before even the first gospel was preached ; the activities of this God of love were the activities of grace and truth ; and does it not remind you of the New Testament statement, that the Son of Man is come to seek and to save — what he seeks — that which was lost ; and so He tells Adam what he is and what God is. Adam was afraid and went and hid himself, and the grace of God followed him, until the seeking God found the fleeing sinner. I do not wish to pre- scribe for other brethren in the way of dealing with anxious souls, but you will pardon me if I give my own experience with anxious souls. For many years now, I have never told an anxious soul to seek the Lord. Don't go away with the wrong impression; I will explain it to you just now. It is certainly the bounden duty of every man, anxious or not, to seek the Lord, just as it is the bounden duty of every man to keep the law of God ; but still while we find the Old Testament telling us to " Seek the Lord while he may be found," what do we find the result as detailed in the third chapter of Romans? "There is none that seeketh after God." 'In fact the whole germ of the law is contained in the ex- pression, '• Seek the Lord," and the whole result of the law is found in the third chapter of Romans, " There is none that seek- eth after God." But when we tuin to the Gospel and study its grace and truth, the position is reversed. We read, " The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost;" which shows that it is the Lord who is the great seeker now, and who has come down in the strength of His own pit}' and the activities of His own love. "And the Son of Man is come to seek and to save," and I will guarantee that He will find all that He seeks, but the moral responsibility rests upon you and me what to do, VIZ.: to take the lost sinner's place; for it is only the lost sinner CHRISTIAN CONFBRBNCE. 49 that lies in the pathway of the seeking Saviour, and thus can be saved. That is what I have to do ; I have to accept the grace and the truth that came by Jesus Christ, the truth that puts me down guilty, condemned, lost, ruined, without a plea, without an excuse, without a palliation ; He will do the rest ; He saves ; for He is seeking to save ; the Son of Man is come — the fulness of the Father, full of grace and truth. EVENING SESSION. The chair was taken by the Rev. Dr. Potts in Shaftesbury Hall. The overflow meeting was held in Richmond-st. Methodist church. Chair taken by Rev. Dr. Young, While the Hall was being filled, the choir sang a stanza or two of the following hymns : " The Great Physician now is near," > And .'■;.* " Repeat the story o'er and o'er." The Session began at eight o'clock by singing hymn 62 : "Jesus lover of my soul." ■ Rev. Dr. Topp led in prayer. Hymn 56 was sung : " Lord, I hear of showers of blessing." The Chairman now called on the Rev. W. J. Erdman to address the meeting. Rev. Mr. Erdman said : Let us turn to the sixteenth chap- ter of Matthew, 21st verse. " From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." What time forth ? Let us look at the previous part of the chapter at the 13th verse, " When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying. Whom do men say that, I the Son of man, am ? And they said. Some say thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias ; and others, Jere- mias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them. But whom say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter answered and said. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Then up to that point, according to the Gospel of Matthew, in our Saviour's history. He had been substantially teaching this one great truth, "Jesus is the Christ." — "Jesus is the Son of God." We have intimations of the fact of His sufferings and death, at the very beginning of His ministry, but we see He did not formally leach it, until after He had taught the other truth, viz., that Jesus 4 50 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. is the Son of God. How did He teach it ? He taught it in two ways. He taught it out of the Old Testament scriptures, and also by the miracles He wrought. Every time Jesus wrought a miracle that miracle in effect, asked of the beholder this question, " Who is He that is working this miracle ?" and the answer should always have been, " This is the Son of God, this is the King of Israel I" Up to this time then. He had been teaching this glorious truth. You noticed that He asked the disciples first this question, " Whom do MEN say that I am ?" Now, note the four answers given ; " Some say that Thou art John the Baptist, one who came to re- store us to the faith of the fathers — a reformer ; others say that Thou art Elias, a terrific denouncer of all sin and hypocrisy, op- pression and tyranny ; others say that Thou art Jeremias, the wailing prophet, lamenting the miseries of his people (ah ! He car- ried a deeper, heavier sorrow than even Jeremiah bore upon his heart) ; some say that Thou art one of the old prophets risen again, a teacher of morals." And then Jesus asks the disciples, " Whom say ye that I am ?" and Simon Peter, answering for the disciples, said, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Then Jesus said to him, •' Blessed art thou. Simon Bar-jona, ' — Bar-jona signifies son oi the grace of God — "blessed art thou, (son of the grace of God) for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Then we see that if the answers to the question, who is Christ ? are in the words of the multitude, namely, that He was a reformer, a reformer of law, a denunciator of sin, or a teacher of morals, you may set it down that it is an answer of flesh and blood — true, indeed, so far as ;t goes, but not going to the heart of the matter. So it is in these days when the question is asked, " What think ye of Christ ?" the answer often is that He is a reformer, a lawgiver, a moralist, a patriot, a teacher, a grand character; it may be an almost supernatural being, it may be quite a supernatural being, but until you give the answer ot Simon Peter, you cannot say that you have been taught of God, or taught of the Father, and you cannot hear the blessed word that Simon Peter heard in return, " Simon, (son of the grace of God)." It is the grace of God that teaches one that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And so Jesus having taught that truth, from that time forth He began to teach another truth, " The Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and sufi"er many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day." Then Peter, the very one who had received the blessing, took Jesus, and began to rebuke Him, saying, " Be it far from Thee, Lord ; this shall not be unto Thee. But He turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art an offence unto me ! (a stumbling block), for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Note then, that " From that time forth" Jesus began to teach the other great truth, that the Son of Man must suffer and die and then rise again. How did Jesus teach this truth ? In Matthew it says, '* He began to show unto His disci- CHRISTJAN CONFERENCE. i^ pies," — it is a peculiar word which signifies •• show by pointing out ;" when you look over to Mark at the corresponding narrative you will see that the word is there, "taught." He then taught them out ol the Old Testament, pointing out the special passages, and showing them what was there foretold of Him, that He must suffer and die and rise again. What a privilege to have been there and heard the exposition of the Lord [esus of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and to have heard Him go over all the wondrous prophecies of the sufferings, death and resurrection. Now we read in Mark X. 32, " And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem ; and Jesus went before them ; and they were amazed ; and as they followed, they were afraid. And He took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto Him ; saying. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes ; and they shall condemn Hiih to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him ; and the third day He shall rise again." Jesus taught them the second great truth, that He must go up to Jerusa- lem and die. But man, untaught of God as Peter was at this time, when asked the question, " Is it necessary that blood be shed for the remission of sins ?" will answer with Peter, " Be it far from Thee, Lord, that this shall be unto Thee, there is no need for an atonement for sin, no need for the Son of God to come from the bosom of the Father into this world, to be humiliated even unto the death of the cross." So said, and so says now, science and philosophy. So says the natural man, the untaught Peter in ail of us. '"■', "-■•;' But there is a deeper thought; our Saviour detected in the rebuke of Peter, the voice of Satan. Satan tempted Jesus at the beginning of His ministry with the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Later on. He was tempted with all the mystery of His death. Detecting then the voice of Satan, Jesus said, " Get thee behind me, Satan," and then added what gives us a sight into the very heart of God, '* Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." When God thought of creating the world. He did not think such a thought of wisdom, power, and goodness as when He thought of redeeming man. God's thought was to save man, but the only way to save him was through the only name whereby we can be saved, the name of Jesus; His blood must be shed, the true veil rent, or else there is no way to the Father. So, my friends, when you ask your neighbor the question, " What think you of Christ? " be sure and ask the next question, " Do you think it was necessary for Him to die that sinners might be forgiven?" and if they do not give you the answer which Peter gave, and which Jesus afterwards taught to Peter, set it down that they have not been taught of God. See how Peter had to learn that lesson afterwards. Turn for a moment to the last chapter of John ; there we read 59 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. that by the shore of the sea of Galilee, Jesus said to Peter, in the eighteenth verse, *' Verily, verily, I say unto thee. When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest : but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not."' This spake He signifying by what death He should glorify God. And when He had spoken He saith unto him, " Follow me." Now these words, " follow me," do not simply mean that he should follow Jesus as He walked on the shore of that sea ; they mean far more; they mean this, " Peter thou must die the death of the cross," the very death on account of which Peter had rebuked Jesus. In conclusion let me say, that what Jesus taught Peter, He teaches you and me to-night. Look for a moment at Matthew xvii., which gives an account of the Transfiguration. You have here the Transfiguration following in about eight days after the confession of Peter, and on that mount we have as many as five distinct confirmations of the confessions of Peter, that Jesus is the Son of God; but I will allude only to the last one, "And be- hold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." In Luke you find that Moses and EHas came and talked with Jesus, and what was the theme of their conversation ? They spake of His decease (Exodus) which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. My friends, two mes- sengers in Glory came to confirm Peter's confession, and to rebuke him for rebuking Jesus, when Jesus spoke of going to Jerusalem to die. Do you not see that Moses and Elijah came to speak about that death ? The central theme of heaven is God's redeeming love. Heaven and earth are moved to bring in their testimony to that wondrous truth. Who is Jesus ? The Son of God. What must the Son of God do? Go up to Jerusalem and die, or else there is no foundation laid for the redemption of man. What were the last words heard on that mount of Transfiguration? " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." You remember that John the Baptist pointed out the Son of God, and said, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Have you listened to John the Baptist as a re- former ? If you have, be consistent, and take the whole breadth of his testimony, and you will see that it points to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Do you believe in Elijah ? but what did Elijah come to speak of on that mount of Transfiguration ? Of the death of the Lord Jesus. Elijah tells you to go to Jesus, and hear Him. Only you have not heard Moses, John the Baptist, or Elijah rightly, if you have not heard them calling upon you to go to Jesus and hear Him only. When you go to the old prophets, what do they say ? They all tell you that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Mes- siah, and that believing ye have life in His name. It is as if Jesus lor the first half of His ministry, from the day of His baptism when the voice came from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, in CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 53 whom I am well pleased !" had been slowly walking with His dis- ciples up the bright and eastern slope of this mount ot Transfigur- ation, giving both wonderful signs and gracious words He is the Son of God, until upon the heavenly summit the same attesting voice of the Sublime Glory is again heard, saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him ;" and then when the Glory has departed, Jesus beginning the other half of His ministry, goes down the evening slope to the valley of death below, discoursing all the steep and rugged way on that other truth, " The Son of Man must suffer and die," until just before entering the sorrowful vale of Gethsemane and Calvary, when certain Greeks desired to see Him, that same confirming voice is heard for the third and last time, saying in answer to Jesus' prayer, " Father, glorify Thy name !" " I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." And then Jesus passes into the darkness of Gethsemane, into the shadow of the cross, and since that day when the unbe- lieving world hung Him on the accursed tree, it has not seen Him, and shall not see Him until He appears again, not now on the cross of shame and weakness, but on the throne of power and glory. To know Him now is indeed a matter of faith; one must be taught of the Father. It is not of the wisdom of flesh and blood to confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing we have life in His name. Are there not some Simon Bar-jonas here to-night, who may be taught the two blessed truths that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died to save sinners ? May it be so through His grace, and for the glory of His name. Hymn 190 was sung. .,,. ' , , ., " Man of sorrows, what a name.'' ■-'•'- • ■-'"1 ■> After which the Rev. J. B. Richardson, of the Memorial Church, London, was introduced and gave the following address. My dear friends: After what you heard from Mr. Rainsford, last evening, I hesitate very much to address you. He told you so clearly and forcibly, that what is needed, in order to present the truth which saves, successfully, is careful preparation, and that those who idly expect God's Holy Spirit to aid th^m, whilst they themselves, undertake no ca/eful consideration of the subject cannot expect blessing or success. I am sure we felt God's presence this morning and this after- noon, and I do pray that to-night we all may realize His presence still more in our hearts. I just want to say a few plain gospel words with little or no preparation. I wart you to accept what I say as God's truth, because it is God's truth, and whatever I say that may not be in harmony with the Word, to cast it aside. Many of us have come up to this Conference, I am quite sure, for the purpose of really enjoying a spiritual treat. I, for my part, had not the sHghtest idea of taking any prominent share in the exercise^ at all, I rather satisfied myself in the prospect of keeping my seat, and being instructed by what more experienced and powerful speakers had to say. But two of our friends told us to-day that !J4 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. our duty as Christians is to be " witnesses" for Christ. This was very clearly and prominently brought before us by Mr. Erdman quoting, I think, Acts i. 8, "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."' And oh, my friends, with such a great cause and great subject as we have to bring before you, how can we hesitate in witnessing, however imperfectly, for Jesus when called upon ? The time is very, very short, as well as very, very precious. God is pleading with us, and urging us to go forth and speak all the words of this Life. Let me briefly call your attention to 2 Corinthians, chap. v. 18- 21. There is a great deal of precious truth in these words. You see at once it pre-supposes the fact that men by nature are at en- mity with God ; or, if I may use a plain word, that there is a niis- understaiuUug between God and man ; that there has been a break in that connection, and that communion which God once had with His creatures. That break, you are aware, took place in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and his whole race were banished from the pres- ence of God. There are many persons, I believe, who do not quite comprehend this truth, or who do not quite accept it ; there are very few, especially of unconverted people, who are willing to admit the fact that they are at enmity against God ; that there is a barrier be- tween them and God; that tiiey are not God's friends, — and yet the truth is all through the Scriptures. Men by natuie are spoken of as being "enemies to God by wicked works ;" as being •' chil- dren of wrath ;" "aliens;" and " strangers and foreigneis." Var- ious expressions are used to show that we are not natiiiallv friends to God ; and so the apostle here tells us that God " hath recon- ciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ," and hath given unto His people the ministry of reconciliation. Now what is this truth.? The truth is that God Himself, although He was pledged to break the connection between Himself and man by reason of man's fall — that God " //u»5t'//". hath provided a reconciliation for His fallen creatures. I remember once hearing an illustration which beautifully showed this blessed truth, it was to this effect : A judge was obliged to pass sentence of condemnation upon a pris- oner : he was obliged to condemn him to the payment of a very large fine ; but immediately alter he had condemned him he went to the prisoner, and handed him the amount of the fine, thus him- self, as it were, making a reconciliation or providing the means of that man'sjuslificalion and acquittal. Now, God Himself has done this lor us. He has in the person of His own blessed Son, Jesus Christ, borne our iniquities, and carried our sorrows. Christ be- came, as it were, responsible for our sins; the guilt of man was laid upon Him- " The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The demand of the Law had to be fulfilled, and if Jesus Christ had not fulfilled this, b}' dying and rising again, the con- demnation must have fallen on man himself, and in bearing the condemnation, the sinner must have perished. There must not CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 55 only be natural death, but everlasting death ; but Christ, by His all prevailing blessed atonement on the cross, became our substi- tute, and by faith in Him men's trespasses are not imputed unto them. God laid upon Him our transgressions, and Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. It is our blessed privilege to state that Jesus Christ has provided everlasting life for all those who will accept it. We are never told in the Bible that God is to become reconciled to us. No ; that reconciliation has been effected already. He is now, as far as He is concerned, reconciled to us ; because He has done all that is necessary to make that reconciliation. God says to us, as it were, •' I am satisfied ; Jesus Christ has done quite enough to satisfy me. I am satisfied with the work of Christ, to receive you." The question to the sinner is, "Are you satisfied with that work yourself?" The instant we affirm our concurrence we are at peace with the Almighty. Ah, my friends, are there not some here to-night whose own hearts tell them that they are not reconciled to God ? And yet even ;f your own hearts or your own experience does not tell you, God tells you that you are not recon- ciled to Him ; that you are in a state of sin ; ai.d that's enough. Remember it is not necessary for us to feel that we are sinners in order to be constituted sinners ; God just comes and tells us in His own Word that " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ;" and that " the wages of sin is death ;" that we must die eternally. And we simply have to accept that statement made by God and not to question it ; we have to come to God's Word and accept what He says, and not to gainsay a single statement. Now God tells every unconverted man that he is not reconciled, and that not being reconciled he has no title to, and no hope of, ever- lasting life, and that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Oh ! beloved with immortal souls, with the great issues that are before us, can you continue in a state of un-reconciliation to God ? Oh, if there is a man or woman here that realizes the awful condition of being out of Christ, and the awful consequences of being out of Christ, they could not remain another hour in that state of woe ; and yet if they believe God's blessed truth that by just accepting with the hand of faith what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, they at once become translated from " the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of His dear Son." This may seem a very simple, and to many a very foolish and con- temptible doctrine ; it is, nevertheless, according to Divine testi- mony. An educated man told me the other day, — a man who reads his Bible, and professes to be a faithful servant of God — '' I don't believe that a man is saved by mere faith in Christ ; you can- not make me receive such childish nonsense ; my faculties, my intellect, my reasoning powers, all teach me to repudiate that ; I cannot believe that so great a work as salvation can be obtained on such terms." Beloved, we are bound to receive the message as the Spirit dictates, whether it suits our ideas of reasoning or not. We have nothing to do with God's decrees ; but we have everything to do with God's testimony ; and that testimony is that yV CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." I pray you to-night, " Be ye reconciled to God." ' The Chairman made a few brief remarks, urging those unsaved to accept the Saviour. (i;: ' r'l 'i : ^i;yyi Hymn 52, " Almost persuaded," was sung. Rev. Dr. O'Meara pronounced the benediction. h,.!^'.:- u. '■/- \ ■:'>';/■ f^;. i^. ^-11^ ■ ,' >:" ■•'-,■■■■■ =. ir^;. :-•'■" !V'i';"'iM't'. *rii. i < . .: .^. ,. u i:i.!._ : fv';',;;,-- v:, ': «Jr-'' '!"'.'''".' ■.:'::■,'-;■'■:'.'■ »» ''■ X'^.' ^^l^^^l • ' •".. :'■ -• OffN. ■ .; (..'.! - . ,..., ■ I'^- *" .-- '*" i .tf. '.; ;i,:' ,.;;,. Ki-;. ,;';.KJ ,:,'':■ :. ^ A:j 'U-i\ '-ti:-:: ■.';;:; :.ij; 'i^?». If:.,': Vf. ir.9: »^v\;-9^!',)J;i|;.|;yA. ,^y;:;:5. .:;^ ; ■•,-S.;';'i: ;Sfcht, , ,,-,LV:.:4,- . • . - .-. - .i .. .H Jm.i. ,'1 :v morning SESSION. '^ ' ' > '■•' •>'.-! -u.^* f-- 'U ^'r ' .. PRAYER AND PRAISE MEETING. '* *'' • ,';• Jilt Led by Rev. Mr. Erdman. < ' ■■-•-•! .. . ■ I^ . i • After singing the 84th hymn: ' ,■" .»; •: / 1 ^jjj " I need Thee every hour," The Chairman offered a brief prayer, and then said : Let us turn to Ephesians iii. The Holy Spirit through Paul has written down for us a prayer for the Church for all ages. You notice in this chapter at the first verse, " For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles ;" and for the next thirteen verses you find just one sentence, for you notice at the 14th verse he again says, " For this cause." In this verse he makes a fresh start, the foregoing verses having reference to himself, " For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now for what cause did he bow his knees ? He has given us the cause in the two preceding chapters : our inheritance with the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory He has given us, our sonship with Him before the Father, the fulness which we have in Him. " For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Notice in the i6th verse the prayer is " that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory." There is an immense wealth in glory up there in the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians tells us about Christ as the head: all fulness in Him ; Ephesians tells us about the body in which all that ful- ness is to dwell. In these riches of glory there is an abundance of spiritual blessing for each one of us ; and now, he asks, according to those riches we may be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. And if we had time we might turn to Colos- sians and see that the same prayer is lound there, not in the form 58 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE.^' of a prayer as here, but substantially ; and there the strengthening is " unto all patience, and unto all long suffering." Again in Col- ossians not a word is said about the Spirit, only about the fulness •which is in Jesus Christ. In Ephesians the prayer is that that fulness which is in the Lord Jesus may dwell in our hearts by Jaith. Then you see we get all fulness from the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. In a hill country one brings water from a spring on the hill side into his house by simply laying a pipe. If I lay the head of the pipe just one-half its width to the lountain, I have only half as much water as I might have ; if I lay it just a little to the head of the stream, but a little will come through. So it is with our pipe of faith ; if we lay our whole heart to the Fountain Head, we shall be filled with all the fulness. " That ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." In Colossians the expression is " Rooted and built up in Him ;" in Ephesians it is " Rooted and grounded in love," because God is love ; and the fulness of God in Jesus Christ is, in one word, the fulness of love ; if we are rooted and grounded in Christ, we are rooted and grounded in His love. And on the other side, if a man wishes to know whether Christ is in him, or if we wish to know whether Christ is in each other, the proof is love. If love is not there it is an indication that Christ is not there, and if love is not there faith will not be there, and the Holy Ghost will not be there, for the very spirit and breath of holi- ness is love. So then, we are to be rooted and grounded in Christ and His iove, and receive His fulness by faith. Being in His love, love should also be in us. Last of all we read in the 20th verse, " Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or tliink, according to the power that workelh in us; unto Him be glory in the church by Cinist Jesus, throughout all ages world without end." Who is that power that is working in us? We are told in the i6th verse, "'^o be strengthened with might by His Spirit." Who then is the power that is able to do exceetling abundantly? The Holy Spirit. And what will He do for us? If we, in this hour of prayer this morning, look at the Lord Jesus only, the Spirit dwell- ing in us will begin to work and do exceeding abundantly for us in showing to us what fulness there is for each one in the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not know how you came in this morning, but knowing my own heart I know I came empty and desire the fulness that is in Christ. I come weak and so want power, and I can look to Jesus for that power, for it is all in Him ; I lack wisdom, and so must look at Jesus, for He is my wisdom ; I lack purity, and sin may have marred and clouded my fellowship with the Father, and so I must look to Jesus, and there I will find a supply for my every need. God grant that His Holy Spirit may so work in our hearts that we may be filled with all the fulness that is in Christ. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 59 After prayer by one of the brethren, the hymn, :-,.,. .^ '■ Oh. (or a thousand tongues to sing," ■ -, . ■ ',,,'i!i Was sung. vi/i'w Mr. S. R. Briggs, the Secretary, who had received a large num- ber of requests for prayer, before presenting the same, gave some very interesling accounts of answers toprayertliat had come under his own observation, and then suggested that while reading the requests all should bow their heads in silent prayer to God. This part of the mornings services was closed by singing the Doxology. Dr. Mackav then took the chair, and called upon the choir to sing the 146th hymn : ■' ' " •" - ■ ; '■>>'■ . •:..-^ cf ; -• yi'^i '!;m-i M' " My soul be on thy guard," After which he offered up prayer for the Divine blessing upon the proceedings of the Conlerence. _♦''•''' '".f '* '..'J '\'', The following address was given : V' '' "'i 1 :'.,:' THE HOLY SPIRIT. ] •.1 -J,' >'-M m'-i-. .■■i:i- ', m.:. liir ■■ Hf-,^;:^., ,; , ■ -. v; ., BY REV. W. J. EKDMAN. y-; ^.'/.H This is a subject that has a great many departments. The truth concerning the Holy Spirit may be divided into three parts. 1. The actings and dealings of the Ploly Spirit, which are alike in the Old Testament and in the New. On that part I will not have much to say. 2. The second division would take in five points of diffeiences between His actings in the Old Testament, and in the New; wliie.h are foretold in the Old Testament, and have been fulfilled in the New. '.« ;. t^. ^ -•: / ^ ./ .v. 3. The gift of the Holy Spirit to sons, and for two objects ; the , first of which is to be in them, the Creator of all, the spiritual experience, and the religious life of the sons of God ; and the second is, to be in them as the power of service. They serve as sons ; Ihdt we must never forget. We do not serve in order to become sons, but we serve because we are sons ; we are to do the will of the Father, as we said yesterday, in these three depart- ments — in the work of faith, and the labor of love, and the patience of hope. In regard to the first division, which speaks of the dealings of the Holy Spirit alike in the Old Testament and in the New, I must simply allude to them without giving any Scripture. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was the power in working miracles — the saiTie in the New. The Holy Spirit inspired men in the Old Testament — He did the same in the New. The Holy Spirit gave power to kings to rule — He gives the same executive gifts in the Church of the New. The Holy Spirit was the Author of all religious experience in the Old Testament — He also is in the New. In fact, when you come to examine very closely His acts and 60 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. dealings in the Old Testament and in the New, you find a great similarity ; but because John the Baptist, and Jesus Himself, spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit as future, some people are led to think or say that the Holy Spirit had not been in the world before ; but the Word will show what was meant by John the Baptist and by the Lord Jesus. It is also true that the Holy Spirit in the olden time convicted men of sin and of judgment. To explain this let us look at John xvi. 7-1 1, and Micah iii. 8. It will be found in regard to these two passages, that in the olden time, the Holy Spirit did convince men of sin, through the prophets ; and yet when we look at the sixteenth chapter of John and read that promise, •' That when He is come He will convince the world of sin, etc.," it seems very special ; but its peculiarity lies not in the promised reproving, but rather in the new ground and reason for conviction. Let some one read Micah iii. 8, " But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin." John xvi. 7-1 1, " Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient for you that I go away : lor if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, etc." We see from these passages that there is an identity in the action of the Holy Spirit in the olden time, and in the new. And now we come to the five points of difference foretold, con- cerning the action of the Holy Spirit in a later day. I will group them together in this way. The first point of difference combines these two scriptures, Joel ii. 28, 2g, and Acts ii. 17, 18. The second point ot difference combines these passages, Isaiah xxxii. 15, Acts ii. 2, John vii. 39. The third point 01 difference combines Isaiah xliv. 3, and John vii. 37. 39- The fourth point of difference combines Ezekiel xxxvi. 27, xxxvii. 14, and John xiv. 16, 17. The fifth point of difference combines Isaiah lix. 21, and John xiv. 16. These passages of the Old Testament contain five points of difference which are to be fulfilled in a later day. We will now, without reading them, refer to them briefly. The first point of difference is this, that in a later day the Spirit should be poured upon all flesh — you recognize the Scripture at once. Just two contrasts here, (i) "poured ;" the contrast is "sprinkled,'" (dropped here and there on one and another.) In the Old Testament He came in scattered drops, as it were upon persons chosen of God to do a special work. You remember the schools of the prophets ; imagine 300 young men together. They were preparing for their special work, to be ready, like so many instruments, for the Holy Spirit to use whenever in His sovereign will He should choose and send one of them. They were CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 6l just like an instrument of music that can give no sound of itself, until operated on by the musician. But God could dispense with these sons of the prophets, for when Israel degenerated He passed by the school of the prophets, and called upon an Amos, a sycamore fruit gatherer and herdsman, and sent him on a mission to Israel to rebuke their sins and idolatries. So the Holy Spirit came upon a man here and there, but the promise was that at a later day He should come upon all flesh, all conditions and ranks of society. The second point of difference you may note by the three words " From on high." Please read Isaiah xxxii, 15, "Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." Also Acts ii. 2, "And suddenly there came a sound /torn heaven, etc." The attention is directed upward by the expression, "from on high" in Isaiah, and " from heaven" in Acts. But to make it still more distinct read John vii. 39, " But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.'' From the riven rock must the water flow; from that High and Holy One up there must the oil be given ; from the glorified Christ must the chrism of glory come. The third point of diff"erence may be entitled, " On all the thirsty." See Isaiah xliv. 3, " For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground ; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine off"spring ; " and then the other passage, John vii. 37, " In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." So you see that it was on all the thirsty that the Spirit was to be poured down. The fourth point may be entitled, "/« " or ^'Within." , Ezekiel xxxvi. 27, "And I will put my Spirit within you, etc." Now we don't wish to make a very strong contrast between the two words "in" and "upon;" but notwithstanding we do see this, that in the Old Testament the Spirit of God sometimes came upon men in whom He did not dwell. He came upon Balaam, but we cannot say that He dwelt in Balaam. No ; the Holy Spirit took what instruments He desired, and gave them power and inspiration for a certain work, and then left them. And yet He was in them too in the Old Testament day. David prayed, " Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." But the word "i«," since Jesus came, has a deeper meaning rhan it ever had in the Old Testament. Let us read John xiv. 16, 17, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever ; Even the Spirit of Truth and shall be in you." The last, and fifth point of difference may be entitled by the simple word "forevtr" as in Isaiah Ixix. 21, and in the passage we have just read, "that He may abide in you forever." Now we have gone over the five points of diff'erence, and we 62 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. see how they were realized after the Lord Jesus Christ ascended ; how, when the day of Pentecost came, we find all these points fulfilled. Note now that John the Baptist, when he came, renewed the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, " I indeed baptize you with water but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." 4nd so we now come to the third division of this subject, which is ihis specifically. The Holy Spirit was promised to believers as sons of God ; that is the specific point of this gift of the Holy Spirit. I will give some passages on this head. Ephesians i. 5, Romans viii. 23 and 29, Galatians iv. 1-7, Jonn vii. 39, Romans v. 5, and the many passages in John's Gospel concerning the Comforter in the xiv., XV , and xvi. chapters. Before the first reference is read, let me say that our Saviour always spoke of the Holy Spirit as the "promise of the Father," and the Holy Spirit uses words very carefully, and Jesus used words very carefully. He did not simply say the "promise ot God;" it is the "promise of the Father." Now we ought always to stop when the Holy Spirit uses a word, and as I have been trying to illustrate this morning when we read any word we ought to get into the mental habit of noting the contrast or opposite to it. Now in the phrase, "promise of the Father," we notice the contrast, " child " or " son." It must be the promise of the Father unto believers as sons, and the gift was bestowed upon them as unto sons. Now for the first passage. Ephesians i. 5, " Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children b} Jesus Christ to Himself, etc." Romans viii. 15, "For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear ; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father." F.omans viii. 23, "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit ; even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Notice the word, adoption, here, the adoption of children in Ephecians, and the adoption of sons in Romans ; it is the same word, however. And now, though we would not pretend or presume to change the language ot the Bible, yet I think we will a'l agree, if our attention has never been called to it before, that the word, " adoption of sons," does not completely convey the meaning of the Holy Spirit. What do we, as ministers, preach as the condition of entrance into the kingdom of God? Are there then two ways into the kingdom of God, one by adoption, and another by being born again ? If there is only one way ; then this word " adoption," must have a different meaning from that usually affixed to it by our modern usage. What is it ? Literally, it is setting in the place of a son. Turn to Galatians iv. 1-7. You notice what argument is linked with the twenty-ninth verse of the third chapter, "And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." In the sixteenth verse we read, " Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. ^3 He saith not, And to seeds as of many, but as of jne, and to thy seed, which is Christ." My friends, we sometimes discuss the question of verbal inspiration; but I go farther, I go down to /tZ/tra/ inspiration. Look at that sixteenth verse; the letter "s" is the hinge of the turn of that thought, not to seeds, but unto thy seed which is Christ. Now turn to the twenty-ninth verse, "And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed according to the promise." Mark, it is in the singular number. All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are the seed with Him; we are the Isaac with Him; we are the one body ; we are the son of God — and the proof of it is in the twenty-eighth verse, " There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ; for ye are all one [man] in Christ Jesus." And if ye be Christ's, as one man, then are ye all the seed with Him. Thank God, we can say that whatever the Lord JeLus Christ owns, you and I own ; we are heirs with Him. Now turn to the fourth chapter and first seven verses. Let me read them very carefully. " Now I say. That the heir as long as he is a child (infant as we say in legal phrase — a minor) difl'ereth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all. But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the Father, (in the will and ttstament.) Even so we, when we were children, (minors), (Paul here identifies himself undoubtedly with the Old Testament saints), were in bondage under the elements of the world, (under the elements of the Mosaic economy.) But when the fulness of the time was come." God made a will, and a will implies heirs ; it implies a legacy. He has a great inheritance to bestow ; He has children to bestow it upon ; the children had to wait until they came of age ; the Old Testament saints were children under age, minors, until the Son came, who by His death, made the testament of God valid, and since that day all believers are in the condition of full age. • " But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son (do not say child, that is another word), made of a woman, made under the law. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." " We Old Testament saints were children under age, and had to wait until our majority came, and then we entered upon our possession. But of our possession we have now only the earnest and first fruits — the Holy Spirit. So we had to wait that we might receive — what ? The adoption of sons." It does not imply that the Old Testament saints were never born again, that they were not children, but simply declares that they were minors, and their experience must have been that of minors. " And because ye are sons (it is full grown sons, having attained your majority), God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And now, indeed, that Holy Spirit came not until redemption had been accomplished, and for this special purpose, to tell them that they were sons ; that God was 64 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. their Father ; to shed abroad in their hearts the love of God by the Holy Spirit which He had given them. We have now come to the point where our subject branches oft. Let us review for a moment. You see that in both the Old and New Testament the Holy Spirit did many similar things. In the Old Testament, also, you have the promise of five different points of a future fulfilment ; and then at last, when that fulfilment comes, you see it is specifically the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers as unto sons. Now I think this is very clear ; it is not my reasoning ; the Holy Spirit brings it out Himself. Yes, the fact remains, whether we know it or not, — ^just as the sun shines even if men shut themselves up in dungeons and refuse to see its light — the glorious fact remains that the Holy Spirit is ours as sons of God. In Romans and Galatians we have the expression, " Crying Abba, Father ;" but with this difference, that in Galatians it is the Holy Spirit Himself, and in Romans it is our spirit in Him crying Abba, Father. So that it is the Spirit of God identifying Himself in all these experiences of the children of God ; blessed be His holy name. You know that when Mary met the Lord Jesus on the morning of the resurrection, the Lord said, " Touch me not." I know there is much discussion as to the meaning of this, and I do not propose to enter into any full explanation of it, but whatever other truths may come out of it, I think this truth may be seen. Mary on the morning of the resurrection, as soon as she knew the Lord, was about to greet Him in an affectionate sisterly way. Jesus had foretold His sufferings, death and resurrection, and they did not believe Him. Before He died, they thought of Him just as He was, in that body that He had, in that mien that He showed, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief worn and weary at times, and that as He was, so would He remain, and that with those who believed on Him, He would there and then establish His kingdom. But when He had fulfilled His words, had suffered, died, and risen again, Mary beholding Him, may have said to herself, " Jesus, thou hast fulfilled all thy prophecies of suffering, death, and resurrection, and now, Jesus thou wilt remain with us down here ; and we shall be with thee forever ; now surely, thou wilt set up thy kingdom ;" with such thoughts as these would she greet the Master. But what does Jesus say, "Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father ; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God, and your God ;" or in other words, " Mary, thou must not think of me after this as you now behold, or as you once beheld me before my resurrection, you must hereafter think of me as the Glorified One with the Father at the right hand of the Majesty on high ; and more than that, Mary, thou must not think of thyself as being any more of the earth and earthly, for I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary, thou hast the privilege of thinking no longer of yourself as a poor earthly one down here, but as one with me in that glory with my Father CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 65 and your Father, my God and your God." Mary did not under- stand the truth of redemption, and of glorification after redemption, and of being one with tne Son of God in Glory. A few words more as to the names of the Holy Spirit, with which we will finish the reading ; but before doing so let me add a word concerning John the Baptist. You know that John the Baptist came and declared that one was coming after him, whose shoes he was unworthy to bear, and that He would baptise them with the Holy Spirit, You also remember that Jesus said of John the Baptist, that the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he ; and yet that he was the greatest of all born of woman. John the Baptist had not seen the redemption accomplished, and though he was full of the Holy Spirit, yet when he told the Jews that they were to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and in his word to Jesus at the Jordan, " I have need to be baptized of thee," in the Greek as the sentence runs, there is an accent of sadness on this wise, "/ indeed baptize you with water, hut you (and not I), shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." And yet John was full of the Holy Spirit ; what did he mean ? John knew when he called himself a voice, that like a voice, as soon as the Word was introduced, he must die away into silence ; and we know that John died in prison, not as one who had attained the blessedness of being able to say, " Abba, Father," but as one who was still a minor, waiting until the redemption should be accomplished. Now under what names is the Holy Spirit given ? Look at Ephesians i. 13 ; Ephesians iv. 30 ; i John ii. 20, 27 ; 2 Corinthians i. 21, 22 ; Romans viii. 23. Ephesians i. 13, " In whom ye also trusted ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Eph. iv. 30, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Who is the seal ? The Holy Spirit Himself. I think there has been somewhat of a confusion of thought on the question of the sealing of the Holy Spirit — the Spirit Himself is the seal. It is said, " Sealed until the day of redemption." We have just read that when the redemption was accomplished, then the Spirit was given, and what is the meaning of redemption there? It refers to the redemption of the body. Romans viii. 23, we are " waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body," Though we are now entering into the experience of our relation- ship as sons of God, we have not yet a body that corresponds to our present dignity and future glory, and we are waiting for this, or as it reads, " we are waiting for the redemption of our body," and we are " sealed until the day of redemption," Here let me direct your attention to the passage, " Grieve not the Spirit," Sometimes people speak of the Holy Spirit as a set of influences ;' but you cannot grieve an influence, you can only grieve a person who loves you, and therefore the Holy Spirit is a person. He is a person whom we can grieve, and who loves us as a mother never loved. The next reference is oil. i John ii. 20, " But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things;" and in the 27th 5 66 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. verse, •' But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." Here the words " unction " and " anointing •" are the same, and He is the oil — the Holy Spirit Himself. What is the first need of a house ? Light. Well, in this world's darkness, we need oil. He is then the oil that enlightens ; He illuminates the house. But notice the peculiar language expressed in this verse. He was writing, he says, to people who knew everything. Why did he write to them ? Some people quote these two passages of Scripture to prove that they need no teacher or pastor to help them, because they have the unction of the Holy Spirit. Why then did the Holy Spirit inspire John to write this epistle to them that had the Holy Spirit and knew all things ? Principally, because they needed some more instruction, and secondarily because if they had not the Holy Spirit they would not have been able to understand John ; we need he Holy Spirit to know what John wrote. He says, "These things have I written that ye may know ye have eternal life." No one can set up himself as infallible because he has the Holy Spirit ; that would be flying in the very face of Scripture ; but the Spirit is given to each for the profiting of all. One sees this truth vividly, another that, and each should bring his truth to the other. In 2 Corinthians i. 20, 22, we have three names all brought together. " Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God." " Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." There we are established (present tense). By whom is He doing it? By the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit ? He is the (Seal, the Oil, the Earnest. What is the Earnest ? A part paid down in advance, as the pledge of the future possession of all. And the Holy Spirit is the earnest to show that God is in earnest about our salvation, and our future inheritance. We are going to have the whole inheritance, but here we have the first-fruits of it, as appears in Romans viii. 23. I have often. pondered that word ; if the Holy Spirit Himself is the earnest, the first-fruits, what will be the possession in glory ? Last of all, we mention one word that should sum it all up, one name cf the Holy Spirit. He is the Comforter : " And I will give you another Comforter." Who was the other one? Jesus Himself. When Simeon took up Jesus in his arms, it is said that he was one who had been looking for the consolation of Israel. The word consolation there is comfort, if we adhere to the kindred word Comforter as the translation oi paraclete. Jesus was the comforter of Israel, Jesus was the consolation of Israel ; and w^en Jesus was about to go away. He said, " I will send you another Comforter." No different being ; it was a different person, but the same being ; it was the Spirit of Christ and of God. Now what does He teach us ? The Holy Spirit will do for you and me just what the Lord Jesus used to do for His disciples while on earth, and He will do for you and me <^his morning and throughout life just what you and CHRISTIAN CONFRRENCE. 67 1 would like Jesus to do, if He were in bodily presence by our side. I suppose we often think in ourselves if the Lord Jesus were here we would tell Him this, and ask Him that. Why, my friends. He has told us, " I will send you another Comforter." And when the Spirit came, He brought indeed not only the Son, but also the Father ; all the Godhead is with us ; God is in us. *' If any man love me my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him." There are nearly one hundred kindred words in the New Testament translated by these English words: beseech, exhort, entreat, console, comfort — nearly one hundred words trans- lated by eight to ten English v/ords. Instead, for instance, of saying " I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God," it says ■" I paraclete you by the mercies of God." When it says " I admonish you," the original has it, "I paraclete you ;" when it says, " I exhort you," it is, "I paraclete you." It is one of the sweetest things in the whole Biblethatwhen believers are beseeching one another, it is the Paiaclete, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who is in them working t'lrough them. And so Paul, filled with the Spirit, was paracleting, ihough of course the English translation justly gives a shade of variation according to the requirement of the context. It is sometimes to beseech, sometimes to exhort, some- times to admonish, comfort, strengthen, console, but it is always the same blessed and holy Paraclete and Comforter, who is at work in the sons of God. In this Conference of believers in the Son of God, it is the one Holy Spirit who is uniting us all, teaching us all, exhorting us all, comforting us all. '' Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." Hymn : ' " Praise God from whom all blessings flow," Also " The God of Abraham praise." The following address was then given : • ' CHRIST A PERSONAL SAVIOUR. BY DR. W. P. MACKAY. This subject, as it reads, conveys somewhat of ambiguity to one's mind ; but still the very ambiguity may lead us into wider lines of truth. It may have to do with the personality of the Saviour, or the personality of the saved one ; both are very important to study. Christ is a personal Saviour. It is not a proposition that saves our soul, but a person. It is not in some abstract way that Christ becomes a Saviour to us, but we as persons must have to do with ihis person — so there is the personality of the saving one, and the 68 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. personality of the saved one. We find that in the Apostolic days, the apostles never went anywhere, in the exercise of their function of preaching the Word, and preached mere doctrines ; they did not preach the atonement, or the extent of the atonement, or the nature ot the atonement ; they did not tell people even to believe in the atonement, or to believe in something about Christ, or to believe in what Christ had done for them ; but they went everywhere preaching Christ — Christ a personal Saviour, not a propositional Saviour, not a logical Saviour, but a personal one. They did not go in the acute exercise of their powers preaching syllogisms to people, and putting before them premises and con- clusions, and saying, if such and such is the case, if such and such is the major premise, and such and such the minor premise, and if you put these two premises together, you will reach a syllogistic conclusion, and therefore you have salvation. This might satisfy the schools and the schoolmen ; but it does not do when appeals have to be made to the consciences of men. A sinner cannot be brought before his God except individually as a sinner and through his conscience ; nothing of the man is reached until the conscience is reached. I remember well when I was pass- ing through college, and at my being set apart for the ministry, a dear old man whose name I forget, in his charge to us students many years ago, told us that, as preachers of the Gospel, we should not be content to reach the intellects of men, but that it should be our aim to reach their consciences. Before we reach the con- science, we must first of all see to it that we reach the tympanum of the external ear. We can always reach this if we preach loud enough. Some people don't consider this of much importance, and that mumbling will do. If we have a message from the king to deliver to any person, the firsi; thing we do is to knock at the outer gate or street door ; this fitly represents the tympanum of the ear, and we have to get through this first before we can reach the man himself. We find that there are two roads from the outer gate up to the man : the first is, the road by the intellect, and the other road is by his emotions ; sometimes I may take the one, and sometimes the other. If I think a man has a good deal of intellect, I will try that road, and aim at convincing his intellect, and so walk up by this avenue to the man: I try to impress the intellect with the truth of my propositions. If on the other hand I find his. nature principally emotional, I tell him touching stories, full of pathos that bringtears to his eyes ; or it may be that I may convince the man by first appealing to the risible faculties. But we must rememl?er that, after you have reached the outer gate of the ear, and have walked up the avenue of the intellect or of the emotions, then, it is only then, you have reached the front door of the man's heart. The conscience has now to be dealt with ; the conscience you know is the man. The conscience tells him very humiliating truths ; it does not puff him up a bit ; it does not tell you that you are of importance. When quickened before God it tells you your duty — not only that you have not done it, but that you cannot ; it tells you what is right, and what is wrong ; it tells you that you CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 6^ have no power to do right ; it humbles you before God. It is only when the conscience is thus awakened that we have reached the personal sinner, and then we can present to him a personal Saviour — and then what do we do ? We retire ! ! ! — because we are not priests, but ministers. There is a great diflference here, friends. We have a great function. Some people think that the age of pastors, and teachers, and evangelists is gone ; their pres- ence and statements are the greatest proof that it is not. I say this with the greatest amount of confidence. If any man comes to me and says that he does not need a teacher, I say, " My friend, your statement just now is the greatest proof that you do." I will tell you another kind of twaddle I don't believe in, it is this ; Avhen a man comes to me and says that he can get ail the instruction he needs from the Bible and that he doesn't want any teacher to instruct him, I don't believe in that at all ; it is not true. The chances are that instead of reading the Bible, you will find hin? busily perusing some monthly periodical. I think that when a man believes he is so clever that he gets everything' from the Bible, it is the very germ of Godless independence. We are all dependent, the one upon the other ; just as every bone and muscle and every part of our body are interdependent, the one upon the other. Think of an independent finger, for instance, trying to move on its own responsibility. We are liot a lot of independent balls in a basket; we are not a lot of electrified hairs at the end of a broom. There are three names given to Eve. The first name given to her was Isha, which means " woman from the man." T.ie next, I believe, was the manifestation of Adam's faith. For I believe that Adam is in heaven, and I think we have it in the Old Testament. I believe that he repented, and that is all that ever we have done.f_ I believe that Adam repented and believed the Gospel. He hadri't a big Bible ; we have 66 books, he had only one verse, and he believed it all, and he knew it all. He believed all his Bible ; it was a very little Bible, but he believed it all. I do not know mine yet. Adam said, " The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the fruit, and I did eat ;" and the Lord said that the seed of the woman was to bruise the head of the serpent, and that life was to spring from her. We find that Adam repents, and believes because of that, and accordin-^ly calls her Hava (or Eve), the mother of all living. It stands recorded in our old Bible that she was no longer to be called Isha but Hava (living), the mother of all living. Adam's faith is implied in the change of name that he gave to Eve. But there is another name that Eve had ; it is this, " Male and female created He them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam." She was part of the man Adam ; she was called Adam with him and in him, Adam. " So as the body is one and has many members ;" it does not say, " So also is Christ's body, but so also is the Christ ;" so that the body and the head all form together one great eternal unity that through all eternity will show the meaning of God's grace, and God's righteousness, and God's wisdom, and God's power, with Christ, the head, and we, the - 70 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. members. Brethren, let us shun that spirit of independence, and let us cultivate that disposition to minister unto and to be minis- tered to by all, and rejoice if we can by any means communicate a blessing to, or receive a blessing from, others. We are ministers of the Gospel of God ; we entirely disown all priestly interven- tions ; we have nothmg priestly in our ministry ; no priesthood now but the common priesthood of all believers, and Christ, the High Priest, and we ministers of the Gospel believe that we are at one here. Our work is this : when we get a personal sinner stripped bare of all his pretences, we have reached his front door — his conscience, and there knocked ; sometimes knocked very loud,. — we cannot knock too loud. Then we bring him down before the Holy One revealed in all His perfection, the sinner revealed as he is, stripped of all his pretences, and when now we have brought them together, we retire ; we have no more to do ; we do not go with the sinner in this hand and God in that, and thus unite them.. No, my friends, we have no priestly connection between God and the sinner, glory be to God. As soon as we bring the sinner and God together we retire, and say that the work must be done by you two, and we are nowhere ; we retire from the scene. There is one thing I would like to say, and that is, that the sinner must be stripped bare of all his pretences, and brought before God as he is, and this is the only successful preaching if you want souls saved ; you may lose your character as a preacher: it is the best thing never to have one. But we are in for work, business, busi- ness. I know a friend of mine ; he is a smart business man. I can scarcely see the man during the day on church work. When I come into his office, I find his whole faculties alert in attending to business ; he has no time to waste in talking, it is business, busi- ness, with him. We ministei's, I think, should go in for business ; not to make nice sermons, but to save perishing souls. I have had considerable experience within the last eighteen to twenty years in most parts of the old country, when after meetings were not at all so popular as they are now. Sometimes we found when a person was thoroughly in earnest and required some diffi- culties to be removed, that a private conversation did him good. I very much shocked a iriend of mine by saying that I had not many after meetings lately. I think we may get into canals and forget the rivers. Many people seem to be dissatisfied with the ordinary means, with the simple preaching of the Word, and are not con- tent until they get up what are called after tncetings, in which in my opinion, there seems to me oftimes too much of man's interfer- ence ; too much seeming additional work to Gospel preaching. Let me not be misunderstood ; I do not object to after meetings, but to their abuse. In their proper place they do good, but they must not be regarded as essential, but rather as incidental. In my own experience, I have found the best standing cases to be those who have been converted just where they were, and who have had to do with God alone, and whom I have perhaps never seen privately until they have come to profess their faith in Christ, and asked to CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 7I be admitted to church fellowship. I have found another class of individuals, who through their darkness and sinfulness have come to a personal God, without even a minister coming to help them, and I have found them afterwards calmly, quietly persevering in well-doing, when others chronically require to be flipped up with chronic flips of religious excitement, and pushed on their way by any amount of religious perambulators to carry them up on their way to heaven ; they cannot stand on their own feet ; always getting that good minister or evangelist to push them in their chronic per- ambulators to heaven. Now we need men to battle and to grow ; and to get away from their perambulators, and from leaning on their ministers or any one else ; to be stalwart men ; to grow up into the stature of a perfect manhood in Christ Jesus. Christ, my dear friends, is a personal Saviour all the way through. Salvation is a many sided word; it is a blessed word. It is often con- founded merely with justification ; but it must be remembered that salvation never ends until glorification. There are three aspects in which we may consider it. Why I almost think that in every truth peculiarly divine, there are three aspects to it, and why ? Because there is a three-one God. It is a remarkable thing that our dis- courses often run into three divisions, whether we will or no, and without having any reference to this ; of course we all know that it is very convenient, and easily remembered and so on. We often say that truth has a two-fold aspect ; but I am not sure but what it has three. I know salvation has, as distinctly as it can be, a three-fold aspect at least ; I do not of course exclude any other methods of looking at it. We read of a salvation in the New Testament that is complete to start with, " Receiving the end of your fiiith, even the salvation of your souls." Faith and the salvation of our souls are here linked together. So the apostle writes, " Unto you who are saved ;" he does not say, " Unto you who are going to be saved." There is a salvation to begin with, which is spoken ot as complete. There is another salvation that we read of where it says, " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," — work it out. Some people misconceive the meaning of this passage ; but they forget that before they can work it out, God must have wrought it in. Paul here, in effect, says to the Philippians, " You have always been consulting me as your spiritual father ; you have acted well in my presence : what I wish is that you should be just as good when I leave you. I am going to leave you, I cannot always be at Philippi ; but God is not going to leave you ; Paul is going to leave you, but God is going to stay with you, and He can carry on His work without Paul." It is God, my friends, that worketh in you ; you cannot have me to consult, but you have God to work in you " both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Now as to the " fear and trembling," — let me explain. A man may take large blocks o*" granite and lie need not be careful in working at them ; but with the diamond polishers it is a very different thing : they put on their glasses, aiid take out their instruments, and with fear and trembling they set about their 72 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. delicate work. Now, friends, you are working with diamonds, not with granite blocks, — with diamonds that are going to shine in that diadem of Christ for ever and ever. We cannot, therefore, be too careful, friends ; we cannot have too much fear, nor too much trembling— not fear and trembling that I am going to be lost, but lest the diamond should not come out nicely edged ; lest the gem should not have all the clearness of the glory of God ; lest the nice face should not have the exact angle. " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ;" for it is a precious work you have to do; " it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." W^e are all delighted with that blessed thought that we are not left without a friend, a paraclete now. When our brother spoke of that, I was struck with another instance in confirmation of what he said : In the second chapter of i John, first verse, it reads, " And if any man sin, we have a paraclete (it is translated, advo- cate) with the Father." When Christ was going away He said, " I will send you another paraclete" (in our translation, comforter). The reason why the word paraclete is rendered in so many diF^rent ways appears to me to be because our translators considered the words that they used expressive of the different functions of the paraclete intended to be conveyed. The meaning of the word paraclete is going along side of. So, my friends. He is one along side of you to look after your interests — all that you need, whether comfort or instruction. Sometimes we may require chastisement ; well. He can do that. Remember that God is a chastising Father; He does not send us back to the devil to chastise us : He has a chastising room of His own. The Paraclete is always with us, to look after our waywardness, and wanderings, and weaknesses. Christ is a personal Saviour. There is also an aspect of salvation which is future, entirely future. " Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." And here let me say that we often fall into a confusion of terms, and confusion of thought, by mingling up things that differ. Thus there is a salvation completed, a salvation going on, and a salvation future ; if I mingle all these up together, what a piece of mixed mosaic will I have. If I do not put things exactly as they are in Scripture I will get into confusion. The Old Testament saints looked forward a good deal to these two salvations being together. They discerned very little difference between them ; it isonl} since the Gospel light has come that we have been able by that light to distinguish between the two aspect,? of salvation. These Old Testament saints saw the cross and the crown on the same hill top ; we know that there is a valley between, and that we are treading that valley ; that the cross is behind us and the crown before us. They looked forward to the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should be revealed as if they were together, and the salvation they spoke of appeared to them as a unit. The work of salvation was a gradual and progressive work, although in one aspect of it it was instantaneous and complete. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. f^ The implanting of the seed is an instantaneous act, but the growth of the plant is progressive. We are not to be disheartened because we do not see every step of tliis progress. God is looking after the bearing of the fruit ; God is seeing that we are growing in grace, and in the knowledge of God our Saviour ; and the more we grow in grace the more will we be conscious of our own self-insufficiency, of our own notlii)i(^nicss. Young Christians, you know, in their fresh experience feel like mounting up as with the wings of eagles. I often see them soar- ing away to the sun, flying up as on wings of eagles, and luoknig down upon us older ones as perhaps somewhat cold and dead. Well, I don't like to clip their wings : let them liave their time of it, they will be back soon enough. Let tliem have their fly ; they are mounting up as on wings of eagles ; I do not like to discourage them ; I do not like to take a flying shot and damage their wings; let them have it out, I say. Just wait a little while ; they are flying now, they will soon want to come back here and run, " They shall run and not be weary ;" this is how our strength is to be renewed, according to Isaiah. " They shall run and not be weary ;" and some of us know the meaning o{ that. Many have run and run a long while, but weary we Iiave got after all, you know ; but grace will teach us to run and not be weary. They are running, but wait a little ; their pace will shorten by-and-bye, and then they will come to the walking. " They shall run and not be weary, and tiiey shall walk and not faint ;" that is how the saints renew their strength. Progress in the divine life is to get lower down ; ambition prompts us to get higher up. Brethren, we need to get lower down, lower down. After mounting up as on eagle's wings, running and not being weary, walking and not fainting, having done all in the evil day we are to stand. Stand and meet tJie foe face to face. It is then time to learn the sword exercise ; it is time to know how to point and parry; time to know how to take the enemy at his weak points; time to know when to strike him. There is no use attempting to prove the Bible to an infidel, but the best thing to prove that it is a sword is by running him through with it ; tliat will soon teach him that it is good genuine steel from God's armoury, then slash away at him, and give him no quarter. There is no fear, my friends, of the work of the Lord, it is always getting on well. Sometimes, you know. He is sowing, and some- times reaping ; sometimes saving, and sometimes teaching young souls how to use their swords. When there is a little calm it is time to practice the sword exercise. Some people do not know what end of the Bible to take ; they use the sword bj' the wrong end. Then, my friends, having learned your sword exercise, when the evil day comes you will not be able to fly, nor to run, nor even to walk, but having done all, to stand. There you have the different spiritual exercisos, from the highest flights down to standing face to face, and foot to foot with the devil, the world and the flesh. And then after I have done all I can do, what does the Lord do with me ? After I have stood in the fierce conflict upheld by the 74 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. power of His Word, what then ? Oh ! my friends, there is some- thing higher than the active gymnastics : listen, " He maketh me to he down in green pastures." Friends, that is the way we are to renew our strength. " To he down" — mark the position, expressive of our weakness, our passivity, our nothingness. What is a cipher ? Some school boy will tell me that its value is nothing, and a million ot them raised to the millionth power will only be nothing. Stop, stop a bit ; I have a use for nothings. Put the cipher (o) on the corner of a sheet of paper ; now put one (i) before it, and what have you ? Why, ten (lo). And so when I came to Christ, I found I was nothing (o) ; no mistake about it ; but I found that Christ was ten (lo) times more valuable to me than ever I had heard Him spoken of, and that He was ten (lo) times more precious than I ever could have thought Him. Years rolled on, and I found I was still notliing, and that I had another nothing (o) to add to the sum ; but then I found that Christ was lOo times more valuable. Now don't you see the use of nothings, when you have one (i) before them all — the Great "One," the Lord Jesus Christ, before all our nothingness. Another year rolled on, and I found I was still nothing, so that I had to add still another cipher ; but then, I found that Christ was a thousand (i,ooo) times more valuable than ever He was before. Now, brethren, we must exalt His name, and sink ourselves in the very dust. As I stand here and think of my own unworthiness and of my utter nothing- ness, I find I have to aid still another cipher; but I can praise His holy name that I can put the glorious ONE before them all, and sing, " He is the chiefest among ten thousand (10,000), and the altogether lovely." Let us add on the nothings, my friends, and we will find that Christ will become more and more precious, and we will sing in the hope of a future salvation, " Our salvation is nearer than when we believed." '' To them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." I believe that every Christian is looking for Him, whatever his theological notions of the future may be, he is waiting for Christ, the heart is waiting. There may be a difference of thought as to the manner of His coming. I must emphatically denounce the thought that any Christian is not looking for Christ. I am very strong in my thoughts as to the future, but then I don't press them on my brother. In this matter it is the heart and not the head ; it is the bride waiting for the bridegroom ; and to such will He appear "the second time without sin unto salvation." Then shall we receive the redemption of the purchased possession, and then shall our bodies be redeemed. The apostle Paul was waiting for that on earth, and he is waiting for the same thing in heaven, and he has not got it yet. We have salvat'on perfect to start with ; we have salvation working out that we have not yet completed ; and we have salvation that we are waiting for, when this body of humiliation will be fashioned like unto Christ's body of glory. " I shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness," and not until then. " Beloved, now CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 75 are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is ; and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." I never see a bird, but what I am humbled to think that a bird is more tree than I am. We are waiting that this body of humiliation may be fashioned and made like unto His body of glory. Now brethren, is not Christ a personal Saviour ? I do not speak of Him as our Saviour, but as my Saviour, and I do not believe that ever a man who went to his closet burdened with sin, and knowing himself, a!ld knelt down on his knees before a Holy God and said these two words in reality to Christ, was ever lost — " My Saviour ;" but it must be to God, you remember, and it must be genuine, it must be the utterance of faith. When alone there is little tendency to say it to any other but to God. If there is a dear anxious soul here, before the next meeting, let me urge you to go to Jesus Christ yourself; do not let any body know ; go yourself, and say, " My Saviour." Do not begin a long prayer : let it be real, and if you rise from your knees and do not think He is your Saviour, then He did not mean what He said, when He said, " Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." Truly the real sinner ^an accept the real Saviour. Christ is a personal Saviour, past, present and to come. The proceedings were closed by the singing of the hymn : j " Oh. think of the home over there,'' And the benediction. AFTERNOON SESSION. Dr. W. P. Mackay took the chair at 2.30 p.m. There was a very large congregation, the Hall being quite full. After singing the 155th hymn, " In the cross of Christ I glory," The Chairman said : We are priests, and have therefore a right, not only to pray for ourselves, but to plead in intercession for others. Let us then enter into the holy of holies by the blood of the Lamb, and present the breathings of friends who have asked us to pray with and for them. Our brother will read these requests that have been handed in, and while they are being read let us all bow our heads before the Lord and pray to Him ; and after they have been read, perhaps two brethren, as the Lord leads them, will present our requests at the throne of God. Let us pray. After prayer by Dr. Mackav, several requests for prayer were 70 CHRISTIAN CONFEREN'CE. read by Mr. A. Burson, at the conclusion of which brief petitions were offered by V.C. Blake and Rev. Geo. Burson. Questions answered by the Chairman. Tlic Chairman said : One interesting part of Christian Conferences is asking and answering questions.. The ideal of a Conference is not so much one or two men or many men giving addresses, as in conferring on certain points among men who are studying the word of God, and who are desirous of knowing tlie mind of God. But I suppose we have much more experience in the Old Country of Conferences than you have, as for the last seventeen years, at any rate, more or less, we have had three representative Conferences in England, Scotland, and Ireland, which it has been my privilege to attend. But we found that opening the meeting to all kinds of questions was rather a doubtful benefit, as crotchety questions were apt to spring up — questions not much for edification. Friends, let us never be shunted off from the great main line of Christian testimony, Christian work, and Christian effort by little side lines. The devil wants to shunt us into little sidings— very good sidings, perhaps. We find it, therefore, necessary in Conferences to exercise a little caution about questions. Question — Do the Old Testament saints belong to the Church ? Answer — I want to know the meaning of saints, and the meaning of the Church, which is a most unfortunate word, because it seems to give a solidity and somethingness where it ought not. For instance, we talk of the teachings of the Church, and yet the truth is that God has given pastors and teachers to the Church. The Church is taught ; the Cluirch never teaches. This absurdity would be seen if you spoke of the teachings of the congregation. Saints of the Old Testament were washed in the same blood, quickened by the same Spirit, sanctified by the truth as we are ; yet God hath reserved some better things for us. Question — Should we not make a distinction between moral and ceremonial law in the Scriptures ? Answer — Most certainly. The righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us who •' walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Question — What is the rule of life ? ■ " . i ., ., Answer — " The rule of life." That expression is not found in the Bible, and I am suspicious of every expression that is not scriptural ; it is there that human nature gets in. The same with the word, "Trinity." I use that word as little as possible; for the same reason I use the word "person" as little as I can ; you see, we cannot distinguish personality from individuality, and then we ruin the unity of the Godhead, and instead of Trinitarians we seek to become Tritheists, which none of us really are. I once heard in a Conference in England, a good man, and he was preaching Tritheism without knowing it ; he introduced us up into heaven to three Gods, instead "of God manifest in the flesh." I am only saying that we are on the line of danger even when we introduce necessary words that are not scriptural. As to the CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 77 rule of life, if any man say that he is not under law, in order that he may live a more lax life than the law would indicate, I tell him that he knows nothing about Christianity. What is meant by that is, that we are under a higher law ; we are under grace, and the rule of the Christian life is a living Christ, who not only fulfilled the law, but magnified it ; yea, He did more ; He laid down His life for us. " Love your neighbor as yourself." Christ loved His neighbor better than Himself. We are to do more under grace than under law. This is particularly true in connection with Christian liberality. I have no patience with people that talk about nice meetings, when I find that their pocket is not converted. I believe in the conversion of the pocket — that shows that the man is out and out a Christian. You can sing a lot of sentimental hymns ; that is all very nice, and we enjoy it from our hearts, but what I want to see is pocket conversion. Some people think that not being under the law means that they are to keep more money in their pocket ; that is being under law in the vilest sense. In the Old Testament times they were required to give a tenth of their income. Yea, I believe, if it was reckoned up it would be somewhere about a fourth of their income. 1 believe that a tenth is the minimum of giving, and what is the maximum ? Life. And so, believer, between these two you can take your choice. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. We can rise to the height of our privilege, and imitate Christ. Hymn 189 was sung. "Fade, fade, each earthly joy, • / Jesus is mine.'* ; •. '■ The following address was given : ' ' • ' THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST, AND CHRIST IN ^ , ,. THE BELIEVER. BY REV. J. DENOVAN. I. Living faith in Jesus Christ constitutes a belie /er; but an important question is, What is living faith ? I need not tell you that there prevails very commonly a vague idea of believing in Jesus Christ, while those thus believing scarcely know who Jesus Christ is or what He has done. Such people believe in a name which to their mind represents no definite notion of either nature, character, or work. On one occasion, some years ago, 1 remember meetingwith a young lady, apparently of superior social position, enquiring her way to Christ, and who indeed thought she had perhaps even found Him, on questioning whom I discovered she really did not know wherein the nature and value of Chri'st's sacrifice consisted ; she could not tell why the death of any good and religious man on her behalf should not be accepted by God as an atonement for her sin ; she had no idea that Christ's divinity was essential to the saving virtue of His sacrifice 78 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. and the value of His righteousness. She believed in a name of three syllables. Now, I cannot but think there are a good many people of religious reputation who have never yet thought out an answer to the momentous question, How is it that Jesus Christ's personal sacrifice can take away human sin ? while very many others are in the habit of afBrming that His sacrifice did not take away sin at all, but was designed to exert merely a moral influence on tne mind. I remember also the case of a young man in the Old Country with whom an elderly lady, taking part in a revival meeting, attempted to deal ; and, she endeavoring to get his faith in operation, urged upon him to make an effort to see Jesus Christ — to behold Him spiritually ; and when he stated his inability to understand what she meant, she answered, "Close your eyes now, and imagine that you see a man on a cross." When he had done as directed, she asked him if he could imagine the scene — the agony — the blood, and so forth, "for," said she, "if you can see Christ in this way, you are saved." I need not refer to the common, but most erroneous notion, that saving faith consists in ^'feeling you are saved." There is also a very wide-spread opinion that saving faith consists of a strong mental effort to believe — a striving and struggling of the mind to lay hold on Jesus Christ — a continual and painful clinging and hanging on to Jesus Christ by desperate mental effort, something resembling the effort of a drowning man. All these aspects of faith I must say I regard as decidedly wrong and unscriptural ; because true saving faith is simply our resting on the testimony— the record of God concerning His Son. Pious feeling or imagination and ignorant superstitious reverence for a mere name have nothing whatever to do with it. Faith consists of our crediting what the God of truth hath said— trusting quietly and confidently to an historical fact about which we have had sufficient evidence, and which we, therefore, cannot but believe. Indeed, we believe everything we know on sufficient authority to be true, and that spontaneously, without any mental effort. When such truth is presented to us we believe it and trust to it, because we really can do nothing else. Our faith rests down into quiet recumbency on the solid veracity of God's word. It is not faith that saves us, but Christ ; faith does nothing more than realize, appropriate, and enjoy the salvation of Christ ; faith, far from being the cause of our salvation, is, strictly speaking, the immediate result of our knowing on divine authority that He took away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. " Faith is not what we see or feel, — It is a simple trust In what the God of truth hath said, ''' Of Jesus Christ the Just." What Christ was and is, what Christ has done and promised is the genuine believer's restinjg-place and mightiest argument. ^^h^fherift)rePilOst)SlieY»Hmh oAfidie^hiitftitort^MaUftfifift, CHRISTIAN CONFRRENCE. 79 claiming it as our own. In short, the true beHever realizes his personal salvation forever perfected in Christ Jesus, and reposes there in blessed peace. "The work of (Christ's) righteousness is peace, and the effect of (Christ's) righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." So much for tlie word, " lieliever." II. What then is meant by "rnii BEMiiviUi's ui.ing in Chuist ?" We have not far to seek an inspired epitome of this doctrine ; for in the second chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians at the tenth verse Paul tells believers, "W are complete in Him." This remarkable phrase I understand to teach that the believer has become so identified with Christ that Christ's completeness, what- ever that may amount to, is his completeness — that, in the sight of God, he is quite as "complete" as Jesus Christ Himself --that what Christ is, believers in Him are, and as He is so are they. •' Ye are complete in Him." I. If it be now enquired. When did this uu'jn between Christ and believers begin, and wliat is its nature? tiie Scriptures reply in Ephesians i. 3-5, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord iesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in aavenly places in Christ ; according as He hath chosen us in Him be/ore the foundation of the laorld, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." "Before the foti.ulation of the world," that is when the union between Jesus Christ and believers really began — tJien they were "/h Him;" and the cause of this union was the choice of God. This glorious scheme of salvation in Christ and by Christ, you cannot but notice, is no second or after thought of Almighty God, suggested by any unanticipated events of earth or time — suddenly struck out by the accident of sin and the consequent extreme exigencies of ruined humanity ; but a grand deliberate purpose predestinated in the perfect calm of the by-past eternity. In confirmation of this precious truth you will remember that when Adam was created, he was formed in the image of God his creator. Now we know very well that God's likeness was not actually that of a man at the period of our first father's formation, but only in divine predestination and decree ; therefore, when Adam was made he was formed in the predestined image of " God manifest in the flesh ; " and in harmony with this "mystery of godliness" in Genesis, we rfead in the Epistle to the Romans that Adam was really "the figure of Him who was for to come" — proving that Adam the man, was the typical model of the Christ whom Jehovah had decreed, before Adam was created to send to earth " in the fulness of time," — whom divine grace had long before covenanted to send into this •world as the Head and Representative of the chosen people. We know, moreover, that the beautiful Eve was the first and most perfect type of the Church — " the Spouse," " the Lamb's wife " — Adam, by inspiration, calling her Eve, " the mother of all living." As Adam was the "figure" of the coming Man Christ, Eve 80 CIIKISTIAN CONFKRliNCE. was tlu; figure of tin; coiniiif^' Cliiiicli • " the FJrule," and the marriaf^c of tliis perfect pair perfoniuid by Almighty (iod Himself was the " figure " of the coming "marriage of the King's Son," so beautifully celebrated in the Inrtj'-fiith Psalm, and in the niuete(;uth chajjter of the book of R<;velation, from the sixth to the tenth verses. I need not occupy your time in the repetition of what is taught from ev(;ry evangelical pulpit ni the laud, that in all the patriarchal and Levitical sacrifices and prophecies there was shadowed forth one great central event the advent and work of the Messiah in whom (as Paul shows in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews), even from the days of Abel the people of fiod have believed, so that Christ always has i)een the substance of all true religion throughout all dispensations "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." In perfect harmony with this doctrine, viz., the divine choice of God's pciople in Christ before the foundation of the world, and their ])redestin;ition to the adoption of children, we find that when Jesus Christ shall gather all His elect cliise around Him on the final day of judgment, He will address them thus: "Come ye blessed of my Fatli(;r; inherit the; kingiloin prepared for you from the foundation of tlie world." To understand this singular sentence we have but to remember that those very people wei'e " blessed of tlu! Father," by being chosen by Him in CJirist " before the foundation of the world;" and thus the golden circle of divine grace is C(jinplete, (beginning in eternity and terminating in eternity- -beginning in (iod and ending in Goaw " on l)ehalf of His ])(!opte, and they have ever Ixien represented in Him pontificailv before God. God never viewed them out of Him; noother real mediation or sacrifice tha'i His own tlien; ever has been on earth; all other priests and all other sacrifices bemg but shadows of Him— the great Substance— the "grace and truth;" He was " the cf)ming Kvent that cast its shadow b(;fore." 3. \]fi\\n. Believers arc in Christ i'ouknsicai.i.y ; that is. He is their legal Surety before God — their Hondsman — their Security inlaw. The Apostle in his E])istle to the Hcibrews, chapter the seventh at verse the twenty-second, saith, " Hy so much was Jesus made the surety of a better covenant," — words wiiich certainly imjily that Christ asstmied the law --place and responsibility of others 011 whose behalf He stood bound. Suretyship, we all 6 82 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. know, and some of us to our cost, is a rich man's becoming responsible for a poor man, and it necessary meeting his respon- sibiUties when they fall due. A Surety is a " security," a guarantee, an endorser, whose name on any document binds him as a party to all its stipulations and penalties whatever these may be. In his short letter to Philemon we have from the Apostle's own hand, his idea of the nature of suretyship. You will remember that the young man Onesimus had run away from Philemon, his master; the fugitive had got as far as Rome where he appears to have met with Paul, the word of God from whose lips had brought him to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.. In such altered circumstances Paul advised the young man to return to his master Philemon, (who was also one of Paul's con- verts), and sent with him this letter as an introduction. Reading the letter we learn further that Onesimus, in running away, seems to have taken with him some money of Philemon's, probably to defray his travelling expenses, and this made Onesimus very naturally feel distressed at the thought of facing the master he had so wronged. To meet this dilemma, Paul states that the young man returns to his master no longer a mere heathen slave but " a brother beloved," and then goes on to say, " If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account . . , I will repay it." Now the point I wish to bring out from all this about the converted fugitive is that the ApOvStle Paul becomes surety for Onesimus to Philemon, and I understand this to be the true meaning of the word where Christ is spoken of in the passage under consideration as "the Surety of a better covenant." Just as such a surety is responsible for the due fulfilment of all the engage- ments specified in a document in which his name stands and for any amount it may promise to pay, so Christ stands responsible for all the legal obligations of His people to God ; just as a bill endorsed by a kind and wealthy friend that friend stands bound by law to pay in the event of the failure of the person on whom it is drawn, even so Christ's name endorses God's draft drawn on man for perfect Law-satisfying obedience. To give another illustration of suretyship, I can imagine the case of a small Canadian town reduced to great poverty, with nothing before its inhabitants save a long winter and famine, and I can suppose a man as rich and generous as Mr. Peabody in compassion for the wretchedness of the people saying to a large storekeeper that he would be responsible for any goods they might require during the winter. Suppose such a case of helpless penury and hopelessness met by such an instance of princely beneficence, and then tell me, in the following spring to whom would the vast account for goods supplied to the penniless people of the whole town be rendered by the storekeeper and who would stand bound to pay it ? Every one is ready with the reply, the account would be rendered direct to the generous millionaire, and he would stand bound to pay it. Of course he would, and, more- over, such a man knowing that he had given his name as surety CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 83 for the poor people, would never attempt to dispute his responsi- bility. His legal liability would be as unquestionable as if he had consumed all the goods himself. And such, I am persuaded, is Christ's personal responsibility in law on behalf of His people. Long before they incurred their debts and perpetrated their transgressions, He bound Himself to God Almighty for them. Foreseeing their poverty and ruin as their Bondsman He represented them to divine justice and divine law, and to God their great Creditor. And is He not answerable ? The entire fifty-third chapter of Isaiah declares He is, and especially the seventh verse which correctly translated reads thus : " It was exacted, and He became answerable, yet He opened not His mouth." " He opened not His mouth," because He had nothing to say against His people's obligations being exacted of Him ; " He opened not His mouth " to dispute or debate His liability. They were secured in Him; and He was Surety for them. 4. Furthermore, Believers are in Christ by marriage settle- ment AND relation. Various indications and illustrations of this aspect of Christ's intimate connection with His people are to be for.rd in the Word of God. For instance, in the forty-fifth Pr:!i i we have an account of what may, without any profane familiarity, be called the marriage of Christ with His Church ; in the Song of Solomon much more on the same subject ; while in the book of the Prophet Hosea we find the Most High addressing Israel with reference to His gracious dealings with them in the latter days, " And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali." "And I will betroth thee unto me forever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteous- ness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies, I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness ; and thou shalt know the Lord." The word ^'Baali " signifies master, the word, "Ishi," Husband. This is the relation the true Israe' is to sustain to her Maker — she is to call Him, "Husband" In the Prophet Jeremiah we meet with two wonderful passages of same tenor. Speaking of the Messiah the prophet declares, " Th;s is the name by which he shall be called," " The Lord our righteousness ; " and, speaking of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church of the Messiah, he declares, "And this is the name by which she shall be called. The Lord our righteousness." No language that can be employed could more strongly express the marital relation between Jehovah and His people — the nuptial relation between Christ ancl His Church, She calls Him Husband at His request, and bears His peculiar name and titles. Throughniit the New Testament we have the symbol of marriage iiunxluced once and again for the express purpose of explaining the union of Christ and His Church, as, for example, in the parable of the marriage made by the King for His Son, and in that of the Bridegroom and the Virgins, and in the cry of John the Baptist, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom ; " then, 84 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. further on, in the apostoUc epistles we meet {e.g. in Romans vii. 1-5, and Ephesians v. 22-33) arguments grounded on this relation and its mutual obligations, while in the Book of Revelation we meet such language as this, " the Bride, the Lamb's Wife," " the Bride hath made herself ready," " Blessed is he that is called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." Now, we all know that in matrimonial relationship the husband is legally as well as socially the head and representative of his wife. If this illustration, so frequently used by the Holy Spirit, and that too in connection with the matrimonial usages and ideas of eastern countries which certainly iuld immensely to its significancy — if this illustration teach anything at all, it assuredl}' teaches that Jesus Christ is the full representative of His Church in such a sense that she loses her separate individuality and singularity in Him, she becoming one with Hiin in His life and fortune and name, and He one with her by legally absox^bing her personality in His. So much is this the case that, by the law of marriage, debts contracted even betore marriage by the wife con- stituted debts lawfully due by the husband. A striking illustration of the operation of this law has been recently furnished by the case of a man who not many months ago married a woman who previous to her nuptials possessed a few shares in the infamous City of Glasgow Bank — the entire responsibility of the shares being now laid to her husband's account, a responsibility involving him in financial ruin. Moreover, the husband is bound by the law of marriage to provide for and protect his wife until death, while the wife assumes titular distinctions corresponding in grade to any earned by her husband, so that the moment he becomes a duke she necessarily becomes a duchess — he a king, she a queen. All this, I feel bold to assert, exemplifies fairly the relation believers sustain to Christ, and its necessary and legal results. Joined to Him in holiest matrimony they are constitutionally one with Him ; Christ has betrothed and married the Church, and in marrying her He has married all her debts and dishonors and responsibilities whatever these may happen to be, while he solemnly binds Himself to protect and provide for her. Paul in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Ej^hesians is emphatic on these points. Read, at your leisure, the twenty-second to the thirty third verses. On her part, the Church being married to Christ, has married His name and dignity, His wealth, strength and honors. And this marital union holds binding on both parties till death, — and when will that occur? He is " the Life," and she "hath everlasting life " in Him. 5. Once more, Believers are in Christ corporeally — organi- cally. I do not mean in the material, but in the spiritual and mystical sense. He and they compose one spiritual organization called in Scripture " the body of Christ," as it is written, "We are members of His body" ; He is the Head and believers are the members in particular of this body. At our convenience we may see a great deal about this in the xii. chapter of ist Corinthians CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. h from the twelfth verse, where it is positively stated that " as the body {i. e. the human body) is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ " — in the original the last clause stands thus, " so also is the Christ." At our leisure let us carefully compare this sentence with the wonderful doctrine enunciated and reiterated in the xvii. chapter of John's Gospel, where we find our Redeemer declaring that believers are one with Him in a union so very close that it can be compared with nothing save that union which subsists between God the Father and God the Son — a union which is mysteriously incorporated into the divine Hypotasis. There is no doubt in my mind that the Holy Spirit of inspiration intends us to believe that Jesus and believers are as closely, as permanently, as indissolubly one as the two Persons of the Deity. If the Man Jesus be the Head of the Christ-body and if we be members of the same Christ-body there can be no question that in the event of our being in moral debt, our Head must stand accountable for that debt. This is law : this is gospel. Again, if any of the Christ-members have committed crime by which they stand amenable to law to the extent of capital punishment — namely death. Law will certainly hold the Head of the body responsible for that crime. We all know this is British Law. It is also precious Gospel truth. If the right hand of a man commit murder the head of the man must expiate the crime by the suffering of capital punishment ; it is not the hand or the foot of the guilty one, but his head that must suffer the highest penalty. Law deals with the head alone. Almighty God evidently regards Christ's relationship to His people in this very light, for, although it is we who have committed capital crime against the high juris- prudence of heaven, it is He who dies on the cross under the imputation of sin and the burden of its lawful curse. " God hath made Him sin for us ; " " God hath made Him a curse for us." On the other hand wnatever duties the members ought to perform, the head of the body is answerable for the full and proper per- formance of; hence it is written, " The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake, He will magnify the law and make it honorable." And as to honors and wealth, whatever the Head may gain or gather. His members must share. When David was anointed king and raised to the throne of Israel the entire man was consecrated and enthroned — every particle of his person was constituted royal — ^he was " every inch a king." Just so of David's Son and Lord, " the Christ " — from the crown of His head to the soles of His feet He is royal and shall be glorified. The whole Christ-Body is royal. The Word of God states nothing more plainly, I had almost said, nothing so plain as this, that Jesus Christ and His people are one organically, — that is to say, one perfect corporation, they the members and He the Head, so that " the Christ " cannot be perfected until the very last and least member of His body has 1 been actually joined to it by regeneration and in resurrection. 86 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Stronger and more explicit language cannot be employed than that of Paul when he declares of the Church that it is " His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." Jesus the individual is not the perfect and complete "Christ." Jesus is the Head only ; the whole Church and Jesus iinited compose " the Christ " perfected forever. Lest any one misapprehend my mraning, allow me to say that when the change called regeneration is wrought upon a man that is the moment of actual living contact between the Head and the member ; but, before that experience, as much as after it, Christ and His members are one. They are "in Hint" — in covenant, in law, in marriage Jesus and His people constitute the one Christ. They are His fulness. Thus, "Jesus Christ of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." (i.) In Him we have wisdom, — His wisdom. He being our Head, is ours. (2.) In Him we have complete rigliteousness. We stand on the high legal platform of perfect justness before God, being "justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses." Down from the bosom of the Father came the Son, and by the assumption of our nature linked Himself to us, to our nature and our destiny : and, by the same act necessarily linked us to Him, to His nature and His destiny ; as it is written, " Being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man," — "the likeness of sinful flesh," — thus humanized, behold the Christ of God ! Having thus assumed the nature and accepted the low and ruined place of His sinful people and being held responsible for them by virtue of the covenant He had made. He stands on this very earth to meet and discharge their obligations, and these obligations He did meet and discharge, " Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Thus, after having been accused, condemned, and publicly executed. He is buried within the precincts of our great prison-house — the world. But, look "gain, He rises and leaves the prison-grave ; He is thus legahy dis- charged and justified, that is, supreme justice declares Him free. Rising from the tomb, He walks forth in broad day unchallenged; naj', He ascends to the king's palace, passes all the guards and gates, is greeted with public honors in the metropolis, is welcomed to the very Presence and elevated to the right hand of the throne. Now, this very fact that the Lord Jesus, having in our humanity passed through all the humiliation suffering and curse for us, has emerged into such a state of life and peace and acceptance, this certainly is, at the very least, proof positive that He is justified from all the sin and guilt He bore. And it follows that every one member of His body must also be justified in Him. Is it not plainly asserted, " He was delivered for our offences, and was CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 87 raised again for our justification ? and does it not necessarily follow, " therefore, being (thus) justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ ? " Christ's agony and death for sin was our agony and penal death ; Christ's curse was our curse ; Christ's resurrection to everlasting life, on the other side of the curse and the death, is our resurrection to everlasting life ; Christ's acceptance and glory with the Father are ours. This is the truth of the Gospel ; this is the apostolic doctrine ol " the body of the Christ." Allow me now to quote only three passages from among many out of the Old Testament, just for the purpose of showing that this has always been the Messianic truth : " /« the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory ; " " In the Lord have I righteousness and strength ; " "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth ?ierself with her jewels." Thus the perfected righteousness of God Himself is "the righteousness of saints." (3.) Moreover, Christ Jesus of God "is made imto us sanctifica- tion." In Him we are holy. Start not at this : it is the word of God. There is a gradual process of personal sanctification wrought by the Holy Spirit in the personal experience of every believer, but to this I do not now refer. When by faith the soul is united to Christ, that soul is holy in the holiness of Christ — perfectly and spotlessly holy in God's sight. As ancient Israel, represented in Aaron, stood before the Shekinah with the golden inscription on their forehead, " Holiness of Jehovah," so all spiritual Israel now stand before the verj' presence of God, represented in the One High Priest of their profession, "holy and without blame." In Christ the holiness of believers is as perfect as their righteousness. (.]..) Above all this, Jesus Christ is made unto His people, *' redemption." In the connection in which it stands here this word redemption is equivalent to glorification. Jesus Christ's redemp- tion is ours. He is redeemed, having bought back His own life from the power of death and the gra\ e ; having bought back (as the " purchased possession,") the inheritance which by sin we had forfeited ; having bought back the glory he laid aside when He became man and was made sin for us. In all these aspects Christ being fully and forever redeemed is also the full redemption of His believing people. As He is redeemed, even so are they. That you may enter into this joy, beloved, look up at Jesus in His glorified humanity seated on "the right hand of the Majesty on hii^h." The reason why He sits there in human form is because He is the Head of His body, the Church— REDEEMED HUMANITY. Enthroned with God the Father, there He sits, : and, marvellous to tell. He still bears on His body the marks of the deadly struggle through which He has passed on His way to 88 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. full redemption : there He sits, the sinner's Redeemer, (Himself redeemed from the pit of sin into which He descended on His mission of mercy,) with the indelible stigmata of sin and curse and death on His person — glorified — deified. His position there demonstrates beyond all rational controversy that every one of those with whom He is identified as Head are already glorified in Him, because He is evidently glorified /or t/icm. Let all God's people gaze on Jesus glorified, and tliiiik : — Before this world was founded the scheme of our redemption originated on that throne between the persons of the Godhead, and the gracious covenant of peace there made " was between them both " ; and this scheme of redemption, after having been wrought out here on earth by •' the man Christ Jesus," it now stands forever perfected by His return to that throne : there it began, and there it ends. On our account, beloved, the human Christ has been glorified, and we members of His body, are already virtually glorified too. He being there, it is only a question of time, not a question of certainty, when each one of us shall actually and experimentally rise to the glory and sit down with Him on the throne. We are part of "the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." (6.) These things being so, it is evident that the function of faith is not to make our salvation either more complete or more sure, but simply to realize and enjoy this our blessed condition in Christ. As I said at the outset of my remarks, I now repeat. Faith saves no man ; it is Christ Himself that saves to the uttermost. True faith consists of believing what God hath said! about Jesus Christ, and simply trusting to what He hath done on our behalf and in our stead. When we believe, we do nothing, more than enter into that peace, hope and joy which the testi- mony of God concerning Jesus Christ is well fitted to impart. To show that this is the Scriptural idea of faith, I need only remind you that the guilt of unbelief is thus described by John : " He that beliveth net God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son." ;. . ' ., '-' HI. Allow me now to venture a few words on the second part of the subject, namely, " CHRIST IN THE BELIEVER." There is a text which, it seems to me, epitomizes this great doctrine, it is to be found in the Epistle to the Philippians, chapter i., verse 2i, " For me to live is Christ,'' (i.) What I have said about the believer in Christ being true, this must of necessity follow — his life is Christ's. If I be Christ's in gracious and everlasting covenant, in marriage, in law both pontifically and by suretyship, and in organic union : if He thus stands for me, I must also stand for Him. If He be my life, then my life must be His. As Jesus is "the Christ" in Heaven, so every genuine believer is " the Christ " on earth — members in particular, each one forms part of "the Christ." For as the Head of "the Christ" is the man Jesus, even so the Body of "the Christ " are believers ; this one Head with these members CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 8^ composing the one complete Christ of God. Without the Head you have i,ot the Christ, neither can you have the Christ without all His members. This being so, it is plainly demonstrated that no believer entertains a correct view of his position until he can intelligently say, " For me to live is Christ:" " I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." O, my friends, this is a very solemn application of the precious doctrine we have been considering. What child of God, in the clear light of this great truth, dare now say, " For me to live is to seek honor, accumulate wealth, or chase happiness ; — for me to live is myself ? " All these things the Holy Spirit sweeps away as unworthy of thought or toil, while He points each of us to our union with God in the awful syllables, " Foi' me to live IS CHRIST." Jesus Christ furnishes us with an instructive illustration of His dwelling in believers, and living through them, in His parable of the " True Vine " and its branches. Because they are in Ilim His vital virtue is in them, and naturally (I mean by the opera- tion of their new Christ-nature) they " bring forth much fruit," and this fruit is proof positive that Christ dwells in them. On this doctrine of fruit-bearing being the natural and necessary consequence of our union with Christ, Paul speaks very strongly at the commencement of his seventh chapter to the Romans, where he states that believers being dead to their first husband — ^the Law, and having come alive again in spiritual resurrection, and having been married to their second husband — the risen Christ, they are so married that they " might bring forth fruit unto God," viz., spiritual children, as Paul himself did when he " travailled in birth," that Christ might be formed in the hearts of others the hope of glory. Beloved, we prove ourselves " in Christ " only as we " live Christ," and we live Christ just as the true wife lives her husband, before the world, by living under his name and in his house, by giving her mind and strength to his interests, by increasing and carefully nurturing those who possess his nature and bear his name. A family of healthy, well-trained children controlled by a loving, earnest mother, all dwelling in a home on the door of which stands the husband's and father's name, is the earthly symbol of Christ-life. (2.) Time forbids me to dwell on the sweet sentence and all it suggests, " Christ in you the hope of glory," and I must hasten on to lay before your pure minds two more passages of priceless practical value, which run somewhat thus, " Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? " * " * " As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and they shall be my people, and I shall be with them and be their God." Our common translation does not render the Apostle's thought as forcibly as it ought ; it is preferable to render the words thus, " I will dwell in them, and walk about in them," or, as we say, " walk up ana down in them." Now, permit me to ask what other language •JO CHRISTIAN CONI'ERKNCR. could possibly have been used to convey (o our iniiuls so very stronf^ly tlu; idea that wherever a true b(.liever moves, C.hrist moves with him ? As the believer's body walks about, the divine In-dw(!ll(;r walks aboi.t in it. This daily liviuf,' of ("lirist in commDii life bein^ a(:cei)t(!(l as a fact, it may now very properly be demanded, " What is then to be expected of God's peojjle as the outcome of this their intimate relation (o rhrisl ? " To this demand I must f,'ive response in Apostolic language: " Wliatxoevcr ye do in word or deed, do nil in the name of the Lord jfcsits," words which I take to teach that each believer y^rn-.s- the lutmc of Jesus dlirist, and tli;i( this sacred name is intimately associated with every word and act of his daily life. Thiidc on this, beloved friends ! O may the thought startle us into solemn consideration ! Whatever bcr the nanu; you or I may bear to distinguish us among our fellow-men, for social convenience sake, our real name is "CnKisr." This name indicates our gracious relation to God : it is th(^ name by which we stand identified in the covenant f)f Grace: this name we have accepted in our ('hristian baptism. Tiod and the ('lunch and the world expect us, therefore, " to live Christ ; " and w(;ll may Paul exhort us, " Whatsoever yc do in word or deed, do all in the iKiiiie of the Lord Jesus." There is no mere rhetoric in this strange expression. " In the name of the Lord Jesiis" we are to spe.ak to sit down to our meals and mingle with our relations, and perform the comniouest acts ; " Li the name of the Lord Jesus " we an; to buy and sell, to plant and build, to borrow and lend, to work in tht; parlour or in the kitchen, in the workshop or in the senate-, in the world and in the Clnnch, TCvery word and deed of our Ghristdife ought to be Christ-like. True Christianity is nothint; more than common every-day life lived out " in the name of flie Lord Jesus ; " is nothing more than saying and doing tdl that w(,' do and say " in tl)(! name of the Lord Jesus, and to the glory of God by Him." No more need I say, for no argu- ment is needed to prove that this is the real normal condition of the genuine believer, ior he being " in (Christ, Christ is in him." O how grand is the believer's present dignity ! how glorious his futtire destiny ! how divine his associations ! how solemn his responsibilities! "The believer in Christ, and Christ in the believer." . ,, , . , :/ . Hymn 158: ' '' '".,,:,,, "Not all the blood of beasts." . "f . Prayer was offered by Mr. John Bennktt Andrrson and Rev. Dr. Mackav. The following address was then given : .. ' . : .' THE RELATION OF THE CHRISTIAN TO THE WORLD. ,,,,.1 U'' '■ ^^ '''*• '^' ^' MACKAV. Turn with me to the xii. chapter of the epistle of Paul to the Romans, ist and 2nd verses : " I beseech you therefore, brethren, CHRISTIAN CONFEKKNCK. 9 1 by IIk; iiicrcicHof Ciod that y(! present your Ix^dicsa living sacrifice, lioly, acceptable unto (iod, which is your reasonable service. And be not conforintid to this world, but ho. yv. transformed by the rcn('vvii)g ol your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of (lod." The apostle here comes to the; Christians of Rome and entreats them as those wluj have exjx^rienced tiie meicy of (lod, and the first exhortation in detail after the presentation of the mercies, is '* Be not Conformed to this world." Our sid)jert to-day is, " The relation of th<; ("liristian to the world." Nothing could be more iniporlanl, coming alter what has been said about the union of Christ and His Church, than to look down here at how the feet are to walk upcju the earth, and how the hands are to minister u\n>u the earth ; for we being many aie members of the one body ; we are not all oik; kind of mend)er, but each mtMuber has to do the work giv(Mi to him. I think it a most noble and lofty thought that each member is i)laced to do its own work ; that we have to do our own work: He gives to ev(;ry man his work. This is very comforting to us all. Some peopli; think that the work of the evangelist or pastor or teacher is very much to hv desired. Many young men wonder if they have the gift of speaking, that they may l)e able to j)rench the Gospel to the lost. But it would be a very worthless body if we had nothing in it but a mouth, and the nioulh wwuld ])v. very useless too. We need more than teachers in the Church of God : we need hands that can go and minister to the dying ; we n<;ed feet to rmi upon errands of mercy. Pure religion is not merely attending to worship, but we read that it is " to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions, and to keep ourselvc!s uns|)otted from the world." Sunday school teach(,'rs, tract distributors, and district visitors, your work has little show ab(nit it, little external manifestation ; but, my friends, you are oft times saved from a great deal of temjilalion and trial by the very obscurity of your work. It is a delightful thing to work in the shade; there are a great many dangers incident to those who work in the sunshine. We are sometinK.s apt to be struck with a religious sunstroke, when with the lujad uncovered we are going to work in the full blaze, it may be, of publicity and i>o])ularity. I have seen many a dear man get struck with the sunstroke of pojjidarity.; it is well to learn to wear something on the head when working. So you that arc secret workers rejoice sotufitimes for working in the shade ; an angel, or one of the principalities in heaven, may dcj higher work, or he may do lower work than you, but he could not do your work. There is no being living can do your work, and no one can dfj iny work : " lie gives to every man his work," and his place in the bcxly He has marked out accordingly. I believe that those ministering spirits that arc sent out to minister to those who are heirs of salvation have no imperfections, no selfishness, no thoughts other than obedience, they excel in strength and in wis- dom. I am convinced if some angel were sent here to look after the affairs of a kingdom of twenty millions of people, and another ^2 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. angel were sent there to look after a tiny baby rocked in a cradle, there would be no jealousy between them. The twenty million governor and the baby governor would rejoice that they could do anything in obedience to the will of the great God of heaven, who maketh His angels ministering spirits to them who shall be heirs of salvation. And so, my beloved brethren, the chief thing in our work here is faithfulness. " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life :" it is not success. We are, alas,. I fear, all of us too much carried away by successes, and too much disheartened by the want of success. But it never says in Scrip- ture, " Well done, good and successful servant." We cannot command success. We are rewarded according to our faithfulness: it is " Well done, good a.nd faithful servant." A faithful servant is one who tries only to do the will of his Master without asking questions. I sometimes think that in the coming glory there will be some wonderful work for us to do that we have no idea of now, and that God can get only done by men who know their own weakness, but who can do the will of God without asking ques- tions, and without complaining. It is said, he who is faithful over the little, He will make him ruler over the many. I believe that while we will all have perfect happiness in the glory yonder, and while every vessel will be full, still every vessel won't be of the same size. Just now is the time to increase our capacity. There will be some very shallow vessels in heaven : there will be saucers full, and cups full, and large jars full— they will all be full, and, I believe, running over ; but I would rather be the large jar than the shallow saucer. In a storm when, it may be, everything depends upon the obedience of the crew to the captain, we might suppose in some critical moment, on board a man-of-war, that it was important to hold on to a certain rope. You may depend upon it that the captain will not choose some inexperienced stripling, but he will look out for the staunchest man he has in the ship, who knows what it is to obey through the loud noise of the tempest. True to the instinct of instant obedience, the old tar answers with his hearty " All right, sir ! aye, aye, sir !" and without asking any questions you will find him holding on to the rope, because the captain has ordered it. Fancy one of his mates coming up to him and saying, ** Tom, what are you doing? there is no necessity for that." I doubt not Tom would silence the fellow by telling hirn that what he was there for was to obey orders. We are to be faithful: " Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Hold on, friends ; never mind who talks, hold on ; and let your response go back to the great Master, " Aye, aye, sir!" — that is all we have to do, to be content to do the will of God even in little things, without asking questions here below. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." What are the mercies ? They are detailed in the foregoing chap- ters. " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." It is not a sin offering : it is a thank offering. No CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 93 man can offer his body to be an acceptable sin offering. " For in atonement of the people there was none with Him ;" and He had to " bear our sins in His own body on tiie tree." But now He wants us to be a whole burnt offering unto the Lord, our bodies bound on the altar, so that we may be holy and acceptable to Him, ■which is the only reasonable thing we can do. If we do not do that, we are living as fools upon the earth, and the world will treat us with contempt. The only reasonable service is the presentation of the body, including the whole man (spirit, soul, and body) ; nothing less is acceptable unto the great God, whose mercies we have received, and by whose mercies we are besought to lie down upon the altar. It is ncL a dead sacrifice, but a living one. As the Old Testament priest was consecrated, the blood was put upon his right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, signifying that the whole man was con- secrated. Christian man in your business, on the street, rubbing against the world, remember that that hand of yours is consecrated with blood, and should never stoop to do a mean thing ; that foot of yours is conseatated, and should never be found in a place where consecrated blood ought not to be ; that your whole body is a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. " Be not conformed to this world." I believe what the world needs is a lot of red hot Christians flying right about among them, that will let them see vhat Christianity is. I don't believe in giving up the world; if yoii are consistent, the world will soon give you up. I remember aft'^r I Wc.s brought to Christ, I was asked out to some friends. I went thi;re ; they were going on as usual, but I kept asking one and then another, " Is your soul saved ?" I was soon told that that was not the sort of talk for such a place as that ; I was never asked back again. If you try even to be mid- dling hot, the world can't stand you ; you have only to manifest Christ in a little degree, you don't require to go very far, and you will find that they will say, " Well, he may be a very good man, but he is very poor company." They are not used to that sort of thing ; it won't go down with them. " He used to be the very best in song and dance that ever you saw ; he used to be the very soul of the party ; but now he is as dull as nails ; we can't do with him. He may be sincere enough, but he is no use to us, no use to the world." " Be not conformed to this world." They cannot judge us, or guage us, or measure us by any of their conven tional ideas ; our motives and our ways of living seem entirely different ; we seem to have got into a new geography alto gether, into a new climate, a new land with new aspirations I am as loyal a subject to Britain as Queen Victoria has ; I wil' not tell you what side of politics I am on, whether Liberal or Con- servative : I am loyal to our noble Queen. I believe in carrying out the Scriptural injunction, " Honor the king." But while I am loyal in this way, I will tell you of a wider loyalty, far better than that : I have a wider country now than Great Britain : " Heaven is my fatherland, heaven i& my home ;" 94 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. And when I meet with a converted Frenchman or American, he is far nearer to me than an unconverted Scotchman. We are linked in a wider, holier, higher and more blessed union than even our earthly fatherland ; we belong to the great citizenship that is in heaven. Here we are but strangers and pilgrims. Some people say, " I do not see why you should not be a littie more conformed to the world; by making \ourself repulsive to them you can't benefit them." Well, you know, that looks very specious, but is it true ? When we come here to-night, I might say to the gas man, " Now you know we want some light, but don't be too hard upon the darkness all at once ; don't turn the gas on at full blaze : you might disturb the darkness, you know ; the darkness might think that you were too extreme, if you turned it on full tap at once," Now, friends, ye are the lights of the world. There is nothing that has been served so badly by the worldly conformity of Christians than the poor world itself; it is the world that should complain most of us. We have been so conformed to them that, in their blindness and darkness, they do not know what country we belong to, what flag we are under, what blood ca'n cleanse. If the Bride of the Lamb had stood up in the grandeur of her beauty, she would have been fair as the moon, and clear as the sun, and awe-inspiring as a bannered host. If she had taken her stand upon the death and resurrection of her loved but rejected Lord, and had seen by faith the deep-dug grave of Christ as encompass- ing her, and separating her from the world, she could have held out her hand to the struggling and hell-bound sinners, and said, "Friend, come here ; there is rest here, and only here; there is joy here, and only here ; there is peace here, and only here ; there is that joy which satisfieth for time and eternity only here. Come, we cannot come down to you in your territory ; here, and here only, is a resting place." If with undivided fnjnt, we could have lined the grave of Christ, and invited the poor world, as with the united cry of one man, telling the poor straggler, '* There is life in a look at the Crucified One ; there is joy and peace here, and a fulness for that eternal longing in that big heart of thine that will be satisfied with nothing less than God Himself — then, my friends,, could we have attempted obedience to preach good news of God to every man, and reared the flag for Christ. Brethren, be not conformed to the world. May God bless to us His own blessed, truth. The afternoon session was closed by the singing of Hymn 88 : " The Cross, the Cross, the blood-stained Cross." CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 95. EVENING SESSION. EVANGELISTIC SERVICES. The Chair was occupied by the Hon. Vice-Chancellor Blake. The overflow meeting was held in Richmond-st. Methodist church. The meeting in the Hall was formally opened by singing : " My faith looks up to Thee," After which Rev. Geo. Burson, of St. Catharines, led in prayer. The Chairman made the following remarks : There were some manifestations of applause this afternoon ; do you not think that that deteriorates the meeting very considerably ? If any person feels struck with what any of the speakers may say, let. him quietly present it as a matter of praise to God, but do not let us have anything to disturb the spirituality of our meeting. Hymn No. 14 : " Tell me the old, old story." Major Cole rose and said : In climbing one of the hills of Scot- land with a dear minister of the Gospel of Christ, after we had reached the top of oRe of the highest hills, said he, " What are the first words that occur to your mind, as you see the beautiful landscape before you?" I looked up into the beautiful sky, and then back again, and the words that are perhaps dearer to me than any portion of the Word of God ; the words that led me to trust in the finished work of Christ, came before me : " God sO' loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoso- ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I said to the friend, that I would like to have these words, engraven on every hill of Scotland, and down in every valley. I would like to have them upon every flag that is floating throughout the world. I would like to have them on the street corners. I would like them on the spires of every church. I would like ta have them written on every man's heart. I don't expect to see that ; but, my heart overflows with gratitude to God to-night, that by His Holy Spirit I have been enabled to comprehend them ; so that they have become to me — living words. 1 wish I had a tongue to tell you how precious they are to me. I praise God to-night for the privilege of simply giving this message, which is perhaps the Bible condensed into a very few words. Although I might bring it down into a still smaller com- pass by saying the word Jesus. Oh ! that He may be lilted up to-night in such a manner as that we who speak, and you who hear, may be drawn to Him, as we have never been before ; and that lost souls to-night may say — He is my Saviour. Oh! I love to witness for Him 1 I would like to see friends in this audience to-night, simply coming up and saying, " He is my -96 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Saviour; He is my Redeemer." We cannot all make fine addresses; but one thing we can say, "Jesus is mine, I have been redeemed by His precious blood." In the first meeting of the Union Day Prayer Meetings in Chicago, and during a few moments of silence, the Chairman urged different ones to take part. One little fellow got up (as the time was running by), a lad only 15 years of age, with tears running down his cheeks, and with stammering tongue^, said, " I ca-ca-can't speak, but I can stand up for Jesus ;" not a Christian in this audience but can do this, and say to every lost soul here to- night, " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Oh, sinner, look at Him to-night. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Hnn to you. God loves you ; God loves every man, woman, and child in this room ; that, though you and I have sinned, and come short, yet salvation is for us. I know there are some here to-night, who say, " I don't think this." I went to the station the other day to catch a train. I found it had gone. " It went ten minutes ago," said the agent. " But, sir, I thought it went ten minutes alter two." " It went ten minutes before two ;" *' but," says I, " I understood the man to say it went ten minutes after two." It went ten minutes before two, sir," he replied ; "but," said I, " I thought it went ten minutes after." Said he, " It don't make any difference what you thought ; I tell you it went ten min- utes before two ; you can talk for six months^ it won't bring the train back again." So you see hov/ easy it is for a man to be mis- " taken. He showed me the time table and I saw by that, that it had left ten minutes belore tw"). I thought it left ten minutes after two, you see what thought did ; and so, my friends, our thinking won't alter this Book. A man may say, " I have not been very bad, and I don't under- stand this passage of Scripture ; and I don't think Jesus would do this; I have not been very bad." It won't make any difference; all your thinking don't alter this precious Word. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ says that we cannot save ourselves ; that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." I praise God that there is such a goodly number that believe in the Christ that was crucified on the cross ; that was buried, and is risen again : in the Christ that has been exalted on the throne ; in the Christ that is coming again ; praise His holy name. \ -As our brother was speaking about witnessing for Christ, I thought that the rich man who went to Jesus by night, would like to step on this platform (if he were permitted^, to tell about his interview with Christ ; how Jesus told him with such burning words, " Ye must be born again ;" and that, the blind man whose eyes Jesus had opened eighteen hundred years ago, would like, if permitted, to stand before this audience, and tell what Christ had done for him. I think of that man that was standing in the synagogue, whose withered arm Jesus cured, that if he were here to-night, he would like to hold it out to witness for Christ. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 97 I think of that widow woman, who was going down to bury her only son, and on her way met Jesus, who said to her, *' Womun, weep not ;" I think that if she were here, she would like to tell how Jesus restored her son. There is, too, that poor man that was stretched out on the cross by the side of the Son of God, who uttered this prayer : " Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom ;" I think he would like to confess Jesus Christ to-night before this audience, and tell how he went " sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb." A number of years ago, I remember bidding good-bye to some dear relatives, just before leaving New York city, to come west, I remember looking at my little trunk, packed by the hands of a loving mother, and at the top of it was a little Bible. I remerrber bidding good-bye to my father and the rest of the family ; I don't recollect just the words that were said, but I remember that dear loving mother, coming to me and putting her hands on each side of my face, and looking up to heaven, saying, " Oh, Lord Jesus, bless my boy ; he is going far west ; he will be tempted and tried : tempted to break the Lord's day ; tempted to break Thy commandments ; tempted to sin in many ways. Keep him. Lord Jesus ; keep him, and whatever happens grant this, that I may meet my boy in heaven." I can almost feel those dear hands on the side of my face to-night ; the tears that dropped from her eyes upon my cheek ; and the press of her lips noon my forehead, and when I went away from the door, I said, — oh, no young man ever had a dearer mother than I — " I will answer that prayer ; I will never give trouble ; no, I will try to be all that a mother would have her son to be." I went to Mich- igan, was successful in business. The war broke out. I went through the war uninjured, and came back without any bad habits. I was married and settled very happily indeed, but owing to overwork in a bank, my physician prescribed cod liver oil and whiskey for my lungs (you will excuse me just talking bluntly, it is because there are dear men here to-night, that need encouragement, that I want to tell them of Jesus, who can save them). I took the medicine several times a day. My appetite for it increased, until at last I found myself a slave to the intoxicating cup. My brother said to me one day, '• We are about entering into an important business enterprise, and if I can have your brain while it is cool, you will have your money out of it." I turned over the letter, and on the back side of it I wrote, " I will never touch it again as long as I live." I relied on my own strength, and I fell in a few weeks. Later on a dear minister said to me, " I hear that this medicine that you are taking is dragging you down, and I have written out a pledge, and have signed it myself, and wish you to sign it. I know this will be the last, your word is good for that." " Yes, sir," I replied ; and so I put my name to it, and I kept it about two weeks. Later on, my brother-in-law spoke to me, and the same argument was brought up ; again I made the same promise. He said, " Surely you have never broken your word with me, and 7 98 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I believe you will keep this." I saw this monster coming upon me. I was going to overcome it with my own strength, just as men are trying to overcome a great many other sins. On my return home one evening, 1 met my dear loving wife at the door, with tears in her eyes. " Is this so," she said ; " must I acknowledge, my dear husband, that you are a slave to this habit ?" I said, " Yes, it is too true ; I was not aware that I would ever become a slave to this, but I have no power to break loose." She pointed to her beautiful little daughter, and said, " Won't you, for her sake, stop it ?" I said, " Yes, I will never touch it again as long as I live." I beheved then that I had got free from the habit, but I was still a slave to it. Later on, dear friends, I was called to visit a dear sister, who was very ill at St. Louis. I took the first train, and on my arrival, as I came up to the door, I saw a number of people who informed me that she was dead. I entered the room and said that I desired to be alone with my sister Kitty, and as I looked upon her corpse I felt so sad that I could not have seen her before she died ; we played together when children ; and as I looked down upon her, I said, " Here is a pledge that never can be broken : I will never taste a drop of it again as long as I live." Dear friends, the Lord gives me grace to say to you to-night, that before that sister was laid under the sod, I was under the influence of liquor more than at any time before in my life. At last, one morning I was passing the room door of my precious little daughter (who has been singing the Gospel with us in the States and in England), I saw her on her knees, with her hands lifted toward Jesus, and heard her saying, " Lord Jesus, won't you help my papa, he has been very kind to me ; purchased me a piano, and has done every thing to make me happy ; oh. Lord Jesus, save my papa." '• It makes no difference," I said to myself, " whether God will answer that prayer or not, I will show myself worthy to be her father." But that night I came home from a champagne supper worse than ever. (Oh ! may God pity the poor man that is trying to fight sin in his own strength). At last I felt drawn to think of my dear old father, a minister of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of my dear old mother, and said to myself, " I am making my der • friends miserable, while I have the means of making them c ..ortable. I see that I am taking the life out of them by this sin. I will get my old mother and father, and bring them home, and have one visit, and I will try to keep from the influence of this liquor ; and then I will bid them good-bye ; I will make my property over to my wife, and go somewhere, where I will not break their hearts by the life I am living." I brought them there. We did everything to make them happy ; and I shall never forget one evening, when sitting round the fireside. My dear old father brought out the Bible that he had brought with him ; put on his glasses and began to read, and he came to the iii. chapter of John, i6th verse : " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 99 in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Then he took off his glasses and wiped them, and opened again the Scrip- tures and tried to read, but there were tears in his eyes. He wiped his glasses again, and again he attempted to read, but he could not read — I knew who was bringing the tears from those eyes. A little distance from him sat my wife, and her lips quivered — I knew who was causing all that. My precious little daughter went to the window as if to look out, — but it was to look out into the darkness to hide her tears. I felt that if I could have died at that moment it would have been a relief. Again the words of that mother that were so sweet to me so many years before, broke the silence : " Don't you know, my son, that Jesus can save yojy^ from this ? Don't you know that Jesus can take away all the appetite ?" and I said, " No, mother; I am lost ; there is no hope for me. I have agam and again broken my resolutions ; I feel that I am lost to all eternity." It was some time after this that one day I was alone, my family being away on a visit. I had invited some friends, and intended having a happy time of it. The hour came at which they were to have arrived. Somehow or other there was no one came (I trust it was ordered so by the Holy Spirit of God). On the table lay the Bible, it was open at the iii. chapter of John ; my eyes rested on the i6th verse : " For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish;" and I stopped a.t whosoever. Whosoever believeth; why, I thought it was always, " Be a good boy and get to heaven," — whosoever believeth. 1 remember when I was a little boy, a man put in the papers that he had lost a dog ; and whosoever found it, he would give him five dollars. My name was not in the paper, but I counted myself in the '* whosoever.'' I believed the adver- tisement ; why, I wonder why I cannot believe this ? I give up all hopes of ever being saved, but that whosoever began fairly to burn in my soul. I wonder if it is true ? My friends had not come, so I will just turn the key. I was determined if they got in, it would be by breaking the wii.dows. I threw the key to the other end of the room ; and came back to these words, " I wonder if it's true. Would it not be grand if I could be delivered from this evil, not for five years, ten years, or twenty years, but through- out eternity, is it so ?" I dropped on my knees and said, " Oh, God, save me. Do save me ; and make these words true to my own soul to-night. Help me to believe on Thy Son, that I may not perish, but have eternal life." An hour afterwards I was still on my knees , it was ten o'clock, and the bottle was before me. I was tempted to have one drink more : I took hold of the bottle again, but I think to-night Jesus had something to do with it, and gave me grace to drop it again. It struck eleven o'clock, and it seemed that my blood was on fire. "Oh, God, I'm lost I I have the tortures of hell already. No hone for me. My prayers and all my pledges are nothing. No, Lord, it does not mean me ; I am gone." Something seemed to say, " Ok, believe ! belitve ! !" Then it came 100 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. into my head, " Just pray ; just believe ; just look." So I thought I would get on my knees, and I said, " 1 will stick it out till mid- night (I little knew that Jesus was standing right by my side, ready to lift me up) ; I will pray till midnight, and then if there is no deliverance, I'm lost !" and so I began to pray ; or rather the Holy Ghost began to pray through me. I was in the depths of despair. I prayed on, and on, and on, until near midnight. I saw all my pledges before me like a panorama. I lived my life over again, scene after scene passed one after another, from the time that my dear mother bid me good-bye, clear up to the time of standing by my sister's corpse, and gazing on ker face. It seemed, dear friends, as though I was lost to all eternity. It is only when a man b ;lieves that he is lost, that he knows how to lay hoU on the Son of God ; and as those pledges came before me ; Ivroken resolutions, one after another ; promises to my mother and father, and broth< ■" ' sisters, my wife and my little daughter, on^. after another, l..,^ all of them broken. My way looked very dark, and then me thought I could hear my mother's voice, " Don't you know Jesus can save you ?" and then there seemed to come before me in letters of living light, " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoevtr believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life." The old clock struck out, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ; when I said, •' Oh, God ! I believe on thy Son ; / will trust on His finished work, and I am saved !" (and from that time to this God has kept me). I rose from my knees. I went out and looked up into the starry heaven ; took up the bottle that had been my master, and threw it on the pavement, where it was dashed into pieces. From that moment I have been enabled by grace to say, " Lord Jesus keep me," and He has kept me until this hour. My dear friends, it is the living Jesus that I want to hold up to this audience. Oh, believe in the Son of God. Yes, He has redeemed me by His own precious blood ; it is Christ that I want to hold up to-night, this loving Saviour : that has saved me from my sins, and made me a joint heir with Him. Oh, praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God to-night for His Son ; praise Him to-night for His Holy Spirit ; praise Him to-night for this blessed Word ; praise Him for that " whosoever." God grant it. Amen. Hymn : " Come then, and join the holy band." Prayer by Dr. Potts. Dr. W. P. Mackav addressed the meeting as follows : In Titus the Apostle Paul makes a very precious declaration of the doctrines of which we have had such a very practical illustration. I now ask your attention to Titus ii. 11, *' For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, CHRISTIAN CONPBRBNCB. lOX teat 'ling us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ; looking for Lhat blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." The subject here put before us by the inspired pen of the Apostle Paul is THE GRACE OF GOD. Throughout these six millenniums of years God has been unfolding man's need of His grace. He has been .infolding His method of grace, and He is now unfolding His scheme of grace, and gathering the individual subjects of His grace, and will continue to do so until the great white throne is set, when sufficient specimens of His grace shall be gathered from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, to sit down with Him in the glory yonder, " that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace." 1 have oft-times thought that this is a precious idea connected with the Grace of God that God has saved us, not so much out of pity and compassion to us ; but that He might manifest Himself and show forth His own glory. In visiting the British Museum, those of you that have gone through it will remember how rich the collections are in the various departments of Natural History, Zoology, Palaeontology, and all the other departments where specimens are required to complete families, or orders, or species, or genera. What expense the British nation puts itself to in order to complete these species or genera, in order to show completed specimens of all classes contained in a certain genus ; what money they will spend on what ordmary on-lookers think contemptible, such as little reptiles,- which may be very worthless in themselves, but by their very collection they show the richness of the nation in gathering them together for the mstruction of the p^ple. If the British nation might send away to South America to get some interesting individual of some small insect to complete an order or family, look at what God is doing in these days : — He is gathering specimens of His grace from all quarters of the world, so that in the ages to come there will be a number that no man can number who will show forth the exceeding richer of His grace towards us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Poor devil — chained sinner, will you not let God gather you in to be a specimen of His grace ? He wants you, to place you in the glory yonder to show what He can do, and how ::.;>>'■ . j " His blood can make the foulest clean : .^,( His blood avails for thee." 1, He needs you, devil-bound sinner, for the great museum of His grace, and I will tell you what — there will be no duplicates there, I have met some people who said, " Ah, there is nobody that understands me ; I am like nobody else." I am glad to hear it, because there are no duplicates in Heaven ; there are only 102 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. special sinners up there, who needed a special Saviour, and, tnerefore, are wanted in the big museum of grace in the glory yonder. We read in Scripture of the prayers of two men : one ot them was the prayer of a Publican ; the other, that of a Pharisee. The Pharisee was thanking God — what for ? for what he was not. The poor Publican could not even lift his eyes up to Heaven, but he smote upon his breast crying, " God be merciful to me a sinner." No, that is very near it, but not what he said. In our translation there is a precious word left out and slightly altered. "God be merciful to me a sinner" is not in the Bible, but it reads, " God be merciful to me the sinner," it should be the definite article. The man was definite : he tells God what he is ; while the Pharisee thanked God for what he was not. And that is the whole difference between a genuine prayer and a false one. The Publican feels as though there was not another sinner in all creation. He gathers, as it were, in a focus the whole law of God, and says, " I have broken it." When we stand before God as the sinner, we need a plentiful use of the definite article to define ourselves right down before God. It is this indefinite business, this impersonal salvation that I have no patience with. Firstly: We have in this passage, The salvation which grace brin<^s. " The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. ' ^ , . ( , Secondly : The lessons which grace teaches. The grace of God teaches us that we are to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that we are to live, not to die. When I was a young boy, I thought that the good boys died and went to Heaven, and so I thought as I wanted to live there was no use of my being good. It does not say the grace of God teaches us to die ; it teaches us to live — soberly and righteously and Gocfty in this present world. Thirdly : It not only brings salvation to us and teaches us lessons, but it also causes us to look for that blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. We have this salvation to begin with, — a life to live, — and a hope to look forward to ; and all brought down to us by the grace of God. " Now the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men," &c. It would be utterly hopeless on my part tu suppose that in this short time I shall be able to do justice to these three subjects : I would rather direct your attention to the connection between the first and the second, and to the truths connected therewith. Sometimes we are apt to transpose the nth verse and the 12th verse, and sometimes we are tempted to separate them. We must take care neither to transpose nor to separate them : we must not put the salvation that grace brings subsequent to the lessons that grace teaches : we must get the salvation that grace brings before we are entitled to learn the lessons that it teaches. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. XO3 This is of great importance, that we must first be enrolled in the army of God before we can be taught the warfare of God. God won't teach His enemies, — they would fight against Him. We must become His children before we are taught the rules of His house. We must be the saved of the Lord before we can learn the lessons of the Lord. We must receive the salvation of grace before we are taught the lessons of grace. Do not trans- pose them, if you do you dim the entire lustre of God's grace ; you must keep the grace saving before the grace teaching. But you must not omit the 12th verse after you have read the nth : you must not begin to talk about the salvation of grace without following it up with the lessons of grace : you must not merely say, " My happy soul is free, for the Lord has pardoned me." That is not the whole of it, my friends, that is only the beginning of it. There are soldiers, those who have just got the Queen's coin, they are enlisted, soldiers no doubt and enrolled into the army of Queen Victoria ; but you would never think of putting these raw recruits in the front of the battle where the veterans are face to face wifh death. No, they must know first all about the drill. I know it myself from hard experience ; I had to go at it day after day Vv'hen I was volunteer for our noble Queen. It seemed very odd to us to go this way and that way at the command of another, but I assure you that all the British victories have been gained by that splendid discipline. I •■emember a friend ot mine who was in attendance at one of the classes in the University ; he was one of the very few that came out scatheless from the " Charge of the Light Brigade " of Balaclava ; he was one of the six-hundred that " rode into the jaws of death, though they knew somr one had blundered." I asked him, "What did you think when the charge was sounded?" He replied, ■' I thought nothing about it : I knew we had to go, and there was the end of it." That is what we want among the soldiers of Christ who have been enrolled under the banner of the great Captain ; they need to learn the drill, the disciplme which will enable them to contend successfully against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. So you see the grace of God saves us in order that it may teach us : it does not save us that we may live as we list and do just as we please ; but that we may, day by day and hour by hour, become indoctrinated into the lessons of His grace, so that we may live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. With these cautions let me now consider the first division of our subject. " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation." I love that word "6W;;^<;,, The aim of our life is to do the will of God. The other day was my birthday, and I asked the Holy Spirit of God to give me a word to start out with ; the word obedience was suggested to me, then the next word gratitude, and it seems to me this morning that these words have become part of my life, during this Conference. Lord, what is Thy will concerning me ? Surely my heart ought to overflow with gratitude, and I believe it does this morning when I think what Christ has done for me. 1 am by faith adopted into the family of Christ. Surely we ought to live very near Christ. Surely this Conference ought not to close without our hearts being so filled with a desire to do the will of God, that it may be our aim simply to do His will. Let us engage for one moment in silent prayer. Major Cole then engaged in prayer, after which there was a recess of five minutes. Rev. Mr. Erdman then took the chair. After singing the 141st hymn, " Oh for a thousand tongues to sing," -i >* Mr. LpwsoN, of Montreal, engaged in prayer. Hj'mn 8, " Have you on the Lord believed f " CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 4I3 ,. TThe next subject was then taken up : ,i'ji U.^/. . .>.;;^ . ;.,,iv/ .,(.. ■t.V/ «./'; r«. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. JJ ;::;f l^;;" !• -^ y. ,.. -» , BY REV, W. J. ERDMAN. •«— ■ .1 ■ ■ , In the Gospel of John, the one Greek word for witness is trans- lated three ways, "bear witness," " bear record," and " testify ;" it would have been well if only one of the three had been invari- ably used. So this mbrning 1 will use the word " testify," as it will bring out the meaning more clearly. In this Bible reading I will first give you the different divisions, and I will again ask the brethren to read passages of Scripture for me : I. Who testifies? ;,-.,] . vil- - -;^ ,;-i ,;il". II. Of whom does He testify? ;;«»;rn>..i ;7.^ ■-■^,! • :.-.>'ii III. To whom does He testify? 7 ,.T .^jt.i.'ivivry *(f: ,..< , IV. What does He testify? ,,.> ,-,4.; .„^,.> ', , ; ;,:. ; -> ' vi ,;^V V. How does He testify? ,, ,',, lit.A- > 1 . •,,, ,.!,i., mi ..,■,'■ >■ VI. When does He testify? , . * . ^ VII. Why does He testify? There is one more form, " Where does He testify ?" but that is implied in the third division. Taking up then the first division, before I say anything on that, I am aware that the word " testify," or " witness," as it is used in the Gospel of John and in the epistles, does primarily refer to the testimony of God concerning Jesus Christ as being the Son of God, and that there is life in Him, i John v. 9-1 1. Still, after- wards, there is another use of the word " testify," or " witness,"- as in Romans viii. 16, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God ;" and again in i John v., " He that believeth in Him hath the witness in himself." There are different words used to define the Spirit's action. The Spirit was to teach, to testily, to take of the things of God and reveal th^W unto us. to glorify Jesus. ^1 ..4i,iiii]# I. Who testifies ? Set down the following references : John XV. 26 ; xvi. 14 ; i John v. 6, 10 ; Romans viii. 14. These passages tell us who testifies. It is one whose name is the " Comforter." It is one who is called the " Spirit of truth." It is the Holy Spirit. It is God who testifies. W ho is it that testifies ? Wondrous answer! It is God as the Comforter, it is the Holy God, it is the? God of truth. II. Of whom does He testify ? The answers are recorded in these texts : John xv. 26; i John iv. 2, 3 ; and John xvi. 13, 15. In John XV. 26, it reads concerning the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, ** He shall testify of Me." Of whom shall the Holy Spirit testify ? Of Jesus. Now you all know, from memory, that in the 14th, iffch and i6th chapters of John, you have repeated promises of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in every case the Holy Spirit is prom- ised to tell us about Jesus ; He has nothing to say as from Himself, only what He hears. He tells ; only what He sees, He declares ; 8 . 114 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. only what Jesus gives Him, He gives ; He only knows Jesus. His name is wnat ? The Spirit of truth; more literally, He is the Spirit of the truth. Who is the Truth ? Jesus : " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Hence when the Holy Spirit ever does testify, He testifies something concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. I John iv. 1-3, "Try the spirits whether they are of God and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." No matter how religious men may be ; no matter how devotional or emotional — itjs not a question of emotion, or of knowledge : the simple question is whether the Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, is made known to them. The Spirit cannot do anything, unless He has the material, and that material is the truth concerning Jesus. f.7i^t^!^l^:ul, ,-.;,! t HL To whom does He testify ? The answers are contained in these passages: Romans viii. 14, 16; Galatians iv. 6; and in the apostolic greetings. To whom does He testify ? " As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God ;" " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." To whom is He testifying ? He is testifying to the sons of God ; and as we have seen concerning the Son of God, the truth as it is in Jesus to those who are to be built up in that truth. And then the apostolic greetings are invariably with one or two exceptions this, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." The word ''our'' unites us all together; it binds us together under one head — our Lord Jesus Christ. But you see the Father is associated with it, " Blessed be the God and Father." So Jesus said to Mary, " Go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God." We are all then united together by that circle ol gold, " our," under that one Head. To whom were the apostles writing, " Grace and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ ?" To brethren, to holy brethren. They were written by whom ? By the Spirit of truth. Concerning whom ? Concerning the Truth — the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the Holy Spirit testifies in the epistles, by means of that truth, to sons. ' IV. What does He testify ? Under this there are four heads, (i) That Jesus is the Son of God, and that life eternal is in Him ; (2) that we are sons ; h) that all fulness is in Christ ; (4) that His fulness is ours. Set down i John iv. 2,3;! John v 11; x John i. I, 2, under the first head of this d' vision. What does He testify ? He testifies that Jesus is the Son of God ; also, that there is life in Him ; and also of that eternal life which was with the Father. John says here, that He is bearing witness of " that eternal life which was with the Father, and was made manifest unto us." It was through John that that testimony came to that early day, and it has come through his words down to our day. Secondly, He testifies to believers that they are sons of God ; on this I will not now enlarge. Thirdly and fourthly, He testifies that there is all fulness in Christ, and for the sons of God. Consult John iii. 34-35 ; i. 14-16 ; Col- ' CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. II5 ossians ii. 9 ; Romans viii. 16-17; ^ Cor. ii. 9-10; as explaining I Cor. i. 30; John xvi. 14-15 ; 1 John iii. 24 ; i John iv. 13. In John iii. 34-35. you see that the fulness of the Father is in that Son. You notice next that the Spirit is to testify of that fulness, and in Col. ii. 9-10, " Ye are complete in Him ;" that is, His fulness becomes our fulness. In i Cor. ii. 9-10, we read, " But as it is written, eye hath not seen," &c. Now there is a full stop in my Bible at the end of the gth verse, which the Holy Spirit never intended to make. Do not let us stop where the Holy Spirit does not, but take care to read the loth verse in close connection with the gth verse. In i Cor. i. 30, we read, " But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom." Now we shall have to make a pause after this word " wisdom," both because of the Greek there, and because the wisdom spoken of is divided into three parts, mentioned in what follows. The question is asked, " Have you wisdom, wisdom to answer these three questions : (i) How can man be saved from the guilt of sin ? (2) How can man be saved from the power of sin ? (3) How can man at last be saved from the presence of sin ? That is full salvation, past, present, and to come ; which is given in Christ as God's wisdom — as righteous- ness, sanctification and redemption. How can it be done ? Where is man's wisdom to give the answer ? For we read that " the world by wisdom knew not God, but we also read " it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." The Holy Spirit reveals this as one of the deep things of God to us. But we must pass on to the fifth head. V. How He testifies. I will not give you all the Scripture passages. I have three answers to that : (i) He testifies by the Word of God ; (2) He testifies by the whole Word of God, 2 Tim. iii. 16-17 ; (3) He testifies by condensations of the Word of God. Simple ejaculatory sentences contain a great deal of truth con- cerning the Lord Jesus. How does He testify ? He testifies by the Word, the Truth of God. He testifies concerning Jesus as a person ; then He tells us something about that person ; that is the truth concerning Jesus ; these are the facts, the realities, which cluster around, and are associated with Jesus. Never let us forget that He testifies by the Word that is written down for us. Then He testifies by the whole Word ; He tells us all about Jesus. Turn to Luke xxiv. 44. These are the three Hebrew divisions of the books of the Old Testament — the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. The Prophets included some of the histories according to this division ; and the Psalms contained all the remaining books in addition to the book of Psalms. Suppose the Old Testament was given to some people to find Christ therein ; where would they look for Him ? Jesus had only the Old Testament to tell the things concerning Himself; and if we do not find the Lord Jesus Christ there, we have not found the key to the understanding of the Old Testament. Now incidentally let me say that in a court of justice, when a witness is on the stand to bear testimony in regard to any person ^l6 ' CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. V or event, you know the Judge often takes it upon himself to rule out some of the testimony. My friends, that is just what we are often attempting to do: we are attempting to rule out some of the testimony of God in this Holy Book. Some people have a notion, for instance, that the prophecies are things that are not very prac- tical and necessary. My friends, that would be ruling out one- third of the Bible. No, my friends, we must have and use the whole Bible; it is the whole testament of Gt>d ; we must not rule any of it out, or else we grieve the Holy Spirit. No wonder people do not know anything about prt)phecy, when they do not believe that the Holy Spirit can tell them anything about it. The third ansvyer to the question, " Ht)W He testifies ?" is, by con- densations of the Word of God. It is not always necessary, when the Holy Spirit tells something about the Lord Jesus Christ, that He should give it verbatim. When the Spirit is at work with the truth concerning Jesus, He sometimes sums it all up in just one word — "Jesus!" How many a poor invalid, unable to read or pray, has been sustained by the grace of God in the simple ejaculation of the name of jfesns. It condenses in it everything. We do not, therefore, need verbatim renderings of Scripture in order to get the comfort and consolation out of the fulness which is in tlie Lord Jesus Christ ; and yet this is not said to excuse any for not having the Word of Christ dwelling in them richly and exactly. VL W^hen does He testify? Romans xv. 13 ; Galatians iii. 2 ; Ephesians iii. 16-17; 2 Cor, iii. 17-18 ; John xiv. 12, 14. That is one answer. When does He testify ? I will condense it by saying. He testifies when we believe. Romans xv. 13, " Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace :" in praying very earnestly ; in attending church and the sacraments of the church ; in paying tithes to the ministry ; in living'a devoted life of service ? No, my friends, it does not read that way ; it is, •' fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." That is it. The Holy Spirit must have a believer to work with, and now what is he to believe ? To believe the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. When you believe, when you keep your eye on Jesus ; then He will show you iesus ; He cannot show you Jesus if you do not look at Him, but eep looking at your own heart instead. You must look at Jesus and to look at Him believingly. The Holy Spirit is down here in the believer to lilt his eyes up there, and show him what is there in Christ. There is your fulness, believer ; •' as He is, so are we in this' world." If you need strength, there is the strength that is in Jesus, which will strengthen you unto all long suffering, and patience — not human long suffering or human patience ; there is a difference between the patience of grace and that of nature, and between the long suffering of grace and that of nature. In the one case God is there, and in the other case He is not. Another answer to this question is, when we love the brethren. " If ye love me keep my commandments ;" and then we are told to " love one another." If I do not love my neighbor, the Spirit CHRISTIAN CONFRRENCE. 11^ cannot get hold of me ; c.nnot use me so as to tell me about the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that I must love as well as believe, that the Holy Spirit may testily freely concerning the Lord Jesus Christ ; and such love implies self-denial, self-emptiedness, self- nothingness. The third answer to this question is in i John iii. ig-id. Note what is said there about keeping tne command- ments. Now what are the two commandments ? Look at i John and at the end of the iii. chapter. Now the two commandnents of the Law were, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." What are the two com- mandments of tlie Lord Jesus Christ ? Believe in the Son of God and love the sons of God. You see it is the law of Sinai raised up to its highest power. In other words, if I believe in the Son of God, then I will be enabled to love God with all my heart ; and when I love the sons of God, my fellow believers, I have the idea of the neighbor raised to its highest power. This requirement of laith and love is one also the Spirit helps us to meet, f(>r faith and love can increase more and more, 2 Thess. i. 3. The more we surrender ourselves to the power of God, the more our faith and love will grow. There are often assignable reasons for our lack of faith and love, and purity, and power, and joy and peace. Now for an illustration. Some years ago a minister came and said to me, " Mr. Erdmaii, how do you look at this thing about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of the Holy Spirit?" ** Well," said I, " there is a great discussion going on, and there is a great diversity of opinion. I do not profess to know more than anybody else, but 1 will tell you how it looks to me in the Word, and that is what I go by. First," said I, " do you know that your sins are forgiven ?" (I do). *' Do you know that you are a son of God ?" (I do). " Then you have the Holy Spirit. But, my friend, you are like a house, and the Holy Spirit has been in only one roorh of your house ; the room in which you preach in ; the room in which you go to meeting in ; or the room in which you pre- pare your sermons in : that is the only room to which the Holy Spirit has been admitted, and the rest of the house has been shut against Him — all the rooms. Now, my friend, if you will go to work, and let the Holy Spirit take you from room to room in your house, and open every door, and let the Holy Spirit tell you what to do with that toom, and you do it ! you will know what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. There is one room in your house full of vile rubbish. The Holy Spirit has been telling you day alter day, and week after week, and year after year, ' My son, that room in there is full of all filthiness, and kept so by the power of an evil habit.' " He at once replied, " That room I have cleaned out since I came to these meetings ; I have given up the use of tobacco." '* Well," said I, "it is not for me to judge any man, whether he may use tobacco or not ; but if the Holy Spirit has been showing to you that it is your filthiness, away with it then. You have some other rooms in your house. You are a minister. Il8 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. and I have no doubt, in one of the rooms there is ministerial ambition, and disappointment, ministerial envy, and all manner of ungodliness peculiar to ministers. That is another room, and the Holy Spirit has been telling you that room has not been cleansed." •* Well," said my friend, " I believe the Spirit led me to you ; for when I was in College I was given very much to scientific studies, and after my graduation, I was appointed Assistant Astronomer, and I confess that I have been preaching scientific sermons more than Gospel sermons, and I will never do it again ; that room is open hereafter to the Spirit and the Gospel." Yes, mj' friends, if any of you have a room in which you are dwelling alone with some sorrow, and as if neither God nor man could help you, if you have locked the door and are brooding over your trouble in bitterness of soul, let me tell you that the Holy Spirit is longing to go with you into that room, and bear the burden with you, or possibly take it away from you altogether. He wishes you to throw open all the rooms in your house from the top to the bottom. Let Him then have all the keys of all the rooms, and give Him full possession. Tell Him not what to do, but ask Him to tell you what to do ; tell Him just to take charge of it. Some people say there are different obstacles between you and the Holy Spirit ; that you are called upon to remove these obstacles before the Holy Spirit can enter. That is not true ; for how could you know of these obstacles if the Holy Spirit did not tell you ? The first name of the Holy Spirit is " Oil." What is oil for, but to give light, and what does a house need light for but that you may be able to see everything that is in it. This rather is what the Holy Spirit has to do with the obstacles in the way. He stands by me and shows me this thing here and that thing there, which requires to be taken away, and when all is removed, what is the result ? You have a freedom that you never had before ; you have a joy and peace that you never had before. Some people call that the baptism of the Holy Ghost, lookmg at the cause ; some, perfect love ; some, complete salvation ; some, the higher life, looking at the effect. I care not what you call it ; I simply * know this, that the Holy Spirit there and then, showed you some- thing to be taken away, or to be given up, and the result of this was, that you were filled with joy and peace, light and power, purity and love, according to the peculiar need of your soul. More than that. He may have so filled you with the power of service, that, for a while, you went on triumphing and wielding " the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." But by-and-bye your strength decreased, and your joy faded away, and your peace was disturbed, and what now ? The Holy Spirit is showing you some- thing else which has yet to be taken away. You say, " Can I, must I give that up? Is there no way around it ?" Oh, my friends, the Spirit stands there patiently and paracletes you, beseeches you, admonishes you to do this. He urges you again and again, and finally, you come to the full surrender, and again you are filled with joy and peace, and your old experience is renewed. ." ■!i- CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. IIQ "> I have a friend who for many years was almost crushed under a heavy burden. One day while walking with him I said, " See here, my brother, you are like a man who before his backbone of self-will is broken through at all, insists upon having it partly cracked in every joint, so undergoing a long, painful process, until at last it breaks through once for all, and then of course you are free, the burden is gone, and the will is God's will. Now, my friend," said I to Lin; " were it not better if you had your back broken right at once, i let God have His own way ?" I do not think tb is any word throughout the length and breadth of the Bible. t so expresses the personality of the Holy Spirit as that on 'ord, " grieve." '* Grieve not the Holy Spirit;" do not make Hi.-" sorrowful. You cannot make sorrowful any one but a person who loves you. It may be said, in all rever- ence, the Holy Spirit is sometimes like a dear mother, who some- how cannot do anything for her children in their rebelliousness, but retires to one of the rooms in the house and prays for them. People sometimes quote that passage as if it read ♦' grieve not away;" the •'away" is not there. A loving mother, when her children are disobedient to the will of the father, does not go out of the house and leave the house to the children ; she grieves, indeed, and sometimes waits patiently and prayerfully a longtime for these children to come to themselves, and to a knowledge of the obedience that they should give to the father. Lastly, Why does He testify ? First of all to renew believers, to make them like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, but we cannot dwell upon that. He testifies in them to produce fruit. He testi- fies to assure them of their sonship. He testifies to make us testifiers. He is the witness that we may become witnesses. Who is the witness ? The man who himself saw some deed done, or event take place, not the man who heard somebody else say he saw or heard something. Last of all. He is given to us as a wit- ness to glorify Jesus. What is glory ? Manifested excellence. What is it to glorify God ? It is to manifest God who is the supremely excellent One. How is it done ? Glory with us is associated with light and splendor ; in the Hebrew language it was associated with something heavy and weighty. The heaviest, most oppressive thing in the universe is light. In the Greek mind it is associated with honour, esteem, dignity and splendor. And the Holy Spirit has brought all together in 2 Cor. iv. 17, " For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." What is it to glorify God ? It is to make God known, the most supremely excellent Being in all the universe. How do I glorify God in my life ? When I reproduce God, so that people seeing me may point at me and say, " There goes the glory of God ;" so that men may be taught what God is like. To glorify God is to make God known as supremely excellent. Why was the Holy Spirit given ? Above all things to glorify Jesus, to make Jesus known as the most supremely excellent at CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Being in all the universe. Light of Light, Life of Life, God" of God. The Holy Spirit is sent to tell us what Jesus is ; that the all things ot the Father are in His hands ; that all the fulness is ih Him bodily ; and the Spirit of God cannot be said to be testi- fying or glorifying God, unless he is making known Jesus as transcendantly holy, as holy and as merciful, as true and as gracious as God Himself. " He shall glorify Me." " He shall testify of Me." " He shall take of Mine and show it unto you ; because all things that the Father hath are Mine.' All the fulness of the Godhead is in Jesus bodily, and the Holy Spirit was sent to show us that Jesus — to make Him known to us as supremely excellent. And when the Spirit makes Jesus known, the manifestation will come like Ught. Whatever this experi- ence may be, one thing is sure, when the Holy Spirit manifests His presence it is to different ones in a different way ; He comes like gentle dew to some ; He comes like a refreshing shower to others; He comes like a flood of light at noon-day to many; and He comes like the quiet dawn to others ; but whatever way He betokens His blessed presence it is all to glorify Jesus, and to witness with our spirits that we are the children of God : for we believe in His testimony concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will so enrich our Christian experience that we shall be able to say with Paul, " Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." " By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glcry of God." " And not only so, but we glory in tribulation alio : knowing that tribulation worketh patience ; and patience experience ; and experience hope : and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." I have often asked, " What is the best evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit ? " and the universal answer has been, " Love." That must be, *' For if the Spirit is God, and ' God is love,' then the Spirit must be love." It matters not what a man may profess of holiness, or of wisdom, or of devotedness to the service of Christ, if he does not love, he is as the Apostle describes in the thirteenth chapter of i Corinthians, *• but as sounding brass and as a tinkling cymbal." My friends, let us, therefore, open our hearts to the fuller manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and He will show us what Jesus is, and testify to us that we are the sons of God ; and also, What we may do for Jesus as His .servants and His witnesses. After singing and prayer, a recess of five minutes. The next hour was devoted to a PRAYER AND PROMISE MEETING, Conducted by Major Cole. A number of precious promises were quoted by different brethren, interspersed with singing ahd grayer. It proved a time of much blessing to all present. CHRISTIAN CONFE^IENCE. ISt lytf?: AFTERNOON SESSION;'> 1n'^^i^;tii;.^;^.j;U fi:Y^}-: r •■>-^- *r-'r ■-»' The Conference re-assembled at 2.30 : Dr. Mackay presiding. The session was opened by singing and prayer. The first half- hour was devoted to answering questions which had been previously "■^nt in. ^!r'^■'^ ;>- t^'^J^t'' -''^^ ■*£■; rsn,.;/ _ ..;- QUESTIONS ANSWERED. W ^^.^-i -'-"UMl^ >ft'l ■ .iH-:\->\tri.:,r. ;?v BY DR. W. P. MACKAY. ! V;' ''' ''^ '*-''' -'''t V(''i5'. •' We don't mind how many questions you send in, but you must not feel annoyed, if we leave out some. In our judgment we wish only to bring before such an audience as this, what will be for the general good of the whole common- wealth. While the word Conference best expresses what kind of meeting this is, it is not a Conference) in the strictest sense of the word ; but, we cannot get a better word, so we must try and do the best we can, under the circumstances, and help one another to higher stages in Christian usefulness. It would not do to open this meeting to universal discussion ; it might be profitable among those accustomed to debate, and give them an opportunity of keeping their tempers and discussing every subject under the sun. That may be the ideal of a Christian Conference ; but we would rather lose the ideal than spoil the meeting ; and therefore, we are seeking for the edification of the greatest number and will answer those questions we think will be for the general good. I. VVhat is the best method for studying the Scriptures for one who has little time, etc.? This is a very useful question, but a very difficult one to answer. There are two sort of ways of studying the word of God. First above all things, I hold the regular attendance at the public means of grace is the best for such an individual. I hold that God has given pastors, teachers and evangelists, for the work of the ministry ; of course, we that are in the ministry should see to it that we bring out the results of the study of the Word of God faithfully in the one day that is devoted to it, and in that day we ought not to be interrupted with business cares. The Lord's day should be the great " harvest day " in the study ot God's Holy Word. In my experience of the ministry as pastor the longer I live, the more I find that I am getting into a strict exposition of Scripture and a close exegetical annunciation of the Word of God. Of course there is individual perusal of the Word of God. Business men can always find odd hours, or moments, to attend to this important matter. I don't believe in any one special rule for reading God's Word that you must stick to, to the exclusion of all others. All kinds of methods are good. There has been a considerable cry about the topical study of God's Word ; taking such words as the blood of Christ, repentance, etc., and tracing 322 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. them all through the Scriptures. This is a good plan, but not to the exclusion of others, because there are words for instance that Paul uses with a certain meaning, but which Peter uses with a different meaning. We must oftentimes study the Word of God as the writers write it. Take the letter to the Romans and read it from beginning to end. There is one kind of reading that I don't like ; that is, a chapter in the morning, a chapter at night. Chapter reading as it is called. Chapter reading is a mere mechanical contrivance. It was not in the Word of God origin- ally, and frequently it creates a great deal of confusion. The truth sometimes runs far into the next chapter. This is illustrated in the xv. chapter of the first Corinthians, the subject matter of which is continued in the xvi. People, you see, will take all the comfort of the xv. chapter, but forget about the collection in the xvi. chapt If I were to get a letter from a friend in China, I should not begin and say, "Now here are about twelve pages, and I think I will read the first page to-aay, and the second page to-morrow, and the third page next day, and so on." No, I would like to read it all at once, so as to get a clean sweep of the whole ; and you will find that plan useful in studying the Word of God. Did you €ver read a whole letter of Paul's ? I suppose you would think it too tiresome, too long to do so at one sitting, but the student of the Bible would find such a plan very profitable, as it would enable him to get at the general tenor of the epistle. Another good plan is always to have your pencil ready. Many people hear a good sermon, or an able lecture, and when asked their opinion about it, all they can say about it, perhaps, is that it is nice ; but in four or five hours afterwards they have forgotten every thing about it. They remember being exceedingly interested, but could not give you the particulars, which, had they taken notes, they would have been able to do. Then close study of verses and even words is profitable. . II. What is the best way in dealing with anxious souls in inquiry meetings ? Bring them to Christ, I don't care how you bring therh ; only bring them. " What is the best way ? " That looks as if you were wanting a set rule by which to get people saved. There is no set rule whatever. A German commander, in the Prussian War, told an officer to meet him at such an hour after he had taken a certain fort ; but the officer went up for a little further instruction. " How am I," said he, "to take that fort? " "That is your work not mine," said the commander; "you may take it just as you like. You may go by the right of it or the left of it, or over it, or under it, but you must take it." That is the way to deal with an anxious inquirer. You may get right of him, left of him, or under him ; but get him. I cannot tell you any one method ; there are different ways. When I used to go out to fish, I had to put different kinds of baits on my hook. We are fishers of men, and I believe fishers of men CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I23 should b«; skilful; don't let the fish always see the net or the hook. I have known evangelists when they have seen an anxious inquirer just give a nibble at the hook, who would pull so quick, that I think they scared him. Wait till the hook is well swallowed, get it deep in first, then you can soon land your fish. Be skilful for God. Now, as I have said once before, sometimes people think it is absolutely necessary that we should have an anxious inquirers' meeting. Some people say, because they have seen God use these meetings so Tiuch, "Now I'll wait till the anxious meeting, and then gtt saved;" that is a great mistake. They think that there is going to be an extra bolt put in the machinery. I say, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as you are, and where you are, here and now." I cannot do any more than bring the sinner before God, and God before the sinner ; the business then is between the sinner and God. I don't say a word against anxious inquiry meetings. I go against nothing that will get souls to Christ, but I certainly must thoroughly protest against regarding any one system as a sine qua non by which God can work. If I cannot get souls every day by anxious mquiry meetings, I will try some other means. " The liberal soul deviseth liberal things." It is this going in ruts, and channels, and grooves, that makes us get all wrong. I have sometimes got anxious inquirers by neglecting them, by not speaking a word to them on the subject. In the practice of the medical profession, when I found one treatment was not successful, I put it aside and tried another. I think, friends, the Gospel is sometimes thrown into the gutter, and many people are apt to think that they are conferring a great favor upon God by letting Him save them. Let us rise up to our dignity, and if they are determined to go to hell let them see we are happy, and that we are going to heaven, and that if they will come to us we will do them good. When I was at school I remember seeing some youths with splendid new fishing rods, all burnished and beautiful ; and fine, clean baskets ; they came out clean, and they came back clean. They were magnificent fishermen as far as tackle was concerned. They would go out for a whole day, take their lunch, and yet come home at night with baskets as clean as ever ; and I have also seen a poor man with no basket ; but, instead, a sort of little canvas bag under his coat, with two or three dozen of the finest trout in them ; he would have a little piece of stick that he had made himself and one or two little hooks, but then that man was a fisherman ; he knew how to fish ; he did not fish by rule ; he had the art of it, if he could not get them one way he would try another way. We found that it was not grand fishing rods that we needed to catch fish. Oh. it is having divine wisdom and living near to God ourselves that will enable us to be successful in winning souls. Let us live near to God, my brethren, for He generally takes hold of the instrument that is nearest to Him. That is why sometimes we are not used, because we are living too far from God. There is one thing which I would advise for 124 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. successful fishing that I wish always to remember myself, that is, " Keep out of sight, don't let the fish see us." Thus, my friends, keep Christ in front, and yourself behind ; don't let the anxious inquirer see you, put Christ in front of you and point him to Christ. " Behold the Lamb of .God which taketh away the sin of the world." Take him to the Word. III. Is dancing forbidden in Scripture? If not, is it wrong or sinful to dance ? That is a question I like. I will tell you just straight out. I don't believe that the physical action of moving one's limbs to the sound of music is in any way conducive to bad health, there is nothing wrong whatever about that. Then, I say, there is nothing wrong whatever in the development of every muscle of the body. Have I not answered your question ? Perhaps I have, but not as you would like it. Solomon said, *' There was a time to dance." You see the great, wise man had every thing under the sun. He had tried every thing under the sun. "I have tried music, and wine, and dancing." Solomon tried every thing, under the sun — and what did he find it ? — vanity and vexation of spirit. Thirty times, I believe, the phrase " under the sun " IS found in Ecclesiastes. Again, the wise man says, ** I got me men-singers, and women- singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instru- ments, and that of all sorts, &c., &c., and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." And then he goes on to say that there is a time for everything. But, mark you, there is another class of beings besides those under the sun, they are those who have set their affections on things above the sun, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. There is where our standing is, and we bring the principles of our standing down to our every-day life. If we are men under the sun, then let us dance to our heart's desire ; but if our life be hid with Christ in God, and if we are the bride of the rejected bridegroom, I do not think that His grave will be a suitable place for us to join in the world's ball rooms. We are out from below ; the sun, we are identified with the dead, buried and risen Lord. There is no difficulty about trying to explain it away: the question is, '* Are you under the sun or above it ? " The question should not be, " Is it forbidden ? " but, " Is it according to my Master's mind ? " " Honesty is the best policy," we all know that, but a man that is honest on that principle is a thief, because the moment thieving happened to be the best policy he would turn thief. We are all ordered to pray, but the man that prays because he is ordered never prayed at ail. " Forbidden ! " — ah, I like that ; why I like it is because it diagnoses the state of many a dear Christian. I believe they are floundering away about this " forbidden " business, instead of rising into the sunshine of the life of our blessed Lord, and these Conferences are calculated to raise us all up. I was saying the other day that there were different places in God's house. We all Iiave our snuggeries at home, our sanctuth CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE, I25 sanctorum where we are completely at our ease, one book here and another knocked down there, and there we can discuss ail the most minute things we are going to do with one or two friends. Then there is the dining-room where we get our food served up : the kitchen where the food is cooked. But there is also the hall just as you come in, the nearest place to the door. Now I have met with some Christians, I do not doubt that they are saved and that they have got into the house, for " if any man enter in he shall be saved," but where are they ? Why, away near the door, in the hall, they are close to the door. When you come up to them and say, " Do you think you are a child of God ? " they reply, " I believe I am ; I hope I am, but I leel so cold." And what is the reason ? Why, they don't come far enough in. Sometimes the sun is shining and they feel a little warmer. Sometimes they see the apples of Sodom temptingly within their reach and they begin to wonder if they are forbidden, and at times they reach out their hands and pluck one or two, and then they complain of being so lifeless and cold. It is the apples of Sodom that have a great deal to do with that. Oh, my friends, it is beneath the dignity of the sons of God to say, " Is a thing forbidden ? " Some people say that they are noL rnder the law ; but what does our blessed Lord say ? " If ye love Me keep My commandments." That at once settles the point as lo whether we are not under authority, even if we are saved. The command- ments will be our rule to the end. If we are not under law, we are certainly under laws. " If ye love Me, keep My command- ments." But I think there is a higher rule even than that: "If any man hear My words," I believe "words" expresses a higher thing than " commandments." Here is a gentleman who has bought a new book : he is very busy through the day, and he says, " I will take this home and read it," so he puts it on his desk in his office, and in the hurry to get away home he forgets it ; he lives two or three miles out of town, and when he reaches home he sits down to his dinner and tells his wife, " By-the-bye, I bought an exceedingly interesting book to-day ; I left it on my desk with the intention of bringing it home, and I am so sorry, I forgot all about it in my hurry, I arti so tired and there is no way of getting it now, so I must wait till the morning." His little boy, Fred, who is sitting in the corner all the time and listens to what his father says — his eldest boy, dear little fellow — gets his cap and slips on his coat and runs off to town as hard as ever he can, and when he gets to the office door he shouts out " Tom, let me in, I want to get m." "Whatfor?" " Father left a book on his desk, and I want to get it for him : let me in." " Did your father tell you to come for it ? " "I say let me in, I want the book." " Did your father command you to come all this way for that book ? " " No, but I want the book : give me the book, I want to please my father." So Tom gives him the book and off he scampers as fast as he can, and when he gets home he finds his father has just finished dinner and is going to read 126 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. something, and before his father knows Fred slips the book down on the desk and goes away into the corner. " How on earth did it come here ? " Fred is rewarded for all his trouble when he sees how pleased his father is. Fred was never ordered to get that book, but he knew it would please his father, and that was enough — he kept his father's words. So, my dear friends, if I could do anything for my Saviour, I would do it even if He never commanded me. Instead of asking if such a thing is forbidden, I should want to know if my blessed Saviour would be pleased by it. That finishes the dancing question I think. i,< ^-i" ■:'■■ ' " ""■ ■ ■" ■ '. ■":'■■ .'■■ .-' ■ Hymn 19a was sung, '■■ '■ ■ *■ - .-•>:' -■'i' >:'■,■!■ :t ■ >•: ' " More love to thee, oh Christ," i'.; t .^ ^'? K'^; ■•■; The following address was then given : ■ • -' ' " ' ^ -' THE WORD OF GOD, THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. »j,. > < .. M - r,;^ ?j BY REV. H. M. PARSONS. Mr. Chairman and dear brothers and sisters : Before I enter on this most important question, I want to express my deep regret that I could not enjoy these meetings with you for the past few days ; it was fully my purpose, but I was detained by meetings in connection with my own Church. The Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit ? What theme more important when we are dealing so much with the Word of God in our Churches. It is a most important question for us who preach, and for us who teach, as well as for every private student of the Word. We are apt to use the Word as if it were our sword, instead of the sword of the Spirit. I have seen a great deal of earnestness and zeal displayed in connection with what are called Bible readings and printed literature of that kind, and while I would not depreciate their use, I hold that they have a tendency, if not guarded against, to lead to a mere mechanical way of teaching the Word of God. The Holy Spirit was sent down by our Lord, when He took His seat at the right hand of the Father to accomplish a most wonderful and blessed work. Let us first consider what the Word of God is, to which refer- ence is here made. We may say it is the Bible and it may be committed to memory and used in that form, and yet we may not feel the presence of God. Repetition is often an evidence of the sincerity of the faith ; but frequentl}' it is but a counterfeit, and used simply to satisfy the conscience, as in the case of the Church which exhorts every one to pray, and writes down the forms of prayers to be repeated, such as " Hail Mary! Hail Mary!" So too, the Word of God is often merely repeated in our Churches and Sabbath Schools as well as in the family, without any reference to its real meaning or from whence it has come. You remember CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 127 that it is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that while God had revealed Himself by the prophets in ancient days, that in these last days He has spoken unto us by His Son. It is God speaking* to us, then, through His Son. It is said that holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So that we see that the Bible contains the words of God given through human agency. When you use a word, that represents some thought within you» it comes from you, it expresses your personality to the person ta whom you communicate it. When we become acquainted with any one we come into contact with his personality and character through the words that he speaks. In like manner we should come to God's Word and seek to become acquainted with Him through that Word, remembering that God is speaking to us. If the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, we have something to do in the way of using that sword. The first thought then of the Word of God is that it is a person speaking to us. The next important thought in connection with this subject is, that in order to know the Word it must be investigated under the Spirit who has given it. Now when you come to look to the Holy Spirit for light, He will give no light through an abstract word ; because when we examine the Word we find that He has come to testify of another one — of a person ; and as we look into this word, the Spirit reveals to us what the Word is and brings us to that wonderful truth related in the first chapter of John, " In the beginning was the Word," etc. What is a word ? It is the expression of your thought, of your mind, of your person. What is the Word of God ? It is the expression or revelation of His mind, of His thought, of Himself. So God, manifest in flesh, is speaking in human language to us. And when we come now to the swordof the Spirit we find this same wondenul person saying, " I will not leave you orphans ; but when I go I will send you the Comforter." That Comforter is the Paraclete who is left to attend to all your interests, and in doing that He will unfold and reveal Christ to you, so that you shall be fully acquainted and come in personal contact with Him. Now when we come thus to per- ceive the relation that the Holy Spirit has to Christ, who is the Word, and then to us who are born again, we find the vital union that exists between every beH3ving child of God and Jesus the Head ; and, furthermore, the Holy Ghost thus revealing Christ in ' us, and Christ to us uses this Word, and we are exhorted in the activity and responsible exercise of our obligation and privilege to use the sword of the Spirit. We must remember that " we fight not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places," and "therefore we are to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; " then the armour is described, and the instrument to be used with that armour is •' the sword of the Spirit." You will find many times some little incidental thing is taken up in a Bible 'esson and made the theme for the ia8 ' CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. hour, and the great mighty truth lies neglected ; that is one of the ■wiles of Satan. We are told to use the sword of the Spirit so as to defend ourselves against the wiles of Satan. How shall it be done ? We need just as much the Word of God to fit us and nerve us for service before we take the service, as we need the Word of God in such good prac^^ice that when we come to fight and use it we shall know how to do it. There is skill in sword practice always, and we have to have it taught us by the Holy Spirit. One great use ol the sword is to fight against the wiles of the adversary when we are alone. Sometimes the devil makes a person think that he is so holy that all he is to do is to sit still and enjoy religion. But God has called us out of the darkness to light in order that we may stand forth as lights in the world ; as living witnesses ; as loyal and obedient servants of Jesus. So we need to use the sword of the Spirit against the wiles of the devil for our own defence. And here we shall find that the Word of God tells us distinctly that if we shall judge ourselves by the Word we shall not be jii^-red. We must bring ourselves into harmony with God — look into the face of Christ, and never take our eyes off Christ, that we may grow into His image and enlighten the darkness around us. Now in the world here I am in the flesh, and how shall I try myself or judge myself by the use of this Word ? I must come to the Lord Jesus, and ask Him to apply His own Word, and that the Spirit may search me and try me and keep me in that mood and temper, so that I may be used by Him anywhere, and at all times, for His glory — so that I may reproduce Christ in my life, that men seeing my good works may be led to glorify their Father which is in heaven. I think there is more power in the Word of God than in the ■vMOrd of man. I recollect many years ago a number of young men were in the habit of meeting together for Bible reading ; they used to read a verse and then begin to expound and exhort in a way that seemed to impress the beholder, that they supposed unless they got pretty well excited and in earnest, people would not think that they meant anything. If there was a stirring feeling and singing, and everybody seemed happy and interested they thought they were having a good meeting and great success. I remember some years afterwards that the same young men were attending meetings in a little cottage room, where some of the friends were assembled. After one had read two or three verses he would ask some of them, " What do you think that means ? There is God speaking to us now. Do you understand Him ? " And then another one was asked, and each one, perhaps, had a different idea. If this was the case they would try to get at what God meant by turning over to other passages of Scripture bearing on the point, in this way comparing Scripture with Scripture. Ah, friends, when there is a difficulty it is always best to find out from the Lord Himself what He means. You want to prepare your Sunday School lesson for next Sunday. You sit down and you search up that lesson ; you look CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 139 up the best commentary you have, and search through that, and finally select what you will teach from the first verse, and so on with the second and third verses ; you pray to God to help you, and then you think that you have got that lesson pretty well, parti- cularly if you have a few interesting anecdotes. That is one way of preparing a Sunday School lesson. But, dear friends, there is another way which would be far better, and that is, to try and find out what God meant to say on the subject. When you sit down, and take your passage lor the lesson, read it carefully through, and having prayed for the Spirit of God to enlighten you, put down your thoughts in connection with the first verse, and then turn over to parallel passages in other parts of the Scriptures and find what God says about the same thing, taking up every text having a bearing on that lesson and bring them to- gether, asking God to tell you what He means throughout the whole passage. You are getting that lesson from God ; it needs to get into you. When you and I have got that lesson into us, we do not need to bring any books ; we have got it into us, and the great thing now is to get it out, and adapt it to the need of every scholar, and this we may do if we pray for divine guidance. I was much delighted with what our dear brother said about the infinite variety of ways in which a soul can be brought to Christ. I want to add one single thought to this, that every teacher and every student should work in their own way. A great m^ny teachers think that they can copy some one. I have had a great many letters sent to me, " Send us one of your Bible Readings." I use a fresh one myself every Sunday ; if I were to rely upon another's, it might not suit my case after all. I say to every Sunday School teacher, " Ask the Lord to give the lesson to you and prepare it under His direction." No two persons are alike, every man's identity is distinct from another man's ; the Lord Jesus has got to come into my identity, so that I may be saturated with His Spirit. That is the idea of Christian service. Some people say, " I can't take part in the prayer meeting ; I am not gifted that way." Another says, " I can't teach a class." My friend, we don't want you to do anything, but what the Lord wants you to do. I think it is very important that these who are superintendents, and others engaged in conducting Christian associations, should try and lead young workers not to copy, but to use that which God has given them, under the Spirit's direction. But you say that these young workers will go astray and fall into error ; not if they are baptized with the Holy Spirit ; not if they are looking to Jesus. We cannot have the blessed Spirit in the power of his office, in His illuminating grace, unless we are looking unto Jesus. " Looking unto Jesus," you must not regard that as a mere figure ; with the eye of your mind you can see your friend in London ; you can see His form ; you know the place he is in. So you know that the Lord Jesus is in the heavenly places, risen in His glorified body. Three times in Hebrews we have it certi- 9 130 CHRISTIAN CONFERBNCB. fied where He is, that we may look unto Him — look unto the risen glorified Christ — not an abstraction, not a spirit. I'hat word " spirit " has destroyed more spiritual life than anything else, under the false idea that somehow spirit can be seen without any form. Just think of it, " God is a Spirit " — what idea have we of God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the *• express image of His person." Jesus Christ is "God manifest in the flesh "in limited form, so that we may see Him. He speaks in human words so that they are recorded ; He has given to us by the Holy Spirit this Holy Book as the expression of His heart. When He tells us to look unto Him, the eye of faith is directed unto that risen form in the place where He is at " the right hand of the Majesty on High." How can we expect to be filled with the mind of God, unless we observe the only method He has given? How can we expect to know the truth of God unless we know Him ? How can we expect to be able to wield the sword of the Spirit, unless we are well acquainted with that sword ? You all remember having heard that aged saint, who has gone to glory. Dr. Malan, of Switzerland, how he was accustomed to use the Word of God. He was travelling one day with an infidel, in France ; he was not talking to the infidel, but to a friend in the coach with regard to Christ, and he was repeating several pas- sages in the New Testament, such as, " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," etc.; at last this infidel became so incensed that he stopped him by saying, " I do not believe your book ; prove it to me that that is God's Book." Now a great many would have entered into a long argument to prove God's Word ; but you might just as well talk to the wind ; because the natural man cannot understand the things of God. This man insisted that he should prove that this was the Word of God ; but Dr. Malan, without heeding the interruption, went on quoting Scripture. By and by the man sharply demanded why he wouldn't prove what he wanted — he had worked himself up into a rage. The Doctor turning round to him said, " You are a military man, sir ; and when a man is plunging a sword into your body, are you going to ask him to prove to you that it is a sword?" Now that man knew how to use the sword. Six months after a man in the streets of Paris touched the Doctor on the shoulder ; '* I don't know you, sir," said Dr. Malan ; the man replied, •* You are the man that used the sword with such force in the coach." I shall remember all my lifetime texts of Scripture that were simply repeated by men of God, who used to come to my father's house ; they would sit by the fireside, and just repeat a passage of Scripture, and it seemed to go in, in, and take hold of me ; they did not make any remark about it — why ? Because they knew how to use the sword of the Spirit. I believe that the true power of the Gospel has almost been reasoned away ; they want to explain it so that everybody can understand about the Trinity and regeneration. You speak to your child, and the child hears CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I3I the word, and understands it from the knowledge he has of the father. And so the child of God un^Tstands what his Heavenly Father tells him in His Word; but ' .le world cannot understand. '• By faith we understand that the world was made by the word of God." How much does science know about it ; but by faith we know it. When the S^jirit of God interprets the Word to us, these difficulties all vanish. It would destroy a good many Bible discussions if we were to let the Lord speak, instead of letting man speak. Now, if the lesson is studied right along under the Spirit's guidance, we shall find out what God means ; everyone would nave such practice with the sword of the Spirit, first upon himself, that he would easily be able to use it upon others. If you have found what the sword of the Spirit is for you, you can tell how it can apply to others. Anything that you and I teach we have got to know it ourselves, and the power of teaching will depend upon whether we know it so as to be absolute knowledge ; there can be no power if there is any guess work. Do you, when you are speaking to a friend, use words without any meaning ? Neither does God in His Word — everytime He speaks, He means something, and the great secret is to find out that meaning. Again, don't be afraid when you are searching God's Word if that which the Spirit reveals is different Irom what He reveals to another. I want you to notice that. The Word of God is infinite, because He is an infinite Being ; and there is an infinite variety of application of the truth through this very Word. What shall I say out of the multiplicity of truth ? I cannot give the whole of it, what shall I give ? Here comes the power of the blessed Spirit, He knows our wants, just what we can do best, and He will give you the word. I had a Bible class once of one hundred and fifty members. One young man, who was a mechanic, was employed in a workshop where there were about one hundred infidels, and they would get around him and press him about the Bible, thrusting upon him their infidel notions. He would come into my class, and urge me with the question that had troubled him. But during the next week this crowd would fire at him again, and I would, of course, get the benefit of it on the ensuing Sabbath. At last, I thought to myself, if I give this man my opinion, he will have an awful time next week ; now, I will aim to give him the very words of the Holy Ghost. I adopted this plan, having prayed to the Lord to direct me in the matter, and the result was that the young man, speaking in the words of the Holy Spirit, soon silenced his noisy opponents. -' .; rvi/: .> .;,i I believe the Holy Spirit has charge of this Word, and just so far, dear friends, as in your teaching and conversation you can express truth to one another, knowing its meaning in the words of the Holy Spirit, so far shall we grow in this divine life, and in the knowledge of the Spirit, as He applies the Word, and 132 , CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. unfolds to us more and more the person, power, and life of our risen Redeemer. , . _ The 51st Hymn was sung. ,.,, \ " I love to tell the story, Of unseen things above." After singing the following address was given. ' THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. ., BY REV. PRINCIPAL CAVEN, D.D. I much regret that the gentleman to whom this subject was first entrusted has not been able to be present ; because, even had I been capable under any circumstances of speaking on it with equal interest (which I am verv far from claiming), I have to state that it has not been possible for me to secure time to put my thoughts into anything like proper form. I have been so much pressed with other duties that I think it right to say this to the friends, not so much on my own account as that I may not seem to be wanting in proper respect for this audience ; at the same time I hope nothing will be said inconsistent with the Word of God, or hurtful to His truth, or to the life of God's children. The subject, " The Priesthood of Christ," is a very great one. Being in thorough sympathy with the statement which I heard as I entered the Hall, I think it well, at the very outset, that reference should be made to the Word of God, so that we may, if possible, ascertain what God Himself says regarding the Priest- nood of His beloved Son. Thefew remarks that I shallmake I shall base upon thefirst verse of the fifth chapter of Hebrews, " For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." Now this seems to be a definition of the High Priesthood ; but you will please notice, brethren, that it is also a definition of the Priest- hood under any form of it ; because the High Priesthood does not differ in the real conception of it from the Priesthood ; it represents all that pertains to the function of priest, so that every thing that is said about the High Priest is really tnie in regard to the priestly office. Here you will please notice several things : the first is that the High Priest is " taken from among men," that is, the priest cannot be an angel, he must be a man. The second thing is, that the High Priest is to be " ordained of God," which is stated not only in this verse, but more fully in what follows, where it is said of Christ, " No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So, also, Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest, but He that said unto Him, ' Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten thee.' " It is not competent, therefore, for the Church to endow with the function and character of priesthood ; it is God Himself who alone can do that. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I33 The next point is, that the priest is •' ordained for men in things pertaining to God," that is, he is ordained in their behalf; he is to transact for them, and to negotiate in regard to their interests. The necessity of the priestly office in this light will appear to you at once ; it arises simply from this fact that we are by nature far from God ; that the living connection between Him and us having been severed, it is necessary that someone should be found to bring us back to God. Now, man unfallen, did not need to approach God by the priesthood. Had man retained the innocency in which he was created, there would have been no need forapriest, and no place even for the priesthood of our blessed Redeemer ; but when the con- nection between man and God was broken, God could no more treat with man directly. If, therefore, any intercourse shall be re-established between God and the sinner, you see that a priest- hood must intervene. Now it is upon this ground that we argue the necessity of our blessed Redeemer's priesthood. It is His office to bring us nigh to God. He is the ladder which Jacob saw in vision, the top of which reaches to Heaven, while the foot rests upon earth. All intercourse and fellowship that have ever existed between heaven and earth have been maintained through the Lord Jesus Christ, the great High Priest ; and when the whole work of redemption is accomplished, when all God's ransomed Church are saved to sin no more, there will be none found before the throne who have not attained to blessedness througli the priesthood of Christ. The next point is, that a High Priest is ordained, not simply to negotiate as between man and God, but more specifically to " offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." His work has reference, in all parts of it, to sin. This is the main conception of priestly work. The priest is appointed to offer sacrifices for sin, and if he has no sacrifice to offer he cannot possibly be a priest. The offering of sacrifice, the discharging of priestly work in so offering, dates from the Beginning, or rather I should say from the Fall. Abel, we read, " brought of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof," and presented them in sacrifice to God. As soon as Noah, the second father of the race, stepped forth from the Ark, he built an altar, and took of every clean beast and bird, and offered sacrifices to the Lord. It is recorded of the patriarchs that wherever the tent was pitched, the altar was erected beside it. Then I need not remind you that when God (javc His laws to Moses, and appointed that system of worship which lasted until His Son came, the offering of sacrifice was a most essential part of this system, and was at the very heart, so to say, of the Old Testament economy. For, not to speak of the great multitude of victims that were voluntarily brought to the altar, and of Jie hecatombs that were offered on the great day of atonement, we recollect, brethren, that every morning and every evening, a lamb bled at the Jewish altar ; and, to use the words of this book, which is our New Testament Commentary on the Old Dispensation, "Almost all things are by the law purged 134 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remis- sion." Now these rites, as we know, could not possibly take away sin ; they had no efficacy in themselves to purify the conscience and the heart, or to restore the relationship between us and God. But this is what they did, — These sacrifices, from beginning to end, with one voice seemed to proclaim, " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." I ask you to remember the teaching of our Lord upon this great doctrine of the atonement. How is it that the Lord Jesus, ac- cording to His own declaration, accomplishes our redemption ? Does He save us simply by the doctrine He taught ? That doctrine indeed is divinely attested ; and He spake as never man spake. Does He save us by His perfect example ? His life is absolutely beautiful. Or does He save us, as some in our own day would have it, by the new centre of moral influence that He has created, the marvellous influence that radiates from His own blessed person ? Surely, my friends, we shall not forget all this ; but I call your attention to the fact, that it is not to His teachings principally, but to His death that we are ever pointed as the ground of our hope. Hear the words of our Saviour himself, '•Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Hear again, the words, I will not say more solemn, but spoken under circum- stances of greater awfulness — the words of our blessed Lord in view of His great agony — the prayer that He offered up when He says, "Father, save me from the hour; " which words He does, as it were, recall, for He adds, "for this end came I unto this hour." The teaching of the apostles exhibit to us the doctrine of the primitive Church, and the ways in which men, not only holy but inspired, understand the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no time, brethren, to analyze at length the apostolic doctrine ; that would be indeed an interesting study, but I, ask your attention to one passage as a specimen of the whole ; you will find it in the third chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Now you will remember that in the first chapter the Apostle has proved that all the Gentile world are under sin, and in the following chapter he has proven the same thing of the Jews. I would have you notice very particularly how the Apostle here speaks. This passage may, with great advantage, be referred to as setting forth all the main things relating to the plan of salvation — almost every cardinal thought that is involved in the great process of redemption. At the twentieth verse of that chapter we read, " Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight ; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God, without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteous- ness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe ; for there is no difference." Then, " Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is on Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I35 faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; " (that is, while God was exercising forbearance.) " To declare I say at this time His righteousness ; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Now, my brethren, you have everything here ; first, sin ; then God's righteous judgment pronounced upon sin ; then the propitation of our blessed Redeemer, who has wrought out a perfect righteousness by His obedience unto death ; you have the righteousness made over to us by faith — faith in His blood ; and then as the conclusion of all, a "just God and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Thus, brethren, you have " grace reigning," not in opposition to righteousness, not without righteousness, but " grace reigning " "through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Thus our Lord executes His office as a Priest. Now this work of atonement, let me next say, was perfect and complete in the death of our blessed Redeemer, and it has infinite value. I have no wish to enter into any discussion as to the extent of the atonement ; but in this we shall be all at one, that this work of our Redeemer is the ground on which every returning sinner will find acceptance ; this righteousness is " unto all and upon all them that believe." Whosoever cometh to God through Christ crucified, "shall have everlasting life." Surely it is a very blessed thing that we are all as one in regard to this great matter. The work of Jesus Christ does not need to be repeated; in fact, it cannot be repeated. We dishonor Him if we speak of such repetition as necessary ; because, by the one offering of Himself, He has forever perfected them that are sanctified. He has suffered " once for all;" and needs not, like the priests whose work was merely typical, to stand daily ministering in the offering of sacrifice. He requires not to descend from heaven into which He has gone, to renew His oblation. Th's Lord Jesus will come from heaven again, (because the heavens simply retain Him until the time of the restitution of all things) but He shall come the second time " without sin unto salvation ; " not to suffer again, not to atone again, but to gather His beloved people to Himself, that they may be with Him for evermore. This glorious work is complete, brethren. You say then, has our Lord abdicated this priestly function, does He cease to accomplish priestly work? By no means; our Lord is a High Priest for ever. He is a Priest in the heavens — a •' Priest upon His throne." The whole Church of God recognizes, and very properly recognizes, the intercession of our Redeemer, as the sequel of His atoning work. I have not time to read to you at length the passages in this epistle, which relate to this department of the Lord's priestly work. It is said, for instance, that " He ever liveth to make intercession for us," and that He "is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself; now to appear in the presence of X36 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. God for US." We trust in a Saviour — an Advocate — who is at the right hand of God, and whose prayers secure for the believer everything which he can require. The work of our Lord in the skies continues in perpetual efficacy the atonement made on Calvary, and hence He is able" to '* save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him." It will follow, from what I have said, that the priestly work of our Lord Jesus Christ is, in. the strictest sense, the only priestly work that has been accomplished upon earth. I have come to a point where many professing Christians will differ with me ; but I trust that in this Conference there may be no difference of senti- ment regarding it. I will state this, not simply as my opinion, but with great confidence as the conviction and judgment of the true Chnrch of God in all ages — that in regard to priestly work, in the highest and truest sense, there never was a priest, and there never will be a priest but the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as all kingly functions and attributes do, in the highest sense, centre in Christ ; so the priestly office is centred in Him ; it appertains to Him, and to Him alone. You say, " How is this ; were there not priests under the Law ? don't we read that long before God gave His laws to Moses priestly functions were discharged, and when this law was ordained was there not a High Priest, with priests under him distributed into many orders or classes ? How then do you affirm that Christ is the only Priest ? " Well, brethren, let me refer you to Hebrews ix. 9, where you will find that the priests and sacrifices and the whole ritual of the Old Testament economy were only " figures." The Apostle having described the Tabernacle and its services, (and his words are of course equally true of the Temple) thus speaks, " Which was a figure for the time being." And hence we say, that this priesthood, though in a sense real, though of divine appointment, was a priesthood symbolical and typical. I think these two words embrace all that we would wish to predicate concerning it. This priesthood was in the first place symbolical, and in the second place it was typical, and this priesthood has no validity apart from the priesthood of Christ ; it had its fulfilment and its meaning in the priesthood, and in the v/ork of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and hence you see, brethren, that no sooner had Christ accomplished His work — no sooner had He suffered upon the cross, than the Levitical priesthood was abolished ; and ever> sacrifice that was offered on Jewish altars after the death of Christ, I may say, was a thing of profanation. Now, brethren, laGoiy ; as I am dealing with this subject, I should not be doing justice to it were I not further to say that even as the priesthood under the Old Testament dispensation was simply a type of the true priesthood ; so, under the new economy, we have no priesthood, and cannot have a priesthood in the Christian ministry. Do not misunderstand me, dear brethren. I believe in the authority of the Christian ministry ; I believe that our blessed Saviour gave Apostles and Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers for the perfecting of the CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. IJT* saints, for the work of the ministry ; and that this ministry shall last until we all come to the full stature of a perfect man in Christ. Jesus, and when that time comes we shall cease to contend about theories ol the ministry. The Christian ministry has, undoubtedly,. its authority in the New Testament : but this question that I now raise is certainly not identical with that other question. The matter under consideration is that of a priesthood ; and I implore you not to say that this is a fight about words. Were it a mere contest among grammarians about the propriety of names- and designations, we should have little heart to engage in it ; but it is not ; it is a contest that has reference to the fundamental truth of the Gospel of Christ. I feel that this is a very important matter, one in which Christian liberty is at stake, and in which the very ground of the sinner's hope is, to a large extent, involved. The Christian ministry is a divine institution of the highest value, of great honor, and appointed to last till Christ shall come; but I maintain most emphatically that it is in no sense a priest- hood. My proofs are these. In the first place, it is never called a priesthood in the New Testament. Now this is a very notable circumstance, because the term Priest, as designating one who ministers in holy things, was in every mouth. The Christian minister is called "bishop," "deacon," "elder," "servant of God," "steward of the mysteries of God," and possibly " angel." Many titles, some of them highly honorable, are bestowed upon him, but you will find no place where he is called a priest- God's people are "priests" under the new economy ; shall I say under the new economy exclusively ? No, brethren, God's people were always priests. This will be apparent if you read the nineteenth chapter of Exodus. The song of heaven is, " To Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God." And the Apostle Peter says, " We are a royal priesthood ; " but this priesthood,, mark you brethren, offers " spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." The Christian minister is a priest, but only in the same sense that all God's people are priests. In the second place, there is no priestly work for the Christian minister to do. All priestly work to be done on earth is done already. Christ has finished transgression, made an end of sin,, and brought in an everlasting righteousness. His sacrifice as we have already seen, is complete and of infinite value and permanent efficacy. Brethren, we must keep this province clear, It is a sacred province. No man can be allowed, under any pretext, to invade it ; not simply because some men may be too much elated if we recognise them as priests, but because it would be an encroachment upon the office and prerogative of the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him — to Him alone — let every penitent and every believer look, for none beside can bring us to the Father ; nor can any man, without profanity, offer to renew His sacrifice or supple- ment His intercession. Thus, brethren, I have humbly sought to present some of the 138 CHRISTIAN CONPBRBNCB. main views connected with this great theme ; but who is able to speak of it as he ought ? It fills the Bible, it fills all human history, and it will fill eternity. For even as there is no name under heaven given among men, whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ, so there is no priest but Him who is " a Priesf for ever, after the order of Melcnisedec." ■ Dr. Mackay led in prayer. ^ Hymn 206 was sung. .'""". "Must Jesus bear the cross alone." The benediction was then pronounced, and the Conference adjourned until eight o'clock p.m. EVENING SESSION. EVANGELISTIC SERVICES. As en previous evenings, the Hall was crowded long before the session began. The overflow meeting was held in Knox Church, presided over by the Rev. Robert Cameron. Dr. W. P. Mackay presiding in Shaftesbury Hall. The following hymns were sung : "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." . - r w " Rock of Ages, cleft for me." ; " The half was never told." After one of the brethren had oflfered prayer, The Chairman said : If on the confines of the glory we should have to look back and say that "the half was never told" at all our Conferences or in all our sermons, how much do we need your prayers, Christian people, rising up in silent faith to our Father God that He would give words to-night to those that are to speak — words that may be as fire ; that may be heavenly words, coming down to earth ; that may be words of eternity, though spoken in time ; words of God spoken by men to men. We need your prayers in the few passing moments that are taken up in speaking on a subject that shall take up all our eternity to study ; for if, ■when we reach the golden city and the shining shore, we shall have to say the half has not been told, what chance have wt in saying much of it to-night. But we trust that what is said will be accompanied by the power of the Holy Ghost. ' • CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. The following address was now given : "/ ;';\r - CHRISTIAN LIFE. ^- ' ' ' I BY REV. H. M. PARSONS. ' /' There is one single theme on which I will say a few words, to which I crave your earnest attention — a theme which I feel is often neglected in Christian instruction. We are often apt to apply the statements and truths of the Word of God to those who have no knowledge ol them, as if we could induce them to some action by persuasion, or by attracting attention. Without doubt the Word of God has application to many hearts, and can be carried by the Divine Spirit into impressive effect, where there is no intention to receive it. Notwithstanding, I believe many Christian workers make this mistake : that they attempt to induce to action without persuading the heart ; that there is often a desire to undertake duties in the flesh, rather than in the spirit ; to exhort those who know not God, to read their Bibles, engage in prayer, lead religious lives, leave off bad habits and come into the practice of the mor- alities, under the impression that if they only persevere they may be led to Jesus Christ. We dislike to see our friends tempted from Gc J ; we dislike to see those in whom we have, say, a latherly interest, walk away from God, so that we entreat them to turn ; we tell them to adopt this and do this, as if the doing of these things would bring them to God, and we so fall into this habit of the flesh, of undertaking religious duties, and thus we often thwart Christ and the blessed Spirit, and are left in discouragement, because we see no fruits. How often you have seen measures undertaken by an association or church, the Bible opened and read, persons conversed with, and induced to abandon evil habits and practices, induced to engage in prayer, and then they feel that they have done all they can to start these persons on toward God. I believe there is a great mistake made by us in this respect. I wish now to call your attention to one word, " Life." All here are certain that they are alive, more certain of that than of any- thing else. How do you know that you are alive ? Because you are conscious of being alive, of thinking with your mind, and exercising your affections ; you cannot doubt it. But if I ask you, *' Are you alive in Christ Jesus ?" some would say, " I hope so." I trust that many here can say, " I know that I am alive in Christ." Whqt is life ? Life is something that asserts itself from the interior. Look at the life of the plant, the tree, the flower, the animal, the man, you can tell that there is life by their mani- festations. Religion is life dwelling in the heart, so that we being born of God, are conscious of being alive, and that life manifests itself to others as light shining in darkness, and through that light men are directed not to a human person, but to a Divine person, from whom that life proceeds. Now, to illus- trate this from the Scriptures. You remember there once came. 140 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. by night.'a man named Nicodemus to Jesus ; he was afraid to come by day. He was a ruler among the Jews, and represented the top of society ; a man of culture and of good religious standing and character. The first thing that he said to Jesus was, " We know that Thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." There was a confession of the Lord Jesus in His Divine power and pres- ence. This man was interested, so far as we can see, when he came to Jesus, and made his confession. The Lord Jesus in answer said, " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Now when we use the word " born," we mean life ; when we speak of being born, we mean the beginning of existence — a new life, one that had never existed before. And we find that Nicodemus, placing a natural interpretation on these words, was told by our Lord that " except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Now the first thing that our Lord taught that man who had so much religious knowledge was, that he must have life before he could do anything else. Again, we find that when the Lord was journeying through Samaria, He stopped at Jacob's well, and there entered into conversation with a poor outcast at the very bottom of society, and in the course of the conversation He told her to do the same thing. He said, " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." That woman had no culture ; she was an out- cast from society, she was an ignorant woman ; and yet there was the same truth taught to her, though at the bottom of society, as was taught to Nicodemus at the top of society. Life : the water of life ; the new birth. The Lord Jesus is the source of life ; therefore He said to the unbelieving Jews, " Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." Life — if a man has life he shows it. If a sinner is born again his first question will be, like Saul of Tarsus, *' Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ?" Saul heard a voice, and he said, '• Who art thou. Lord ?" " I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest" — a real, living person. And what is the next question ? " What wilt thou have me to do ?" and the answer came on the spot, " Go and find such a man" — and he straightway started, although he was blind, in obedience to to the Lord's command. There was obedience on the spot ; that showed life. He asked for something to do, and did it right off. I have seen that in sinners, when they had heard of J6sus ; when all was darkness and confusion, and they had tried and prayed, and found nothing ; but by-and-bye they have just caught a glimpse of Jesus : " Why He has finished it ; He has done it all for me ! Lora, what wilt thou have me to do ?" There has been no thought of self; but they have gone right to work to bring others to Jesus. I remember well, there was a man whom I have no doubt the Lord sent over from France to speak to me. He was preaching CHRISTIAN CONFERBNCB. I4I the Gospel, and in the course of his remarks he told the following incident : " I was reading," said he, " once in Paris about the prodigal son, and the story of the crucifixion, and while I was reading and talking I saw a great man standing within three feet from the desk. I thought nothing of it until afterwards ; when I got home, about eleven o'clock, I heard a knock at the door, and in came this same man. He said, ' I want to know about this Jesus that you were reading about, and I want to know what I must do to be saved. To-night, sir, I thought you were some political man, and I went there to kill you ; I had the stone in my hand and was going to throw it at you to kill you, but a hand seemed to be placed on my head so that I could not stir. While you were reading about that prodigal son, says I, that's me, and when you read about Jesus on the cross, I was so weak that I could hardly get out, and now I have come creeping up stairs to find out what I must do to be saved.' " While the preacher was relating this incident there was a young man sitting in the gallery listening — that young man was myself. When I heard that, I thought to myself that there is something in that book that is not in another book. I heard him in the after- noon : he was speaking from this passage : " He shall be a hiding place from the storm, and covert from the tempest," and that man was describing a living man. I never heard the Gospel like that. At night I went to church to sing in the choir, and the minister gave out, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." When that was read, it was like an arrow right through my soul ; I could not remember a word of the sermon, except the texi ; it was God's Word putting life into me. The rev. gentleman here briefly recounted the mental conflict and struggles that he experienced ; also, the circumstance of a friend having sent him Doddridge's " Rise and progress of religion in the soul," wliich at last led him to accept Christ crucified and risen for him, and to recognize in the body of Christ, as it were, the bridge which alone could span the infinite chasm that separates the sinner from God. Just the moment the seed of God takes root in the soul, just that moment the sinner is born from above, and there is new life there, and the seed of God cannot be destroyed — cannot sin ; it is part of God's life, part of the Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection life in us. When that life is there it tells its own story, it speaks for itself. I appeal to all these brethren, to every child of God in this audience, if you do not know that, hidden underneath all our exer- cises of mind, there is this life of God bubbling up, and coming up through, and taking hold of the faculties, and using them in the service of Him who laid down His life for us. And as soon as we get that life in us, there is a fight, a conflict. Paul knew what this meant when he said in the vii. chapter of Romans, " When I would do good, evil is present with me ;" and have we not all 142 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. had that experience. This is life, and when this life of Christ in the soul rules the man, you don't have to get up an excitement to be religious, you cannot help being it all the time ; but if you are religious you will get up an excitement pretty quick. This thing don't stay quiet in the soul, it niust tell itself out ; we don't feel and then get God, we get God and then feel ; that is the order. This life prompts you to devoted service. Again, every child of God is risen with Jesus Christ in Heavenly places, and we ought to take advantage of our high position in order to use the lever of the Gos- pel. If you wanted to raise a rock you would not think of attempting it with your hands, but would get a fulcrum, which, on applying a lever, would enable you to raise it with ease. So in using the lever of the Gospel, if we get it in proper position, up where the risen Christ is, we will be enabled to raise the world, the flesh, and the devil. I remember reading a very striking sen- tence in the life of a Christian laay of England. Her biographer says she was in the habit of surveying all the scenes of this life, and all the methods and processes before her from the stand point of being risen with Christ. What a glorious place to survey things from ! To see things as He sees them ; to be filled with the Spirit of love, power and consecration. That is our privilege, my friends, every minute of the time, and that kind of life would make every child of God a servant of God. I do not believe in life being bottled up and not being put to use. It is written in the New Testament, " Occupy till I come." What does that mean ? It is our marching order to go to work for Christ. It is not only our privilege to be with the risen Lord in our spirit, and to behold Him with the eye of faith, but we are to do His bidding, to occupy till He comes every trust, every opportunity. What a grand thing it would be if all of us who believe were to look out for every opportunity, from morning until night, to do something for the Lord Jesus. The great point is to have the eye open to see the opportunities. The Lord Jesus has given " pastors and teachers for the per- fecting of the saints (that is, the rank and file of the Church) for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." If you look at the Greek you will find that it is the business of the saints to do the work of the ministry, &c. The duty of pastors and teachers is the perfecting of these saints, so that they can every one of them do this work. What a glorious thing it would be if, in Toronto, the ministers were so crowded with anxious enquirers that they would not have the time to write any sermons ! And what is there to hinder ? There is nothing but what is con- tained in this flesh of ours. Oh, that we may let this new life have free course, so that we may be strengthened to more devoted service ! I do believe that Satan is a very cunning fellow, because all the time he is watching if by any chance he may stop this life. When we rest in religious feeling and do not make an effort to save thu lost, that is one of Satan's wiles to stop us from the work CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. m of the ministrv, and from the edifying of the body of Christ. I will tell you, mends, there is nothing like life — life that is full and vigorous ; such a life will manifest itself unmistakably to others, and if we had this kind of life, the life of God in the hearts of ministers and members, there would be nothing to hinder our churches having a perpetual revival. If this Divine Life permeated our whole being, we should not give way to hasty flights of temper, or to a spirit of censorious- ness. Tt would put a stop to all petty dishonesty in trade, which so troubles the spirit and hardens the heart. What people need to strive against, is not so much against the big things as tne little ones ; for instance, against the first glass of liquor, the first cigar, the first step in wrong-doing of any kind. And we, as Christians, must be on our guard against the little flaws that so damage Christian character and usefulness, and that are so eagerly quoted against us by unbelievers. If we allow the Divine life to operate in us, so as to move into all our activities, we shall find ourselves leaning on the arm of God rejoicing and growing, and manifesting the light and the love of God so strongly that Christ shall be seen in ourselves so plainly that the world shall say " God is with that man," and men will turn aside at the sight as Moses did at the bush that was filled with the flame and not consumed. This is the power we need through the wilderness, and it is ours if we only accept it, and are willing to yield up all unto Him. Hymn 201 was sung, ' . ,, , "My hope is built on nothing less." ^ After singing, the following address was given. : V '. NAAMAN THE LEPER. BY DR. W. P. MACKAY. , ' ' , ^ I would call your attention to the fifth chapter of second Kings, the story of Naaman the Leper. " Now Naaman, captain of the host of the King of Syria was a great man with his master, and honorable ; because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria ; he was also a mighty man of valor" — he was worthy to be entrusted, bringing glory to the arms of Syria ; his career might have been envied by others, if it were not for one damaging word, that had to come alongside of the description of his otherwise great position, and high character and name; a word that carried with it everything that was repulsive and disgusting, especially to the Jew — that was a " leper." The original has it, " He was also a mighty man of 144 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. valor," a "leper." It dashed the whole cup of greatness from his lips, and he stands before a Jew disgusting and repelling. This exactly describes the state of the greatest men on the earth away from God, apart from Christ ; it matters not, whether he has got $500,000 or a million dollars and a great estate, and a splendid house and magnificent equipages ; there is one little word that mars it all in the eyes of the Eternal God, — a sinner. It matters not what his position, high or low, rich or poor, this word stands against him. When Nicodemus spoke about being born twice into this world, that would not have helped the matter any ; for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh ; " it might be rich flesh, but still it would be flesh after all ; high or low, rich or poor, the same word is true -of all, whatever the adjective may be — a sinner. This poor rich man ; this small great man ; this decrepid captain who now stands before us, was in the eye of a Jew repulsive and disgusting. Here was a man that had every kind of circumstance in his favor ; but what he was, was against him. Sometimes our circumstances may be all that are desirable, but we carry about with us a bane and a curse that makes all our life a gloom and a shadow. His ■circumstances were all that could be desired from a worldly point of view ; but what good did that do him, he was a leper. But mark the entire contrast. '* The Syrians had gone out by com- panies and brought away captive out of the land of Israel, a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife." "And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ; for he would recover him of his leprosy." Look at this little girl, a grand preacher of the Gospel ; she had not to leave her place to do it ; she could preach while in the kitchen, where she was ; she did not require to go on a platform to do it — no ; she could do it in the kitchen. We require more kitchen preaching, as well as more dining-room preaching. Look at the little maid ; what a contrast she is to Naaman ! She had all circumstances against her ; but she carried about in her bosom the secret of healing. All around her was against her ; but all in her was for her. The rich captain had all in his favor around him, but the leprous blood was beating in his heart. The little maid had left her father's home, and her mother's love, and her happy childhood friends, and she was among strangers there; she had become a slave of an alien. But when she sees her master in trouble she forgets all about herself, and remembers that there is living in Samaria a holy prophet of God, who was the represen- tative of God, and had the power of God to heal that which was otherwise incurable, and which in all ages has been incurable. So she says to her mistress, " Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ; for he would recover him of his leprosy." V:" ^'.^ :''^ There is one striking thought in connection with this story, and •that is, how many people God used before that man got cleansed. .'.Why there was first the little maid who set the stone rolling; if it CHRISTIAN CONPBRKNCB. I45 had tint been for this private preacher, there would have been no healing at all; she set the whole thing going. A little child can start an avalanche. Then there was the mistress, to whom phe spoke on the subject, and then there was one of the servants that had come in while they were talking and had overheard the conversation, who carried it to the King of Syria, and then there was the King of Syria who sent a letter to the King of Israel, and so on all through. There is a great lesson for us here, and it is this. I believe, in my experience Bs an evangelist, I have found the same to be the case: I cannot point to one individual instance, that I know of, of any one being brought to Christ through my instrumentality alone, where I was the means altogether from beginning to end, — not a single instance ; and I believe that to be the experience of other evan- gelists ; and the reason seems to be this, that no one should glory but God alone ; and if any of us think that we are to be used exclusively, it would be well for us to read the story of the little maid, and to strive to know the work which God wishes us to do, and then to do it ; to know our place and then to fill it ; to do our work, and stick by it, and not encroach on another's work. I believe in the individuality of labor — there should be no imitation ; there is nothing more painful than to see one person imitate another in the work of the Lord. We should be willing to be all taught of God, and do the one work that God would have us do, and then if we work faithfully, we shall have enough to do. "And one went in and told his lord, saying. Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the King of Syria said. Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the King of Israel." There be was wrong ; this little maid talked about the prophet in Israel, not the King of Israel. But he thought the King must know all about it ; but instead of writing what the girl had said, he wrote down what he thought the girl should have said. And so I find when I have been preaching the word to sinners, people would say afterwards. Do you know what Dr. Mackay said ? and then they would put in what Dr. Mackay should have said. There is not a more consistent type of sin in the flesh, a^ corruption, than leprosy, in all the word of God. Medicine in all its depar'ments has advanced very much since that day, but at this moment physicians are as far from finding a curie for leprosy as they were then ; it is as incurable to-day as it was then. In Norway there is a large hospital containing as many as two thousand lepers. Some years ago I had a conversation with the professor who superintended this establishment, and in describing, among other things, the treatment they had there, he gave me 6ome interesting facts concerning this disease. One fact in par- ticular which he mentioned was this, that the disease of leprosy sometimes apparently attacks the very optic nerve of many of th« patients, so that they look at everything with a leprous eye. He showed me some {x>rtraits of hideous lepers afflicted with what is called the tubercular kind of leprosy. There were large .■: ■ 10 ■■ ■:--^ ■■,■:■:::)■:■■-■-:'- ■■ „:,-:;■■.:! -^::., ;.v.;..- .,^; >..;,;.., ■ ':-<:■:•■■■- 146 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. tubercules upon the face of the men, making them hideous to look upon. He said that ii you were to ask some of the lepers in the hospital who were the best looking people in Norway among their acquaintances, they would actually point to some leper more hidequs than themselves. The leprosy seems to have taken such hold of their taste for the beautiful that they actually believe that leprosy is beautiful. We may well shudder at such a horrible and hideous thought. And yet young men look upon that fellow who struts about and smokes and drinks and knows all about fast life as a jolly, good fellow, and the finest looking lellow in the world. " Oh," they say, " if I could only be like that fellow." What is he ? A poor bloated tubercular leper in the sight of the living God ; covered with sin and uncleanness from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. "And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment." Yes, he took a good fee with him as if it had been to pay a practising physician. "And he brought the letter to the King of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy." That was a mistake ; nobody ever said that the King could do it. The prophet could do it ; but the King of Syria could never think of that, and therefore he sent to the King. "And it came to pass, when the King of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes and said." He did not know about Elisha. The little maid knew a secret that kings did not know. So it is not with the great and learned that the secret of salvation has ever been. This story shows that God does not use the great, the mighty, and the noble of this world to do His work, but the poor and despised, that no flesh should glory in His presence. The little maiden knew more than the King of Israel. " He said, am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy ? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me." "And it was so, when Elisha the man of God." Ah, there was his power, God was there ; He was working through the man. " The man of God ; " not the King of Israel. If some of you were to take a good concordance and look up those places where the phrase " man of God " is used, you would have a good Bible reading. Every Christian is not called a man of God ; he may be considered so in the widest sense, but not specifically so. "And it was so, when EUsha the man of God had heard that the King of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the King, saying. Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes ? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha." He came up in full driving order right away, to show that he had a good team, to show that he was not CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I47 any poor patient that required to be sent to the dispensary. The prophet, he thought, would come straight out to him ; but no ; we read, "And Elisha sent a messenger unto him." The prophet, I expect, was somewhere, perhaps in a back-room that had very little furniture; there was not much furniture in those days. This poor man was, perhaps, reading the Law of God, or perhaps was praying; at any rate he did not think it worth while even to go out himself to see this great captain. I imagine the servant coming in and saying, " Elisha, there is a grand man at the door; he has a capital pair of horses and a splendid chariot ; he appears to have lots of gold and silver and changes of raiment ; he don't look like a leper." Ah, but Elisha knew that the healing did not lie in the messenger, hut in the message. "And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying. Go wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." There are many people who think of the messenger, but they forget the message; many peop'ecan judge the messenger but they forget that all the time the message is judging them. I believe if an archangel came here, many of those who had been hearing would be critics in about five minutes after they had got into the street. I know that it is an easier thing to criticize than to preach. I have found some good critics, but the best way to silence them is to tell them to try the pulpit themselves for a Sunday. We don't profess to be perfect, and if you find anything crooked in us, the best way is to pray to God and He will put it right. Don't mind the messenger; it is the message that you must look at. When the children of Israel were bitten with serpents in the wilderness, and Moses set up a serpent of brass so that whoso- ever looked upon that brazen serpent should live and not die, it would have availed them nothing to have talked about it — it was absolutely necessary that they should look at it in order to live ; it would have done them no good, if they had even looked at the pole upon which the serpent was raised ; to have considered whether it was an oak pole or maple pole, or a straight pole or a crooked pole — no ; they must look at the serpent. If you come to this Conference and ask one another, " Did you like that man or the other man?" you will go away without receiving benefit. My friends, lose sight of every one of us ; ve are only poles, and if you have not seen the Serpent, we will go away in self-reproach, crying, " Oh Lord, I took these people's minds away from the Serpent ; they were looking at the character of the pole." My friends, do not look at the pole to see whether it is of Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, or Baptist g/ain — never mind all that •; what we want you to do is to look at the serpent on the pole. We want you to see no man save Jesus only. If you do so, we will go away happy from the Conference, singing. Hallelujah all the way to the glory, till we meet you in the glory, or perhaps at another Toronto Conference. Remember that when the sun rises all the lesser stars are eclipsed. It is the message, not the messenger. 148 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. . " But Naaman was wroth." I like that. I do not like people to be pleased with my preaching all around : there is something wrong when that is the case. I have been preaching the Gospel now for nearly twenty years, but I am not at all satisfied that I have reached the point of successful preaching, nor do I know of any person that has. The Gospel is the power of God to salvation. The Holy Ghost has given us the Gospel, and that is the instrument in our hands; but it is the Holy Ghost who must drive it home to the sinner's heart. I tell my boy, " You hold that chisel straight over that piece of wood, and I will come down upon it with this heavy hammer." It is I who supply the power to cleave the wood, all my boy has to do is to hold the chisel straight. And that is what I have to do : I have to hold the chisel straight ; sometimes I see it held to a side, and the result is, that the preaching is unsuccessful ; it is the straight chisel that is wanted to go deep down into the sinner's heart through the power of the Holy Ghost. What I wish is, that my preaching may be so real that, in such an audience as ti)is, there should be some scene like this — that (eschewing all attempts at ■eloquence, but by the straight forward statement of facts burnt into me and through me to you by the Holy Ghost : incarnation facts, crucifixion facts, resurrection facts, ascension facts ; not ■doctrines even, not pathos, not rhetoric, not logic, but facts of •God, the Holy Spirit would so use me as an empty vessel, that after I had finished,) — there would only be two classes in this audience: one class crying "Hallelujah! Christ is mine and I am His : " and the other gnashing their teeth with rage and thrusting their fist into my face, crying, " Away with him ; it is all lies." This, I believe, would be the plain result of that kind of preaching. " And Naaman was wroth, and went away." If I degrade you (may be a respectable man in your own esteem) to the level of a sinner, you don't like it, but it is no use getting angry at me. Suppose a lad came to you with a telegraph message that contained very unpleasant news : it would be very foolish of you to get into a rage with the boy, he is only the bearer of the message, and is only waiting to take the answer back. That is the best telegraph operator that does not alter the message. So, my friends, I am only an operator ; I do not make up the Gospel, and it is great folly to get angry at me. The Gospel levels us all down : we have all to take our places in the pit. Here is a respectable man, that my brother was speaking about, who says, " I am a regular subscriber to the cause of Christ, and sits in the Church every Sunday ; I am honest : I pay my debts ; I don't profess so much as that other man, but I would not like to be seen in his company : he is a great hypocrite, if you only knew him as well as I do, you wouid not believe all of his religion." My friends, do you know that in England we are sometimes bothered with counterfeit sovereigns ; but I do not refuse real sov g,.-?s simply because there are counterfeits. You are corn- pan ag yourself with another ; " measuring yourselves with CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I49. yourselves, and comparing yourselves among yourselves." And what does the Apostle say of such ? " Ye are not wise." What is the use ot doing it ? You are down in the horrible pit. You are a respectable sinner, perhaps, and you see a poor fellow trying to get out, and only falling deeper into the mud ; but it's no use going about with a two-foot measure measuring the depth of the mud. You are not wise to compare yourselves with your- selves. You know Nicodemus, one of the most respectable of men, a teacher in Israel, had to be born again, just the same as the very worst and greatest sinner. And so it is that God's blessed Gosp>el levels down all distinctions and all pretences to self-righteousness. Some people think they must do something, like the young man in the Gospel who came to Jesus saying, " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ?" He wanted something to do ; so Jesus replied, •' Go and keep the commandments." Why did He not say to him, as He says elsewhere, " Come to me, and I will give you rest ?" He did not want rest ; he was wanting to do some- thing. The young man told Jesus that he had kept all the com- mandments from his youth. iSut the great Teacher just put His finger upon the weak spot — he was very rich — " Go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor." By telling him this Christ showed him that he had not kept the law, for the law enjoined in effect that he should love his neighbor as himself. He did not go over the detailed statement, but showed in the result that he had not kept the law. I have never yet seen a man that loved his neighbor as well as himself. If a neighbor's house was burnt down, perhaps he might start a subscription right off, and not rest satisfied until he could replace the furniture, but after coming home after the fire, you would probably hear him say, " Well, I'm thankful it wasn't our house." The Lord Jesus gave the result, " Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor." To put this in an algebraic form, let A equal vour neighbor, and B yourself. If B has $100, on the principle of loving his neighbor as himself, he will give A $50 if he has none, and retain $50 ; and if this prin- ciple is still acted upon with other needy neighbors the result will be that he gives away all that he has, the very result which is indicated in the injunction of the Lord to the young man, and that would be the result of trying to do the best we can to meet the Divine requirements. " But Naaman was wroth, and went away and said. Behold I thought" — what business had you to think ? If that man is going to get his disease cured by the only man in the world who can cure it, what right has he to think anything ? He has no right to put in his thoughts at all. So in regard to Divine revelation, you have no right to put in your thoughts : " I will hear what God the Lord will speak" — that is it. A medical friend of mine in Edinburgh had a patient once who wrote him a long letter in which he gave a very elaborate account of his ailments, and made an appointment to meet him. When he came to his house, he went over the whole story again, and then said, " Doctor, don't you think such and 150 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. such medicine would do." "Oh, very well," said the doctor, " there it is, that is what you want." He went away, but he did not get any better. At last he wrote another letter, in which he said, " The last time I went to you I told you all about myself, and the medicine I thought I should have ; but I am no better, so the next time I come I want yoii to tell me what youth'ink, and to give me the medicine >'om think I ought to have." That was the proper thing to do. When you go to a doctor it does not do to prescribe for yourself, you must let him find out the disease and apply the remedy. Poor Naaman said ** I thought ." He had a nice programme made out, but the prophet's cure had no part in it. He thought he will surely come out ; but he sent a messenger instead. He thought that he would come and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover him of his leprosy. So m)' friends, put away all your thinkings and hear what God will speak. Come unto God, not to His angels or min- isters, but to God Himselt. " Are nut Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? may I not wash in them and be clean ?" Have I to come all the way from Syria to plunge mto that little brook, Jordan ? " So he turned, and went away in a rage." There are many of his descendants that do likewise ; they turn and go away in a rage, because they find " there is life in a look at the Crucified One ; " they cannot come down to the lost sinner's place, and therefore they never can claim the lost sinner's Saviour. I have no doubt that if all the preachers on this platform were asked one after another to give their ideas of the Gospel, I guarantee that 1 could gather all up in one single sentence, and every minister would say amen to it, however we might differ in doctrine, or in ecclesiastical polity ; and it is this, that there is a Christ for every sinnfr out of hell, and a hell FOR every sinner OUT OF Christ. This is the Gospel, state it as you please. Mark>ou, I said nothing about the atonement; nothing about its nature, extent, or application. It is Christ, a livmg Christ who was dead and is alive again ; a Christ for every man, woman and child out of Hell ; a Christ ready to save. " And his servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, it the prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it ? how much rather, then when he saith to thee. Wash and beclean?" That is common sense, my friends And in like manner you are not required to do some great thing, ©r to take a long journey, in order to be saved. God won't give you credit even to the extent of turning an eye-lash, or lifting a straw to save your souls. It is '• Go and wash, and be clean." r'^!, ^ ■; t ;; , ti. " There is a fountain filled with blood, t - , u ., ' ,' ", ''' <■■•'' " ■ Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; i"*' '' ' / ^-t: • '-" ' ' •• :'''?'.' J There sinners pIunRcd beneath that flood, '' ;.''^?,v '•;*». '1 ; i. i , Lose all their guilty staina. . . •n'y:'-i-^—ii'^-^ii.-^' ': ., The dying thief rejoiced to se^ ••*? '-':** '1 ii fif^- That fountain in his day, / „, ,,,..,. , ^;' ', ' ' And there have I, though vile as he, "^' - Washed all my sins away." *" Ji'W^' ■di CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 151 Try it friends ; you do not get the cleansing before you go, or after you go, it is when you go. You are not saved before believing, or after believing, but in believing. The cure is lying in the water ; the cure is lying in the blood. " Wash and be clean." There is life and peace in believing : " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." A friend of mine, many years ago, was told that there was salva- tion for any sinner, within the boards of the Bible. It was said in a rather strange way that led him to believe that he had only to search and he would find it. He said, " Well, then, I will have it if it is there." So he began at Genesis and read all through the first chapter, and he could not see how hecouid be saved ; he then read the second chapter ard the third, and on and on. However, he could not find it. He read through the whole of Genesis, and he was just as far from it as ever. He then read Exodus, all about the burnt offerings, and the sin offerings, &c. All through Leviticus and Numbers, (including the hard namesV and in the same way with Deuteronomy. He read all througn the Penta- teuch, and the subsequent books, until at last he came to Isaiah, and when he was reading the fifty-third chapter, he came across these words, "By His stiipes we are healed ;" and then he shut the book and said, " I have had enough." It does not say. " By His stripes we may be healed," but " By His stripes we are healed.'' This man from that day on became a Christian, and ever since reading those words he has always taken a special interest in circulating printed Christian literature as a great means of spreading God's Gospel. One word more, and I have done. Some years ago I had the privilege of addressing about sixteen thousand people in the Agricultural Hall, in North London, England, after my beloved brother Moody had finished there. At the after meeting held in the body of the Hall, we had about six to seven thousand people. I had preached so much that I was so tired that I left the after meeting to the other helpers there. As I came down the steps into the street, I saw a young man coming from the crowd. I saw hin» just at the side of the door. As I went cat I accompanied a friend on the way to my lodgings. Turning the street I saw the same young nian again, coming alter us. " That young man is following us out of the anxious room," I said to my friend. '* We will soon find out," I said, •' he won't miss us, if he is really anxious." So we went on until we came opposite the 'Mwg-*/," a large bril- liantly lighted public house ; as I was passing round there, the traffic was so great, that the young man, I suppose, was afraid of missing me, so he pressed out of the crowd and came and tapped me on the shoulder. He asked, " Were you the man who was preaching in the Agricultural Hall ?" «' Yes,'* I replied. " 1 want to speak to you." "What have you got to say ?" I asked. He looked somewhat confused, and at last said, " I really don't know." " Well," I said, " that is rather hard on me. It reminds me of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, he didn't 152 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCB. even get the dream ; you won't give me either dream or the inter- pretation. But I think I know where to fetch you, isn't it this? You would hke to know whether you are saveiornot?" "Ah, that is It," l>e said. " That is not very difficult to manage," 1 said, " if you are really wanting. to know." " I am indeed anxious to know," he said. I then directed him to read the sixth verse of the hfty-third chapter of Isaiah. I repeated the words to him : " All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; " «• isn't that you, friend ?•' -" Well, that's just me," he said. " Thank God, the battle's half fought and won ; ' we have turned everyone to his own way ,' thait'syou." *' Yes, " he said. " Now do you know the la.^ sinners for about twenty centuries, and I do not think you look such a very big weight ; I think it will stand your weight." Then we sat down, and had a Bible reading between two. We read the Bible from eleven until four in the afternoon, he was sO' anxious to learn. He said he never saw sach a text in all his life. Then I told him before he left to go into Moody's anxious meetings, that there was nothing like talking to the anxious. I got letter after letter from him : •' I am so enjoying the work among the anxious ;" and " There is no text like Isaiah liii. 6, ' All we like •heep have gone astray,' &c." Ah, my friends, this text is open yet, will you take it as you are, and where you are? If you do, you will never regret it to •11 eternity. Ah, if you knew the sinner who is speaking to you. ilf there ever was a sinner deserved hell, it is I, the chief of winners, but Jesus died for me. We come to plead with you to ■accept this Christ as your Saviour, " for the Lord hath laid on .Him the iniquity of us all." May the Lord bless and save you ■All for His name's sake, ^f ^f* -mfiri iS^j^jT^vr^i • v<5w iist-ko ?H>r i f^ Dr, Maciuv closed the meeting with prayer and the benediction. 11. • tn«.(J "nyiih-J m ^^.^ii "■\:^m:f^ i ■'.Mt»'JV^**''^ ''. ;/un4 * krl > >[H fi2»t l*»' Jfift^ iag. MORNING SESSION. The Conference re-assembled at 9 o'clock; the Rev. W. Brookman, of St. Catharines, presiding. As on the previous mornings, the first hour was devoted to Prayer and Praise. • Hymn 117 : " What a friend we have in Jesus." The Chairman read a few verses of the tenth chapter of Hebrews, and then engaged in prayer. Hymn 172 : ' ■ "Thou my everlasting portioiT, More than friend or life to me. All along my pilgrim journey. Saviour, let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, Close to Thee, Close to Thee, Close to Thee, All along my pilgrim journey. Saviour, let me walk with Thee." ♦ During the hour, a number of requests- for prayer and notes of thanksgiving were read.. •,..,,. After singing hymn 129 : ' . " Saviour, more tftan life to nw, I am clinging, clinging close to Thee, " ' . The Rev. Dr. Potts closed the meeting with prayer. Five ininntes' recess. ' ' Rev. Dr. Potts now took the chair, and called upon the choir to sing, — " SaTtoor, like a shepherd lead us." 10* 154 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Rev. Mr. Parsons led in prayer, after which the following topic was taken up. WITNESSING FOR CHRIST. BY J. C. ANTLIFF, M.A., B.D. 1 dare say, my friends, that the question, •' What is to be the practical outcome of this Conference ?" will have occurred to many of us here present. We have been meeting from day to day this week, until we have got to the last day of this Conference; and I suppose that all of us who have assembled from time to time have realized great blessing. We have been blessed in our emotional nature ; we have been affected by the testimonies we have heard of the power of saving grace ; we have had fresh light thrown on certain parts of God's Word, and the Word of God has thus been made sweeter than ever to our taste. I presume then that we all of us this morning have reason to join in the thanksgiving Ihat was offered a few moments ago by our Chairman. But I ask, is the Conference to end here ? Is it to end in merely receiving personal blessing? Is there not to be a practical out- come ? Now I take it, that we have been here to receive strength that we may go forth from this Conference to testify for Christ ; that we shall be more earnest in future through this Conference having met, and the more earnest we are in our testimony, the more fully will the end of this Conference have been secured. My subject, then, is *' Witnessing for Christ." I. In the first place, what have we to witness con- cerning Him? I answer, first, that we must witness that Christ, the Divine Redeemer, has power on earth to forgive sins. Now this confession implies a belief in the Divinity of the Redeemer. These are days of unbelief, and I fear there is much latent scepticism even in the breasts of some professing Christians. But if we are at all fal- tering in our belief concerning the Divinity of the Author of our salvation, then our testimony will be faltering and ineffectual. Hear what St. Peter says : when the Master said to the disciples, '* Willye also go away ?" Peter replied, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? — Thou hast the words of eternal life ; we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ the Son of the living God." And so, my friends, we must have this belief and this certainty that Christ is the Son of the living God, if we are to testify in such a way that our testimony will do good. Now, I hold that Jesus Christ has power to forgive sin — He, and He only, has power " There is none other name under Heaven given among i.ien, whereby we must be saved." It is not Christ and the ordinances, and it is not Christ and the ministry : it is Christ and Christ only. We testify of Him as the only Saviour, the alone Saviour. Now, we must know Christ as our personal Saviour, that we may be able to speak of Him without faltering, without hesitation. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I55 Believers, stand up for Jesus ; this is your mission in the world. When we were first converted, we might have been taken to heaven ; but Christ does not pray that as soon as His people are fit for heaven they shall be taken thither. " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Why are we in this world ? Why does God prolong our lives ? Is it not that we may testify of and for Christ ? " Ye are my witnesses." When the Gadarene demoniac was healed of his terrible malady, you remember that he followed Christ into the ship, and when he got into the presence of the Master, he asked his Saviour to permit him to accompany Him. Maybe, he was afraid that if he staid in that region, those evil spirits would again come and take possession of him ; so he prayed that he might accompany the Master — but did the Lord Jesus permit him ? I have no doubt that if He had allowed him, he would have made a very earnest disciple, and would have cheer- fully shared the poverty and disgrace of the Master. But, no ; Christ said, " Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." So he wei>t home and told his friends how the Lord bad had compassion on him — he was a witness for Christ ;. and as Christ left that country. He left that man to carry on His work and to testify of His power to save, inasmuch as He had saved htm ; although his case was so sad and deplorable. So we read that the man went through the region of Decapolis, — the ten cities of that district, testifying concerning Christ. Have _>'om been healed? Then Christ gives you a commission. Every believer is an ordained minister in this sense, that he is sent to testify con- cerning Christ ; and if you only feel, as I trust all of you do, your obligation to your Master, you will go and tell others what the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you. And while we testify concerning Christ ; that He is a Saviour that justifies and pardons, I think we ought to add to this testimony the fact that Christ is a sanctifying Saviour. " The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin." We have to sing, " Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, be glory and dominion for ever and ever." I am very thankful that this phase of the work of our blessed Lord is now taking deeper and firmer possession of the different sections of the Christian Church. It has been my privilege to attend one or two conventions, in the Old Country, for the promotion of Scriptural holiness. Very likely some of you have seen the reports of the Brighton, Oxford, and Hull conventions ; and I rejoice in this, that the Church is recognizing the great truth that Christ not merely justifies, and saves from the curse of sin, but also from its power. My dear friends, we need this sanctifying power; because the holier we are, the more rest and peace we have; and the holier we are, the more useful we shall be ; the measure of our holiness is 156 CHRISTIAN CONFERRNCE. to a great extent the measure of our usefulness. Now Jesus Christ can save us from all sin, " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." Let us, then, having realized this, witness for Christ that He is a Saviour from the guilt, the power, and the pollution of sin. II. Let us proceed to enquire. How must we witness for Christ ? / answer in the first instance that we are bound to witness for Christ with our lips. You remember that in the conversation, our Lord, after His resurrection, had with Simon Peter, He said, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me;" Peter replied, " Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." Now when Peter had thus replied, the Master repeated the same question, and then again the third time. Peter might have said, " Well, I would prefer not speaking with my lips ; Thou canst read my heart ; Thou knowest my heart even better than I know it my- self ; for Thou didst tell me that I should deny Thee, when I thought I should not. As Thou didst read my heart then, so read it now ; look into the depths of it and see there the love that I bear to Thee ; for I would rather not say with my lips how much I love Thee." But no; Peter had denied Him with his lips, and he must confess Him with his lips. Is it not, indeed, a sad thing that many of us can speak about everything else but Christ. When we meet in our social gatherings, we can speak about politics, some new book, some theological doctrine ; but rarely, if ever, about Christ. The Master calls upon you and me, and every one of His people to witness for Him with the lips, " For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." In social gatherings we ought to remember our Lord. When we meet with our friends, it is well now and then to speak a word for the Master, and no one knows the good that may be done by a word or two spoken with an individual alone. I could give you some remarkable instances where souls have been led to Christ through a word spoken by a friend to another in private. I was in the town of Burton-on- Trent in England, some three years ago, and after preaching, a gentleman came to me and after introducing himself, said, "I see that you don't know me." Isaid,"No." '« Well, I wanttothankyou," he said, " for the word you once spoke to me for the Saviour." I did not remember the case ; b''t he told me that some ten years previous, when I was attending some missionary services in the same town, on the Monday morning we met each other in one of the rooms of the minister's house, where he was waiting to see the minister on some business. He said that I turned to him and asked him if he was a member of any Christian Church ; that he replied that he was not ; and that I then asked him if he loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and spoke one or two simple words to him for the Master. He told me that what I said to him that morning, ten years ago, led him to consider the great matter ■of religion and resulted in his conversion. Now what we want is CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 157 this dealing wUh persons individually, and telling them what the Lord has done for us ; how He has had compassion on us ; and I feel persuaded that if we act in this way the Lord will give His blessing. I believe there are times when the Lord impresses upon our hearts the duty of speaking to some particular person. And, when God calls upon you to witness for Him in this way, be sure that you listen to the call ; stifle not the promptings of His Spirit when they concern your duty in this matter, and if you go in the spirit of the Master, you may expect a very rich blessing. I remember hearing some time ago of a case of a Bible reader in London, who was in the habit every morning of going to a certain district where there were many poor persons, and reading with them out of the Word. In going he hai to pass by the warehouse of a very wealthy merchant, and the thought occurred to him that he should speak to the merchant about Christ. He tried to put this thought away, but it was no use ; the thought still pressed on him, — " Why don't you go and speak to the merchant who owns these large premises ? " At last he went into the warehouse, and asked the young man who was standing there if the master was in : he said that he was in the office, and wished to know the nature of the man's business. The Bible reader answered that he should prefer not saying, but that he was to tell the merchant that a gentleman wished to see him. When the young man came back he said, " Mr. insists upon knowing your business." " Well, then, tell him that a Scripture reader would like to speak to him about his soul." The young man returned to say that the merchant thanked him, but that he wished him to retire, as he had no time to attend to him. The man went away, but he felt impressed to try again, and, accordingly, called the next day. " Tell your master," said he, to the person in attendance, " that I wish to speak to him, and that I am very earnest in this application." The young man smiled at him, but went and told the merchant, and then returned saying that his master had not time to attend to him, and begged that he would not return on this errand again. The Bible reader left ; but in a few days resolved to try again ; he feit that he had a message for him, and that he must give it. The young man on seeing him again said, " It's no use ; I can't tell the master." However, the good man persisted in his application, and the result was that the merchant sent for the man to come in. When he entered the office, the merchant looked sternly at him and said, " Why do you come troubling me this way ? " The poor man replied, " You will pardon me : I am only a poor Scripture reader, but I feel very much concerned about your salvation, and I should like to say a word or two to you about the Lord Jesus." But the merchant looked angrily at him and said, ■" Will you be gone, sir : I don't want you to be annoying me in this fashion: will you please be off?" The poor man turned around; in doing so he did not notice a little step in the office, and in his 158 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. ' haste he struck against this step and came tumbling down in such a plight, that the clerks in the store laughed at him. The merchant, when he saw what had befallen the poor man, thought that the least that he could do in return for the ridicule with which the poor fellow had been treated would be to ask him to come in, which he accordingly did. " I must apologize," said he, "to you for speaking so roughly to you, and am sorry at the mishap that you have had ; I have very little time to spare, buL will hear what you have got to say." The man replied, " I can- not say very much ; I am now reading to poor people in the neighbourhood, telling them about Christ, and I thought I would hke to have a word with you. Though you occupy a very high position, you know you need Christ — Christ alone can give you rest and peace." The gentleman listened very attentively to what the poor man said, and appeared to be deeply affected ; he asked him to pray with him : they knelt down, and the gentleman joined him in prayer. When they rose from their knees, the merchant said, *' Now, sir, I have had clergymen call upon me, and bishops call upon me, and I have subscribed largely to the different funds of the church ; but you are the first person who ever spoke to me directly about my soul : I thank you very much for this interview : I feel that God has sent you, and that you have left with me a message from God." So, when you feel impressed to speak to any one, whether it be in a railway car or elsewhere. atx>ut the concerns of his soul, you may depend upon it that it is the Spirit prompting you to witness for the Master. Again, are there not many of us who could do a little more with our pen for the Master in letter writing ? Persons who feel too nervous, perhaps, to speak to others face to face, can at least write a letter now and then. I do not see why a father, for instance, should not write to his son, as the Rev. Leigh Richmond was accustomed to do ; or why a mother should not write to her daughter about spiritual things. We have friends, too, at a dis- tance, to whom we could write in reference to their eternal interests. And this will not be cant, if we do it in all sincerity as in the very presence of God. Tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, not only with your lips, but with your pen. We must also witness for Christ in our lives. And let us take care that there be no discord between our lips and our lives. You remember the character in Pilgrim's Progress called Mr. Talkative; he was the son of Mn Saywell. Mr. Talk- ative lived in Prating Row, as Bunyan quaintly puts it. A good many still live in Prating Row ; there are iiot many houses to let in that part of the city f There are a great many who can talk very fluently about good things, but whose lives are sadly in dis- cord with their professions. What we want is the testimony of a holy life, as well as the testimony of holy words. The apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians, ist epistle, vii. chapter, speaking to those wives whose husbands were heathen. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I59 says, " For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband, or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife," meaning as I take it, that by living a Godly life the wife may save her husband, though he be a heathen ; and that the husband may save his wife, though she be a heathen. And the apostle in the 2 Corinthians iii. 3, speaks in this way, •• Foras- much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." A good man is both gospel, epistle and revelation ; where- ever he goes he takes the gospel with him, and he is a living epistle and also a revelation of the Master. If we can do nothing else, at least we can all be living epistles. The only Bible some people ever see, is a good man's life ; the only scrap of Scripture they ever read is a godly life. We should take care that our conduct shall adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, in accordance with the exhorta- tion which the apostle gives to servants in Titus ii. 10. Now you know what it is to adorn and beautify a room. You see this hall adorned by mottoes, and the picture hung up there. By adorning your room you make it more beautiful. So we may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things ; even servants may do this, that is, they may witness for Christ by the testimony of their lives, and as people look at them beholding iheir good works. Let both miiSters and servants then by the holiness of their lives endeavor to witness for Christ. III. Let us inquire, in conclusion. Why should we witness? I have asked what we shouW witness, and how ; and now why ? In the first instance for the sake of those who need our testimony. Men are dying and perishing for lack of knowledge. We have got what they need — the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. My Iriends, notwithstanding all the advancement of science ; and all the refining power of literary culture, there is nothing that can satisfy men's hearts but the loving Saviour; Christ can alone satisfy ; we know, however, that He can satisfy, for " what we have seen and felt, with confidence we tell." Let us tell the perishing world of a Saviour, who can save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. Let us do this also for the sake of Christ; we are His witnesses. A good man may be called one of Christ's vicegerents ; we are here to do His work ; to show forth His glory. You know that when Moses came down from the mount, his very countenance was glorious ; there seemed to be coruscations of light radiating from him. Let us talk, my friends, with Christ, and so we shall catch the glory, and it will be reflected in the consistency of ourselves in such manner that the world will take knowledge of us that we have been with Christ. Dearly beloved, let us not be content like Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus to serve Christ secretly ; rather be it ours boldly l6o CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. to proclaim our love for the Master; and if we do this, we shall influence others by our testimony. I have no faith in the conver- sion of the world until the Christian (>hurch shall rise up to this sense of personal responsibility; until every Christian shall feel that he has a inessafje from God which he must give to those around him ; until he shall feel, '• Well, I have been saved myself, and I must tell others what the Lord has done for ine, and willingly bear my testimony for Christ. Let the Church rise up to the dignity of this position, and society will soon be regenerated. I met with a very startling calculation some time ago. The writer said, " Now let us supi)f)sc that there is only one Christian man in all the world to begui with ; and let us suppose that within one year he is the means of bringing two others to Christ, and that each of these three in the following year succeed in bringing two more and so on every year, and supixising there are sixteen hundred millions of inhabitants in the world, how long do you think it would take to have the world converted ?" It wouhl be converted in less than thirty-one years ; that is, if every believer wouK' bring two others to Christ in one year. But,, suppose there are twenty millions of professing Christians in the world, and each one were to bring one to Christ every year, then the world would be converted in eleven years. This is what we want. Every believer, and not merely the officials of our chiu-ch,. speaking for Christ. Let us all try to seek souls for Christ ; let us try to give to others the blessings that we have realized in thi» Conference : in this way, my friends, we shall do good, and the great aim of the Conference will be gained. For your own sake, in conclusion, witness for Christ. Our Lord says in St. Matthew's Gospel, " Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven, but whosoever khall deny Me before men, him will 1 also deny before My Father which is in Heaven." Think of that awful day when the great white throne shall be upraised ; will it then be for us to tremble, and say, " I was afraid to> confess my Lord before men : I would not speak of Him when duty called me?" And shall we hear Him say, " Because thou wouldest not confess Me before men, I will not own tlies before My Father and His holy angels ? " Oh, my firiends, we need to live in the light of eternity; we live too much in the light of good- manners ; in the light of the customs of society. Let us live in. the light of eternity, as if we believed what we professed. Let us confess Christ before n>en ; so sliall we not be ashamed when we come into His presence. Let men persecute us as they will^ we ought to feel it to be an honour to stand by the persecuted Lord» to witness for Him who has done so much for us. The choir sang the 51st hymn : " I love to tell the itoty.'* CUKISTIAN CONl'I'.KUNCK. l6l The meeting was further addressed on tlie same siibj'Tt, viz., — WITNHSSING FOR CHRIST. »V KEV. U. }. MACUONNIil.I., U.IJ. Mr. Chairman : As you know it is very difficult to avoid repe- tition when two jnen, witliout any consu'tation, have been a|)|)()int(;d to speak on the same theme, I shall, at the risk of spoiling the unity of what i was going to say, try to avoid repeating the good things which Mr. Antlii'i' has been saying, but still I cannot help reierring (o one or two of them. liy -woi-il and by li/c we are to v/itness. There is hardly any other division one can make of this subject, because these are the two ways in which we manifest ourselves. We are to s/yfd/i about ('hrist. Why ? liecause there are cir- cumstances in which to be silent is to deny. It is very well for people to be modest, it is always right ; but it is false modesiy for a man to be ashamed to avow himself a Chr jtian ; to tell, when necessary, tlu; truth, not simjjly about Chrisc, but the very truth that Christ Himself tells us. I was very much struck yesterday by what Mr. Pausons told us about the use of tlie direct words of Christ instead of our own arguments. Perhaps it would be well for us in talking to men about ihe highest matters, that we should, to a very large extent, speak to them directly in the very words of this book, trusting to the words of Jesus, wliich are "spirit" and " life." JUit the point I wish to insist upon is, that there are circum- stances in which not to speak is actually to betray. We do not need always to be prating about our love to our wives, or our friends, or our country. Hut there are occasions when we need to speak for our friend, as, for instance, if he gets into trouble through false report, or is persecuted because he takes a manly stand on an important matter affecting the communiiy ; if he is suffering an undeservetl obloquy ; if, through his faithfulness to conviction, he has come down in the world: why, then, most emphatically, it is our duty to slant! out and avow cjurselves the friends of this poor, despised, persecuted, ill-used man. If the man were in the sunshine of popularity, there might be less occasion to avow our friendship. Now, then, is it not so with Christ ? Are we not often tempted to be asliamed of Christ, because He comes to us in the form of a poor man, a despised man, a slandered man, a persecuted man? Well, then, let us remember that there may be a false modesty in the silence that we are so often constrained to keep. Let us remember that there is nothing but true modesty in speaking out what the Lord has done for us. How can people continually make the mistake of thinking that it is self-glorifying to speak about what the grace of God has done for them ? " Come and hear, ail ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done JI l62 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. for my soul." That is the Psalmist's utterance (Ixvi. Psalm). " I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart : I have declared Thy faithfulness." Was there any want of modesty there ? No, he was tellinj; what the Lord h id done for his soul ; what the Loni had wrought in him and through him, and would not hide it. He was one of God's hidden ones, but not in the sense of hiding what God had done for him. It is written, "They that feared the Lord spake often, one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." Some people want to think about His name, but do not want to talk about it. " These people spake often, one to another," so says Malachi, and let us do the same. What is the use of being members of the church, sitting at the same Communion table, if, as members of the church, we never encourage one another, never help one another by telling how God has helped us to get rid of this doubt, and resist that tempta- tion, and to grow in this and that grace ? True, the practice of telling our experience is liable to abuse ; it is a matter which needs to be carefully guarded, that men may not be canting and hypocritical. You should dread hypocrisy as you tear the devil, that is, you should never pretend that you are the very smallest particle better than you really are — that you have a single feeling, thought, purpose, frame of spirit, which is not really yours. But surely it is possible for the Christian to speak unaffectedly and without exaggeration of what the Lord has done for him. Then, by life, we are to witness for Christ. Read Romans x. 9, " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus (that is necessary), and if thou shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from trie dead (that is necessary), thou shalt be saved." Confess with the mouth and believe in the heart — do both. Now, then, we are to show that we believe in the heart by our life. The Bible, as Trench points out in one of his lectures, consists of three parts: (i) The history of families; (2) The history of a nation ; (3) The history of the church. The patriarchal period is the history of families. The good men were those who were faithful to the family order. The bad men were those who trampled on the family order. The next period is the history of the nation — a nation taken out from among the other nations of the world. To be what ? To be a specimen of the way in which God rules nations ; to be an illustration of the principles on which God ruled the Greeks and Romans of old, and on v/hich He now rules Britain, Turkey, Russia, United States, and all the rest of us — to show this, that so long as men are true to their invisible King, whose representa- tives are called Kings, or Emperors, or Presidents, the nation prospers ; but that whenever men set up idols and forget their invisible King, the nation goes down and decays. That is the history of the State. Then we come to the New Testament, and CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 163 here we have something wider than Family or State, embracing both these, but far outreaching them — a kingdom which is not of this world ; which is universal, and whose subjects pay allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of men and of nations. We are to witness for Christ by our words and lives in all these three departments ; in the Family, in the State, and in the Church. I take that not merely as a convenient division, but as the division actually made in God's providence for every child and man. The child comes into the world a member of the family ; afterwards he becomes a member of the state, whether he will or n Jt : and then if he is the child of a Christian he is a member of the Church of Christ. In these three spheres, then, we are to live to God ; we are to be witnesses for Christ in them all. In the family, for example — read in the Epistle to the Ephesians how St. Paul points out that Christ is to be witnessed for in the home. In the first place we are to marry in the Lord. That does not mean, of course, that a Baptist is to marry a Baptist, or a Methodist a Methodist, etc., but that man and woman are to take the Lord's counsel about marriage — are to seek the Lord's glory, to do the Lord's will. This must be the starting point of the Christian family. Now listen to the counsels of St. Paul, " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church." There we have the model of the true love that should exist between husband and wife. It is to be nothing short of Christ-like. "Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord." When there is Christ-like love on the part of the husband, obedience on the part of the wife will be sweet. Mutual reverence and mutual love make the marriage bond a holy one. Christian husbands and wives ought to witness by their lives that Christian marriage is a far higher thing than worldly marriage. Then we have, "Children obey your parents in the Lord;" " Fathers provoke not your children to wrath ; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." " Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, with singleness of your heart, as unto Christ." "And ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven." So you see that there is not a solitary relationship in which we can stand in the family in which we are not to be in the Lord, and to manifest the spirit of Christ. If we do not manifest Christ in the home, pray, how can we manifest Christ in the State or the Church ? " Let them learn to show piety at home." How is it that servants and children in many Christian families grow up to be indifferent and careless and worldly ? It is because the husband and wife, though professing to be Christians, do not live consistently up to that profession ; it is because, though the routine of family prayer may be gone through, the whole life of the day is lived on a different principle from the prayers ; it is because while they pray for forgiveness of sins on their knees, they forget all about forgiving when they get up, and do not try to use the grace that God has 164 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. given during the day ; they live to the world and to the flesh. The children hear them talk about money making, fashion, pleasure, politics, success in business, and fifty things that are all good, in their place ; but they do not hear them talk about Christ. We do not need to abuse money, pleasure, or fashion, but let us keep these things in their proper place as secondary matters that belong to a lower sphere altogether; do not let us put a quarter of a dollar before our eyes and hide the sun ; do not let us hide the Sun of Righteousness with these paltry things. Again, in the State we are to be witnesses for Christ. Some good men read the words, " My kingdom is not of this world," as if they meant that Christ's kingdom had nothing to do with this world at all, with political relations and national relations ; that it has only to do with the future life. This is not the true interpre- tation. Christ's kingdom does not spring out of this world, never- theless, it has to do with this world. Jesus Christ has to do with men's family relations ; He has to do with political and social relations. Some men seem to say, " The State belongs t® the devil, and the Church belongs to Christ, and so I must stick to the Church, or to what is technically called Church work ; I must let all that sphere of social life and political work be attended to by men of this world." That is a tremendous mistake. These good men obey the laws, but keep themselves quite aloof from having any personal concern in moulding the laws, or in guiding the political destinies of their country. That is not right. There are other men who take part freely in all the duties of citizenship and political life, but in doing so, they separate Christ from it. They say this is a matter which belongs to this world, and when they go to church ihey say that belongs to Christ ; they say, *' My canvassing, my speaking and voting on political questions, all these matters are to be regulated on one set of principles ; whereas whatever pertains to Christian work is to be regulated on another set of principles." That is not right. There are others afjain who honestly take their share of public work, but they do so under a sort of protest, as if it were a sad necessity. They long and sigh for the time when they shall be rid of this hampering life that prevents the aspirations of their spirits. That is a mistake. Just to the extent to which Christian men take that position in regard to national life, just to that extent is that national life in danger of being handed over to the devil to be wielded by his agents. It is the man in his wholeness that Christ has come to save, as father, child, husband, friend, servant ; it is man as a business man, as a politician, statesman, citizen ; it is man in all his relationships, that Christ has come to save. " Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." There is no exception to that rule which the apostle, who had the largest measure of the spirit of the Master, lays down. *' Whatsoever ye do" (in the house or the shop, in the narrow circle of the home, or the wider circle of business or national life), " whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord." And I think CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 165 we may well pray that our wisest, best and most thoughtful men may give the full benefit of their thought, influence and skill in guiding the destinies of the Province, the Dominion and the Empire. We are next to witness for Christ in the Church. The Christian cannot stand alone, he must stand shoulder to shoulder with his fellows, and take part in the Master's work with them ; he must make himself useful in the church ; he must study this Book, this is the sword which, as a Christian warrior, he is to wield and to keep sharp, bright and keen in the power of the Spirit. Do not simply help your church by an occasional fit of exertion, when the fervour of your first love returns ; let it be a steady work of love, ever kindled fresh from the love of Christ Himself. Give your sympathy to those who need it in the time of their distress. Give your attention to the little bits of work that your church has to do. Do not confine yourselves to the great occasions ; use well the ordinary preaching of the Gospel on the fifty-two Sundays of the year; depend on that mainly to feed your spirit. Thank God when a revival season comes, when a special occasion like this comes, when you can have the benefit of those from other lands, who come with their freshness and their experience of Christian life to stimulate you. But be sure and use faithfully the ordinary means which you have from week to week. In conclusion I wish to say that I think we need Christian men of broad sympathies, men of rich, full life. You know the sneer is cast at us that we are narrow religionists. Sometimes it is that some good men are narrow, but the best men are not narrow. What we want as Christians is a richer, fuller and more joyous experience ; we do not need to give up any mortal thing except sin ; we have not to give up a single thing that is beautiful, lovely or delightful that ministers to taste, as long as we do not allow the lower things to hide the face of God ; as long as we acknow- ledge all as our Father's gifts, and count our Father's love better than the gifts, which are only the feeble tokens of that love. So, then, let us be men of large sympathies, and so let us win those who fight shy of our churches, because they have a feeling that when they go into a church they are going into a, sort of dungeon, where they will have to leave all the sunshine outside. Let us get rid in the church of the " spirit of fear," and let us cultivate the " spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind." Let us show that the Christian has everything that the happiest worldling has, with a great deal more besides ; because he has the love of Christ sanctifying all the lower elements of his nature, as well as filling his heart as nothing else can fill it. Let us be wit- nesses for Christ. *' Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted." We want a Christian life that is pungent like salt, not a savourless thing. We want a Christianity that will not need to be put into a crucible to test whether there is anything in it distinct from worldliness. No, I 66 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. my friends, it must be manifest to the world that you have the Christian character. The thing by which you are to exercise mainly your influence in the world for Christ is character, the char- acter which Christ imparts, and which is formed — how ? In this way : " We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Hymn 141 : " Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing " was sung, after which the Rev. Mr. Dickson led in prayer. The Chairman said : I rejoice, dear friends, that the Christian knows no geographical restrictions, and I rejoice further that we all regard Bro. H. M. Parsons as a fellow-citizen in the high Scriptural sense, who will now speak to us on *' Incentives to holy living and Christian activity." INCENTIVES TO HOLY LIVING. EY REV. H. M. PARSONS. Mr. Chairman and Friends: I cannot but rejoice at the manifestation of the blessed Spirit of God in the conduct of these meetings, when I see how dear brethren are led to speak in such connections of thought without any previous consultation, evidently intimating a divine, wise and holy Person back of all, guiding and unifying us in thought. Last evening after my brief speech, the Chairman said, ♦' What you have said is just exactly a natural precedent of what I am going to say ; it could not have been arranged to have been more vital in connection and more appropriate in the application of truth." After the meeting I was requested to address you again this morning ; the brethren asked me what theme I would take. I cast my eye upon the schedule that was forwarded to me, and selected as the subject, "Incentives TO Holy Living." The dear brother who has just preceded me has been speaking about witnessing for Christ in a way that betokens the leading of the Divine Spirit. I would like to give one instance following in the train of those that have been given, with regard to the power of a holy life to express itself for the glory of God. There was a clergyman once, that had in his town a lawyer who was skeptical in his views, and he prepared a discourse that was meant to be an instrument in leading this skeptic to Christ, and he very carefully brought out all the Scriptural power he could express in a single discourse, to reach and affect that man's mind. Some few weeks after this discourse had been preached, the lawyer called upon him, and wanted to know the way to Christ, and expressed himself as under the deepest concern. The minister was of course anxious to know the effect of that sermon so skill- fally and faithfully prepared with the truth of God, with argu- CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. I67 ment, persuasion, and power, to reach him. So he asked him if he recollected that discourse he delivered at such a time. He answered, " Oh, yes." " Did it make any impression on your mind .?" " I never heard a word of it ; I was making a brief all the time," was the reply. " What did touch you ?" " Why," said he, " you know that old lame woman, they call Aunty. It was an icy morning, and when she was coming down the steps, I was afraid she would slip, and so I helped her down, and crossed the street with her to the next curb. When we had got across she took hold of my hand and looked up into my iace, and, said she, * Mr., I do wish you loved my Jesus.' " There was no choice of terms in the message, but there was something in the woman which betokened the presence of the Holy Spirit ; there was the power of a divine life, and she was so saturated with it, that she didn't have to think what she should say, it said itself, it came right out, it was God's message, and it did the business of the Holy Spirit. Dear friends, we must look to God for this divine power, we cannot manufacture it. I think what Paul v/rote to the Galatians in the 20th verse of the ii, chapter, is vital to this whole subject. He says, " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God," &c. The literal rendering of the Greek would be, "I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live" (that flesh is a dead man) &c. There is the motive ; it is the motive of a person objective to me, taking hold of me, directing me out of myself: I want to get out of myself; I just want to do what the Lord wants me to do, whether it is to speak or to be still. I will tell j'ou what, it requires more grace to keep still than to speak, sometimes. When the Divine Spirit presses upon us, we will then say, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ?" The flesh has its own way of speaking, and the Spirit has His own way-. Christians have to be on their guard when the devil assumes the garb of piety. We read in the Scriptures that Satan is going to assume such a form of piety in the last days that, if it were possible, he will deceive the very elect. If it were possible he would deceive the children of God, so that they would not know one another. The significant feature of these last times is the form of godliness without its power. The first incentive to a holy life to which I will refer is con- tained in these words : " I am crucified with Christ." If a man has been put on the cross and has been crucified he knows it. He does not say, *' I hope I have been." I always delight in exper- ience, and I find experience there ; and the power of it is this, that it is true in the experience of every child of God, I do not care what his denominational name may be. Every child of God knows what that means, " I am crucified with Christ." The self life now no longer lives, it has been crucified, and Christ now lives in me the hope of glory. " And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." I have not got rid l68 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. of the flesh, have I ? — but " it is the hfe that I now live in the flesh." It may be very imperfect, and very full of frailties. I live that divine life by faith in the Son of God, " Who gave Him- self for me," there is the power. Suppose I walked down near the water and fell in, and a person plunged in after me at the risk of his life to save me, should I ever forget him — has not he attached himself to me by the strongest of personal motives ? Well then, have we not the strongest motive here why the sinner should give his heart's best afl"ections to Christ, who gave Himself for us, who went under the sentence of the Law, and " bore our sins in His own body on the tree ? " Christ says, " I have done all this for thee." Is there any stronger motive than that ? Oh, Lord, what hast Thou done for me ? Thou hast done everything ; Thou hast saved me, and I am Thine : what wilt Thou have me to do ? Another incentive to holy living is to be filled -mth the Holy Ghost, spiritual life through the Holy Ghost. And you will find a passage that asserts that, Ephesians v. 18, " Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." When a man is drunk you know it by his gait, he staggers : when a man is drunk he shows it. And now the Apostle says that instead of being filled with the spirit of wine, you are to be filled with the Holy Ghost; and you will show it just as certainly in the one case as in the other. You recollect when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and took possession of that room where the Apo.stles were sitting, what the report in the streets was, " These men are filled with new wine," because they showed such unmistakable, such wonderful power and energy that they could not attr bute it to anything else but the effects of wine. But Peter said that they could not be drunk, seeing that it was only nine o'clock in the morning, they had not had time to get drunk. *' But," said he, " this is that which was predicted, that the Holy Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh." Now, friends, that wondrous visitation is not ended : the Holy Spirit is still in the church and will no more go out ; He is in the heart of the believer. " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the floly Ghost." I Cor. xii. 3. His office is to make a connection between the dead sinner and the living Christ, and when that conection is made, it cannot be broken : no, not by man or by devil, it is the life of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the temple Brethren, let us remember that the Spirit of God may fill us to- day, and yet we need the infilling of the Spirit to-morrow : it may be that to-day that it is for a different purpose to what it will be to-morrow. If I am filled with the Spirit to-day, then why will it not last me till to-morrow ? For the same reason that the ancient Israelites had to gather manna in the wilderness every mornings However heartily I may enjoy my breakfast to-day it won't last roe a week ; I must get a fresh breakfast to-morrow. We need the infilling of the Holy Spirit for special service, and when that service is done we need a fresh supply for some other work. But, my friends, there is an inexhaustible fulness,, and all that is CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 169 required of us is tliat we be open and receptive, and we will always receive just what is enough for the work, whatever it may be. And now you will say, " What can I do for the Lord ? " Let me urge you, then, to be often in your closet, and search God's word, and so strive to come into personal communion with Him in order to be filled with the Spirit's power ; and He will bid you wiiat to do. Just as it is necessary to connect the motive power with the machinery, so there must be a connection between us and the Holy Spirit, so that we may be filled with the power of God. To BE LOOKING FOR HiS COMING ACCORDING TO HiS PROMISE, is another incentive to a holy life. When our Lord Jesus told the little band of orphans that Ho was about to leave them, they were sad, and what did He say ta them ? " I go to prepare a place lor you ; and if I go and pre- pare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also." You will see the power of that promise if you reter to Titus ii. 9-13. Now, if we keep a servant who commits an act of disobedience we generally tell them that it is exceedingly improper and wrong for them to act soj it is easy for us to tell our servants and children that they ought to do right; but there is a stronger motive than that, anti what is it? We should tell them not to act so — why? Because y.)u are *' looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ ;" — blessed hope! — and you do not want to appear in such a character when He comes. Yes, my friends, this blessed hope is to be a powerful incentive to keep you from worldliness, and every form of ungodliness. Let us keep looking unto Him, "let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," —looking unto Jesus ; and where is He? — "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." If we are looking unto Christ we will live just as we would do if He were present. We are corresponding with a friend ; that friend grows upon us ; we begin to live in that friend's heart ; she describes her house to us, and we know every particle of it, every thing about it ; we become intimate with her, when at la£,t she writes that she is coming over to see us ; how anxiously we look out for her, and if she does not come by one train we wait tor her at the next, and so on until she arrives. I3 not that a real personal motive ? " We are saved by hope ; " literally, " We were saved in this expectation." What kind ot hope ? We are waiting, as the context implies, waiting and longing with the troubled earth for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body. Another thing. Just as we by faith are risen with Christ, wq. get closer to each other. When we get to the mercy seat we all speak one language. I don't care what denomination we belong to. When the Lord wants some work done He takes thq 170 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. reapers nearest to Him. It seems to me that there is a great power in this hope, in looking for the manifestation of the Lord, which He has promised according to His word. I think when we partake of the Lord's supper that there is a forward looking as well as a backward one : for it is written, " As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, 'ye do show the Lord's death till He come." We look back upon the Crucifixion and forward to the Coming. Another motive is to live for the glory of God in every act. That phrase, '* Glory of God," is a wonderful phrase. When the Lord took His dear people out of bondage in Egypt, you know the manifestation ot Jehovah was almost always in the Shekinah — in the form of flame — the glory ot the Lord filled the temple. When they were travelling through the wilderness, that glory took the form of a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. And j'ou remember when the Israelites were fleeing before the Egyptians, that this glory of the Lord went behind them so that it was a cloud and a darkness to the Egyptians, but it gave light to the Israelites. God's Word is such a Shekinah light to those who believe it, but to the infidel how black it is. You find some people come to God's Word, and they cannot understand it — why ? Because they do not believe Him. Believing a friend is the first thing towards knowing what he means. If I believe in the Lord Jesus, I believe in His Word. To another one it is all darkness — trie natural mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned. When we speak of the glory of God, we may regard it as a definite, positive, and visible manifestation of God's grace in regard to those who have been diligent and obed- ient to His will, and when He tells me " Whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God," I am to understand that by faithful obedience in my daily life I shall con- tribute to swell the revelation of that glory in the future. In I John iii. 2-3, we read, " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure." What hope ? The hope of being like Christ when He shall appear. I want to honor and glorify His name even if I don't see Him come, and to this end I must purify myself, that is, separate myself from sin. Christ has said, " Occupy till I come," and I have to obey orders, and some- times it is pretty hard work to obey orders. This makes me think of an apple woman in New York. One day she was misled from her accustomed stand, and some friends sought her out, and found her lying on her back with rheumatism, in great pain, and yet uncomplaining and happy. *' Why, Nanny, I don't see how it is that you are groaning in every joint, and yet as happy as if you were in heaven ?" " Oh, honey," said she, " I am happy to do just what Jesus tells me ; when He tells me to lie here and cough, I do that." That apple woman was happy in her simple faith ; CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 17I her Lord had called her to suffer, and she was happy to do so for His glory. There was a bright light shining in tiie rags. If we lived so close to God that we could hear Him telling us to do this or do that, how contented and happy would we be under every circumstance. Such a life of consecration would imply a willing- ness to let the Lord work in and through us of His own good pleasure. Oh, I like to have the Lord do it, instead of doing it myself. I find that when I try to get holiness in me, I don't get it ; but I will tell you another way. Some years ago a brother minister settled in the town where I was preaching. On an examination which he underwent, he expressed grave doubts in regard to the fact of eternal punishment. I understood him to say that he could not preach it, so when it came to the vote, I voted according to the Scriptures, that he was not fit. I expressed my faith by my vote. I saw the brother afterwards, and said I, " I understood you to say that you did not believe that that doctrine was in the Bible." His reply was that he did not intend to convey any such impression as that, that what he meant was that he was under a great gloom and dark- ness upon the subject, and that he was unable to reconcile that doctrine with God's love. When I heard this explanation, and found that he was still loyal to his marching orders, I told him that I would withdraw my vote, and continue t'o fellowship him as a brother through and through, and I did so. He then began to explain at further length the difficulties which beset his mind in reference to the subject. " Suppose," said I, " a murderer killed your brother, and when you went to see him he only clanked his chains in a rage, and acted and spoke as if he wished to kill you, he would just be in that condition in which it would be impossible to love him ;" and I told him that that, to my mind, fitly repre- sented the condition of the lost sinner ; that there was nothing in him that the divine love could lay hold of, and that such a one presented features quite distinct from sinners who had not finally rejected Christ ; that whatever there was lovely in a sinner was a part of God's grace, and when that grace was withdrawn the sinner then presented a very different spectacle to what we see now. But I went home resolved to examine the Bible on this sub- ject, and in doing so I looked up text after text that spoke of God's mercy, on the one hand, and God's justice, on the other; but I found that the two were reconciled in Jesus, that Jesus had satis- fied justice. I continued examining my Bible on this subject for about three weeks, and the effect of the work on myself was so glorious that I was enabled to speak to between two and three hundred persons about their souls, without any effort on my part. I did not try to speak to them ; I could not help speaking to them. When an Insurance man met me one day and began to talk about Insurance matters, I asked him, " Have you got an Insurance Policy for the next life ? " And in this way I felt impressed to speak a word for Jesus to nearly three hundred people in the course of a few weeks. I attribute this state of 172 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. mind to my close communion with the Lord in the study of His Word ; for it is written, " Tliou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid upon Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." I had been looking over that blessed Word, and the Lord Jesus filled me with Himself, it was so unconscious to myself tliat I scarcely noticed it. I have never taken up any truths of God's blessed Word in this way without being similarly affected. It was at suc!i times that I felt th it it was my meat and drink to do God's will, and I did not try to do it. I do not believe in trying. How many men tell me that they are trying to believe? You eannot try to believe: try is a miserable little word. You are not trying to do the best you can, — you are doing the worst you can. God commands us to believe, and promises strength in the act of believing, and all we have to do is to use it. Yon ate your meal this morning and felt very comfortable : did you try to feel comfortable } The same rule applies to spiritual things as in natural things. The usual announcements having been made, the hymn, — " More love lo Thee," was sung, and Rev. Dr. Gkeun pronounced the benediction. AFTERNOON SESSION. The Conference reassembled at 2.30 p.m. Rev. H. M. Parsons presiding. After singing hymn 48 : " Sweet hour of prayer," Mr. S. R. Briggs read a large number of requests for prayer, followed by prayer trom the Chairman, and the singing of hymn No. 66: " Work, for the nit,ht is coming.'* Mr. BuRSON asked the Conference to remember a special request for prayer which he mentioned, and then offered up a word or two of prayer in reference thereto, after which the following hymn was «ung, 207 : "All my doubts I give to Jesu*.'" The Chairman now called upon Rev. John Smith to address the Conference on the following topic, — HOW TO REACH THE MASSES. BY REV. JOHN SMITH. In a book published a few years ago, in the United States, entitled the " Harvest and the Reapers," some very striking facts are given in reference to church attendance. The writer estimates that in the City of London, England, not more than one-third of CIIKISTIAN CONFERENCR. 173 the poptilation attend any place of worship. In looking at certain parts of America tliinj^s are even worse than this. In the New England Slates, where clnirch attendance is more general than in any other part of the Union, not more than one-fourth of the population give anything like a re;,'ular attendance upon the tneans oi grace; and in taking the whole of the United States, not more than one-sixth attend any place of worship. Of course, in looking at tliese figures we must take into account infants, aged persons, and sick, who could not be expected to attend the house of God. But even after these deductions are made it leaves a very large proportion of the population who habitually neglect the means of grace. Whether we are better or worse in this city and Dominion we venture not to say ; but it is very certain that a large proportion of our population do either systematically neglect or give a very irregular attendance at the house of God. The man who takes the census of a particular community sometimes puts very difficult questions. No problem in m^ithe- matics would be more difficult to solve than the question, What Church do you belonij to ? I once saw a man when this question was put, scratch his head and declare that he was a Presbyterian, and I knew that the only claim he had to that position was that his great, great grandfather had some distant connection with that body. Another man in that same neighborhood, ai'ter a few moments serious reflection, declared that he l>elonged to tlie church oi the "devil ;" and I fear that many m.)re might have claimed the same very questionable distinction, if they had only been sufficiently honest to avow it. Now what is to be done with this mass of humanity outside of the Church ; and how is it to be reached ? We answer, By the power of Christian sympathy, the power of God's grace and truth, and by the power of personal effort. Let us look at these three points. I. By the powet 0/ Christian sympathy. We put this first, for if a man says, in the language of Cain, that he is not his brother's keeper, then, of course, he will do nothing for the masses, but leave them to perisfi. Many, indeed, seem by their conduct, to view matters in this light. They admit that it is wrong by their example, teaching and influence to cause a man to perish, but they think it is not wrong to leave him to perish. In the parable of the good S imar.tan, the Priest and the Levite would have admitted that it was wrong in the thieves to strip, beat, and abuse the man, and leave him half dead, but it was not wrong in them to pass by on the other side and leave the helpless man to perish. But it will not be difficult to show that tliis doing nothing may be the greatest of crimes. The man who received the one talent did not destroy it, he presented it to his master and said, "Lo, there thou hast that is thine ; " I give it back the same as I received i<^ ; but the sentence is, "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." He was guilty of doing nothing, and I 174 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. beg you to note the fearful penalty attached to this sin. Take one or two illustrations to show that a man, by absolute inaction or doing nothing, may be guilty of a great crime. Early one morning, you are walking along yon railway track ; you have not gone far when you find a man lying directly across the track ; his head is lying on .one of the rails. You try to rouse him up, but you cannot, he is in the sleep of drunkenness. You begin to think what is best to be done ; it is just about the hour for the train ; if I leave him here he must perish ; the train cannot pass without cutting him to pieces. But then I did not make him drunk, I did not place huu on the track, he is no relation of mine, and so you quietly fold your arms and walk on, and leave the man to his fate. In a few minutes the cars come and cut the man to pieces, and send him suddenly to eternity. What have you done ? You have done nothing, and yet in doing nothing you have murdered that man ; the great God holds you guilty of the crime of murder. You saw his danger, you could have saved him, but you left him to perish. This principle is so important that we give you another illustration. It is a very warm day, in the month of August ; it is about eleven o'clock in the day. Away in one of these distant fields a number of reapers have been engaged in cutting grain. In the heat of the day they have just sat down under the shade of a tree in the corner of Live field, to enjoy a few minutes' rest. While sitting there they see a man coming across the field; he has a staff in his hand, and seems to be feeling his way across the field. Sometimes he falls down, and then rises up and feels his way a few steps further. As he passes the reapers they see that the man is blind, and this is the cause of his frequent falls. Just before him there is a pit loo feet deep ; he is going directly for it, but not one word of warning Irom the reapers. He comes to the brink of the pit, the staff falls from his hand and tumbles away down the sides of the deep cavern, but no warning voice from the reapers. At lasc he takes the fatal step, and before he has time to think of home, or God, or eternity, he is a mangled corpse at the bottom of the pit. Now what have these reapers done ? They have done nothing ; they have sat quietly for an hour in a corner of their own field, and surely in a free country men have a right to do this ; and yet in the eyes of a holy and just God the blood of that poor blind man is upon their skirts ; they saw his danger, they could have saved him, but they lett him to perish. Now here are thousands of immortal souls that are going down to the pit of ruin, and are we guiltless if we stretch forth no hand to save, but simply leave them to perish. " Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Why was Meroz cursed; did she fight Israel ? No. She wanted to be neutral, and at the close of the war join the strongest party. She did nothing, and for this she is cursed and blotted from the map oi the world. Let each of us CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 175 have that burning zeal for perishing souls that Moses had when he said, '• Forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me I pray thee out of thy book;" or that Paul had when he exclaimed, "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh ;" or that the blessed Saviour had when with an eye of pity He surveyed the doomed Jerusalem, and said, " Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee ; how often would I have gathered thee together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and you would not." Let this holy zeal burn in our breasts and we must and will work to gather in the masses and save souls. II. The masses are to be reached by the power of God's grace and truth. It is not education or mere reformation, however good these may be, that can rescue the perishing or save the souL It is not the gospel according to Huxley or Darwin, that will give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain, '* The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin." He His Ownself, •' bare our sins in His own body on the tree." This was the Gospel that touched the heart and gave peace to a wicked Manasseh, a persecuting Paul, a hardened John Bunyan, a slave tracking John Newton, and a profligate Colonel Gardner. God by His grace and truth can change the hardest heart ; as the genial rays of yonder sun melt these mountains of ice, and change these snow-clad hills into fields of greenness d beauty, so the loving rays of the Son of Righteousness changi uir hardened hearts, and make them beautiful as the garden of the Lord. When the Moravian Missionaries went to Greenland they thought they would begin by proving that there was one God, and after some time when the native mind was prepared for it, they would tell them of Jesus. For five years they labored in this way without any success. At length they changed their course, and began to relate to the poor natives the simple story of the cross. The change was at once apparent ; many souls were brought to the Lord. . The Rev. Mr. Nott who labored for some time in the South Sea Islands, was in the habit every day of gathering a number of the tratives around him and reading to them portions of the gospels. One day, as he was reading in the third chapter of John, when he came to the sixteenth verse, one of the natives started up and said, "What were these words that you spake ? Did I hear them aright ? " Mr. Nott turned back and read, " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever beHeveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The poor native said, " Is that true ? Did God love man when man did not love God ? ' " Yes," said Mr. Nott, " and that is what my Master sent me to tell you that God loved man when man did not love God, and that He loved him to such an extent that He sent His own Son to die that we might live." The tears ran down the 176 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. cheeks of the poor native when he heard this blessed news. When these glad tidings are accompanied by the power ot God's Spirit, mountains of opposilio.i melt before th« Word like slaked lime. Somewhere I have seen the following illustration. There is a very strong tower, and a regiment of soldiers is drawn up betore it. You go to the officer and ask hum what he is going to do. He tells you that he intends to beat down that tower. How will you do it ? He points to a cannon, and tells ynu that he intends to use that. But what can that lifeless thing do ? He points to a ball, and tells you that he intends to use that. But whit can that do? it is helpless in acting against that tower, ile points to some powder, and tells you that he will use that. But what can the pow^ler do? you may pour it from vessel to vessel, or the birds of the air may pick it, but how can it beat down the tower? Well, he says, I will take that lifeless powder and ball and place tiiem in that inanimate cannon, and introduce a single spark of fire, and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, that powder becomes a lightning flash, and that ball becomes a thunder bolt, and that tower is scattered upon the adjoining field. Now, as that single spark of fire gives power to the cannon, the pov/der, and the ball ; so the living hre of the Divine Spirit gives power to all the means of grace. " I once was a stranger to grace and to GihI, 1 knew not my danger and felt not my load ; Tho' fields sp.ike in rapt ire of Christ on the tree, Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me. " I oft read with pleasure to soothe or engage, Isaiah's wild measure, or John's simple pnge ; But e'en though they pictureil the blood sprinkled tree, Jelu)vah Tnidkenu was nothing to me. " When free grace awoke me by light from on high, Then legal fear sho-ik me, I ireml)led to die ; No refuge, no safety in self could I see, Jehovah 'I'sidkenu my Saviour mast be." III. The masses an reached by the power of personal effort. Some say preach the Word, and this will reach all classes. We believe that the preaching of the Word is the great means for the regeneration of our world. " It pleased God by the foolishness of preiching to save them that believe." But how will preaching save those that cannot be got to the house of God ? We build fine churches, and this is all right ; our churches should correspond with our dwellings. Dr. Wayland said a few years ago, in speaking of the United States, "If we keep on in this country building expensi"e churches and keeping up our expensive worship, our population will all soon be heathen, both in the Church and out of it.' It is perfectly clear that the Church will not do what its Divine Master expects from it, if it does not go out beyond its own pala and seek out lost souls and bring them to the Saviour. We should preach the Word, but I believe we should talk the Word too, in Acts xi. 19, it is said, " Now they which were scattered abroad CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 177 upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching;" or, as it is in the original, talking " the Word." No one here doubts the validity or necessity of the Christian ministry, and therefore we do not enter on that subject here. We understand the passage to mean that while the regular ministers preached the Word and dispensed ordinances, all these Primitive Christians had something to say for Christ — they talked the Word. Is not this what is meant in Rev. xxii. 17, "The Spirit and the Bride say come, and let him that heareth say come." Let every one that hears tell another. The great missionary, Williams, when a young man, was working for an ironmonger; he was very careless about eternal things. One Sabbath evening, when Mrs. Tonkin, the wife of his employer, was on her way to church, she saw young Williams standing beside a lamp-post. She asked him what he was doing there. He told her he was waiting for some young companions, and that they were going to a certain place to spend the evening in gambling. She asked him to go with her to church ; he at first refused, but she spoke to him kindly, and so pleaded, warned, and entreated him, that he at last consented. He heard a sermon that night on the text, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul." The heart of young Williams was touched; he accepted of Christ, gave up his sins, an 1 went to preach the Gospel to the heathen. Hundreds of poor heathen throughout eternity will bless God, that Mrs. Tonkin that night so effectually talked the Word. Harlan Page is another instance of talking the Word. While working at the carpenter's bench for three shillings a day, he con- ducted prayer meetings during the week and Sabbath Schools on Sabbath ; and at one particular period of his life, he was corres- ponding with seventy individuals who were anxious about their souls' salvation. He spoke to these personally, or wrote letters pointing them to the Saviour. He talked the Word so effectually that when he was on his dying bed he said, " I know it is all of God and I can do nothing of myself, but I believe He has made me the honored instrument of bringing loo souls to a knowledge of the truth." And when we thus talk the Word and press it upon the poor sinner, are we not following the example of the Divine Master Himself, who has brought salvation to us. There is a vine that has by some accident been torn from its position, where it has long stood entwined around the branches of that mighty oak. Now it lies all prone and prostrate along the ground. Its little tendrils and feelers are going out after the weeds and bramble. It brings forth no fruit ; but let a strong hand lay hold of that vine, and raise it up to its former position beside the oak, and it will bring forth fruit as before. This is what salvation has done for us. Like that vine we have cast ourselves down to the ground ; our affections are going out after the w«eds and brambles of this world ; salvation lifts us up from the dust and sets our affections la 178 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. on things above at God's right hand. We have not gone to God for salvation, but He has brought it to us. And now He says to us, " Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in." And this working for God will not only save others, but it will be a means of saving ourselves. Labor is the great law of the universe ; every atom and every world proclaims this. It is •whisoered in every breeze and reflected in every star ; below, around, above, all things are in motion ; from the swarming insects of an hour's sunshine, that never cease their mazy flight, to the bright seraphim before the throne constantly proclaiming their unwearied worship. Emphatically is labor the law of humanity. The muscle shrinks that is never strung, and the joint stiffens that is never moved, and the limb becomes powerless that is never taxed. Just so it is with all our Christian graces ; they are all strengthened by exercise ; hence, all faithful work to save others will have a blessed reflex influence on our own souls. Then, brethren, let us not be weary in well doing: but let us fight on, work on, and pray on, until that blessed period is ushered in when *' Jesus shall rei<;n where ere the sun, Does Iiis successive journeys run ; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore. Till moons shall wax and wane no more.'* Hymn 205 : " Come sing the Gospel's joyful sound " was sung, after which Major Cole was called upon to speak on the same subject. He said, — It would be well to know how to reach the masses in the Church as well as those outside the Church. We sometimes think if a man simply comes and listens to what we say, that this is the end of it, but we do noi know whether he has been reached or not. But I suppose the question properly before us this afternoon is " How to reach the non-church goers." As has already been said, the same old appliances and methods must be used, and perhaps occasionally something new that the Holy Spirit may develop. I believe if we were only to use the ordinary means that God has given us, that thousands and tens of thousands who are now unsaved, would be brought to Christ. I was talking with a dear brother about what I should say upon this question, and he suggested that I should relate some of my own personal experience ; in doing so I do not wish you to think of me, but of Him who did the work through me. It is quite certain that even Dr. Mackay with all his eloquence, and Bro. Parsons with all his burning words, have never saved a soul : it is the Spirit of God working through them that does the work, and so if a weaker instrument has been leading a single soul to Christ, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. We can say with Paul, " I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," and it is He who doeth the work. Whatever I say this afternoon, I wish to bear on this one point, CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 179 to have the rank and file back up the regular preaching of the Word, that we hear from Sabbath to Sabbath. As Bro. Mackay said yesterday, if the whole Church were aroused to this, and if they were to follow up the sermons preached by going into the highways and hedges, and carrying the Gospel into their homes, it would not be long before the churches would be over-crowded, and new ones would have to be erected. The Lord Jesus is will- ing, but the Church is not sufficiently alive to it. And I believe it is the Spirit of God alone that can prepare us for this work. We must go with the Word of God in our hands, and not only in our hands, but in our heads, and in our hearts, and bear the simple testimony to the world around us, that God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us our sins, and tell them that the same Saviour who has saved us, is willing to save them also. Brothers and sisters, will you just lift up your hearts in prayer, that the Holj' Ghost may give me the right incidents this after- noon,— the incidents that will stir our hearts in some way, so that we may be willing to go out and work for Christ. I believe nothuig petrifies the heart so much as having them stirred to the very core, in such a Conference as this, and then to go out and do nothing for the Son of God. I believe nothing is calculated to make us so cold and indifferent, and steal our hearts away from the truth, as to listen to those addresses which have been spoken, and yet be unwilling to work for the Saviour who has done so much for us. A leading man in Chicago (and manj' of our young members of the Association know him) — a man that has a very extensive business to attend to — has often told me that his heart is hardened on this one subject, " How to reach the masses ? " When asking him the other day, " My brother, can you attend the Union noon- day prayer meeting; the races aie here, and there are many strangers brought into the noon-day meeting ; cannot you come and say a word ? " Said he, " I have a great deal of business to attend to, and I need to go to get strength to do the work before me." And, oh, how it would do your heart good to hear the way that man speaks about the masses. It is such men as he that we need, for they can reach a class that a minister of the Gospel often fails to reach. I believe that our leading merchants have a work to perform, that the ministers of the Gospel are unable to do. When that man stood up there, I heard him say, " My- friends, I have had many hopes that have been realized, but I want to say this, that the pleasure that I feel in standing here at this hour and telling you all the love of Christ, and the joy of having such a Saviour, I tell you I would not give it for all the money I have ever made." Mr. W was with us at the Young Men's Christiaa Association in Iowa, a man worth five million dollars. He said; " I have got money enough to make me a very miserable man, if it were not for Jesus." He had a large hotel in that place, and just before he left, a man from Chicago came up to him and said^ l8o CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. •* I will give you more rent than you are receiving if you will allow me to sell liquor in that hotel." His reply was, " As long as I carry the key of that block, not a single drop of liquor shall be sold there." On his way back to California he telegraphed to his agent in Ohio, " Go and put $5,000 more Insurance on my hotel, and then go to the Gospel meeting and insure your soul." Then he would go on a little further and send more messages, but i'.i every single telegram he had a word for Jesus. I met him in Illinois not long ago, and I saw that man who is worth about five millions of dollars labouring for the conversion of a poor servant girl. That man, you see, with all his immense wealth, had time to send despatches, and time to labour and work, to lead siniT^rs to Christ, — that is the way for the rich to reach the masses. The moneyed men are wanted to come down from the position of influence which they occupy in the world, and speak a word for the masses. My brother-in-law once wrote me about the following circum- stance that came under his observation in one of the meetings which he was holding. He stated that there was not a man there so degraded, but the Lord Jesus Christ could save him, no matter how vile or how sinful that man was. A person came up to him and said, " No, sir, He cannot save me." ♦' Why ?" " Well," he said, " I drive an ox team over the plains, and I cannot do it with- out swearing — the Lord can save a dying thief, and all those other fellows, but He cannot keep a man from swearing who has to drive an ox team over the plains." My brother-in-law happened to know of a member in his church who was engaged in this very business, and he said to him, " Won't you make a statement to that man, and tell him what the Lord has done for you." The reply came promptly, " I am an ox team driver, sir, and have driven over the plains three times without swearing." " Come over here," says the man, " I want to talk to you. Do you tell me that you have driven over the plains an ox team three times without swearing?" The reply was " Yes." " Well, if the Lord has done that for you, I think He will do it for me." It was the only thing that stood in the way. " I'm a lost, poor, miserable sinner, but if the Lord has saved one of my class, I want Him to save me; won't you pray for Him to save me?" So he decided for Christ, and accepted Him as his Redeemer: it is individual and personal dealing such as this, that is needed to reach the masses. This blessed Saviour is ready and willing to work through all men, only let us be willing, and let us carry the message in love. What we want is sympathy, so that we can go out and take them by the hand. Thank God, that while He has not given me a tongue of eloquence, I praise His holy name that sometimes He has put His Spirit in my heart, so that it has burnt in a manner, that I could not help going to the poor lost ones, and taking them by the hand, and telhng them to accept Christ. Oh, may His Holy Spirit give us a burning desire ior the masses, and make us willing to go down CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. l8l into the very depths of sin and iniquity to tell them about the " Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." When Jesus saw the masses He did not care what the Pharisees wanted to do with Him, but what they had not done for the neglected masses, and as His eyes rested upon them. He was filled with compassion, for He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Let us go to them in the same spirit of love, not forgetting that He has promised to be with us, and says, "• If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." Not to lift up our denomination, our colleges, our country, but Him. Tell them of His birth, baptism, temptation, nights of prayer, of His sermons of love to the masses, of His miracles, of Gethsemane — tell them how His loving hands were out-stretched to save, and how the masses nailed Him to the cross — tell them how He died for them ; if this does not reach them, the judgments of God soon will. Oh, God, for Christ's sake, teach us how to reach the masses. • Hymn 215 : " Seeking to save " was now sung. The following address was then given : CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE, BY DR. W. P. MAC KAY. Our subject this afternoon is " Christian Experience," and I feel great responsibility resting upon me for bringing such a subject before you. Let me say at the outset that my theme is not the experience of Christians, but it is Christian Experience, and there is a great difference between these two. Christian experience has no failure in it. The experience of the Christian has much failure in it. The experience of Christians is varied ; but true, genuine Christian experience is always in the same line, and with God. The Epistle to the Philippians is the Epistle of Christian experience. In Ephesians and Colossians we find the truths connected with the Head and body : The Head in Heaven and the body upon the earth. In Ephesians we have the truth of the body of the Head. In Colossians we have the truth of the Head of the body; but in Philippians we have neither; it i<; not the corporate union of Head and body ; it is the individual Christian experience on earth. In this Epistle the word " sin " is never mentioned ; there is no sin in Christian experience ; there is much sin in the experience of Christians. You know a sinning Christian is just like a drunken teetotaler ; I, mean, abstractedly considered, when you say a Christian, the idea of sin is not to be associated with it. Alas ! alas ! the experience of Christians is sin : but the ideal, l82 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. the great ideal from God, is no sin. " My little children, these things write I unto you, not that you sin as little as you can, but that ye sin not." We are to make no provision for the flesh ; and we are not to lower the standard that God has given us in His Word. •' This word write I unto .you, that ye sin not," but thank God for what follows. " If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Helpful and healthful it would be if every morning we could read at the foot of our beds just tiiese little words, " yin not;" and as we go out to work to think of these little words, " Sin not ; " then when we retire to rest at night, to have at the top of our pillow, " If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." It is a blessed thing that in the Epistle of Christian experience the word " sin " is not mentioned, By-and-bye we will be in our Palace Home, where sin never enters : and when we have reached our home we will be satisfied then, but thank God not till then. '• I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness." '♦ Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." The flesh is never mentioned in Philippians but once, and that is to put no confidence in it (the word in another meaning is used twice also) ; that is Christian experience ; that is the government that we must always give vote of no confidence to. It does not matter whether it is the flesh of an unconverted man or the flesh of a converted man ; for, alas 1 the flesh is there still, for we read that " The flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit lusteth against the flesh," and we are to have no confidence in it. We are in absolute dependence every moment upon the in-dwelling and active energy of the Holy Ghost. This alone is the power that is working through the faculties and that new nature within us that has been begotten of God. We are as dependent upon the Holy Ghost for bringing forth the fruits of Christian experience as we are upon the death of Christ on Calvary to save our souls. "No confidence in the flesh." We find two men who were sad cases of failure : one was Judas, the other Peter. We find in the case of Judas a manifestation of ignorant zeal without Christ ; and in Peter we find a manifesta- tion of ignorant zeal and self-confidence joined with Christ. The spring of all Christian experience is this : that faith rises above all circumstances ; in other words, faith puts the Lord between me and every circumstance. The flesh, and reason, and common sense would put circumstances between me and the Lord. Faith puts the Lord between me and circumstances : that is true Christian experience. If sin is not mentioned, and flesh only mentioned once in this Epistle, we find the word "joy," or "rejoice," mentioned eighteen times,. CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 183 When I was a boy I used to think that religion consisted in having a very gloomy, sad and long face, and that you could not talk of heavenly matters except in a falsetto voice. It seemed to be something stuck on to a person, but I found that this was an entire mockery of religion and a sham. 1 found that it had nothing to do with God's religion, and that the only real joy that a man could have in this world was the joy of being in Christ. *' Rejoice in the Lord," and " Again I say rejoice," is the normal truth of the Christian. Ah ! but some one will say to me, •' You don't know my circumstances ; you don't know what household cares I have, and what a large family I have, and how they do bother me, something is always going wrong." My friend, I am here not to talk about your individual circumstances, I am here with a message from God. That you are to put the Lord between you and your circumstances, whatever they may be. But you say, perhaps, that the "Apostle Paul was a great man, a great preacher and theologian, and was not a poor man like me." My friend, do you know where Paul wrote that letter? was it in a nice drawing room, in nice slippers, in a nice dressing gown, with a beautiful pen ? Oh no, he wrote it in a Roman gaol with a soldier chained to his leg. But he scarcely mentions the matter at all, excepting incidentally in this way : " But that I would that ye should understand, brethren, that the things which had happened unto me had fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel." He does not say that his chain was very heavy, or that there is always one man or another with him to see that he is kept right. No, it is for the furtherance of the Gospel ; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace. You see he puts the Lord between him and the chain that was around his leg. He put the Lord between him and the soldier. He put the Lord between him and the prison wails, and the consequence was that he was happy. Ah ! I like that epistle of joy from the Roman prison. The epistle of Christian experience written from a prison. The epistle of Christian joy written from a prison. It was not a palace nor a happy home, but a prison. I think, sometimes, when this epistle had been read in the Churches, that there was at least one man whose eyes glistened with tears of joy, and the whole man bending forward eagerly intent to catch every word. I mean the jailer that was converted at Philippi. Ah ! I can fancy him saying " It is so like Him." He seems to like prisons. I remember well when he was in Philippi, he was singing something that I had never heard in my life before. These men like to sing in prison. Ah ! I well remember when I saw the prison doors open and thought they had escaped, and in my terror I was rushing out to commit suicide, when that dear old man told me to do myself no harm, and then directed me to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of my soul. When Peter was in in the jail, his friends prayed him out from the outside ; but Paul sang himself out from the inside. The 184 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Lord loves the worshipping and the rejoicing heart. "And the righteous rejoice in the Lord always." I was thinking when I was looking up for some thoughts to say about this man of God, about what he himself says concerning his trials. He says, " Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep." Ministers of Christ, where are we all with this dear man before us? He was a man of like passions, and yet what do we hear him say ? " If I must needs glory, I will glory in the things which concern mine infirmities ; " the very things we like to hide. Says he, " It is not ex- pedient for me doubtless toglory. I will come to visions and revela- tions of the Lord, etc.," and then he goes on to say, " Of such an one will I glory ; yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities." "In Damascus," he tells us, " the governor under Aretas, the King, kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands." What a ridiculous position for the great Apostle of the Gentiles to be in ! Think of the Archbishop of Canterbury or Charles Spurgeon being let down in a basket ! well it would not be a very elegant posture to be dangling in mid-air. Ah, we must not talk about that ; it had better be hushed up ; it was so ridiculous. Well, Paul was reduced to this ridiculous necessity. But what do we read further on ? Why in almost the very next verse he speaks about being caught up into paradise. What a contrast 1 Down through a window in a basket, and then away up in the highest heaven, hearing unspeakable words. " But," says he, " lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me." These two things befell him, viz : the being let down in a basket in this ridiculous way, and the thorn in the flesh ; and yet we find him glorying in these. Why? We have it here, "And He said unto me. My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." If you come to the ninth chapter of Luke, you will read that Christ called His twelve disciples together and gave them power over all devils. Mark you, the two things : power and authority; power : to do it, and authority that none can challenge ; because straight from the Master Himself. The twelve had the power to do it; and the authority from Him to do it; but the very first unclean spirit that is spoken of, they could not cast him out. A man came with his son and said to our Lord, " I besought Thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not." Why ? We say it is unbelief, but that is a very generic word ; but you will come to the specific reason, if you will read the forty-sixth verse, when it says, " There arose a reasoning CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 185 amoiiR them wliicli of them shoiiUl l)e the fjreatcst." Yoii find that tlie discipkjs had been reasoniiif^ among themselves which should be the greatest ; that is why they could not cast out the devil. 1 have no doubt that it I'eter had been alile to do it ; he would have probably said, " Well, i)raise God lie is using nic ; 1 am sorry to find Andrew has not been in as close communion with the Lord as heought to have been." The Lord cannot trust us always with success, because we would take the glory. We would think we were something. I believe there is no greater barrier to the work of the Lord than this spirit of jealousy. Mark you, this spirit does not manifest itself between superiors and inferiors, only with equals, who are on the same level. You never hnd superiors jealous of inferiors, but you frequently find that among men of the same class there is a tendency to a kind of rivalry as to who should be the greatest. Some pecjple say, when I get into a new place I would like you to speak upon such and such a subject ; and take up such and such a line of thought ; and to be careful about what I say on certain matters for fear of offending certain people. Ah ! 1 tell them, I don't want to hear anything about what people think, or about what they don't think. I come to preach God's message, and that is one reason why I like to get into a new place ; as I can fire away on the merits of the subject ; and nobody can feel sore at me. I have got to be personal if I want the truth to reach all classes of minds, whether they like it or don't like it. This reasoning as to who shall be the greatest, 1 believe to be the chief barrier in the way of the furtherance of the Gospel. The reason why God ofttimes does not pour upon us His blessing, is because He cannot trust us with it. Reasoning among themselves who should be the greatest, who should be the most successful evangelist, who should be the clearest teacher, and who should be the best expositor of the Word of God. Ah, it is a subtle enemy that we have to deal with, my friends. Look at that dear old Paul and those Philippians ; they were a splendid people ; they had a good deal of Lydia's spirit, 1 think. There was a splendid church there at Philippi, and I think Lydia had a good deal to do with it, I think she set the Philippians on fire about giving. There is nothing so practical, I think, in religion as giving. Lydia was of the same mind, and so were the Phil- ippians. But what about some of the other eliurches ? Paul says, *' These hands have ministered to my necessities" (Paul, we all know, was a tent maker, as well as a preacher of the Gospel). He says, " I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel ; you yourselves know that. These hands have ministered to my necessities." All honor to the dear old apostle, and all shame, I say, to the shabby churches who let him. They had no business to let him work with his hands when he was working with his brains. But the church at Philippi were a noble exception in this respect. I have no doubt that 12^ l86 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Syntyclie and Euodias had been very busy gathering that collec- tion. They wanted to make a good purse for him, but I think Euodias had come across Syntyche a Httle, and that she had made her a Httle jealous ; so Paul quietly puts it : "I beseech Euodias and Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord." There seems to have been a little bother between them, and I fear it was the jealousy that did it. They were jealous who would do the better. So even in the work of the Lord, my friends, there are jealousies that creep in, and this is the cause of much of our failure. Beloved friends, I find that those swift m.inutes are slipping away ; however, it will be continued in our next Conference, per- haps in Toronto, perhaps in the glory yonder, where we wdl have all the Christians there without the failure of experience here. We find in this epistle of the Philippians, there are three note- worthy facts recorded : First, Paul puts the Lord between himself and his bonds ; and then we find that some people were preaching Christ out of contention, but what says the apostle, " What then whether in pretence or truth Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice and will rejoice." As long as Christ was preached, Paul was happy. Then again says he, " According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, as that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." The apostle here puts the Lord between himself and de'ath. Happy even to die, so that Christ shall be magnified. Paul puts the Lord between himself and all possible circumstances. I have sometimes thought of that dear saint of old, David, when he said, " I have set the Lord always before me." This is the same line of thought that Paul had, yet not with such a grana New Testament light ; still the idea was there. " I have set the Lord always before me." I have often tried to imagine what David would have done if he had lived until the incarnation, and known the Lord Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh. Ah, when I read the majestic Psalms of that sweetest singer the world ever heard of, either secular or sacred ; when I read those grand swell- ing hymns, not all tenor or soprano, but down so.ietimes in the deepest base of the awakened conscience : methinks, that if David had lived till the incarnation and resurrection, with Paul preaching and David singing, what a volume of resurrection song we should have had! David and Paul with the Lord before them, and the Lord filling all their history, oh, how happy they were ! They could sing psalms and the highest hallelujahs ; making the prison walls echo back the song. Let us always put the Lord between us and adversity, and we will be happy ; let us also put the Lord between us and prosperity — that is a more difficult thing to do. We are glad to go to the Lord in adversity, we are glad to goto the Lord when we have no one else to go to. There is a passage of Scripture which has just came to my mind about Job : " And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 187 Dear Job was praying for his friends, and not for himself. " And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before : then came there unto him all his brethren." Of course. Do you see the connection ? Do you notice, they forsook him when he was down in the depths, and when the Lord restored him to prosperity, they all flocked around him, every one of them so glad to see him. If I had time to run over all the passages, I would like to link all the "joys" and the " in Christs " that occur in this epistle together ; they would form a nice Bible reading. When people talk about religion, I don't altogether like that word, it only occurs once in the Bible, and I am rather chary of words that do not appear in the Word of God. But I do like the expression, " Rejoice in the Lord always ;" not in the world, not in self, not in money making, but " in the Lord." " Set the Lord always before you." Remember this principle, if you forget everything else. Happiness is yours, if you put the Lord between you and every circumstance , misery is yours if you let one circumstance come between you and the Lord. I feel it a very solemn thing to have taken part in this Con- ference. 1 have attended many Conferences in the old country, from their very first start in Miidmay ; and I don't know any one Conference in which I have felt more of the Spirit of the Lord than in this one. I give it as my decided conviction that God has been manifesting Himself in a remarkable manner, and I feel it all the more under the peculiar circumstances in which I have been led to this Conference ; because I will tell you one thing which I did not think worth mentioning before : it was not of my choosing. I never intended visiting Toronto, I was on the road to Toronto before I was asked, and on my way to this Conference before I had received the invitation of the Committee, simply on account of the exigencies of the ocean lying between us. Dear friends, I have felt myself greatly refreshed in these meet- ings, and have been rejoiced to see so many of my ministerial brethren around me, differing, it may be, in many points of doctrine and church polity, but one in heart and soul upon the grand old doctrines of the atonement and the inspiration of the Word of God ; I rejoice to see them working together with nie in the same blessed work of the Lord. Ah, there are some who would rob us of our grand old silver " atonement money," and would give us instead a spurious German counterfeit. Friends, we will stick to the true coin. It is such men as we have here that we should have in all our Christian Conferelices. Let us go on, dear friends, in the spirit of Christian fellowship, working for Him, who has taught us to call Him " Our Father," in that beautiful prayer which has swept over all our Christian experience ; and here let me say, that in our country we have long prayers, some of them very long ; but this prayer, all comprehensive as it is, can be said in less than one minute. I fear that when people indulge in long prayers in public, they only make up for the little ones in the closet. If you pray sixteen hours out of the twenty-four then I l88 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. venture to say your prayers in public will be short and to the point, and the one hour of worship will be blessed. " Our Father" — the sweetest of all names tells us of our high standing before Him, the highest to which any created being can rise — we are His children, although far away from Him, for He '* is in Heaven." But we come down a little lower, and we are not only children, we are worshippers, and so we say, " Hallowed be Thy name." Here we join with archangels and cherubim and seraphim, who always cry " Holy, holy, holy Lord." Every lowly worshipper in all the universe joins us when v/e say, " Hallowed be Thy name." Then we come a little lower yet, from Heaven down to earth. We are kings, and say " Thy kingdom come. Yes, we are waiting for it ; kings waiting for a kingdom; but we have not got it yet. My uncon- verted friends, we are all kings in disguise — you don't know that ; you little suspect that he who is rubbing shoulders with you with a threadbare coat is a king. Will you come with us ? I have often found that believers' meetings have been the means of lead- ing many to Christ. They see the splendid banquet which our Lord has provided, and they begin to get hungry. You know nothing about kings waiting ior a kingdom. But we are lower than that, — We are servants, wishing to be perfectly obedient, so we say, " Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven." First, children, then worshippers, then kings, then servants. Are we lower still ? Yes, friends, — We are beggars. " Give us this day our daily bread ;" beggars for every bit of food that God puts into our mouths. You may have a hundred thousand dollars, and yet you are a beggar, and if God did not stand at the portal of our lips to supply our wants, we should indeed be starved ; so every man has to pray, " Give us this day our daily bread." Sons, worshippers, kings, servants, beggars, are we lower still ? Yes, — We are sinners. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive ourdebtors." Don't think that any man can get beyond this petition. That petition was taught to His disciples; He told them to pray, " Forgive us our debts, as we torgive our debtors." Are we any lower ? Yes, — W'j are weak as sinners. " Lead us not into temptation," into trial. We are apt to be led into trial. " But deliver us," not from evil in the abstract, but " from the Evil One," as the Greek has it, irom the devil himself, who as a " roaring lion, goeth about seek- ing whom he may devour." But, blessed be God, he does not devour all that he seeks. Was there ever such a prayer as that — from the highest glory down to sinners ? Sons, worshippers, kings, servants, beggars, sinners, weak sinners , entrapped sinners , or ready to be entrapped, does it not cover us all ? Our blessed Master who taught us that prayer is on the Throne for you and me, and He is coming to receive us to Himseli in Glory, when the marriage of the Lamb is come, and they CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 189 shall be gathered from the east, and from the west and from the north and the south, to make up the number of the blessed ones that shall sing of His dying love and His glory there. Ah, Christ is there, my friend, and with such a Christ here, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ within me, Christ above me, Christ below me, Christ at my right hand, Christ at my left, Christ all through ; oh ! his is Christian experience. May the Lord keep us steadfast until the end. Amen. The afternoon's services were closed by the singing of the i(j2nd hymn : " More love to Thee, O Christ," And the benediction. EVENING SESSION. The closing session of the Conference was held in the Metropolitan Church, which was crowded to overflowing. Rev. Dr. Potts acted as Chairman in the absence of the Hon. S. H. Blake, who was unable to attend. ^ The service was opened by singing the 140th hymn. "All hail the power of Jesu's name." The Rev. Mr. Mitchell offered prayer, after which hymn 62 was sung. " Jesus, lover of my soul." The Rev. H, M. Parsons addressed the meeting, taking for his subject, WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? After reading the tenth chapter of Luke from the twenty-fifth to the thirty-seventh verse inclusive, he directed particular attention to the closing clause of the last verse, " Go and do thou likewise." He said : There seems to me some significance and pertinence in our using this thought to-night, at this the last session of the present Christian Conference, " Go and do .thou likewise." Here is evidently an order from the Lord Jesus Christ to every one of us, if we believe in His word, and recognise our privilege and obligation. It is fitting for an assembly of Christian workers to be inspired and consecrated by the Divine Spirit, so that they can go forth with greater energy in the service of the Master. I think it is very appropriate that we should consider this word of our blessed Lord — this injunction that he gives to every one of us. It may also awaken in many hearts here, that hitherto have been untouched, an enquiry that may lead them eventually to yield obedience to this injunction. Let me call your attention to the question that was asked the Lord which gave rise to this parable of the Good Samaritan. "A certain lawyer," as you read from igo , , CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. the text, " came to Him tempting Him," perhaps not with the intention to tempt Him unfairly ; it may have l)een the outcome of a desire in his heart to hear this great teacher answer his question, as He had answered many before. So he asks Him the question, " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ?" Now that reminds us of the young man who came to Jesus on another occasion, saying, "Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ?" Jesus tested the sincerity of his obedience by telling him to sell all that he had and give to the poor ; and we have it recorded that " the young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." The Lord Jesus had touched the very thing in his heart which prevented his receiving the blessing of eternal life. Now we have here a case somewhat similar in the question, •' What must I do to inherit eternal life." Our Saviour never forces anyone to come to Him. He followed out the train of thought in that man's heart who was a lawyer; and the lawyers then were known as the trained instructors ot the law of God. So the Lord Jesus recognizing this fact, told him that he was to observe this law and he should live. But he wished to justify himself, just a? many do now, and puts the question, " Who is my neighbor ? " And that is the question which the Lord answers in the parable which I have just read to you. "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho." Jerusalem was the city of God — Jericho was the city of danger. He was going down there when he fell among thieves, and got robbed and stripped and wounded, and left half dead. Now there came two men that way — a priest and a Levite; they look at him, and then turn their head away, and pass along. It is not to be understood that the priest and the Levite as human beings would not touch that man. I believe that the priest is the representative of God's Law. When the sinner lies bleeding and wounded, the Moral Law says " It serves him right, I can do nothing for him but condemn him;" and so the law passes along. And then the Ceremonial Law comes, the Levite — who looks after all the ceremonies ; he cannot help that man. And then comes the good Samaritan, who stoops down to where he is, wounded and half dead, and takes hold of him, and lifts him up, and pours in oil and wine, and brings him on his beast to an inn. Everybody acknowledges that the good Samaritan typifies the Lord Jesus Christ ; for it was the Lord Jesus who stooped down from heaven and picked up humanity, bleeding and cursed under the Law of God, and planted it on the platform of free grace. "Pouring in oil and wine;" — oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit all through the Bible ; and wine, as used in the Sacrament, is representative of Christ's blood, or life. He then carries him to an inn to be taken care of. So the Lord Jesus has enjoined upon His Church to take care of those upon whom He has thus had compassion, and to minister to their necessities ; "And when I come again," He says, " I will repay thee." Now mark the CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. tgt question of the Lord, "Which now of these three dost thou think was neighbor to him that fell among thieves ? " The lawyer had asked, " Who is neighbor to me ?" and Jesus brings the question for him to answer. Who was neighbor to hmi ? and the lawyer answered at once, "He that showed mercy to him;" thereby confessing the good Samaritan, or Jesus Christ as neighbor to the half dead man. Well then, the dead man is the lawyer and the good Samaritan was neighbci to him. " Who is my neighbor ? " I amthedead man, and that good Samaritan is neighbor to me. Then, Who is neighbor to me? Jesus Christ is my neighbor; and as I love him with all my heart, then I love that neighbor as myself. Then said Jesus unto him, " Go and do thou likewise." Now in our Lord's prayer, He said this, " As thou hast sent Me into the world ; even so have I sent them into the world." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was sent down from the Father to reveal God unto us ; so every believer in this assembly has been called for the same service — having received Christ, to go and reveal Christ to some one else ; just as Christ revealed the Father, so He has called me to know Him, that I may reveal Him to all around, that I may be so filled with the Spirit of Christ, that His Divine Life may so possess me, rule me, and saturate me that every one that sees me will see the Lord Jesus Christ — He in me, and I in Him — He showing Himself throuf^h me to others. " Go and do thou likewise ; " be a neighbor to some one else. But who is my neighbor ? And how shall I treat him ? We are accustomed to think of the poor around us in this connection ; that there are a great many people suffering from their vice in this city without things to make them comfortable, and we say, " these poor creatures are our neighbors." Now, can you love your neighbor as yourself? When you see a person that has sunk low into the very depths of moral pollution, can you love that person as yourself? It cannot be done; try it ; it is impossible for you or any one else to do it, apart from the grace of God. Then what is the meaning of these words ? I hold, dear friends, that Jesus Christ is the neighbor to every one of us ; He is the nearest to us, and has done most for us, and we can never do likewise, and be a neighbor to somebody else, unless we first love the Lord Jesus Christ as we love ourselves; and we can do that by the grace of God. The believer can love t|ie Lord Jesus Christ more than he loves himself, and just as Christ has revealed God to me, so shall I be able to reveal Him to those around me, and inspired by the same Spirit reach down and take hold of the poor, crushed, wounded sinner on the road to Jericho or perdition. I may be so in Christ and Christ in me, that I shall be a neighbor to that man, as Christ was a neighbor to me. Now is not that just the thing we need to enlarge as well as to intensify our sympathies with suffering and sin-stricken humanity? Yes, there must be no limits ; we cannot confine it to a parish ; it must go forth and embrace the wide globe, just as the arms of the loving Saviour have done. But when we come to look at those ig2 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. who are impure, degraded, and polluted by sin in some of its most hideous aspects, the question arises, "How can I be a neighbor to these as Christ has been to me ? " Here is just where the motive lies. Every single human being, no matter how degraded he may be, has the potency, the possibility of being raised and fashioned into the image oi Jesus Christ. Now, dear friends, this is a very important truth, that God gave His well-beloved Son to be neighbor to this dying world, to our foes as well as to our friends — to everybody having the image of humanity. " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." If there is anyone in this meeting who, like the lawyer, is enquiring What shall I do to inherit eternal life ? I would call his attention to the state of this wounded man m the parable — that he was perfectly powerless to help himself, and that you must come to know yourself to be in the same condition of utter helplessness before you can be saved. I am here to proclaim to the sin-stricken soul who has been stripped, robbed, beaten and bruised by Satan's minions, the glorious fact that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, and is ready to take him up in His arms, and bind up his wounds, pouring therein His own life-giving blood, and breathing upon him the quickening energy of the Holy Spirit. By request, Major Cole, assisted by Miss Balmer and Miss ScoTT, sang " Rock of Ages," after which the whole congregation joined in singing Hymn No. 8 : " Have you on the Lord believed ? '' Dr. Mackay then addresi^ed the meeting as follows : Our subject this ^.veiling you will find in the epistle of Paul to the Galatians, ii. chapter, igth verse, " For I through the law am dead to the law, .that I might live unto God." What is the chief end of man ? " Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Here it is more shortly — to live to God. That is the ultimate, the highest thought of man's existence — living to God. What men actually live for since the fall is sel^ — this is the centre, the natural centre of all men born from Adam. It may be sometimes a very vulgar and sensual self, or it may be a very polished and religious self, but it is not so very much the quality of the circumstances that are around that self, as the selfish centre that these circles go arounr!. Man's centre is self. And the true light of God shining upoi ;.a world is to show that the highest living and aim of man is to live to God ; and that m order to live to God, there must something happen in that man, whatever we may call it — faith, repentance, conversion, new-birth. In fact the Bible has many illustrations, and looks at it from many points, it is in short, a change of centre. Man's centre being self, God comes down to every man, and asks him to change his centre. It is a remarkable thing that when man was under trial, God is spoken of sometimes as repenting. Man was tried from ' CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. Igi) the day of Eden's innocence to the cross oi Calvary, f . man was not shown in ail his iniquity until Calvary ; that which showed the greatest love of God also showed the greatest hate of man, for man's history was the history of the gradual development of what was evil in him. We hear a great deal about the develop- ment of man. When we go into very suspicious company with . some of the would-be developers, they talk about development in an upward way ; they talk about development, I suppose, irom oysters up to apes and man ; but if we read the history of man, we certainly read of development, but it is all in an opposite direction, it is a development of evil and not a develop- . ment of good. It is a degeneration from innocence to evil, and ' not a growth from savage culture. This is God's teaching con- cerning the development of man. We find that in Eden, where he was innocent and not knowing any evil, and away from sin, he was so weak and unable to stand that he sold his God for a bit of fruit. We find that when he had conscience telling him what was right and what was wrong, that he did what was wrong in the face of what he knew to be right, and after sixteen hundred and fifty six years of melancholy history, we find that God pronounces that every imagination of the thought of his heart is only evil continually, and He had to sweep away the whole of creation, Noah's family excepted, in that flood of , judgment. They say leave a man to his conscience and it will be all right. Will it be all right ? My friend, you are about four millenniums too late. God has tried man with his conscience long ago. Men had no Bible from Adam to Moses, but conscience could not tell Noah's sons the theology of the fifth commandment ; and conscience could not tell Joseph the theology of the r.eventh. God then tried man in the flesh under His law, and it brought ■ out only that man was a transgressor ; that the law that he had, he broke, so that if our friend the Rationalist is four millenniums late, our friend the Ritualist is three millenniums late, and God has thus tried man in the flesh, not that God might know ; He knew the end from the beginning : but to prove it to men. So when Christ, a person, came, it is no longer merely conscience, and no longer merely law, but it is a person now; and in man's rebellion not only was the mind of the flesh weak in innocence, the mind of the flesh against what was good in conscience, and a transgressor under law, but the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, hates a Person, and hates a Person of God's likeness in the flesh ; and the cross of Christ, when showing out all the love of God to the chief of sinners, has shown out all the hate of man against the best God, the glorious God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They have murdered Him. Oh, brethren, we must not always look at the mere atonement side of the cross, we have also the other side of the cross, which has brought out man's deepest hate and enmity against God. Now, up to this you may read of God repenting, but from the 194 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. moment that man was proved to be good for nothing and enmity against God, you never hear of God repenting. God calls upon men everywhere to rejient. The repenting is now put upon man. There is no thought of God changing His method of thought, or seeming to do so now, for man is proved at his worst, and man's self is sin — self-seeking carnal self, and he would make all in heaven and earth revolve around himself to serve his own selfish ends. The old astronomers had a strange theory of the motion of the heavenly bodies. They thought that this little earth was so big and mighty that all the heaven revolved around it ; that this little speck of creation that we now know to be so little, was so vast and of such great importance, that the sun went around it, and the planets went around it, and the stars and all went around our little globe. The erratic motions of planets rather put them out a little. They could not make out for one or two wanderers that they saw there, sti'' "^hey had to discount these discrepancies, and make out that reall> whole heaven went around the earth. They never thought tnat we were but one little point revolving around a sun, and that those fixed stars were other suns, possibly with planets revolving around them. We have now reached the true and e;.iujt science of modern astronomy, by a change of centre. Now, unsaved man, you have to get into the God of the Bible, you have not to think that you are the centre, that heaven and earth and men have got to revolve around you, but you have to find that God is the centre, and that revolving around Him you will get your true place, and you will live to God and not to self- This was the apostle's thought, " That I might live to God." His great aim was that God might be his centre. Now how did the apostle Paul reach that ? By the words of the text, *' I through the law am dead to the law, in order that I might live to God." You see it is not so quickly done, you must see one or two things before you change the centre. Before you plan how to govern Canada, you have to be elected governor ; you have to get your seat first, and you have to do several things. A man says, " I am bound to live for God ; I am going to live for God." Not quite so quick, my friend. We have something to look into that the apostle Paul looked into when he said, '• I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God." You have to be a dead man unto the law in order that, being dead through the law to the law, you might live to God. Very shortly, I would just fix your thought and mind upon this great subject by three words: first, our condemnation; secondly, our justification ; and thirdly, our sanctification. Firstly, condemnation, " I through the law am a dead man ;" secondly, justification, " I am a dead man to the law ;" thirdly, isanctification, " That I might live to God." " I through the law am dead " — that is first. You must take the dead sinner's place ; you must know that you have been in the ditch, before the Samaritan is of any use to you. •• They that are CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. igf I whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Go to any decent man in Toronto that attends church or chapel, and say, " Friend, are you lost ?" " Oh, no," he will say, " not I, I hope I never shall be. I am a respectable man ; I have a pew, two of them, perhaps, and I pay my part in connection with all church doings; i always have my subscription paid." " Do you mean to say that you have never found out that you are lost ?" "Oh, no, not I." " Well, I am sorry for you, you have to find it out very shortly, ' Foi Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' " My friend, you have yet to find out that you are lost. You have to find out that the law of God is demanding your death, saying " Die, die." Do you feel that you are condemned ? " Oh, no, that is a different question, I think there is rather a con- fusion in terms." I will ask him if he feels guilty, and il he says yes, that is all right. The condemnation is the sentence of the Judge; it is yours to accept the condemnation. Do you accept this character that God has given you ? In this condemnation that has been pronounced, it is not a matter of your feelings at all, it is of God's righteous judgment. Now, friend, are you pre- pared to subscribe your name to these lists of sinners, and say that is the stuff of which you are made ? I do not ask you if you feel guilty of all the sins of the first chapter of Romans. I am sure you are not inclined to murder any one : the question is this, will you go by yourself, or accept the character as given you ? Or, in other words, God has weighed you in the balance, I give you your weight as God has weighed you, will you accept it, or go by your own notions ? It is more God glorifying to accept the character there given, though you be as spotless and blameless as could be» It is more to God's glory that you subscribe your name than for the debased drunkard to accept it. You accept it because God says it ; he accepts it because he has experienced it ; you therefore submit to the righteousness of God, but they being ignorant of God's righteousness, have gone about to establish their own righteousness, and would not submit them- selves to the righteousness of God. Now, here we come to another point, how can God be just and justify such a man ? Guilty ! — I have accepted the doom. Condemned ! — I believe it. How can God be just and how can I be just with God ? That was the question that rose from the smoke of ten thousand altars ; that was the question that flowed in the blood of thousands of victims, all raising the question — how can man be just with God ? It is not the question of God's love, there it is the question of God's justice. How can He be just and yet let guilty sinners into His presence ? Ah ! this was the great question of the Old Tes- tament answered in the New — How may God be just and justify all men who believe in Jesus ? A gentleman came to me at one of my meetings in England where I was speaking, and said, " I cannot believe in that Gospel you preach ; it is a shocking thing, a shocking Gospel 1 do you mean to say that an innocent man dying for a guilty man. 196 CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. is just, or fair, or honest? an innocent man dying for a guilty man, is it just to tlve innocent man?" I looked him straight in the face and said, " No." '* Is it just to the guilty man ? " *' No." " Then v I13 du you preach it ? " I said, " You njay have heard that from someone else, but it is not my Gospel." " What do you preach, sir?" " Listen," I said, " be ver> careful what I tell you ; my first proposition is this, that God became man ; now, sir, where is you logic ? " " In what system or syllogism do you find that statement, that God became man ? Where is your measuring rod that can measure that thought ? Hast thou scaled the highest heights of heaven ? Hast thou measured the deepest depths of hell? Dost thou know the comprehension ol God ? Then tell me the meaning of God's becoming man ? You may reject it or accept it ; but this you cannot do, you cannot measure it ; you can argue upon it ; you can only accept or reject it as a revelation from God. And my second is like unto my first, the Gospel that I preach is this, that God became man and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Can you tell me the meaning of' putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? ' " "I cannot, cannot comprehend that." Blessed be God ! the simplest child in this meeting can apprehend it : it is one thing to comprehend a thing, and another thing to apprehend it, and if the well is deep, yea, bottomless and fathomless, that well of His Gospel is full and running over, and the child's little tumbler can be filled, as the well is full to the brim. God became man and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; that is God's Gospel, that is the Gospel in the New Testament, that is the Gospel of Revelation, that is the Gospel to the glory of God. Darius loved Daniel ; the advisers of Darius were jealous of Daniel ; they entrapped Darius into making a rash decree in order that they might entrap Daniel ; Darius could not fall back from his word ; Daniel had to go away to the lions' den. Darius might have gone all day long endeavouring to get Daniel off, but his love could not do it, his mercy could not do it, and his pity could not get Daniel off; he might have gone to the council, but they would have said, " The law cannot be broken." The law came in at every point. He could not let him off. He might scheme from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, but the grace, and the love, and the mercy, and the pity were of no avail, because there was the law — the law, righteous or unrighteous, the fixed law of the Medes and Persians, standing dead between Darius and Daniel, and he must away to the lions' den. He went: the law of the Medes and Persians had done its worst: they take him away to the den of the lions, and I have often thought that when Daniel sat that night with the lions' mouths graciously stopped, he could look up to the mouth of the den and say, " Well, you have done your worst now, what more can you do? I, through the law, am dead; but I am more now, I am dead to your law : you cannot put me in again." And then, next morning, when Darius came to him and said, " Daniel, CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE. 197 Daniel, has God delivered you ? " " Yes, I am here," and he could then live as the brightest specimen of th< righteousness of Darius in all the kingdom of th»^ Medes and Persians. I, through God's law, in my substitute, am a dead man to the law, that I might live unto God. I have death and doom behind me, and nothing before me but the blessed hope of the return of my Lord, " I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live no longer, but Christ liveth in me." If you take the lost sinner's place, what does God say to you, my friends ? I can do nothing but save you. Let Him save you. You will forget your unworthiness when you are in the embrace of your Heavenly Father, as did the prodigal son. The Chairman, in a few appropriate remarks, expressed the thanks of the Christian friends who have attended the Con- ference : to the brethren who had come from a distance and taken part in the proceedings. / * After singing the doxology, the Rev. Dr. Young closed the Conference with an effectual and earnest prayen CONTENTS. The Call 3 Introduction 5 FIRST DAY. Prayer and Praise Meeting. Major Cole, Chairman, g The Truth that Saves, and How to Present it. By Rev. VV. S. Rainsforu, B.A 14 Address. By Rev. II. M . Pavnter 20 SECOND DAY. Prayer and Praise Meeting. Rev. J. H. Castle, D.D., Chairman, .... 23 Power of the Holy Spirit for Service. By Rev. John Parrs, D.D. . . 24 Witnesses for Christ. By Dr. W. P. Mackav 30 Prayer and Praise Meeting. Rev. A. H. Baldwin, Chairman, 34 The Truth for Saints. By Rev. W. J. Kkijman 34 Grace and Truth. By Dr. W. P. Mackay 41 Address. By Rev, W. J. Erdman 49 Address. By Rev. J. B. Richardson 33 THIRD DAY. Prayer and Praise Meeting. Rev. W. J. Erdman, Chairman 57 The Holy Spirit. By Rev. W. J. Erdman 59 Christ a Personal Saviour. By Dr. W. P. Mackav 67 Questions Answered. By Dr, W. P. M\ckay 76 The Believer in Christ, and Christ in the Believer. By Rev. J. Dbnovan 77 The Relation of the Christian to the World. By Dr. W. P. Mackav ... go Address by Major Colk 95 Address on The Grace of God: Titus ii. 11. By Dr. W, P. Mackav.. 100 FOURTH DAY. Prayer and Praise Meeting. Major Colk, Chairman no " A Man After God's Own Heart." By Major Cole in The Witness of the Spirit. By Rev W. J. Erdman nj Questions Answered. By Dr. W. P. Mackav I2r The Word of God the Sword of the Spirit. By Rev. H. M. Parsons .. 126 The Priesthood of Christ. Ry Rev. Principal Caven, D.D 132 Christian Life. By Rev. II. M. Parsons 139 Naatnan the Leper. By Dr. W. P. Mackay 143 FIFTH DAY. Prayer and Praise Meeting 153 Witnessing for Christ. By Rev. J. C. Antliff, M.A., D.D 154 Witnessing for Christ. By Rev. D. J. Macoonnell, B.D 161 Incentives to Holy Living. By Rev. H. M. Parsons 166 How to Reach the Masses. By Rev. John Smith 172 How to Reach the Masses. By Major Cole 178 Christian Experience. By Dr. W. P. Mackay 181 "Who Is My Neighbour?" By Rev. H. M. Parbonb 189 Address : Galatians ii. 19. By Dr. W. P. Mackay xgz OHRISTIAIir CJoi\fefei\de ^e|)oft^. Oxford Convention Report. Boards, nett 45c. : Cloth... 70 Brighton Convention Report. Board? nett 60 " " " Extra cloth nett i 00 Union Conference. Held at Freemason's Hall, March, 1877. Paper 60 MiLDMAY Conference. Our God Shall Come. Cloth, 75c.: Paper 45 MiLDMAY Conference, June, 1878. Cloth, 75c.: Paper... 45 The Farmingham Christian Convention. Cloth i 00 Clifton Springs, N.Y., Report. The Report of this most interesting and profitable Conference is in press, and will be on sale at our Depository shortly. New York Prophetic Conference. Ready in January, 1879. NE"W BOOKS. Sure Mercies of David. By Anna Shipton. Paper, 45c. Cloth, 75c. : Extra i 35 Fulness of Blessing: or, The Gospel of Christ as Illustrated from the Book of Joshua. Second Edition. Cloth extra, gilt i 50 Daniel QuoRM. (Second Series.) Cloth, gilt 75 BiuLE Readings in the Books of the Old Testament. By H. W. 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