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charter a Holy Gospel; His home a Holy Heaven. His companions Holy Angels. "The Temple of the Lord is Holy, which Temple ye are." "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." I don't suppose this means that none but perfect people will get into heaven. It would be an empty heaven, I fear, if it meant that. We say to Christ, and well may we say it, "Thou only art Holy." But it does demand separation from sin. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, and this we must do.

I remember the last time I was privileged to see him whom we mourn to-day. It was at the Glasgow Convention. There he said, "My trust, indeed, has not been perfect," and the shadow chased the smile as he said it; but the smile came back as he added, "But as far and as often as I did trust Him He always proved true-He did keep."

You amongst whom he lived for so many years, know that "a holy man of God" has been among you, and you, who saw him in every relation of lifefelt that holiness was his very breath, and that he lived among the everlasting hills.

And now if he could speak to us from Heaven, he would not less urgently but more, press upon us the divine command "Be ye holy, for the Lord your God is holy."

But there is one more word that comes to us from those lips which to the outward ear are closed for ever. He speaketh of the certainties of Eternity and saith, BE EARNEST. He says that it is certain that every one of you must give account of himself to God.

model? The first-born of Earth or the first-born of Heaven? Cain or Christ? If we would not follow the murderer we must seek to win souls and to turn them to God-" The remnant of Israel shall be as a dew from the Lord," gentle, reviving, refreshing. They shall be also "as a lion," brave, true, outspoken; see to it that you are both.

But how shall we witness for Jesus? Do inconsistencies seal our lips? But inconsistencies are not the only seal that are set upon them. They are sealed from want of fervour-want of the fulness of the Spirit-and the presence and power of the Spirit is the only thing that will break the seal.

"He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living waters."

Charles Simeon said that he placed the picture of Henry Martyn on his mantel-piece that it might stir him to activity. It seemed to say to him, "Do not trifle. Be earnest, be earnest." Shall not the memory of him we have lost be a monitor as urgent with us.

But we must exercise this urgency this very morning. Our yearning hearts go back to you unsaved friends.

As we stood among the crowd on Friday, we found ourselves standing side by side with one from our own town-one who had been brought up under dear Edmund Clay. Remembering how he had been laid in the grave with somewhat similar love, we could not forbear to ask, "Do you remem ber Mr. Clay's funeral?"

"I should think I did," was the answer, "it was perhaps my first religious impression." And why, parishioners of Keswick, should not these mournful days be days of impression, nay, days of salvation, with you?

It is certain that all human interests will dwindle in comparison with Eternal realities-that sin will scem exceeding sinful-that pleasure will seem, and As we visited the grave, in the quiet afterwards. will be felt to be, madness and folly. of Friday, and watched children looking at the Then with all this he charges every sinner to be wreaths, we could not forbear asking, "Would not in earnest in seeking salvation.

But his voice cannot cease its urgency without pressing upon us Christians to be earnest too. Earnest in seeking and saving the lost. We, too, "must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ," and one of the things of which we must give account, is our relation to the world about us.

There is another of whom the mention of Abel must remind us. Cain answered God saying, "Am I my brother's keeper?" and shall we Christians ask

you have liked to have laid a wreath here?" You
may do it. "A flower when offered in the bud is
no vain sacrifice." You can do that, you can give
dear Pastor would rather have you do that, than
God your heart, and you know very well that your
send in the very richest wreath that anyone, how-
ever honoured, has laid on his coffin.
So he being dead yet speaketh."
He saith, and continues saying,
Be earnest.
Be holy.
Be ready.

this same question? Whose life shall we take as our But do we hear? What do we answer?

FAILURE AND FAITH.*

BY REV. C. A. FOX.

(LUKE V. 1-10.)

THERE was a great crowd round the Lord Jesus, just as there is here to-night, and He was so pressed by the people thronging about Him to hear His words, that He got into an empty vessel which was lying there, and prayed Simon that he would thrust out a little from the land. That is just what He wants now-an empty vessel for Christ to step into. Is there any one here to-night, into whom He may enter and preach the best sermon He ever preached from you?

But do you know what makes a vessel empty? It must be made empty by failure. They had been toiling all the night in vain; and you must find that there is no use staying any longer, and be driven out of yourselves by failure. And then the Lord comes, and often finds us by the great eternal sea, mending our nets. But God has got a better way for us than that. He does not want us to go on always mending our nets. Only let Him in; because you are utterly exhausted and empty in yourself. Let Him enter, and push out into the sea of His great love, and He shall speak from your empty vessel words full of power, that you shall never repent having admitted Him. You shall look at Him, and be filled with God-power, and He will work miracles from your emptied self.

I want to say a few simple words to-night. There are many ways of taking this passage; but we will take a very simple way, a child-way, now.

As soon as He had preached He wanted to pay for His pulpit, and said, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." That was what He always did. He would never be in debt to any one. He had His purse ready, for my Lord has plenty of ready money, and He always pays at once. That was what He did in His own distress, when they came to Him for the tributemoney, He knew He had His purse in the sea. He pays at once, and grandly, and if you give Him the use of your empty vessel, though you may be the poorest pulpit He ever had, only the commonest weakest wood, He always has ready money, and will pay for the use of you handsomely, even down here, and afterwards you shall be a crowned king by His hand in the presence of the King of kings.

Delivered at the Keswick Convention,

After He had bid them push out, saying, "Launch out into the deep," Simon answered and said, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing." Observe that here is the first thing to say on the road to blessing-" we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.” There must be confession of failure; we must confess that our vessels are utterly empty. My brother, if you want blessing, this is the very first thing to be done: look back on your past, and say, "I have taken nothing, my vessel is empty." Is that it? Is that what you have to say?" There is nothing in our vessel, we have toiled ourselves out: we have been out all night, we have toiled all night, and we have taken nothing; and the day has been as dark as night year after year. We have been to church, we have prayed, we have toiled, but still we have taken nothing still the midnight darkness prevails, Egyptian darkness is over us." Yes, and you hear of others rejoicing, and getting blessing, and you hear their songs while you are still in the dark, just as the Egyptians were prisoners in their own houses while Israel had gone out free. How many an imprisoned soul can hear afar the happy treble voices of God's free children gathering flowers in the open fields of the Word, out in the meadows of His deep love gathering the flowers of His grace, while they are still in the bondage of night, bankrupt and empty.

You know what it means: you know the dark night of toil, and how year after year you have been adding to your misery. O God, there are those here who know what deep midnight means! what it is to be out on the deep, toiling in vain, to have no success day nor night; toiling on, and to

come home and be looked at as men who have failed.

O God, speak to them to-night! Is there any outcast here, who is looked at as hopeless? Oh, outcast! God is here for you; His heart has been broken open for you and it cannot be shut again; His wounds are the open doors of your home. Come in to-night. Outcast, you are cast in here for blessing. Christ is here. He is the Saviour. Do you know Him? I know Him, and I would rather have Christ than a whole heaven. Nay, Christ is my heaven! Oh, when He shall take me by the hand, and lead me right in, and show me the shining streets, and the windings of the river of God, and I shall see its crystal glancings, and the sparkling of

its singing waters - Shall I see them? Nay, I'll turn away from all, and look at Him. I'll see Him alone, and say to Him, "I would rather have Thee, my Lord, than all; I would rather have none of these without Thee, and with Thee want no more; Thy wounds are my gates of glory, I enter in and I am lost in Thee!" There is nobody like my Jesus! Like the poor negro woman when an infidel helped her across the icy street, she turned and said, "Do you know my Jesus?" and he went on his way, but it soon became God's way to him henceforth.

Yes, we have something better than heaven to give you, we have the Lord of Heaven, and that is better than heaven-nay, it is heaven to have Him, and He is here for you to-night if you will have Him. Will you? You have been toiling all the night, and you have taken nothing, and you know it. Oh, will you look down your past with the searching eyes of memory now? Look down the long avenues of the miserable years behind you, dwindling insignificantly away into the darkness. Those are your years, my brother. See, gaze down. Those are your sins that you saw and shuddered at, and left, and then met again. Don't they stare at you with of fire out of the darkness. See! there eyes is your guilt, there are your sins. You thought they were gone; but there they are, and you hated them, and then went and clasped them again; sins that you rejected, but loved them all the time. They are not gone, they are not dead; there they are, looking at you out of the darkness of the misery of your miserable past. I speak what I know. I know there are icy souls who know nothing of such torments; I know there are cold hearts which have never been thrilled with the passion of life, and know nothing of the toil, and the terror of sin; know nothing of sin-sickness; icy souls, who do not understand. But I know too, there are some who are burning in their own flames, in their own hell-I cannot say less, I cannot exaggerate; it is so and the flames are so terribly real that they brought God down from heaven to put them out, for nothing but the blood of God can put out the flames of sin. Yes, and God has done it! You know it was hell begun, and you were on fire with it, and then He came down, and at the cost of Himself He put out the flames, like the mother with her child in the burning house. "We cannot save both," they cry, so she casts her child into the fire-escape, and perishes herself; so He dies a Substitute, and loses

His life for you. O child of God, have done with your past, and confess, "We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing."

There is something better for you, thank God. The Lord knows your vessel is empty; He knows your fruitless toil, and He has come down to see. He might have only looked and pitied, and gone away, and left you in your misery; but my Lord enters your little vessel. Christ gets on board Himself, and puts out to sea with you, and it will not do to put to sea without Jesus. Many would have looked on, and then left, leaving you with your sorrows; but He gets in with you, and He says, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught!" And when Simon hears it, he says, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net." Oh, blessed step! From the "we have" of confession of failure he turns to the "I will" of faith. This is the next step on the road to blessing; our will with His word. Shall it be so now?a clinging to His Word - "Nevertheless, at Thy Word I will!"-leaning your whole weight on one of His words, simple childword though it be. Now we have got away from the confession of failure to the determination of faith. Nevertheless, though hitherto I have been a failure, hitherto only disaster; though I have known it all for years, and there has been no conquering experience, no realising of His power and grace, nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net! Let every heart now respond, "I will! I will!" "Wilt thou with this man go 19 66 ? "I will go ! I will!" He wants no sound, but He wants your heart. He hears your soul. Will you say it? It may be the last time you will ever have the oppor tunity of answering, will you speak now? Jesus, precious Jesus, stay, go not back to Thy home yet; here is some poor soul who cannot yet frame his lips to say it, but he is going to say it—stay, my Lord, I beseech Thee-"Nevertheless, at Thy word I will." Listen! It is what Thou didst die to hear; it is sweeter than the music of heaven to Thee. Thou didst come down from heaven to hear the music of dying souls saying, "I will!" and claiming Thee by faith, clinging on to Thee. Yes, I will let myself down, down into the deep sea of God's compassion and abounding love. come here to do business with God. ome for a definite transaction with Him.

We have We have

Here is

the bank. If you have done no business with Him yet, I beseech you do it now, stay and see Him, go not away. Do not fill up the doorway, keeping others out, but come in. God is here now, and He is waiting to fill up all the blank cheques of His own promises you present to Him. Present them to be cashed now before you leave, that you may have enough for your common use in daily needs. Pay all your debts of past and present with it, all the debts between God and you, and between you and your brother, and owe no man anything but love-love to God, and love to your neighbour.

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Again, there is something else to be done, "Launch out into the deep." Many have come here for this very purpose, and yet you have no blessing, for you are still hugging the shore. You hear the truth, you say it is perfectly sound and orthodox, and very good; there's not much comfort in that, my brother! You have heard, and been bidden by Christ, "Launch out into the deep!" and you have said, "That is good news; but you won't do it, and you don't do it. Let go yourself! let go your own purposes, your own failures, let go what men will say of you; be like Christ, a man of no reputation, thus you will become a son of God. Men cling to their failures often most of all, but let go! Launch out into the deep of His Truth, into the deep of love, into the deep of His wondrous omnipotence, omnipresence and all love combined. Can you? Launch out! He is waiting for you to do it. You say it is so hard." Nay, there is nothing to do but to let go. There is enough drift in the tide of God to carry you far out to sea; don't keep tied to the shore by any bond of sin or any cord of fear.

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What will follow? Why, you will find your empty vessel filled with the mercy and the riches of God. Blessed results of launching out! Now what will you do next when you see the mercy and love of God filling you? You say, There will be shouts of Hallelujah Nay, not only Hallelujahs, they are a blessed part of praise, but there are two sides to that, and there is something deeper than loud exultation and jubilant rejoicings. When Simon Peter saw his little vessel full of the mercy of God, he fell down at Jesus' knees, and said, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" Ah, now the "I am," comes out at last, the "I am" of self-conviction and self-abhorrence. You will not misunderstand me. You know how I

66

sympathise with the exulting joy, but I sometimes fear lest too often in the Hallelujahs there is forgotten the "I am" of self-abasement, and lest in them there should be omitted the confession of what we are in ourselves and of our own sinfulness and utter failure. Do not forget to pass from the "I have" of confession of failure through the “I will" of faith, to the "I am" of self-abhorrence. Some are afraid to do it honestly, and to abhor themselves, because we think that if we do it God will take to doing the same, and abhor us too. But, nay, He will not, He is too good in His infinite compassion. Listen how he receives it, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." "Go home to Thy glory and Thy kingdom, to Thy Father, and leave Thy poor unworthy child here below." But He did not answer that prayer. He knows how to answer a wrong prayer rightly. Don't be afraid of heart out, because they feel as if God would trip what you pray. Some are afraid of praying their them up for not using the right words or asking the wrong thing. Nay, don't think my Father is of that sort. Don't be afraid to ask what is in your heart. Use all intelligence to find out what your Father would that you should ask, and what His will is, but do not be afraid of asking unreservedly. My Father will answer the wrong prayer right. If you unintentionally ask a wrong prayer, God will answer it right, so it will be right after all.

Now the "I will" of determined faith arrives at the "I am" of self-abasement, and what next? "Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men." After the "I am" " of self-abhorrence and selfabandonment, the lips of the Master are unsealed, and there breaks from His lips, "Fear not, from Just what henceforth thou shalt catch men."

I have been longing to hear, Lord the "thou shalt" of success. Oh, blessed sound! And the helm swings round, for my Lord guarantees for me that I shall do this or that. That is what I want-my Lord to guarantee my success, that in His Presence and under the power of God I should henceforth succeed. "Henceforth thou shalt catch men." Don't be afraid; He says it. Most of us here are workers-ministers, who have to confess that there has not been much blessing, though you have been very diligent, you have seen no result from your speaking, your sermons, your classes, all has been failure. Confess it now, 66 we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing,"—and begin again with this new "henceforth." Yes, last night we had our "hitherto," our "Ebenezer;" now, here is exactly His "henceforth," to correspond with it, and to continue it. God's response to our own word. Then now resolve to go forward, and having abandoned yourself to Him, to launch out into the deep at His word and with Himself. Amen.

"GOD'S WITNESSES.'

(ISA. XLIII. 10.)

BY REV. HUBERT BROOKE.

Ir is God's purpose that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. The time is coming when they shall teach "no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Him, from the least of them unto the greatest of them." Meanwhile, until that glorious time when the Lord has come again, He is imparting this knowledge to His own people as they are gathered one by one into His Church; and He imparts it generally by means of "His Witnesses." He teaches men to know Him, and as soon as any soul possesses that knowledge, it becomes a witness of Him to others; just as one candle is lighted from another, and then gives out a light of its own, from which others again may be kindled. Thus has God been working throughout the history of our race, as revealed in His Word; ever testifying of Himself, and making the recipients of His testimony witnesses

in their turn.

The fulness of His testimony is wonderful: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament

showeth His handiwork." "The earth is full of the

goodness of the Lord." "He left not Himself with out witnesses, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons." "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even Ilis eternal power and Godhead" (Ps. xix. 1; xxxiii. 5; Acts xiv. 17; Rom. i. 20). Thus He witnessed of Himself to the whole world, and added to this outward call the inward voice of conscience (Rom. ii. 15). Then to His chosen people, in order to make them witnesses of Himself, He multiplies His testimonies. "The two tables of testimony," "the tabernacle of testimony," "this song as a witness," "this book of the law for a witness," "heaven and earth to record," "the altar Ed for a witness," "this stone a witness "these are some of the countless tokens by which God would make His people know Him; tokens which found their most perfect development under the old Covenant in that temple, in which "every whit of it uttereth His glory." (Ex. xxxi. 18; xxxviii. 21; Deut. xxxi. 21, 26, 28; Joshua xxii. 34; xxiv. 27; Ps. xxix. 9 marg.)

"Bible Reading," given at the Keswick Convention.

Last of all, the testimony was perfected, every type and shadow found its fulfilment and substance, when in the fulness of time God manifested Him

self, and Jesus Christ came, who is THE FAITHFUL WITNESS (Rev. i. 5). Thenceforth this text of ours shines forth with new force and meaning, and sums up in one short sentence the true total of the Christian life-" Ye are my witnesses."

I. Let us look at the exhibition of this fact in

Old Testament pages-"Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." Their roll-call is written out in Heb. xi.; it comprises all who "by faith obtained a good report." In what manner were they God's witnesses ?

1. Israel was a witness to God by coming out of Egypt. "The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I.... bring out the children of Israel from among them" (Ex. vii. 5). (Ex. vii. 5). And in Joshua ii. 9.12. Rahab can say to the spies, "I know that the Lord hath given you the land, . . . . for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt." The deliverance of His people "from the present evil world" is the first witness they give to that world concerning their Lord (cf. Gal. i. 4).

....

2. Israel was a witness to God by entering into the land of promise. It was the great plea of Moses. to prevent the threatened judgment upon Israel for their unbelief about the land, that the world would not receive a true witness to God. "Then the

Egyptians shall hear it, . . . . and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land; . . . . then the nations which had heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land, therefore He hath slain them in the wilderness" (Num. xiv. 13-16). The entrance of Israel into the land was thus an absolutely essential witness to the power and faithfulness of God. What wonder that their forty years of wandering should be called "the Provocation," when, throughout that time they were practically denying God's power, giving the world a false testimony about Him, keeping them in doubt whether He were the only true God or not? When once they entered the land, and had taken the first city, the heathen inhabitants had a testimony of God which they could not reject; so that even "one of their royal cities" sought a league with Israel, "because of the name of the Lord thy God" (Josh. ix. 9, x. 2).

3. When settled in the land Israel was a witness

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