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UAINSFORD, /^'^•^.■/ TORONTO: JAMES CAMPBELL ^ SON. 1878. ^ Ti.K followins pages Imvc l,eeu writt, u .lu.iu" od.l moments; tbis u,„st be ,.,v excuse for abrui,t„c«: „o (D .^ (D W'/io JUiis for Your Soiii. ht'ait loi- Jjady Aiiih- Erskine's iimnortal soul.'" And out of her caniMire sho stepped, the crowtl niakiiii;* way tor liei-, and kneeling at tlie preach- er's feet, cried, " ()1), Mi\ Hill, He must liave it." I It is because I believe in my soul that tliis our earth is but on(; L;reat auction room, and Time j the auctioneer, anur pn^sence you encourage a })o\ver for evil, aijainst whi(di not Protestants alone lift their voices, loudl}' warning the unwary from those reefs cand sands, towards which this wrecker liLiht lures them ; hut Froude, the historian of to-day, in the name of history, brinijs a terrible accusation a^'ainst her. Wher- ever she (Sacerdotalism) has obtained powei*, sbe a})pears, he says, in her true colors. She has been lazy, sensual, tyrannical. She has alienated every honest mind in Italy and S[)ain. [n Protestant countries, whore she is in o[)position, she w^ears tin; similitude of an anixel. She is enerj^'etic and devoted. She avoids scandal. She appeals to tolei-ation, and therefore pretends to be tolerant. Elsewhere slic has kilh^d the s[)irit of religion, and those who break from her believe nothing. Just as almost two centuries ago her abuses created Voltaii-e and his school ; or. to take an- 1 ly ■liit other historic illustration that comes right home to us, the movement called the High Church revival, beginning the early part of the present century at Oxford, excellent as it was in many ways, fruitful as it has been of good to every branch of the Church of Christ in Enoland, so soon as it placed priestly assumption on its banner, grew on the one hand into the excesses of Ritual- ism, and on the other into that movement which has made Oxford to-day largely sceptic. I say again, I think it matters little whether the man who would lay claim to special priest- hood amono' us, calls himself Anolican or Catho- lie, he should receive no encouragement from those who have any wide acquaintance with truth, or competent knowledge of the Word of God. With true acumen the late Prince Consort styled such claims as " the dreams of ecclesiastics out of sympathy with their age, and unable to read its signs." Still the priest spreads his snare, for religiously-minded young men, and alas — more successfully — for religious- ly-minded young women. Oh fathers, mothers, I li 7/(> J) ids for \ 'onr Son// i3 brothers, bnware how you aUow those clear to i you to attend iiwiutsfcrt/ schools. With Canada's s})len(lid educational advantages there is little I excuse tor such lecklessness. Is the word too ! strong, as apulied to tlie conduct of tliose who nlloti' their little ones tirst ])riceless years of intelligence to he sj)ent beneath this deadly u])as tree, under whose shade no nuin or nation can thrive ? But another voice is bidding, more powerful than the Pjiest's. His in'ice, too, in most cases sounds much more tempting. This is he that met the young man, Jesus, once, and told him the great end of life is material good. Phillips Brookes says, sooner or later this devil meets every young man. " All aims not tending to innnediate comfort are delusions, and [)hysical ease the only solid pii/e to be gained." this ly- ing spirit cries. " Look round you and see written on the face of things the truth of this. You don't mean to say so many can be wrong ! They are doing no harm, or only a little now and then — an odd slip, you know. They will 14 Who Bids for Your Soul? tell you they liave only tiiue to live for them- selves. And why should you, too, not take things easy, why resist that craving, deny your- self that enjoyment ? Trouble will come soon enough. Quickly you will lose the keen zest of youth. Take and eat, oh young man. Taste at least the many sweet fruits round about you. You need be no Puritan. Life means, first and foremost, enjoyment." Tell me of the man who has not heard lies like these rising within him. Every soul that has fought the good light against selfishness and sin, knows that such attacks are hardest to resist and need the whole armour of God. But look at it. This secular- ism is only a gorgeous cloak thrown over comi- mou, vahjar, iudfid, self -gratification. Here is really indifference to all aims in life, except self " Behold," such an one cries, " oh impoi- tant me ! " There is no spirit more completely irreligious, unchristian, than this. And yet you find a religion the very soul of selfishness, often forming a part of such a life ; or rather not of the life, for such a life knows no religion, but / V/io Bids for Your Sonl / 15 a j)art of the st4tish provision made against any possible harm to come. Selfish men fancy them- selves religious, but their religion is like the in- surance policy they hold on their house or busi- ness, something put r^afely away against an evil day, effected at very low rates indeed. I heard tlie jji-ayer of such an one oti'ered each morning, ran thus : " God bless me and my wife, My son John and his wife, We four and no more, " Amen." Our churches are full of these men. They come to the Lord's Table. Some of them are old. There remains small hope of rousing them. But some are young and half unconsciously are glid- ing into their living death. May I have an eain- est word with you? I will speak straight to my own soul ; for again and again I find this fiend of self has stealthily crept to the door, whisper- ing of unmanly sloth, unchristian self-indulgence. " Your idea of life itself is w^rong," he says. " It is but just that so far as means permit, you should create a life for your taste. Life need surely not i6 IV/w JUds for V()//r Soitl / bo so filled with privation and self-denial. A })leasant path is before you, a worldly f^-ood. Soul, take thine sufficiency ease ; eat of tl le fat ; drink the SAveet ; and while youth is yours, be This d] of oth cL earn needs is but a dream. You cannot set the world ri^-ht. Take your share of her good things and be thankful. The cold may come — be wise and spin a soft warm cocoon around thyself. Look after No. 1." "Tis a siren's fatal song that has a fatal ciiarm for us all, The best of us is like a vessel full of liquid more or less clear, but with plenty of sediment at bottom. Stir it up sufficiently^ and foulness will contaminate all — life becomes a stinking puddle ! It is true. Only let all men frame their lives as self will dictate and soon, like a pack of hungiy dogs, we would be snarling and lighting for the biggest bone. Look round and see if there are not reasons why you should never yield to this seducing bidder — self. Are you con- tented that your life and death should, as Shake- speare says, like a Turkish mute, lack a IV/w I) ids for Your Soul? 17 tongue. Arc any of us still ig-uorant of the lesson til at *' It is not ,v'ro\vin}; like a trci.', In bulk, (loth muko men bcttir l)o, OrKtiUuiin;,' luii^', an oak. tlireo liun, bruthei-, is tliero in sucli a life ? r liave stood at tlio storii of an Atlantic stcauier as she [)lungc(l onward, a glorious night, in mid-Atlantic. The heavens .-ibove seemed not to s})arkle more than the depth below, and far be- hind and beneath the keel, the [)]i(js[)horescent U'leamino- of the ocean seemed U) stretch, a shin- ing trail. But oh iiow so'one ; and not a vestige remains to mark the track of the great ship. And like that shijfs course in the deep, it seems to me, many lives are })assing. A bright and shining trail may even for a mo- ment Hash a flame l)ehind them; butlikethe.se gleaniings of the ocean, they are but sparkles that soon die down. There is iKjthinnto show f)r the precious opportunity of life after all. In Ood'.s name, let us leave something better behind us (2) V 1 l8 M'^/u) Bids for Your Soul / than a track of foaui. Better, did I say ? Have some not left worse ? Have not some left things, strewed along here and there, that they even dare not call harmless foam — things we wish to sink, but sink they cannot — sink they will not; and but for them the way of our lives had utterly perished. Living for self ends in living for sin. These are facts, and God knows solemn facts enough ; but there is yet another side to this ([uestion. The ma.i who tries to form this life just to suit himself cannot stop there. He must create a fanciful world to come that will be as satisfactory as the present. It is scarcely con- ceivable that man should so succeed in blinding himself, but so it is. His idea of the future is a bigger i)resent — more success, more credit, more freedom, more pleasui'e, more wealth, more time, more idleness, more sin. This life re[)roduced on a greater scale — none of its drawbacks — is his idea of the next life. An image of himself thrown forward into eternity, a shadow gigantic of the present. He lives for it ; he cannot bring himself to think it must be ever utterly dragged 117/0 Bids for Your Soul f 19 fVoTii liim. He i^azes down tlic future ; there, too, I'anev bids liun belmld a <:lorifi<'(l self. The process bv which the niirack' is wrought is natu- ral eiiouLili. He comuieiKM'd life bv turniiiij: his l»aek on the Sun of IliLfliteousness — tliat " lirhl " — and as, year after year since then, tliat sun has sunk lowei" in the horizon of this self-wor- shippcr's life, an ever greatcniug shadow of himself has stretched its dark leniith l)ef(jre him. Litei-al- i}' he has been "walking in a vain show." And as that sun still sinks and the shadow deepens, it hides the very brink on which even now his feet stand — and so beyond the grave he dieams of a gi'ander self, a still more important " I."' How such ideas, how such men, have made (jod's whole creation groan ! Thank God, it cannot be for evei'. This little islet of time has been marred, but tho continents of eternity shall know no mark of iailure. The Father's idea for the life to come is this : the best life i)Ossil)le for the whole creation of God. Love has determined this; Wisdom plan- 20 / Vho Bids for Your Soul ? ned it ; Aliiiiglitiness i)lcdgcd to effect it. No 1; itted iiuin can ho peiiijittea to interfere with it. Come, now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. The kiiiiidoui of heaven must have a Kinjjj. He wdio lias placed the sand for a bound to the sea would woo the strani^e will of man to reason. I cannot be my own Lord. I cannot IkjM the tiller of life's ship, if I hoist the black flag of unnatural rebellion auainst mv Father, His kingdom, His laws, His subjects — for this is what it comes to if I am always to rule my life on ]»rinci])les of self-interest. 1 am drawing an uiniatural picture of the sin of living for self — some may say, over- colorc'l. You cannot over-color it. Self-love re- ceives its death-blow when Jesus is allowed en- trance to the heart. The very first principle of a Christian's life is : hencefortli " I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" — livino- ever in me. to reproduce as I yield iny self, my being, up to Him, His own life. This Christ taught by word and deed — this the changeless gospel of the o'l'ace of God, which men must obev in order to taste God's salvation. Disobey, lV/i(? Bids for Your Soul / 21 here and now von c;\ii, but as I said, in that case the tiller of life's slii[) must be i^rasped by another hand, and bounds bo put to your ])o\v(M' of - harm throu'di continued disobedience. Paul says we are ^xcuseless, (^ven if without the ins[)ired word of God — excu.seless if we ignore the fact, so plainly is it tau^^'lit in the thinos (lod has made; the things not seen. He cries, "the invis- ible things from the creation of the world are clearlv seen, beinj^; understood bv th(» tiling's that are made, even his eternal ]K)wer and (Jod-head " — (Rom. i. 29.) Every day scientific discovery cries Amen to the Apostle's profound assertion. You cannot live for yourself As the messencjer of God, I ask you to sto|), reason, think — if you won't love. Be not slow of heart to read what is written on the sky spheres, traced in tlie mazy network of the stars by nii-ht, flashed from the furnace of the sun by dav — snow and heat, cloud and vapor, stormy wind, fulfil his word. Rei)el- lion is impossible. No errant world wanders from its course ; no anchored island seeks a more sunny sea. The mighty God, the power that has T? U7/(f JUds for Your Soul/ its centre in the tliroiie of the eternal, rules alL His sceptre controls the furthest wanderings of the most distant star. In all ages men, with tlie Psalmist of old, have cried, " Whither shall I go from thy spirit — whither shall T flee fi'om thy presence ? If I ascend wy into heaven tliou ai't there ; if I make my bed in hell, hehold thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me." You cannot ignore God. One rel)el star amid God's millioned host cannot fall alone. Any astronomer will tell us this. One j)erinan- entli/ successful sinner would w^reck the throne of the Almight}'. Man plans his death in refusing the offer of Christ. The Lord Jesus reveals God's purposes in reference to ourselves — what pur- poses they are I He, the Creator, recognizes (if I may say so) the wondrous possibilities of the creature He has made, and aims to draw the creature life nearer and nearer, as ages run, to the Creator. Here is the only true principle of pro- gress for man — a life in wliich God is more and 11///0 I y ids for Your SonU 21 more — self, less and I'^ss. Take a\v;iy its material part. •' Let Ro the brcatli ; Thero is no dcatli To tho living soul, nor lo-;^ nor harm ; Not of the clod Is tho life of God, Lot it mount as it will from foi'm to form.'" Ami mount up it shall, since Jesus has come down; tor in his asceiidini;' resurrection glory, faith can sec the earnest of the harvest that is to be. The ([uestion for you to settle is whether your voice shall be one to ininofle in that chorus of the redeemed, or by reason of long-continued disobedience to the true interests of your eter- nal being, and obedience to the fleshly impulses of this hour of trial, 3-0U become one of those "things that (^flend." Let me entreat you to face the inevitable. l\\ either case you must obey; disobedience cannot be prolonged, for it would be against the interests of all that it should be allowed any longer to rule. Burke in one of his finest speech(?s said, " Sirs, ' r i I we cainiot altci* tho iinturo of thini^s." Ff tliorc is a God — obcdieiifc! to Him is in the nature of tilings. Thwart Him we m;iv. Sin for a little moment does. Alter the nature of thini^s none ran. The moon, the snn, tlie stais in their courses say, we know it, we feel it, we cannot alter this " natun; of things." The rain and the snow cominci" in their order crv, *' we cannot alter the nature of things." Summer and wnnter, youth and age, repeat the solenm warning: " To nil tilings are markid out the pbice aud hour ; The child must be a child, the man a miiii."' I hear the childrens' lauijh rino- dow^n the street as the school door opens. No one won- ders ; it is the nature of things. And this nature of things j^ou cannot alter. Only one voice dares to whisper that you can be permitted to continue to bo your own centre, that is the voice of a heart you yourself have trained and encouraged not to be a true pro})het, but to prophes}^ smooth things, to whisper deceits. Even this voice only dares tvhisper. JJ7/(> /)/\/s for Yo/tr Soul? 25 Call the roprcsciitativt'8 of all estates in your heiiiL^ to a ])ailiaiii(Mit. lict wisdom 1)0 heard; unloose tl le tonuue of eonsei-i- tion, uitli spokesmen too, aL^ainst the snvdid cor- rtrpted, hribiiin" ,iL;'overinnent, you have set up over yourseli". Let the atieetions plead. Before you irrevoeably east the die for war with your Father, (Jod : let, I beseeeh you, the whole par- liament of your nature speak. Sit down and count the eost. Can you meet Him who conieth against you ? for this He certainly must, and will. Nay, here is the sole faet, the eonelusion of the whole matter: .lesus died, and died and rose, to reveal God's will to me, and to brini]^ mv will in sweet eternity of olad willinLTness, to be a fellow-worker with God, a ])artn('i' in the plans (I f-peak reverent]}^) of His life ; to enter into them as the bride enters into the plans of her husband. H" 1 will not enter into those plans, I shall not be permitted to hind(M- them, [f I elect not to .shine in the great temple of know- ledge, of truth, beauty, purity, of holiness and I 26 IV//0 Bids /or Your Soun of glory, I cannot be allowed to shine — a false lio-ht — to hire others to their doom. God vAll pid my light oat. Science tells us that round and round our world, in the dark and silent ether, some smnll planets are revolving; no ray of light falls from them ; in paths of darkness and of silence they move for ever. Think of it — round and round at the bidding of God to move for ever, not because 1 loved his will, but because I am a creature and must obev ; a star without a light, a soul without a hope. But to look at this question of living for my- self for a moment from another point of view: Live for myself as I may, even then I do not satisfy myself One thing is absolutely certain about the Lord Jesus : He knew what was in man. If remarkable for nothing else the Gos- ])els give us the most searching expositions of human character that we possess. At the outset of his ministry He said, man was not made to be a mere machine for absorbino- and assimilatinof bread — that tliere were mechanisms (if I may so say) within him that are no more capable of Ije- IF/iO Bids for Your Soul ^7 ing supported on broad, tliaii these bodies of oiii's could support life on gravel and stones: "Man cannot live by bread alone;" and if nothing else is o-iven or received by liini, for lack of food these parts die. This is a simple fact of which each of us can become assured b}^ experiment. The Lord went on to say that the true man, the better man, can only exist b}' feeding on God's word. From day to day this part of man needs the reinforciniif of evei'v word of God, just as the fleshly coating of us needs constantly to be leinforced by the world of tlesh and matter outside; and that where man feeds on nothing but this, Ijetter thoughts, bettei* desires, better self, dies; or only from time U) time can feebly respond to the knocking of the Saviour at the (dosed heart's dooi'. Is this life to have all of you ? Is this world to be the octopus that, clingino' I'ound vou, numbs every better, holier, sensibility of your being ? This life is a groat o[)portunity. I have no sym])athy with those who speak of it as a life r" : ' 28 JV//0 nids for Your Soul? wh(.'ie shadows Jind sounds of dread are alone encountered — one dark, dreary Kyber Pass sort of life. Tliere are passes dark and deep, but tliere are plains and i'air valleys too. This world, as wc^have it, is a great tield to work in, a great garden to pin}' in, a great camp to train in, a great tight to struggle in, a great library to think and read in, a great mart to be busy in, a great tent to rest for a niglit in, a great temple to worship in. But not field or garden, cam}) or fight, library or mart, tent or temple, are meats for the soul; and sooner or hiter the sense of dissatisfac- tion comes to all. I do not mean to say that the soul is permanently dissatisfied. But which of us can sny we have never had liours of insUjld, on this matter, when of all the meats, many and various, s})read before us, we knew there was not one dish for the sonl ; and clearly, unmistake- ably the inuncn-tal within us cried, all these are bread, and 1, a mdii, cannot live to l)read alone. And till you have deadened all that is best with- in you, polluted eveiy coi'iier of your life with the stMliment of self stirred uii b^' the ixratifici- JV//() Bids for Your Soul? 29 tioM of every passing whim, you cannot altogether silciice God's witness to His own Ijeini^and riu^ht- fnl claim to you and yours. Do I not speak the trutli i Hear men like J. Huxlev, who liave set their faces aiiiins': a iier- pei sonal God, ciy out in agony, tliat like a drown- ing sailor at a lien-coop, they clutch at the idea of God. And wdiy d Bids for Your Sonl? ^i lueiits of his religious, or iL'sthetic being — a shaded himp for study Avithin, a poor guide in tlif dark- ness without. His sword and armor — ho hibels them carefully, "the whole armor of God" — are there ; oh, }es, displayed on the wall they seer.i to bear but scant evidence of service. He is a carpet soldier ; and to any listening on the one hand to his w^ords, and then on the other i>-azino' on his life and acts, the incongruity is so evident, the inconsistency so monstrous and complete, that it is small wonder men believe him to be a sort of religious fossil, havini-' the form (^f o-odii- ness but utterly denying its power. "If this is all Christianity is," men are saying — "If the self- worshi[)per is the only heir of those who turned the world u[)-side down, if Christianity is only a bundle of shells, Christians a bundle of sham^, we must have jiomething moie in keeping with our age and need." So Uie famished soul of man cries for bread, and the Church of God gives, with a smile, a stone. The Lord teach us to come out of our Capuas. There are earnest men and women who ai"e kl\ 32 / / 7/0 Bids for YoJir Soul ? living lor otliers, (unconsciously often, I think, living for Jesus), who would blush to utter the excuses current among us. " Go into the highwcays and fetch them in. Compel them to come in." '^ Ah, Lord," the Church is replying, *' the highways are very viuddtj. I am alraid of soiling my fair white garment." " What art thou doing for the poor fallen outcast ? " " Ah, Lord, we are afraid of contaminating our mothers, wives, daughters ; we pay an occasional Bible-woman, though; we teach a class when found for us." Do many go out and i-'ather in lost lambs ? Jf asked what true religion is, we reply^ James has told us : "True reli^cion and undeiilcd before God and the Father, is this : to visit the father- less and widow in their affliction, nnd to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Very simple — so wdiat do we do ? We pray once a week in fcner •ally day it may please Thee to provide for the fatherless children and widows, and all that are desolate an( opp ressed." There it ends. I ask in God's JV/w Bids for Your Soul? sight, is the life tliat only prc^duccssucli fruits as these, the life of Jesus Christ in vour soul, " the hope of glory." Then as to o-ivino- — you mii>-ht as well a:-k some Christian (sic.) men f)r an eye-tooth, as for a reasonable subscri])tion. The Word of God tells us to put aside a certain part of our incc^me, and to ^-ive systematicallv. We smile and talk of '•' liberty ; " and since the Jew under the law gave from a sixtli to a third of all he had — the child, the heir, under the Gospel, won't lend his Father's cause a tentJi. Make an honest estimate and see if you have given anything like as much. Is it anv wonder some are clutchinii; in vain at the God of the Bible ? If these are Bible Christians, ah, cliildren of God, let us cry with David, " Send out Thy lii>ht and Thv truth that they may lead me and guide n.e." The}^ will most surely lead us, if we will follow, where they led the Psalmist, to God's altar (Ps, xliii. 4?), there again and again to present to Him a more honestly complete surrender of self But let me for a moment once again address 1^ \ I \\ ^ myself to the young men and women among us who do not yet veiy much care for these things. You say you make no profession of Christianity, and are therefore not guilty of this hy2)ocrisy. Are you pre[)ared to adopt the mean coui'se of self-government you work at in ethers ; have 3^ou no and)ition beyond that of ^svrp's frog, viz.: to blow yourself out and out till you cannot con- ceive of any being bigger? Are you contented to be "a swell/' a coat of broad-chjth and a soul of dirt; to live for sleeping, eating, driidving dressing, and generally enjoying ^^ourself ? " Oh what avails to understand The merits of a spotless shirt; A dapper hoot, a little hand. If half the Httle soul be dirt." or a mere dawdle, life one saunter, fond of look- ing in at shop Avindows; and now I come to think of it, nothini'- could be more sio-nificant of all your life — a life spent in gazing on the indus- try of others, but no wares of its own to sell. A man sinks ])r('tty low before he arrives at this point; but some have. Can no rel)uke shame our young men and Avomen from such an aim- lessness of existence ? It is nut life ! Can no sense of duty rebuke this devil who tells them life is no more than meat ? Sometimes, not often, I have seen men start irom this life of yawning, and address themselves in their own strength to the problem of existence and its re- sponsibilities ; but in such hearts naturally in- clined to blind (jbedience to self — you need the permanent power within that a personal relig- ion can alone offer. Only tlie Ciiristian can say aright : " Even while I look, I can but heed The restless soul's incessant fall, Importunate hours that hours succeed Each clamourous with its own sharp need, And duty keeping pace with all."' Before middle life most men and women have learned what a i)itiful failure self is. Bitter experience has a knack of teaching its lessons, so tliat once known, thoy can never be f(jrg()tten ; but oh, in middle life, how far Ijchind seem the days of youth, how salt are the tears uselessly shed on those early o})})ortunities for ever gone, habits harboi-ed in the soul tliat will not favour us. m li I 36 lV//(> r>iils for 1 \)Nr So/// ? ravens that ci oak, " never more;" hover in the })hie.st sky of the man's life \\li<» has wasted liis youth. That the dawdler and swell are selfisli to the core, none can deny. But there are others who unconsciously listen to the coaxing voice of thr* same devil that met Jesus. Such are they who start in life with [)urposes good and earnest, at first self-denying — industriously hent on at- taining some chosen end. Ch'adually, almost in- sensibly, as the fervour of youth cools off, they shrink on their own centre — like the coolino- tire of a waggon v/hecl. The profession or business used to be, as it ever should be, a means to an end. Fast it becomes the end itself It becomes all and all. Such a man pays his way — he is proud of it. He gives the market price for everything, whether men, to do the work of his store or office, or potatoes for his table. But the idea of responsi- bility fast leaves him. I say his life grows narrower and harder — more self-concentred. You remember the legend of Cleopatra — how in 117/0 1 lids for Your SoiiH 37 a wild hour of triumpli tlnj passimiate (Juceii of Ei;y[)t cast a pricfdcs-; poarl iiitoa cui) of vin(>L;-ar, dissolved it, and draid< it down. Yon are sqneozin^ all tlio essences of your Itcini;' into a cu]>, to hceonie like Cleopatra s, a lerril)lo sol- vent, in which the ])riceless })earl of the soul is dissolved and for ever lost. Turn not away thoughtlessly, ^'ou cannot alford to blink any- thino- reallv true. See if self is your (Jod. Te>t yourself. You can if you will. Ijcft alone with a friend, a political or mercantile man, ytjui* con- versation would tlow on these matters. A lady whose social |)osition made her seem to yon one it were well to cultivate, would find you anything but dull. Here is a man, }-our friend ; a girl your compaidon ; he or she has been deej)ly moved ; there is somethini>' on the mind : at last it comes out — sin — " how may I have sin par- doned and overcome ?" '" Oh," sighs the burden- ely societ}^ with cause of wonderment, how so orthodox parents raise such unorthodox children. 1 say I need not dwell on ii! this, since it is not a subject for advice, but one for prayer and self-examination. But there is a mistake made by some whose lives arc most con- sistent, whose acts plainly repeat to all, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' It is this: i\\(ij pooli-pooU cliibiislt doubt , and most unwisely reply to childish difticulty. Childisli doubt — yes, it is a reality ; and if you will oidy remember what is indis})utal)l3^ true in regard to all honest doubt, viz., that it does not suddenly invade the soul, but grows to it — slowly advances fr(mi stacfe to stance — vou will understand how real the danger is. You cannot suppress a child's mind when one of those strange questions, giving maybe a more real glinij^se into human nature than any other, is put to you, by saying it is naughty, and changing the subject. You drive the fever of inquiry in, instead of drawing it out, and thereby make a more hurtful mistake than if you Iiad by unwise measures suppressed a fever rash. The common way children are taught, is to my mind, bad as it well can be. We bcixiii with them :4 IV/io Bids for Your Soul/ 41 oil the outskirts of Christiauity, as it were, and work ill ; instead of boi'innin^'' at the eentre — God's centre, God's revehition of himself — and so ivork out, first of all lixiiiuf the i{i'owiii I am holier than thou." There is one sort of infidelity, egregiously igno- rant, conceited, and dishonest — no root of manly earnestness in it anywhere. But there is another 'K III ii 44 IV/io Bids for Your Soul? kind — as widely different from the first as well can be — yet the two are sadly confounded. The first — the young man who, smiling superciliously, gently intimates that he is too wise to be caught by such old woman's stuff' as the Bible-stories are made of — is, you may de}>ond, either an empty- headed parrot that repeats the word the last passer-by has put into his mouth, or a man refus- ing Jesus and finding fault with the Bible — why? Because, first of all, the Bible finds fault with him. LiivC the godless king Jehudi, who, when the Word of tlie Lord rebuked his life, first cut it with a penknife, and since it held together still, threw it all into the fire — so our dishonest young unbelievei', rather than have the truth uive the lie to his lixC, gives the lie to the truth, and in doing so, takes a long ste}) towards searing his conscience a>.d destroying his soul. For the Divine law decrees that faculties left unused de- cay. Consciences sinned against, day by da}^ become like sea-shells, thicker and harder. Self- deceived he )i(do\\ foAicies he really ought not to believe^ what he began by not fV'tn{i)i;j to believe. Jl7w Bids for Your Soul? 45 He was Tintrcio to himself, untrue to his con- science. God spoke to him l)y it-hut speaks no more. Now the other kind— it has a soh in it, not a kugh— often has its beginnings in a boyhood de- void of parents' wise sympatliy,as 1 said. Such doubters are not unconunon. Tliey demand our tender pity and prayerful help -denunciation here does harm. They lie wounded, and feel the wound-yet are they distrustful of the balm of Gilead. The loss of every one such to the cause of Christ is incalculable. There are good men and women among us —lovers of Christ —whose ignorant, harsh dogmatism, will always repel such poor trouble-tossed souls. Instead of pouring in oil and wine, they seem only to be supplied with vinegar, which they freely apply to wounds. They do not uuderstand anybody doubting about anything. Hearts of the nature I now speak of cannot be too gently handled, too carefully examined. By such e^.amination alone can the real cause of trouble be discovered. The ordeal of doubt is a terrible one to pass through. 46 IV/io Bids for Youi' Soul? None can symi)athize fully who have not exper- ienced it. Surely least of all can those (a class more numerous tlian we think) who only believe much that is in their creed because they have never thouo-ht about it. Now, do you not see the danger here ? This man whose faith is shaken, comes across one such. He feels repelled. He knows he is mis- understood. He longs for the life that Jesus can alone offer. He wants S(;me one, in short, to preach Cltvlst to hlin. I do not mean the Christ that nineteen centuries have decked out almost as they will, and fenced around with many and sharp-pointed creeds, but the t" rist who can give a man victory over himself — who still cries, "if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him " — the Christ who did live, did die, did rise — Jesus, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, — the Christ whom none can deny as an historic fact — the Christ seen in the sha- dows of t]ic Old Testament — tlie Lord fTesus Christ who lias hroiujJd life and immortality to liyJd in the New. But is this the way we invari- t IV/io Bids for Your Soul ^ 47 ably go to work^ Do we not begin, as I said, by dwelling on tlic outlying detences of Christianity, instead of praying the fearful one to gaze on the indestructible foundations of our holy faith, leading him to cry, " Lord, to wiioni should we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." If he doubts as to the inspiration of the account we have of those words, don't give him up in despair. Try and make him see that the more he studies the character of Jesus the more naturally do such words as we have, befit Him who *' spake as never man s})ake." 1 have no time or space here to attem])t replies to doubt. 1 can only give suggestions as to deal- inof with the doubter. But I feel 1 am on firm ground when I say, just to sum up what I have said, the want of success attending the efforts of most Christ' ms in dealing with him arises from the foolish fallacy, that difficidties are best over- come by ignoring them. (Jiie would fancy there were no such things as eyes and books in the woi'ld, to say nothing of evil counnunications. No one can be even moderately well ac(piainted % K i\ wifi tho best literature of the clay, and not be aware of the constant attacks made on religion and the Bible. Men will accept nothing without test. Thank God for it. No true test can per- manently cloud the truth. And no wise Chris- tian will fear to submit to most searching criti- cism that revelation on which for time and eternity he stakes his all. Those sadly misread the signs and needs of the times who cry out in horror, " sacrilege ! " when men, often earnestly seeking the })earl of great })rice — willing, too, to part with their all for it when found — roughen tho suri'ace of our theological fields as they dig for it. In this way the differing theories men have deduced from the revelation of Jesus will some- times get knocked about — theories not seldom forced on the Church b}^ threat and ban — but the Bible never stood so firmly as it does to-day. All the fiercest rationalistic criticism of Germany cannot lay one finger on the four great l]pistles of St. Panl. Any one of them supplies u,. r/ea- pons for a complete armor}^ Take unbelief in time, and begin from the mj ^ IV/io Bids for Your Soul? 49 centre. Take what none can deny, and insist on what it inchides. Leave the outer defences; men will ever differ as to tlh\se (the various theories of atonement or ins})iration, for example), till the soul is won by the real Saviour — tlie life saved by a look at the crucitied. * * * * * -5v •X- Thei'e are two schools of Atheism. We may roughly divide those who don't believe, between the two. I speak of Atheism — not unbelief only — but of Atheism proper, i. e. the denial of {}) a personal God; {'!) a personal innnortality to man. I have referred for a Uioment to the students of the first already. This school is unbelief, allied with excess and gross ignorance. It is tin infidelity of license. It is clieaj), and lying. It reached its highest point, perhaps, in the i'rench Revolution of last century. You know enough of history to recall the difference m the etlects of our English Revolution of the seventeenth, and that terrible earthquake causing all Europe to tremble, the French Revolution of theeighteentli century. Religion restrained the one and rendered 50 117/0 Bids for Your Soul? its offbcts pernicanent, curbing luitioiuil license, handing down to tlic Anglo-Saxon race its heri- tage of freedom. The other had its birth, life, deatli, in blood — a nation drunk and mad- — in the nan >f deth \ality d God. jason France since then has snatched sJiort teverisii bieathing-spells, from which she has been roused by the )"attle of musketry in the streets, and the shrieks of crowds ridden down by her own sol- diery — Why ? Some of her wisest sons have boldly risen up to-day to tell her the truth : because she then chose to swallow lies whole- sale ; because she openly accej)ted the atheism of i<>*norance and conceit. Once this sort of infidelity was the spectre before which all nations quailed — now a power broken. Nay, I travel too fast. We have men among us. fools enough to be hoodwinked b}^ it still. Noisily it is proclaimed in our public })arks — offered as a panacea for all ills to those who are too ignorant to see its falsity. Take away from an ignorant man, the bandages ignorance has blinded him with. Bid him look around. ' IV//0 Bids for Your Soul! 51 But don't stop there, or you liad better never liad unbound him. Let liim see w Cod wlio lias re- vealed Himself to him, and told him His will ; which will it is his duty to obey. If his eye does not rest on such a God, T say you have committed a dangerous act — increased this man's power ten- fold, but given him nothing to guide it by. I onl}^ speak tlie simple, undeniable truth; the poorer classes among us who have some know- ledge, but no belief in duty to others or to God, are the most dangerous element in society. The men that teach them these cheap immoral lies, are public enemies. Who ai*e these leaders? You cannot find a man of moderate learning' amonof all. Paine's book, once theii* creed, no educated man would undcitake to defend to-day. (When I was in Boston a year ago, all Boston's infidelity could not save the hall called aftor him from the auctioneer). They are silly in speech, ignorant in argument, immoral in life, and utterly un- learned. Men seeking the truth in quiet earnest- ness, we should respect; but such arc not the c-mpty bubbles of ^\id ordinary free-thinking soci(3ty. Are tliuse teachings so terrible tluit iuiy ordi- narily well-iiifonued Christian iieed fear to attempt their refutation ? Surely not. Yet how conniion is that fear. And for want of a bold onslaught on tliese refuges of lies, these founda- tions of sand, they fancy themselves sometimes on really strong ground. Kot only are many unwilling to meet them, but when from time to time, from the pulpit or platform, they are met and exposed, we hear cries rising, " you are doing more harm than good — you are sayyctitlnij doubts to those who would never have dreamed of them." And i)ray what sort of a Christianity is this that not only cannot meet the enemy, but trembles at the very meas- ure of his sword ? It is not the true shield of a Christian soldier, but one of our own devis- ing. If any nian is afraid of his house tumbling about liis ears at the suggestion of another man's doubt, the sooner it is down and a firmer building on a firmer foundation put uj), the better. I JX, 117/0 />/(/s /()/■ ]'(>// r Soul? 53 Are wo to stoop over tlio sick and woiiDcled witli worled in God's presence. Christianity may be resisted, but not by sucli men or means as these. Tliere is anotlier class of men, another scliool of inihelief, who as stroiiu'ly denounce immoralitv as Christians do. This is tlie iniidelity of kno\vl(^di;-t^ and science, of tlie lahoratory and library. Yt't it readies t1i(^ same conclusions as tlie otiier, viz., tlicre is no personal God — no personal iuniKM-tality — tlu^re is nothing in fact Ifeyond the grave — to had diul rjood the end is all (dihe. I will try and put its case fairly, without ex- aggeration or caricature. We don't need cither, I tliink, to see its weak point, or to h'nd wlicri! in- evitably it must break down. First, then, let me remind vou of what it seeks to supplant. A life of sevonty years span at most, a life not one of us is (Mitirely satisfied with — this life and nothing beyond it — this life full to tears often, of hopes ldasteht have told their hours of watching to be over. They Ixdieved what was holiest and best within them, was not there simply to be thwarted. So they lived, and worked, and died, strengthened l)y the l)elief in a life beyond the grave, a land beyond the sivt.. These atheists tell us we must be true and good here, for there is no life beyond. But again, Jesus, the greatest Watchman, the greatest exponent of Divine and human nature, told the hope of all good souls, in '^ne sentence, when He said, " I lay down my life that I may take it again." I am more than contented to die, He cried, neglected, despised, reviled — the outcast .L W//0 Bids for Your Soul Jesus, tliat, as k\\w ot^ life, coiKiucvor o 57 if death, aiK 1 Savioiiv of iiiankiiid from sin, I may take life \ back So I say, in imitation of Jesus, ^\l a^mm. ^o i say, lu imioation ui .^v-.^u^, >wth some small measure (jf His spirit burning within them, the great watchers of eartli have stoo(L Their souls liave longed for a life where dark cloud and fog of sin cannot rise. They have seen enough light helow here, enough silver-lining on the clouds, to make them year i with a great yearning for the sun, for the country, for the time when we shall not need ever to say, " know the Lord, for all shall know Him from the least to the greatest." Oil, that T had words to express the undying hope of the Christian ! Are these thoughts vision- ary ? I want to speak of fo.ctx. I will state an incontrovertil)le fact or two. (].) This is the Christians hope. Every man who in the faith of Jesus lays hiiu down to die, th)es in a true sense say : '' Lord, this poor spirit I com- mend to thee ; this poor faulty erring life 1 lay at Thy feet in sure and certain hope that thou wilt Lid me take it up again— no longer that thread- fij i '1. 58 lV//(? Irids for Your Soul / bare garnu'ut I liav^e wearily laid to rest, bi^t a completed body and soul — not with aspirations noble and good alone, but with the power to fulh'l them — a body and soul tittedfor Thy eternal ser- vice, capable of understanding and rejoicing in the companionship of its CVeator an ■p>& men had heen on the point of plunging' down, doAvn! into the darker, lower abysses of wrong, some thouglits of the purer life, holier light, that they were fast leaving behind them — nay, the belief in a voice calling them to "come to them- selves,'" and think on a reconciled F.'ther — have almost forcibly held them back. Modern inhdelity tells us we must struggle after the cood iust as much as ever, while it snatches away tlie liope that impelled or restrained. Mark this: Jesus gave me (1) something 1 can attain to; ('2) something I can describe to others so that they can attain to it; (*3) something I can test when I have attained to — something we have tested, and before God and men declare to be sweeter to us than all life's sweets together, a hundred times told. 6o IV/io Bids for Your Sotil? V ''' At one sweep all this is to go from me, and it is only natural I should require somethiniif to take its place. And, once a<^ain, mark tliis: This somethinix ^Jicy must give me ihin side the grave, since tliere is nothing beyond. Such is tlie tremendous task modern infidelity has before it. To iind reasons in this present life, anut what is th is pleasure ? It must, as I say, be something I can attain to here and now; I must he able to describe it to others, so that they can attain to it; then it must be something I can test, ev^en as they test my Christian liope. If the men who propound such theories — at- tempt such impossibilities — were meu of the Jl7io Bids for Yi)}ir Sovl . 61 d as I have said, men of the study world, instead, as I have said, they wouhl know tliat most think it pleasant- very pleasant, indeed-to be bad occasionally, an,l that all they need is the assurance of death end- in. all to run to fin-ther excess. Yet they have a theory, and bere it is: To 1..., trulv l.appy you must tin,l your l.appi- noss in tl.c happiness of others. This they call Altniisn. You nu.st not ho so vnnoasonahle as t.. crave any Letter life heyond the «vave, any hri.-hter. hoher land heyond the sea for yourselt- b^.ryon shall live on in the life of your or.nvms race ; just as Shakespere lives among us, m h,s noble an.l heautiful tho.ights sp,.aking to us still, or as Stephenson in his inventions-in short as it has ^vell heen sahl : 1 am told that my life and labour are only, not utterly, eonteu,ptihle, because they convince to a n,aterial w.dl heing, in which 1 myself can have no share. 1 am tol.l hy these men that I «houhl he contente.) to know, that like the leaves sere an,l ''O' -trew- in.,. our sidewalks a few weeks ago, my lite mus at^last fail fro'« the tree of the world's life. I I ! 62 IP'y/o Bids for Your Soul? can no more expect a personal identity after that fall than can the leaf I trca has no permanent home in the life of men. It is loud, tilthy, de- structive; it sweeps down our valley, but cannot abide in its fury for ever, since it is fed by no pei'- ennial springs , \\ hile the sense of God's reality, of religion, in fact, in man, seems to me like th<' great St. L;iwrence, that has its abiding home in the bosom of the inland ocean of the north, whence for all seasons and all times it pours its bounteous tribute to the sea. Through all her depths the lake feels the pulsings of the St. Lawrence tide. To this, inner, deeper part, God speaks. There he would come to dwell, and rule your whole life fron» within, not by restraint applied without. 117/0 Bids for Your Soul/ 65 Manv called Cliiistiaiis know iiothiiii; ofClirist as a near, ever-present Saviour, however correct their ideas may ])e as to His person and oHices. But this Christianity Christ does U(jt acknow- ledi,^e, nor does the world respect it. If J would really he a Christian, it is not sufHcient to stai't up and say I will do this — I will give u}> that; the truth is, the stream of this wT)rld's affairs runs too steadily against us. We may lay hold on the oais of duty and effort, and row and row; but the cur- rent runs too strouf^; old habit drains us hack. Is the case hopeless then? By such means, quite. A man is often willing to apply to Christ for assistance, who has never been so deeply humbled as to feel he must have Him as a complete Saviour, who takes Idni in as he is, all his wasted past and helpless present clinging round him. Yet, till I feel thus humbled, I do not know what sin and salvation mean — I don't understand the A B C of them even. One of two alternatives I must adopt: either give the Lord Jesus this commanding place within me, yield to Him, come right down before Him, out of all my I ^t foolish ])ri(le, casting; from mc all iny changing excuses, since He alone offers nie a str(^ngth that will carry my life up against the tide; or with this tide I must drift — drift towards dangers I know right well have shattered stronix«-'i* crafts than mine. It is Christ or nothini^. To some who read this, it is Christ now and alto- gether, or never ; for you have sinned so long against what you feel to be true, your whole being is becoming numb and palsied with sin. Hawthorne Lolls of a hioh tower he saw in Rome. On the tower stands an altar, and before the altar bui'ns a lamp. For centuries that lamp has been burning'. The owner who lets tlie flame out, by the provision of his ancestor's will, with its extinction loses his inheritance. In each man's soul there is a high tower, and on its windy summit a holy flame. Woe to the man who puts out the flame of conscience, the holy tire that burns as the oracle of God. He loses a greater than earthly possession. It may be but 3f a flame, spar yet tells that it is burning still. If you will, you U7w I>ids for Vour Sou! f 67 can liavo it (juickly kindltMl— you will not resist (Jod's voice. Oh, here and now, lift but one honest cry, "Save Lonl, or 1 ]>erish;" and not more (luickly did He who walked the waves catch poor Peter, than will He he at your side We need Thee, l.ord Jesus, in all time of our poverty, in all time of our wealth. If there had any where appeared in space Another phiec of refuge where to llee, Our souls had tiiken refuge in that phice, And not with Thee. For we against creation's bars had heat. Like prisoned eagles : througli groat worhls had sought, If hut one foot of ground to place our feet, Where Thou wert not. And ouly when we found, in earth or air, In heaven or hell, that such might nowhere be- That we could not liee from Tiiee any where, We lied to Thee. Dcccjiihcr lOth. r^