Sermon 900. Preach, Preach, Preach Everywhere!

A sermon

(No. 900)

Delivered by

C.H.SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"And He said unto them, Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptizedshall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned."- Mark 16:15,16.

BEFORE our Lord gave His disciples this commission He addressed them in tones of serious rebuke. You will observe that appearingunto the Eleven as they ate meat, "He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they believed not themwhich had seen Him after He was risen." So honorable an estimation did He set upon testimony-so marked a censure did He pronounceupon those who neglected it! The reprimand they received on such an occasion may well serve as a caution to us for unbeliefunfits the Christian for service. It is in proportion to our personal faith in the Gospel that we become competent witnessesfor the teaching of it to others. Each one of us who would get credit for sincerity must say with David, "I believed, thereforehave I spoken," or else a need of faith of ourselves will effectually deprive our speech of all its power over our fellowmen.

There can be little doubt that one reason why Christianity is not so aggressive now as it once was and exerts not everywherethe influence it had in Apostolic times is the feebleness of our faith in Christ as compared with the full assurance of faithexercised by the men of those days. In vain you hide a timid heart behind a modest face, when the attitude we should showand the living force that should constrain us is a bold reliance upon the power of the Holy Spirit and a deep conviction ofthe might of the Truth of God which we are taught to deliver. Brethren, if there is to be a revival of religion it must beginat home! Our own souls must first of all be filled with holy faith and burning enthusiasm and then shall we be strong to doexploits and to win provinces for the scepter of King Jesus.

Having thus made a note upon the context, I want you to refer to a parallel passage in Matthew. There we learn that in deliveringthis commission our Lord assigned a remarkable reason for it and one that intimately concerned Himself. "Allpower," He said,"is given unto ME in Heaven and in earth, go YOU, therefore, and teach all nations." These words were adapted to strengthenthe faith of His disciples, of whom it had just been observed that "some doubted." Do you not see the point of this announcement?Jesus of Nazareth, being raised from the dead, tells His Apostles that He is now invested with universal supremacy as theSon of Man. Therefore He issues a decree of Divine Grace, calling on all people of every nation and kindred to believe theGospel with a promise of personal salvation to each and every one that believes.

With such authority is this mandate clothed and so imperative the duty of all men everywhere to repent, that they who do notbelieve are threatened with a certain penalty of damnation! This royal ordinance He will have published throughout the wholeworld-but He enjoins it on all the messengers that those who bear the tidings should be thoroughly impressed with the Sovereigntyof Him that sends them. Let the words, then, ring in your ears, "Go you, therefore." They sound like the music of that gladacclaim which hails the Redeemer installed with power, holding the insignia of power in His possession, exercising the fullrights of legitimate power, and entrusting His disciples with a commission founded on that power, "Go you into all the world."

Yet another remark before we proceed to the text. The commission we are about to deal with was the last which the Lord gaveto His disciples before He was taken away from them. We prize greatly the last words of His departing servants-how shall wesufficiently value the parting words of our ascending Master? Injunctions that are left us by those who have gone to Gloryhave great weight upon our spirits. Let obedient lovers of Christ see to it that they act according to the last will and testament,the last desire expressed by their risen Lord! I claim for my text peculiar attention from every disciple of Jesus, not, indeed,as if it were a mournful entreaty, but rather as a solemn charge.

You remember Christ's own parable, "The kingdom of Heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servantsand delivered unto them his goods." Look at this as the last direction which Jesus gives to His stewards before "He went intoa far country to receive for Himself a kingdom and to return." It seems to me that as when the mantle of Elijah fell uponElisha, Elisha would have been much to blame if he had not caught it up. So when these words fell from our ascending Saviorbefore the clouds concealed Him from the disciples' sight, we ought to take them up with holy reverence. Since He has leftthem as His parting mantle they ought to be lovingly cherished and scrupulously obeyed.

Come we, then, to invite your earnest heed to the command which the Savior here gives-"Go you into all the world and preachthe Gospel to every creature." It was given to the Apostles representatively. They represent the whole body of the faithful.To every converted man and woman this commission is given. I grant you there is a specialty to those gifted and called tosurrender themselves wholly to the work of the ministry, but their office in the visible Church offers no excuse for the dischargeof those functions that pertain to every member of the body of Christ in particular. It is the universal command of Christto every Believer: "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

I. In thinking over this command, let us first consider WHAT IT IS THAT WE HAVE TO CARRY TO EVERY CREATURE-THE GOSPEL. Theremay be no need, my Brethren, for me to tell you what the Gospel is, but to complete our subject we must declare it. The "Gospel,"which is to be told to "every creature," it seems to me, is the great Truth of God that "God was in Christ reconciling theworld unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." And that He "has committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

God has looked in pity upon sinful man. He has sent His Son to take upon Himself the nature of man. His Son has come in theflesh. He has worked out a perfect righteousness by His obedient life. He has died upon the tree, the Just for the unjust,that whoever trusts in Him might be forgiven. Then come the Gospel's point and barb-believe in Him and be baptized and youshall be saved. Reject Him and your peril is imminent, for God declares it-you must be damned. When we preach the Gospel,then, we must declare to the sons of men that they are fallen, they are sinful, they are lost- but Christ has come to seekand to save that which was lost-that there is in Christ Jesus, who is now in Heaven, sufficient Grace to meet each sinner'sneed.

When we preach the Gospel, then, we must declare that whoever believes in Him shall be forgiven all his sins and shall receivethe Holy Spirit, by which he shall be helped to lead a new life, shall be preserved in holiness and shall be brought safelyto Heaven. To preach the Gospel is to preach up Christ. It is not, as I believe, to preach any form of Church government,or any special creed, although both of these may be necessary to those who have heard and received the Gospel. The first messagewe have to preach to every creature is that there is a Savior-"Receive, for a look at the Crucified One, life at this moment,"for all who look to Him. This is the Gospel which we have to preach.

Now, what is meant by the word "preach"? I take its meaning in this place to be very extensive. Some can literally preach-thatis, act as heralds, proclaiming the Gospel as the town crier proclaims in the street the message which he is bid to cry aloud.The town crier is, in fact, the world's preacher and the preacher of the Gospel is to be a crier, crying aloud and sparingnot the Truth of Christ. I do not believe that Christ tells us to go and play the orator to every creature. Such a commandwould be impracticable to most of us and useless to any of us. Of all the things that desecrate the Sabbath and grieve theSpirit, attempt at high-flown oratory and gorgeous eloquence in preaching, I believe, are about the worst. Our business isjust to speak out the Gospel simply and plainly to every creature.

We do not actually preach the Gospel to a man if we do not make him understand what we are talking about. If our languagedoes not come down to his level, it may be the Gospel, but it is not the Gospel to him. The preacher should adopt languagewhich shall be suitable to all his congregation. In preaching he should strive to instruct, to enforce, to explain, to expound,to plead and to bring home to every man's heart and conscience, as in the sight of God, as far as his ability goes, the Truthsof God which beyond all argument or quibble, have the seal and stamp of Divine Revelation. Though all the members of a Churchcannot literally preach in this ordinary acceptation of the term, yet if this command is for all, then must all bear thattestimony to the world in some other outspoken manner.

Their preaching may be in various ways. Some must preach by their holy lives. Others must preach by their talking to the onesand twos, like the Master at the well, who was as much preaching when He conversed with the woman of Samaria as when He addressedthe multitude on the banks of the lake of Gennesaret and uttered doctrine as sublime in that little village of Sychar as Heproclaimed at the beautiful gate of the Temple. Others must preach by distributing the

Truth printed for circulation-and a right noble service this is-especially when the pure Word of Life, the Bible itself, issown broadcast in this and other lands. If we cannot speak with our own tongue, we must borrow other men's tongues. And ifwe cannot write with our own pens, we must borrow other men's pens-but we must do it in some way or other.

The gist of this command is that we must make the Gospel known to every creature by some means or other-throw it in his way,make him know that there is a Gospel and challenge his very curiosity to learn what it means. You cannot make him accept it,or believe it-that is God's work-but you can and must make him know of it and plead with him to receive it and do not letit be your fault if he does not welcome it. Do all, as much as lies within you, to make every creature know what the Gospelis, so that if he will not accept it, yet he shall have had the kingdom of God brought near to him. The responsibility ofhis accepting or rejecting it shall then be his business and none of yours. This, then, is the commission of Jesus Christto His disciples-"Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

Lest we should make a mistake about what I just now called the point and barb of the arrow, the force and pith of the Gospel,Christ has put it in plain words, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." That is to say, if a man would participatein the bounteous salvation which Christ has worked, he must believe in Christ. He must trust Christ. He must believe Christto be God's appointed Savior and to be able to save him. He must act on that belief and trust himself in the hands of Jesusand if he does that he shall be saved. Further, the text says he must be baptized. Not that there is any virtue whatever inBaptism, but it is a small thing for Christ to expect that the man or woman trusting to be saved by Him should own and avowtheir attachment to Him.

He that wishes to have Christ as his Savior should be prepared openly to acknowledge that he is on Christ's side. Baptismthus becomes the badge of discipleship, the outward token of faith by which a man says to all who look on, "I confess myselfdead to the world. I confess myself buried with Christ. I declare myself risen to newness of life in Him." Make what you willof it and laugh at it as much as you like, yet in the faith of Jesus as my Lord, I have taken leave of all else to followHim. It is a point of obedience. Sometimes one has said in his heart, "What a pity it is that Baptism should have been introducedinto this place. It makes a block of wood into which men may drive their ritualistic hook." But then the Son of God Himselfhas put it here and we cannot alter it. If it were not here in His Word I would not have put it here. But it is here and beinghere, it is at your soul's hazard to leave it out.

I believe with all my heart that if you believe in Jesus Christ you will be saved, whether you are baptized or not, but Iwould not like to run the risk, mark you, for I have not got that in my text. It is, "He that believes and is baptized shallbe saved," and I would take the two commands together and obey my Master's will throughout and not leave out that which didnot suit my inclination and accept only that which did. I am bound to leave out neither of them, but to take the two together.With your heart you must believe and with your mouth make confession-and if you do these sincerely you shall be saved.

II. Having, then, clearly before us what our work is-to publish and make plain to every creature the Gospel of Jesus Christ-letus solemnly consider (for it is a very solemn business, being incumbent upon every professor of Christ here) WHAT THE EXTENTOF THIS COMMISSION IS. Judging from the fact that there is no mention made of time, I gather that as long as there is a Churchin the world the obligation to preach the Gospel will remain and if that Church should ever come to consist of but one ortwo, it must still, with all its might, go on promulgating the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Preaching is to be for all time. And until Jesus Christ Himself shall come and the dispensation shall close, the mission ofthe Church is to go into all the world-all of you-and preach the Gospel to every creature. I will not, however, dwell uponthat, because it is not so much a practical point, but just notice that there is no limit to be put as to where this Gospelis to be preached. It is to be preached in "all the world"-in Labrador, in Africa-where the Southern Cross shines high, orwhere Arcturus with his suns leads on the night. Everywhere, in every place. No nation is to be left out because too degraded.No race is to be forgotten because too far remote. The mission of the Church deals with the center of Africa, with men whohave never yet looked a pale man in the face. It deals with learned nations, as the acute and skeptical Hindu and with thedegraded tribes, as the Hottentot in his kraal, the Bechuana and the Bushman. There is to be no omission anywhere.

Our great Commander's marching orders to His troops are-"Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."Even this is not so practical a point as the one I want to insist upon. It is the duty of the Church,

according to this command, to make known the Gospel to every creature. Any one of you individually, of course, cannot makeit known to every creature, but each one, at home and abroad, according to his sphere of action and his capacity, is to bestriving at that. As soon as ever they can understand, you are to be ready with this Gospel of Jesus Christ for them. TheSunday school does not need a direct text for its institution or foundation. It is a marvel that it was not instituted longbefore it was, for the very spirit of Sunday school work lies in the words here-"every creature."

You are not, in looking after the children, to include only some privileged classes and exclude the ragged and the depraved-theCity Arab is at least a "creature," and you are as much bound to preach the Gospel to him as to your own dear child who isthe object of your most tender love. It is to every creature. Then the Christian Church ought to aim at the rich. The richneed the Gospel, perhaps, more than any other class in the community. They seldom hear it and what they do hear of the Gospelis poor diluted stuff. Their sins are not often told them to their face, neither are they rebuked as the poor are. They areto be sought for by the Church, and though it is difficult to get at them, yet we have not done our duty till we have donewhat we can for them.

And the poor are to be looked after. Their poverty must never make us say that it is not worthwhile to teach them. It is theGlory of the Gospel that the poor should have the Gospel preached to them. Rich and poor are both creatures and thereforethe Church has its duty concerning both. The Gospel ought to be preached to those who habitually assemble on the Sabbath.It is a pleasure to remember that there are so many who are willing to come and listen to the Gospel, but the responsibilityof the minister and the Church does not end with those who voluntarily congregate within four walls. We are to preach theGospel to every creature-therefore to those who lie in bed on Sunday mornings, to those who read Sunday newspapers, to thosewho take their walks in the evening with listless indifference-to those who do not know, perhaps, what Christian worship means.

You have not done what your Master has told you to do till you have reached them and made them know-forced them to know-whatthe Gospel is. He would be a poor sportsman who should sit in his house and expect the game to come to him. He that wouldhave it must go abroad for it and he that would serve the Master must go out into the highways and hedges and compel themto come in! I need not say here, Brethren, that I hope the Christian Church is now alive to looking after every class of society,but what I want to bring home personally to ourselves is just this-that we, as a Church here, with so many advantages, somany in numbers-have at least a part in this commandment, and must extend our efforts to as many of "every creature" as wecan.

Oh, we cannot discharge the work for which God has put us here until we have looked into these alleys, these lanes, thesecourts, these dark places, and have tried our best to take Jesus Christ's Gospel to every dweller in it! I know you have yourSunday schools and I am thankful you are doing your work there, but do not confine your aspirations to that class. I knowI have with this congregation work enough. Still I am not bound to limit myself to any parish or to any locality, but if Ican, I must, as much as lies in me go in all directions and in all manner of places to make known the Gospel to every creature!Have you been the means of the conversion of fifty? That is not "every creature," press on! Were there a 100 added to thisChurch the other day? That is not "every creature"! There are millions yet to whom Christ is not known! Preach the Gospeleverywhere, then.

The majesty of this command overwhelms me! Such a commission was never given before or since. O Church of God! Your Lord hasgiven you a work almost as immense as the creation of a world! No! It is a greater work than that! It is to re-create a world!What can you do in this? You can do nothing effectively, unless the Holy Spirit shall bless what you attempt to do. But thatHe will do, and if you gird up your loins and your heart is warm in this endeavor, you shall yet be able to preach Jesus Christto every creature under Heaven! I must not enlarge, for time flies too quickly. It will suffice if I have put the thoughtinto your hearts, that to the servant girl and the duchess, the chimney-sweep and the peer, the man in the poor house or inthe palace, we must account ourselves debtors for Christ's sake to present the Gospel to them according to our ability, neverlimiting the sphere of our enterprise where an opportunity can be found to carry the Gospel to every creature!

III. But now, thirdly, some of you will be asking the INDUCEMENTS TO ENLIST IN THIS SERVICE AND OBEY THIS COMMAND. It shallbe sufficient answer to many of you to say that the reason for preaching the Gospel to every creature is that God has saidit.

Oh, it was a grand shout-if it had been for a better purpose-when the hundreds of thousands gathered together listening tothe burning eloquence of the hermit, when he bade them charge home against the Saracens and deliver the holy sepulcher andthe sacred places from the infidel! Then the shout went up, "Deus vult," "God wills it," and in the strength of that belief,that God willed it, "a forest huge of spears was couched," and ten thousand swords were unsheathed and men dashed on to battleand to death.

Oh, if the Christian Church could but feel "Deus vult," "God wills it," that now, even in this year of Grace, 1869, everycreature should hear the Gospel! I believe we have enough Christians here in London to make London hear the Gospel. I mean,we have enough converted men and women, if all bestirred themselves, to make London ring from end to end, as once did Nineveh.One man awoke Nineveh with his monotonous cry, "Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed." Surely the thousands might yetbe as firebrands in the midst of corn, if we were but in earnest about this great command. "Deus vult," Believer! God demandsthis of you, is not this enough?

But, if we seek arguments, let us remember that the preaching of the Gospel is everywhere a delight to God. Papists tell usthat the offering up of what they call a "sacrament," is an acceptable oblation to God. They miss their mark. The preachingof Christ-that is the true oblation. God smells a sweet savor wherever the name of Jesus is rightly proclaimed. Listen untothese words, "We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ as well in them that perish as in them that are saved." Wherever Christis preached, God is glad. He is honored and Christ is honored. Even if no result should come, (impossible supposition!) yetstill, the mere preaching of Christ is like the smell of evening incense which goes up unto God and He accepts it.

Moreover, remember that you are bid to preach to every creature, each of you, as far as you can, because it is by this meansthat the elect are to be gathered out from among the sons of men. You know not who they are, therefore tell of Christ to everyone.You know not who will accept it. You know not whose heart will be broken by the Divine hammer. It is yours to try the hammerof Truth on the hard heart. You are not the discoverer of God's chosen, but the Gospel is, and as the Gospel is preached itwill attract to itself, by its own power, through the Holy Spirit, such as God has ordained unto Eternal Life.

Brothers and Sisters, I pray you preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for your own sakes, if there were no other reason. Dependupon it, your own spiritual vigor will be very much enhanced by your labors of love and your zeal for the service of Christ.I have remarked it is an invariable thermometer by which to gauge the spirituality of a man's heart. Whether he is eitherdoing or not doing something for Christ will tell upon his life and conversation. The tree is not only known by its fruit,as to what kind of tree it is, but also as to what its degree of life is. "If you keep His commandments and bring forth muchfruit, you are disciples, indeed," but if there is only a little fruit shriveled there on the topmost bough, scarcely worththe gathering, why, then, you are His disciples, but you can scarcely say that you are His disciples, indeed!

Did you ever feel the joy of winning a soul for Christ? If so, you will need no better argument for attempting to spread theknowledge of His name among every creature! I tell you, there is no joy out of Heaven which excels it-the grasp of the handof one who says, "By your means I was turned from darkness to light, rescued from drunkenness, or reclaimed, perhaps, fromthe grossest vices, to love and serve my Savior!" To see your spiritual children around you and to say, "Here am I and thesewhom You have given me." Oh, the trials and griefs of life sit lightly upon a heart where the triumphs of Divine Grace arepresent! A man might well endure to stand and preach upon a bonfire, if he could be sure that the burning of his body wouldsecure the salvation of his congregation! Do, for your own happiness' sake, seek to teach to others what the Lord has firsttaught you.

I might multiply these reasons, but it will, perhaps, be best to come back to the first one of all-your Master wills it andtherefore preach His Gospel to every creature. The day is coming when His Gospel shall be known throughout the world. Manythings have hindered it. Nights of darkness, years of oppression have lasted long and the minds of men have been sitting inthe valley of the shadow of death. But, as surely as God is God, better days are coming. "The light that shines from Zion'shill" shall gild the top of every mountain. Every land shall yet behold the feet of them that bring glad tidings and thatpublish salvation. In spite of the prophecies of certain men in these days, I still cling to the old faith of the Church thatthere shall be a universal triumph of our holy faith before yet the world is given up to the dissolving element.

The gods of the heathen shall be shaken from their pedestals. The dispensation shall not end till those things which men haveworshipped shall be thrown to the moles and to the bats. God will yet drag the harlot of the Seven Hills from her bloodstainedthrone and make the kings of the earth burn her as with fire. The day of the vengeance of our God for martyrs' blood shallyet come and Christ will not end this conflict till He has brought down the two-edged sword upon the very head of His adversaryand has laid him prone in the dust. Have patience, Brothers and Sisters, have patience! Things are progressing well enoughjust now. Our hearts may well be encouraged. We have seen what God's right hand has done for freedom in this, our land. Evennow the great pulse of time beats heartily and soundly and by God's good Grace and His gracious, overruling Providence, itshall, by-and-by, be seen that-

"The day of freedom dawns at length, The Lord's appointed day."

But, if it is ever to come, according to the past, it must come through the efforts of God's children, for He ever works bymeans and will do so, still. Up, you servants of God and do your duty diligently, perseveringly, continuing to preach theGospel to every creature, for you are workers together with God! You are God's husbandry, His friends and fellow helpers.Oh, if you would wish to share the joy of those brighter ages! If you would, with blissful eyes, look down the vista of timeand foresee the swords beaten into plowshares, all prescient of the day when the oppressors' thrones shall crumble in thedust-you cannot look with hopeful eyes, with a strong nerve, on all this unless you stretch forth your hands and say, "I willhave a share in that! I will have a share in it today! I will put my little ounce of power into the Church! I will throw mylittle bit of might into her mission and seek to tell every creature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!"

IV. But now, closing up this address, we have our work before us and our God to help us and we accept the challenge. Brothersand Sisters, I call you together just as a master workman, when he has a work to do, calls together his comrades and says,"Now, this is what we have to do. WHAT POWERS HAVE WE TO WORK WITH, AND HOW CAN WE DO IT?" Those of us who are specially calledto preach the Gospel must take our part and go on preaching it with all our might. Oh, it is blessed employment and angelsmight well envy us, that we have such an office committed to us as to preach the Gospel!

But, Brethren, you must not lay all the labor or all the responsibility on one man. A one-man ministry is, indeed, a curseto any Church, if that is the only ministry of the Church. All ministries must be used. Are there not many of you who couldpreach? Let me earnestly entreat you, if you can, to do so. Let no man who has gifts keep them back. There are the streets,if you can find no other places, and let me say that there is no better work done in London than that which is done in thestreets by the open air services. There are some who hear the Gospel there who never would have heard it if the 12 Apostleshad been preaching in any of our places of worship! Use your ability in other places if you can, but let every tongue thatcan speak, do so.

But all have not the ability to preach. We have some who can teach the young. Are all who can teach the young engaged in thatwork? Any night there are schools all around here where there will be twice as many children as the teachers there presentcan instruct. It is not so with any institution of ours, but there are dozens of schools around that are inefficient simplyfor need of teachers. Our people are always engaged in their schools. I have always said, "Never mind what sect it is. Ifyou can, go and teach there." But I must repeat that over and over again, for I do not like to see these schools empty forlack of teachers. It is a very happy thing to hear a sermon, but if you can teach children, it is not your duty to preferyour pleasure to your class.

Could not some of you do good in your own houses? Cottage meetings, parlor meetings, drawing room meetings- these are allmeans of usefulness. Have you tried them? "How many loaves have you?" So said my Master. I want to count the loaves and tellmy Master, and I am of an opinion that there are some loaves never brought out of the baker's basket, yet-some opportunitiesthat have never yet been put to His service. Search and see. How much good could some of you do by writing letters to othersconcerning Christ? How many of you might do good by circulating the printed word- Bibles and Gospel tracts and such sermonsas will be most likely to profit certain people if they read them. To some of you, it, may be, there is committed the talentof money. If you have not the golden tongue, be thankful that you have the golden purse. Speak with that! You are as muchbound to speak with that as others with the golden mouth.

Whatever gift you may have, put it out at interest, like a good steward, for your Master. Some of you may not be able to speakor to give, but let your holiness and every power you have, according to your ability and opportunity,

contribute to the great result of the Gospel being preached to every creature. My joy and crown, my hope and my delight beforeGod, are you in the Lord, when I can perceive an earnest heart in you, O you, the people of my charge! There are some hereof whom I am not ashamed to speak, whose piety is Apostolic, whose generosity and zeal are like those of the early Church.But there are others of whom we may well speak with hesitation, for if they are consecrated to Christ at all, the consecrationseems to have taken but small effect.

They are diligent enough in business, but as for fervency of spirit, where is that? In what respects can they be said to servethe Lord? Let each one begin to question himself, "What have I done to carry out the Master's command?" And if you make upa sorrowful total, do not sit down and waste the time in vain regrets, but be humbled and pray God that no man's blood maybe laid at your door. I do urge you-oh, how I would do it if my tongue had language such as I desire to possess! But let meurge you, every one of you-in the future be putting out the fullness of your strength for Him whose bloody sweat and Crossand passion have made you debtors to Him for your very lives! By Him who died on yonder tree, accursed for you-by Him whowent away to prepare a place for you, and who stands pleading, still, at God's right hand with never-ceasing zeal for you-Icome in His name and at His command to entreat and to exhort you to spend and be spent to glorify His name among the sonsof men!

Search out and see what you can do, and whatever your hands find to do, do with all your might, for the grave will soon openfor you and there is no work nor service in the grave where you are hastening. "Up, guards, and at them!" was said in theday of battle and I may still say it to every Christian. In these days, when popery gathers her might and infidelity shootsforth her poisoned arrows, let none of us be lacking in the day of battle, lest the angels should say, as said the Angel ofthe Lord, "Curse you, Meroz, curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, tothe help of the Lord against the mighty."

The best thing to do for truth and righteousness is to promote personal piety and it will bring forth the outgrowth of personaleffort. We shall not bless the world by big schemes, mighty theories, gigantic plans. Little by little grows the coral reefon which afterwards gardens are to be planted. Little by little must the kingdom come, each man bringing his mite and layingit down at Jesus' feet. So breaks the light! Beam by beam it comes. One by one come the arrows from the bow of the sun andat last darkness flies. So must break the everlasting work. But let us be glad. If the work is slow it is sure. God will seethe work accomplished and when the morning comes the night shall not succeed it, but it shall scatter the darkness forever.The Sun of Righteousness goes no more down. The day of the world's morning shall not tarry. The time of her halcyon days shallcome, when the light of the sun shall be as the light of seven days and the Lord God shall dwell among men and manifest HisGlory to the sons of men!

This last moment shall be just used for us to say that there are some here whom we cannot tell to go and preach the Gospel,for they do not know it themselves. And unto the wicked God says, "What have you to do to declare My statutes?" To such wesay, incline your ear and listen. Jesus Christ has suffered that sinners might not suffer. He is God's Son. He took the sinsof Believers. He was punished in their place and if you will trust Him you shall be saved. Trust Him, Sinner, trust Him! Maythe Holy Spirit persuade you and give you faith and unto the Lord Jesus shall be the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Romans 10.