A Sure Remedy Prescribed by the Doctor...

by Walter Lewis Wilson, M.D.  Chicago: Moody Press, ©1938.

eBook (.mobi) edition—WholesomeWords.org—Copyright ©2018

Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1  A Grave in a Garden

Chapter 2  A Cure for Troubled Hearts

Chapter 3  A Drink, A Fountain, A River

Chapter 4  Angels for Pallbearers

Chapter 5  A Precious Death

Chapter 6  "By Himself"

Chapter 7  Five Aspects of Faith

Chapter 8  Three Rich Men

Chapter 9  The Empty Seat

Chapter 10  The Judgments

Chapter 11  The Spiritual Man

Chapter 12  Why God Punishes Men Throughout Eternity

Foreword

It has pleased God, through the foolishness of preaching, to save those who hear and believe the Gospel message of His grace. In this book are presented for your pleasure and profit some of those messages recently delivered by our beloved Doctor Wilson from Bible conference platforms and church pulpits.

The Lord has been pleased to use them in enlightening darkened hearts and in lifting the burdens of troubled souls. It is our desire that now, by means of the printed page, these blessed truths from God's infallible Word will prove an inspiration and encouragement to many, many others.

Things new and old are frequently found in the rich treasury of God's revealed truth, and the one who searches for this treasure is bountifully rewarded. The soul that learns to know Him who said, "I am . . . the truth," will learn to love Him, discover new beauties in Him, and experience the peace of God which passeth all understanding.—The Publishers

Chapter 1—A Grave In A Garden

"Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid" (John 19:41).

It is generally thought that the Lord Jesus was crucified on a barren, rough hill, covered with rocks and strewn with graves. This Scripture indicates that such was not the case. Calvary's Cross was erected in the midst of a garden. It was a rich man's garden, and therefore must have been very beautiful and attractive. This garden was the property of Joseph of Arimathaea, and it is recorded of him that he was rich and honorable, and was a counsellor by profession.

Perhaps Joseph had made this garden for his vacation pleasures. No doubt it was filled with beautiful flowers, lovely shrubs, winding walks, and other delightful projects of nature, which would make this a garden indeed wherein he might take his friends for recreation. A rich man would certainly not have a barren, rocky spot and call it a garden. No doubt he had spent much money and much time on this enterprise, so that he was delighted with the prospect of taking his several friends through the grounds.

In this beautiful place a grave had been constructed out of solid rock. It was a new sepulchre. No one had yet been buried there, and probably it was located away among the shrubs and bushes, so it might not detract from the beauty of the landscape. It is likely that Joseph planned to be laid there after his life had been spent and he was forced to die. I am quite sure that he never intended that the Lord Jesus, who was "despised and rejected of men," would ever lie in that grave. It was not made for the Christ. It was not intended for Him. I am sure that it never entered into his imagination that one day the loveliest Man in the world would be placed in that tomb by the darkest deed on earth.

No doubt, my friend, you are building a garden, too. Most men are building gardens for their joy and delight. Some make gardens out of their business. They plant new ideas and cultivate them earnestly. They seek to trim out unprofitable items, and to install methods and merchandise that will produce dividends. Others make a garden out of their sinful pleasures. There are some who make their garden out of the home life, or the lawn, or the house needs, or the auto. Is there a grave in the garden which you are building? Have you planned for a grave there? Perhaps you have made a grave in your garden where you may carefully lay away the Lord Jesus!

It may be that the making of your garden can only be accomplished by getting rid of the Lord Jesus. The plants in your garden may be sinful pleasures or worldly amusements. The guests in your garden may be those who despise the Lord Jesus, reject His Word, and refuse His authority. Of course, when this is the case, you must crucify Christ and carefully lay Him away where He cannot disturb your plans or uproot your plants.

Two Notable Gardens

Adam and Eve were driven out of their garden to die. The Lord Jesus entered into a garden to suffer on His way to Calvary. Sin, the sin of Eve, entered into that first garden and brought with it sorrow, suffering, and sighing. In the second garden, where the Saviour entered, sin entered also, but it was your sin and my sin, and sorrow entered with it. You cannot expect a garden without a grave. This world is like a thicket; you cannot get through without being scratched. If you are building a garden, you will find that thorns and thistles will be there, trouble will come from many sources, the flowers will be scorched by the hot winds of adversity. You may find there the graves of your hopes and ambitions.

There is a grave in every garden because every one must die, and each one who dies always dies in the midst of his garden, whatever that garden may be. In some of these gardens a grave has been deliberately dug for the Lord Jesus. There are those who know very well that they cannot have a garden such as they want with Christ in it, so they build a sepulchre and carefully put Him away out of their lives, so that His presence may not disturb their garden building nor their pleasures. There are those who build gardens in their lives with no intention of leaving the Saviour out of that garden, but as they proceed in the building of it they find that they want things there that He would not approve of, and so they deliberately set about to build a tomb to put Christ out of the way.

May I ask you, my friends, have you ever done anything like this? I know you are building a garden. Are you planning to have the Lord Jesus in that garden with you, or are you crucifying Him and burying Him out of your sight?

Let me tell you of a few people I have known who built as I have described and buried the Saviour there.

A Successful Architect

I have a friend whose garden of pleasure expressed itself in the designing of attractive buildings. He succeeded splendidly for a while, until reverses caused him to lose all his assets. One day this man visited one of his unfinished structures eight stories high. He viewed the unfinished work, realized how hopeless was his chance of finishing the apartment, so he climbed to the top and jumped off. There was a grave in his garden.

A Busy Manufacturer

A certain friend decided to make a garden out of his business. He was a worker in cloth and decided to bend all of his efforts towards building up a fine, profitable enterprise for his family. He deliberately set about making his garden as attractive and as profitable as possible, but without Christ. He laid Jesus away in the tomb of his forgetfulness. He deliberately put away the Saviour, so that there would be no mention of His Name in the garden of his factory. The Lord permitted him to do it, and this friend is still struggling with barrenness and rocks and weeds, for his garden has not prospered as he had hoped. He has neither a garden nor a God.

A Beautiful Young Wife

At the close of one of my services in one of our western cities, a lovely young lady, about thirty-two years of age, came to me with a beaming face and heart overflowing with joy. I had spoken of God's rich grace to men and His provision for their fullness of joy. The message had been a delight to her heart, so as she came to me radiantly, she said, "Dr. Wilson, I am enjoying now the blessing you have mentioned. I believe that I am the happiest woman in this entire state. I do not know of one thing that could add to my happiness. I have a lovely husband. He is attached to me and the children. I love everything about him and he loves everything about me. He loves his home and he loves his children. He has a good income, quite sufficient for all our needs, and he is laying aside something with which to educate the children as they need it. I have just the kind of home I had always wanted as a girl. I have beautiful rugs, just the kind I had always wished for, beautiful pictures on the wall with lights over them, lovely china and a baby grand piano. Out in the yard I have a gazing ball (I always admired them as a girl), and I have a goldfish pond and a lily pond. Doctor, you are looking at the happiest girl on the earth." Hers was a garden in which there seemed to be no grave.

A few weeks after this I received a telephone call from that lovely friend. Her heart was broken, her voice was choked with emotion as she begged me to come to see her. Death had come into that home suddenly. Her sweetheart had been stricken with pneumonia and after three days' fight for life he was taken from her to be with the Lord, for he was a saved man. Helen was left a widow with a precious little boy of seven and a beautiful girl of ten. There was a grave in her garden that she did not know about. She had not planned on death coming in. She had made no provision for burial in that scene of beauty and pleasure. She could not go back into that home again, and wanted my counsel and advice.

"Why do you not go back into this lovely little home, my sister?" I asked. "It is such a delightful place. It is so beautiful, and it is just what your heart wanted." She replied, quickly, "I cannot go back, Dr. Wilson. I cannot bear to see the chair in which he sat, or the books he read, or the clothing in the closet, or the slippers he wore. I can never again walk those rooms where I walked arm in arm with him."

Do you not see, beloved, that the garden which she had carefully prepared lost its charm when she found there was a grave there? You will find a grave in your garden, too. Are you ready for it? Are you prepared for a smash-up of the beautiful preparations you are making for a life of pleasure?

A Young Business Man

Another case I will mention is somewhat different. It was the case of a fine young man who desired to build a garden in the jewelry business. I had often spoken to him about the welfare of his soul and urged him to accept the Saviour. He always listened attentively and courteously, but constantly refused to become a Christian.

One day he said to me, "Doctor, I appreciate your interest in my welfare and am glad that you care for my spiritual life, but I have made a decision which you should know."

"What is it, Sam?" I said. "You know I wish only your greatest welfare both for time and for eternity. What have you decided to do?"

He replied slowly and with much emphasis, "I have decided that I will bend every effort to my jewelry business and make a success of it. Then when I have accumulated a net worth of $50,000.00 I will give serious thought to your message and will become a Christian."

This message brought sorrow to my heart for I esteemed the young man most highly and felt confident that I had lost him for the Lord. I said in reply, "Sam, I am deeply sorry to hear you say that. It may be that the Lord will turn from you and will decide that He does not want anyone who so lightly rejects His mercy and so carelessly hears His call. I hope that you are successful, but I do hope that you will not lose your soul through the effort. I cannot say that Christ will be ready to receive you when your hour of necessity arrives."

Sam did throw himself fully into his new business enterprise. He was a good jeweler, made friends easily, saved his money carefully, and gradually built up a very attractive little business. He was married but had no children. As the profits increased he invested them in a beautiful new cottage-home about one mile out of the city. There he gave to his companion all the desires of her heart. He furnished the house with beautiful rugs, attractive pictures, a baby grand piano and expensive china.

The yard was made into a beautiful garden. There were fragrant flowers in profusion, a gazing ball and a lily pond. There was also a fish pond and a rock garden. No effort or money was spared to make this the most attractive garden in that section.

One night he and his wife attended a show at the motion-picture theatre. It was quite late when they left and it was near midnight when they arrived at the home, but to their amazement it was only a pile of ashes. A fire had completely wrecked the house and its contents. The yard was destroyed. The flowers were trampled down, and what had been a garden was now a grave, over which they wept in deep sorrow.

Sam called me on the telephone to tell me of his loss, but then he said, "Doctor, I have it fully covered with insurance and tomorrow I will apply for a settlement when I obtain the policies from my lock box at the bank."

The next morning about 10 o'clock the telephone rang again, and I heard Sam's voice filled with great grief as he told me that all of the insurance policies had lapsed and that there was not one penny available for the new home. His heart was crushed, for a great, dark shadow had fallen athwart his path.

But he determined to work harder than ever and to make up his losses by increased profits. Shortly after he had returned to his labors with new zeal, a cough developed and his family doctor, who made an examination said, "Sam, you have a very rapidly-developing tuberculosis of the lungs. You must leave this city at once. To remain is most dangerous and will prove fatal. Get rid of your business and go."

Thus another dark shadow clouded his horizon. The grave was deepening. The shadows were lengthening. The garden of his heart was gone. He sold out his business for almost nothing and left for the west.

On the way he stopped to see his aged mother, a devoted Christian, who had constantly kept her boy before the throne of God in prayer. While sitting at the breakfast table the wise mother tuned in the radio to a Bible lesson which I was giving that morning on the subject, "The Three Alabaster Boxes." As Sam listened to the message concerning the three woman who gave their hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus his soul was deeply touched. At the end of the sermon I urged all of my listeners to go at once to Christ Jesus and trust Him. Sam left the table and went to his bedroom. In a few minutes he returned with tears streaming down his face.

"Mother," he said, "I have accepted Jesus Christ this morning and I am saved."

Sam had not realized before that there was a grave in his garden, but there he found it. He had buried Christ to get rid of Him. He had buried the Bible and never read it. Then his garden was wrecked and he was left with nothing but the hollow memories of the garden that used to be.

Let me urge upon each one of you to ask your heart whether you, too, would try doing as this young man did? Would you deliberately shut the Lord Jesus out of your plan and program, burying Him out of sight, so you can go on in your own way and do just what you please? Beloved, if you do it, then when you need Him, you will not have Him. When you call for Him, He may not appear. Christ wants to be on the throne of your heart. Christ calls for your loyal allegiance, and your devoted affections. He will only do you good and never harm. He will always bring you a blessing and not a curse. Christ will always be your Friend and not your enemy. Trust Him at the beginning of your life and you will be saved from many sorrows at the end of your life.

A Prominent Showman

May I relate another case in which a very prominent circus owner was brought face to face with the Lord Jesus in his garden? The friend had built up a great show, using a number of railroad cars to transport it from city to city. It was his ambition to own the largest railroad show outside of the "combine." However, he did not bring the Saviour into his plans, for Christ would hardly fit into such a program. We were having lunch together one day when I presented to him again the precious promises of God's grace. He listened attentively, even earnestly. The Spirit of God was working in his heart deeply. His mind was taken up with the great circus he had to transport, the many animals, wild and strange, many wagons, bands, multitudes of uniforms, large tents and much equipment for putting on the show. He thought of his winter quarters, a farm, which he had bought and paid for. He thought of the great name he had built up for his show around the country. Having considered all of this he turned to me and said, "Walter, I would be ruined if I took the Lord Jesus. I know nothing but the show business, and could not make a living from anything else. I must reject Jesus. I cannot take Him and I will not."

My friend had suddenly built a tomb and buried the Saviour there. The One who would have been his best Friend was laid away out of sight. The One who would have redeemed him was deliberately rejected and placed in a tomb where he would never be seen again. Not a long time after this occurred, my friend lost his show, lost his farm, and lost his savings. He had nothing left.

Beloved, how is it with you? Are you doing as this friend did? May I ask you to consider carefully what you will do when the garden withers, the flowers have dropped and died, the fruits of love have disappeared, and the thorns and thistles have overgrown the hills and valleys that you have planned to be a garden?

A Brilliant College Professor

A college professor of my acquaintance was unusually brilliant in his chosen field. His skill and knowledge gave him an enviable position in the colleges of the Middle West. His garden was a garden of original research and of brilliant teaching. One day as I passed the college, I saw him seated on a bench in the front yard of the school. I sat down beside him and said, "Professor, I am delighted with the progress you have made in your profession. I have heard your name well spoken of and your ability highly praised whenever I visit other colleges. You have gained a wonderful position in your field of labor. Doctor, what is the Lord Jesus to you?"

My friend was smoking a cigarette, as he was constantly doing, and he replied, "I think it is utter foolishness. Christianity belongs to old women and children. I have no interest in it whatever. My whole life is centered on becoming the best informed man on my subject in the United States. I want to be so good in this field that the best colleges will beg for my services at a salary which I will name myself."

That was the garden that my friend had chosen to make. He did not know that there was a grave in his garden. Life was attractive to him. His profession allured him. Great opportunities beckoned to him, and he followed fully.

This professor not only smoked cigarettes continually, but drank whiskey rather freely. These two enemies were digging a grave right in the center of his garden. As the summer passed, these habits fastened themselves upon him, and dragged him down as two dogs at the throat of a deer. On the opening day of the college, he was in the grip of delirium tremens. His mother would not permit him in the home, and in the darkness of the barn behind his home, he died in desperate distress. There was a grave in his garden. He crucified Christ and laid Him away lest he should be disturbed, and then did not get to live to enjoy his Christless garden.

Are you pursuing this path, my friend? Are you trying to make a garden without the God of the gardens? Do you expect to have the flowers and fruits of love, joy, and peace without the Lord from whom these blessings must come?

A College Athlete

It may be that your garden is one of physical prowess. In a great college in the Middle West there was an athlete of unusual power and ability. He captured many trophies and won many medals. His was a garden of excellency in athletics. He had no time for Christ, so he buried Him out of sight. He crucified the Lord Jesus and got rid of Him. He would rather have the "Varsity" letter than the smiles of the Saviour. At the height of his success, a cough developed. Doctors ordered him to the hospital. The heart that had been overtaxed on the track collapsed. The lungs that had been under such a terrific strain from the violent exercises failed. His case grew rapidly worse, and he came to an untimely end at the age of twenty-seven. There was a grave in his garden.

In your garden make sure that you exalt the great Gardener who gave us such fragrant flowers, precious perfumes, delightful colors, and all the blessings of life. He will make you like a watered garden: "And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not" (Isaiah 58:10, 11). If the Lord Jesus is accepted and enthroned, He will fill your garden with beauty, peace and rest.

Joseph of Arimathaea saw his garden turned into crucifixion grounds. He saw the most beautiful place around Jerusalem become the scene of the darkest deed in human history. Wicked men came into this place of beauty and there they crucified the Lord of glory. Will it be so in your life? Beloved, may I plead with you to enthrone the Lord Jesus? Do not crucify Him. Crown Him with your loyal affection and trust. Do not pierce Him with the thorns of your denial and rejection. If you make Christ Jesus your own He will make you His own. If you welcome Him into the throne-room of your heart and life, He will welcome you into the throne-room of heaven. Will you do so? Do it now?

Chapter 2—A Cure For Troubled Hearts

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1).

I wonder how many of us have our hearts so fixed that they can't be troubled with financial loss, or physical suffering, or domestic troubles, or the death of loved ones! Have you so fixed your heart upon the Lord that it cannot be troubled? Are you a "trouble-proof" Christian?

God's people are not like other folks. The saints of God should not be afraid of evil tidings, "Let not your heart be troubled." In the fourteenth chapter of John, our Lord gives us six ways of keeping the heart from being troubled. Six prescriptions or remedies are found in that chapter for a troubled heart.

The main one is this, "In my Father's house are many mansions"—"mansions" inside of a "house." "If it were not so, I would have told you." Heaven is a place, not a condition. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again." Ask yourself, beloved, what effect these words have on your heart.

I called up my sweetheart the other night by long-distance telephone, and she asked, "When are you coming home, lover?"

"I'll arrive Saturday morning on the regular train, dear," I told her.

"I'll be there waiting for you, beloved," she assured me.

There are 100,000 other women in Kansas City, but none of them said that they would be waiting for me. Do you know why? Because I do not mean anything to them.

If He means anything to you, this lovely Lord who says, "I am coming," you will surely say, "Hurry up, I am waiting for You! I would like to see You! Hurry up! What train are You coming on? Will it be in the morning?"

"It may be at morn, when the day is awaking,

When sunlight thro' darkness and shadow is breaking,

That Jesus will come in the fullness of glory,

To receive from the world 'His own.'"

Does that stir your heart? Do you care? Are you interested in His coming? I am sure that there will be no crowd at the depot to see me when I go home, but there will be one lovely lady waiting there. There will be lots of men coming along, large and small, and nice looking ones, too, but she will not be looking for any of them; she will be looking for this little fellow—she will be watching for the man to whom she belongs.

Are you watching for the Man to whom you belong? Are you married to Him? Do you really belong to Him? He is coming back again. "If I go," He said. His coming back is conditioned upon Him going. "If I go . . . I will come again." I wonder how those words affect your heart! Would you like to see His face? Is there a longing in your soul to see Him as He is? Do you like to say, "Come, Lord Jesus!" Do you want to see Him?

A Test of Relationship

You can be very religious and not be in love with Christ. You can be very orthodox and not be in love with Christ. You can be very nice and sweet and lovely, and not be in love with Christ. You see, religion is an assent to certain teachings, but Christianity is being in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians have a Man they love and adore and worship and follow; other religious people have a system of things that they are expected to believe and do. I could be a Christian Scientist, or a Seventh Day Adventist, or a Mormon, if I told them, "I believe what you teach." All they have is doctrines, but Christians have a lovely, loving Lord, the Man who is coming back again.

I wonder if He told the truth: "If I go . . . I will come again." This is His own word. He said it again after His resurrection. There are those who think His resurrection is what He referred to, but after His resurrection, He said to Peter about John, "If I will that he (John) "tarry till I come . . . follow thou me" (John 21:22). He was still talking about His coming, even after He rose from the dead. He is coming back again!

Let us listen to other authorities on this subject: "Paul, do you know anything about the return of our Lord? You were one of the greatest of preachers; did you ever hear anything about the Lord's return? Is He really coming back? or did He go away to stay away? or is He still in the tomb?"

"For the Lord himself," he says—not a substitute, nor a spirit, nor a ghost, nor an angel—"The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout." He wants everybody to know that He will soon be on the way. He is coming back to take the Church away "with a shout, with the voice of the archangel." After that He will come with a rod of iron to have a settlement with the enemy. Make ready, your KING is coming!

It says that we shall be changed and go to meet Him in the air "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" (I Corinthians 15:52). How quick is that? The translators, in using the word "twinkling," indicated the briefest moment of time they could think of. Some say it means "indivisible," that is, it is so quick that one cannot divide it into any shorter period of time. You can divide the second, but He is coming so quickly that you cannot divide that blessed moment.

We Will See the King

And we are going to meet Him. That is the beautiful thing about Christianity, it is all around Him and wrapped up in a Person. It is centered in the Man, Christ Jesus. We are going to meet Him in the air.

Thank you, Paul! We are glad you wrote these comforting words: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God" (I Thessalonians 4:16). Angels will announce the coming of the living Lord. Will you be glad to hear them?

Then "the dead in Christ shall rise first," those lovely, precious ones whose bodies are lying yonder in the cemetery. I have twelve of them whose bodies lie near each other in Kansas City; there are eleven in one spot, and my father's body lies in a mausoleum. When He comes, the graves of the Christians will be opened immediately.

There is a difference between the Christian and the one who is not a Christian. The "dead in Christ" are not like those who are "dead in their sins." The Lord Jesus said, if you "die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come" (John 8:21); but He also said, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord" (Revelation 14:13). There is a difference! How are you going to die?

I talked with a prominent surgeon one day, and had a lovely visit. He didn't know it, and I never dreamed that he was within a few days of eternity, as we talked there in the dressing room of the hospital. A few days later his automobile was hit by a train and he was killed.

I met one of my old professors one day in the hall of a city hospital. He was a Jew, and had always been good and kind to me. We both had patients in the hospital, and we met this time on Wednesday. "Say, Wilson," he said, "for about twenty-five years now you have been telling me a little about your religion. (I had been talking with him about Christ, but he didn't know the difference.) I wish you would take time, and I will take time off, and you come up to my office and explain what all this religion is you have. You come to my office at 10:00 next Wednesday morning, will you?"

"Of course," I replied, "I will be there."

On Friday he flew to another city to perform an operation, and started back by plane Saturday morning. About thirty miles from Kansas City they flew into a dust storm. Those dust storms are so bad that you can't run your automobile in the street; the dirt is just like snow; you can't see through the windshield. They flew into such a dust storm, and dirt got into the motor. They dropped flares, but the dirt put them out before they hit the ground. Finally, the plane ran out of gasoline, crashed to the ground, and he was killed. We were going to meet "next Wednesday."

Who Will Meet Him?

Our Lord Jesus is coming back, "and the dead in Christ shall rise first"—those who died trusting Christ; those who died as Christians, really Christians—not fakes or imitations, but the real article; those who really have eternal life in their souls by a living faith in Christ Jesus.

"The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain"—Christians who belong to Him, who love Him—"shall be caught up together with them in the clouds." There will be a cloud from Kansas City, and a cloud from Chicago, and a cloud from New York, and a cloud from New Orleans, and a cloud from Los Angeles, and a cloud from Milwaukee: groups of Christians caught up "to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord," the One we love. How would you like that?

"Thank you, Paul, we knew you would tell us!"

"John, you leaned on Jesus' bosom, didn't you, and heard His heart beat, and looked into His face, and felt His breath; did you ever hear the Lord Jesus say anything about coming back again?"

"Listen," John replies, "I heard a voice from heaven say, 'Surely (not maybe) I come quickly.'"

"John, did you really hear Him say that?"

"Yes, I have recorded it three times in the last chapter of Revelation, in the seventh, twelfth, and twentieth verses."

"And did He say that?"

"Yes, and I wrote it down so you could know, and I replied, 'Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus'"

"Thank you, John, we thought we would hear an 'Amen' from you."

Do you know who will meet Him when He comes again? Do you know who He is going to take? He will take those who belong to Him. The Lord Jesus compares Himself to a mother hen in Matthew 23:37, and in Luke 13:34. He said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings." When the mother hen starts clucking, all the chicks come home.

When I visited Earl Ryan's farm I noticed that he had three chicken coops, with a Plymouth Rock hen, a buff cochin hen and a Leghorn hen tied to each coop. Out in the dusty road were a lot of little chicks playing. "Earl," I inquired, "how do you know which of these chicks belongs to the different hens?"

"I can tell you in a minute, Walter," he replied, and turning to his son, he said, "Bobby, go ask mother for a handful of oatmeal." When Bobby returned, Earl placed the oatmeal before one of the hens, and as soon as she saw it and started clucking, I knew which chicks were hers. Then he placed some oatmeal near another of the hens, and I knew which chicks were hers.

"Thank you, Earl," I laughed, "that's enough."

That is the way He will separate His chicks. When He calls, we will go to Him.

What Will A Magnet Attract?

Now notice, I have a small magnet here in my hand. Let's see what it will do. This can opener I found in my room at the hotel. The magnet picks it up. Here I have a package of old soiled paper. Do you think the magnet will pick it up? It is dirty looking outside, but there must be something inside, for the magnet picks it up too. The magnet picks it up because there is some old wire on the inside. But will it take up this silver dollar? No! These pennies will not cling to the magnet. This gold ring cost $15.00 and was given to me, but it is not attracted by the magnet. This bottle of perfume is not affected, but this can opener clings to it. My fine Hamilton watch is not attracted, but these paper clips go toward it.

How is it that all these miserable things are moved by the magnet, but my lovely watch and ring and the silver dollar not? These things that nobody cares much about all go to the magnet. And see how closely these things stick together on the magnet. Why is that? I'll tell you the reason in a minute, but first let us see if this bunch of matches will be moved. Look, one of them goes to the magnet, but the others don't. Why is that? Listen, and I'll tell you a secret: I put a steel needle in this match. It has a new heart.

You will never go to Him until He puts a new heart in you. Listen, only those persons who have in them the same kind of life that is in Him are going to be caught up to meet Him when He comes.

This dollar for instance, that I have been trying to lift with the magnet, looks wonderful, doesn't it? It is a fine dollar, and people like it. It has been around the country a great deal. It has the Government stamp on it, and is approved; but there is nothing in this dollar that is in this magnet, and for that reason, it is not attracted to the magnet.

My lovely valuable ring is not affected in the least when I put the magnet near it, for there is nothing in the ring that is in the magnet.

My watch is a fine and lovely one, but there is nothing in this watch that is in this magnet, and it is not drawn upward by the magnetic force. No matter how fine or lovely or valuable my watch is, it will never go up when I bring this magnet down.

Our Magnet is coming down, and will draw to Him the folks who have in them the things that are in Him:—God's life, eternal life, His Spirit, like the match with the new heart in it. He comes down, and we go up. It would never do for Him to leave the throne and presence of God while we were still here, for we must have an Advocate with the Father. When He starts down, we are going to start up to meet Him. Would you like that? He is coming back again!

A Strange and Awful Thing

But I must tell you a strange and awful thing:—He is going to leave behind all those who do not belong to Him. I want to ask each of you to examine your heart and see whether He has done something to you; not whether you did something. Salvation is something Christ Jesus does to you. It is a surgical operation by which that blessed Lord puts inside of your soul eternal life, and if He didn't do it, it isn't done, no matter how many times you have gone forward in some public meeting, or how many experiences you have had. There must be the gift of eternal life implanted in the soul by the Lord Jesus. He said, "I give unto them [my sheep] eternal life" (John 10:28). Has He given it to you? Do you have this eternal life, and do you know you have it by the unmistakable proofs in your soul?

Suppose I should find a little green plant in my yard that has grown about an inch above the soil, and after looking at it closely, I say, "This is a vine of the green bean variety, and it will climb." I therefore place a pole beside the plant, and it soon starts climbing up the pole from left to right. Then I notice that my other green bean plants are coming up, so I place a pole beside each of them, and soon I observe that all of the plants are climbing the pole from left to right.

"Why is that?" you ask.

"Because the Lord has given green beans a climbing instinct different from radishes or beets or peas; an instinct to climb. I don't know why. You can't see it in the microscope, nobody knows why, but every one of the green bean plants does it. God in some way put that nature into that plant to do that thing.

But I have planted some other seeds in my yard, and soon I find another vine coming up; it is a vine of hops. As I watch this vine climbing the pole, I find that it climbs from right to left; just the opposite of the bean vine. Each of my hop vines climbs upward just as the bean vines, but in the opposite direction. Why? I don't know, but God has given to this plant this kind of nature.

You look at your nature. Have you a nature that God has implanted in you that makes you incline toward God, Love His Word, love to pray, love Christ? Love Him on Saturday afternoons, and on the Fourth of July? Makes you plan your vacation so as to get something out of God's Word during the time you are away from work? Have you a life in you that draws you to Him, and makes you love Him, and adore Him, and walk with Him, and want Him, Don't look back to when you joined the church, but the time when you met Christ, and He gave you eternal life. He is coming back, and will take all those who are fitted to live in heaven because of that new nature, and will make them feel at home with God.

Ask your heart whether the Lord Jesus is going to take you because you have in you that same life and nature that is in Him. Have you met Him, and trusted Him, and has He saved you? Are you going home?

We Are Going to See His Face

Say, won't it be wonderful to see the Lord Jesus? We have read about Him, and heard so much about Him. Won't it be wonderful to see that lovely Man who lived and died and went back to glory? Won't it be wonderful to see Him, and to fall at His feet and the story repeat, and the Lover of sinners adore?

He might take us quickly, for He has said in Revelation 22:7, 12 and 20, "Behold, I come quickly." It isn't the word used to denote time, but rather to indicate the manner of His coming. He didn't mean that He was coming soon, but rather instantaneously. The transformation will be immediate, at once, like a flash of lightning and the Christians will be gone. You get the picture when you read how the Lord translated Enoch and Elijah to heaven without their dying. He says He will do that with all the saints who are living when He comes.

"Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying,

No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying,

Caught up thru the clouds with our Lord into glory,

When Jesus receives 'His own.'"

"When this . . . mortal shall have put on immorality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (I Corinthians 15:54, 55). It is true because we will go without dying.

He is coming to take you. He will take you, if you have taken Him. The unbeliever will not go, because he has no Christ. They don't want life, and they don't want Him; so He doesn't give them life, or Christ, or heaven. What about you? Do you want Him, and do you want to be with Him? It is a fine and blessed thing to live altogether for Him, so that when He comes, He will not find you asleep and lazy, but watching and working.

I remember when I used to walk through our factory with its three hundred employees, I could tell before I started upstairs just who I would find working. No matter what time I went up, I would always find certain ones there. I could tell you before looking at the time clock, who punched in exactly on the hour, and who punched in after the hour. You see some worked for me and loved me, but others just worked for me.

Our Lord looks down upon every one of us and knows whether our heart is His. He knows whether we are watching for the train to come with Him on it. He knows whether we want Him, or just His gifts. He knows, and each one of us knows it, too.

Beloved, because He has said He is coming again and is coming suddenly, I want to plead with you to be ready.

"Then take with rejoicing from Jesus at once

The life everlasting He gives;

And know with assurance thou never canst die,

Since Jesus thy righteousness lives."

Chapter 3—A Drink, A Fountain, A River

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37).

WHENEVER there is an "if" in the mind, there is an evident lack in the life. One of the thieves on the cross said, "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us" (Luke 23:39), and he went to hell. But there was no "if" in what the other thief said, when he cried, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." He did not say, "If thou be the Christ." He left the "if" out and went to Paradise.

Here there is an "if" of blessing: "If any man thirst." Let every thirsty one come unto the Fountain of living water and drink.

As a doctor I have seen a great many kinds of thirst. I once saw a woman thirst for morphine. She had only one foot, and it was badly infected. That woman crawled on her hands and knees to my office door. When I opened the door, there she crouched like a dog on all fours. She looked up at me pitifully, and said, "Doctor" will you let me come in, and will you give me a shot of morphine?" She lost her other leg later. She was a morphine fiend. There was a real thirst, a real demand of the soul and body for morphine.

There are cocaine fiends, and nothing in the world will satisfy them but another dose of cocaine. There are heroin fiends. I could be a rich man today if I would accept that kind of business in Kansas City. I could charge three dollars a shot for stuff that would cost me only twelve cents, and I could have all the business I was able to handle, if I could avoid the law. Men thirst for liquor, and will pay any price to anyone in order to get it.

Twice in my life I have been thirsty; once, when I was lost on the back side of Mount Wilson. (This story is the last one in "Miracles in a Doctor's Life.") We ran out of water at about 10:00 A.M. on a very hot day, and were without any water until about 2:00 P.M., when the guide found us. I was never in such agony for water. We would have done anything to get it. Our lips and tongues were swollen, our throats were parched, and our whole system demanded water, but there was none. When the guide took us down the mountain side, and we got within six hundred feet of the stream, we could hear it dashing over the stones, and we ran to it. There wasn't anything else in the world that attracted our attention. We wanted water, and falling down we stuck our heads into it, opened our mouths, and let it run in. We didn't care for our clothes or looks. We buried our heads in that water. It is terrible to crave for water and not be able to get it.

The other time was after an operation on my back. The doctor wouldn't let me have any water. The agony of those hours taught me a lesson. (I now let most of my patients have all the water they want.) My, I was thirsty! I begged the nurse and threatened her, but she merely said, "Doctor, you ought to have better sense." I had better sense all right, but I wanted water.

A Real Soul Thirst Needed

Our Lord Jesus said, "If any man thirst." I want to ask you, have you a real thirst in your soul for something from God that you do not have? You will not come and drink from the Lord Jesus, unless there is a craving in your soul for that living water which He alone can give. If you are satisfied with listening to sermons, and then going home with nothing happening, you are not thirsty.

I'll tell you why that "if" is there. The Lord Jesus said "if any man thirst" at the end of the feast week. There, had been seven days of feasting. They could have anything they wanted to drink—just anything they pleased. They had had a whole week, not of fasting, but of feasting, and the Saviour said, at the end of that time, "If you are still thirsty and there is a definite longing in your heart for something you do not have, come to me and drink."

I have had patients crying out for water when they couldn't have it. How they begged and pleaded for it. Soldiers on the battlefield will do anything for water. I went to the battlefield on Lookout Mountain where men had fallen. There were bronze tablets marking the place where they had died. The river was down in the enemy's camp, and the Confederate men were up on that Mountain without water. They were dying of thirst and crying for relief.

Is there any thirst in your heart, or are you just a nice, peaceful individual without any sense of need?

"If any man thirst." You know thirst has a wonderful place in Scripture: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matt. 5:6). Have you a craving for something that will satisfy? Thank God for it, if you have. Ask your heart, "Am I satisfied?" Of course you may be safe from physical ills; you may be orthodox in your belief; you may have something that pleases you now; and you may be quite contented for the present. Are you? If so, the Lord isn't directing this message to you.

"If any man thirst." If you have a craving for a Spirit-filled life that you do not have; a longing for a knowledge of God that you do not possess; a desire for a close relationship with God that you do not now enjoy; a walk with God that is not formal and cold and stiff, but a real loving fellowship. that will make you feel right at home in His presence, then heed His blessed invitation.

"If any man thirst, let him [that blessed one] come to me, and drink." We pick salvation up as a glass of water, and drink it. We want it; we are anxious for it; we are so thirsty for it; and we appropriate it, and say, "Thank you, Lord, for that lovely cold drink you gave me." Are we like that, or are we just complacent and content? "I am all right; my faith is all right; I believe all right." Is that what you are saying? If that is so, you should ask the Lord to create a thirst in your heart.

David said, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is" (Ps. 63:1). Again, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God" (Ps. 42:1), There should be a craving for God in the heart, in the life, and in the soul, that will not be satisfied with anything else. Is there a great hunger in your heart for God?

Satisfied With His Sweetheart

When I arrived home one evening, there was a pile of mail on my desk. I went into the kitchen and kissed my sweetheart, put down the satchel, and started opening the letters. Soon I heard a step, and the wife came into the office. Putting her face next to mine, she said, "Lover, when are you going to think more of me than you do of the mail?" I looked up into her face, and said, "Right now." I helped her put the food on the table, and after the meal was over, said to the children, "You children can clean up the table; your mother and I are going to have a good visit." We went into the front room, sat down on the davenport, and had a grand time of fellowship together. I had been paying the bills, buying her clothes, giving her money, and had been a real husband to her, I thought; but that wasn't what she wanted. It wasn't my money, but myself that she was interested in.

There is such a thing as being satisfied with the affairs of God, and missing His lovely Person. We are so busy doing church work that we are missing Him. This service is very lovely—I wish we had much more—but that isn't what He is talking about. "If any man thirst." "If you want Me, come and drink." Just drink in the Spirit of God. Drink in the Lord Jesus. Go and take all you can get of Him. He wants us to be good customers of His. Get everything He has for you. We want You, Lord Jesus, and we want all we can get of You!

The Best Eye Doctor

I remember a fine boy in Kansas City. His father was the oculist who gave me my first glasses. His son became interested in the study of the eyes, and gave up everything as a boy, in order to become the best eye doctor in Kansas City. He studied in this country and in Germany, so when he came back to Kansas City he could say, "I think I have learned as much as I can about the eye." He spent ten years learning to be a good doctor. He is now at the top of his profession in Kansas City, and is also a fine Christian.

I wish all of us had a thirst for all of Christ that we can get; for all of His Spirit that it is possible for a redeemed sinner to know, love, enjoy and possess; to be wholly sold out to Christ, because we thirst for Him in our souls. Don't be professional religionists! An unsaved man could preach to you in a swallow-tailed coat, a step-ladder collar, and use beautiful English, but you would remain as dead as a door-knob, and so would he.

We want an honest-to-goodness fullness of our blessed Lord, until the soul is saturated, even as the body becomes saturated when we drink water.

Have you ever had such a thirst in your heart? Is there a longing in your soul for Him—a craving, a thirsting for Him? My precious friends, do you have that thirst that nothing can satisfy but Christ?

Notice that "if." I am sorry He had to put it there, as though we might not be thirsty. I wonder how many of us would be concerned about these spiritual matters if we should fall heir to a million dollars in cash. Would we have any thirst after God, or any interest in the Bible class, or the preacher, or the Church? We could then buy anything we wanted: a couple of autos and a man to drive them. We could go to Europe, and do all the things we might wish to do. But would we have any thirst for Him? Would it take away whatever thirst there is, if we had everything our hearts could wish?

The Best Christian God Can Produce

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was only a great thirsting in our hearts to be the finest Christians God can make? Suppose you start right now, and turn over every talent and gift to God in order that you may become the finest Christian that He can produce. "If any man thirst, let him come unto me." Have a meeting with Christ, and drink in all He has to give. Is there a thirst? I hope that there is. If there isn't, I hope that it will be aroused soon—a real longing in your heart to be the most spiritual, useful Christian it is possible to be in this world. "If any man thirst."

My one great desire was to become a doctor, no matter what it cost. I had to obtain an $80.00 microscope, and how I schemed and planned to get it. I finally acquired it through a multitude of "trades," and gathering enough stuff to get the microscope for nothing.

We will pay most any price to obtain what we want in this life. Oh, I urge you to give your lives to the Lord! I mean really, not just in fun. Study your Bible: carry it, read it, love it, develop a thirst for it, feel at home with it; have a desire for it, as I had a desire for my book on heart diseases, obstetrics, and anatomy. I wanted to get it. I still do; I love it. Don't be satisfied to be just a Christian, but be an unusual Christian.

The Lord is looking down on you and me. Does He see no fruit, or little fruit, or does He see a life saturated with Himself, loaded with fruit, lived for His glory every day in the week, and every hour of the day? I saw these words in the front of a dear man's Bible: "I wonder how my life affects God?" Think it over. Just how does your life affect God?

Efficient Workmen Are Praised

I used to take visitors through my factory. We had between three hundred and four hundred employees, and I used to point out the ones who were particularly efficient in their work. There was one girl who could do anything quickly, thoroughly and well. She was always a step ahead of others. Then there was one who could put more binding on awning scallops than three ordinary girls. I was proud of her, and paid her well for it. But we had one boy, poor Henry, who was drunk most of the time, and he was so foul in his language. We had him sit in one corner alone, for we didn't want him to be with the others. We kept him because he could make a splice on a big tent much easier and better than anyone else. There was never much good to say about Henry. He died a drunkard. I was not proud of him.

As our Lord looks down on us is He proud of us, or are we disappointing Him because we are satisfied just to be saved?

"Every morning I read my chapter," said a friend, and I asked her, "What did you get out of it this morning?"

"Well, let me see," she said hesitatingly, "what chapter was it I read?"

It is tragic to read a chapter and get nothing from it. I went to see a baby that was sickly and his parents were much concerned about him. The little thing kept crying continually, but the mother couldn't find out what was wrong. She was starving her little one. She would nurse it, but the milk was not nourishing. "Give him a bottle of milk properly prepared," I suggested, "so he can get something satisfying to eat."

Are you satisfied just to read one chapter? Oh, for a thirst! God grant there shall be a thirst in our hearts that will not be satisfied without a close fellowship with a loving Lord, making our souls loving, happy and peaceful. We should know more today than yesterday; we should love Him more today than yesterday.

"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him." Come and take it! Drink it! "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water"—a fountain of water—"springing up into everlasting life." It will be an artesian well, a fountain springing up into life abundant. Have you that well in you?

The Pump Had to Be Primed

When I was at Gull Lake, Michigan, we moved into a cottage that had a pump in it. We were right beside the Lake, and could have all the water we wanted in the house, so after we were settled, my wife said, "Beloved, I wish you would fill a bucket with water, so I can clean up."

I found the bucket and started working the pump, but all I got out of it was a mournful groan. I went out to find the man who had sent us to this cottage, feeling a little peeved that he should have given us something like that. As I stepped outside a boy of twelve or thirteen came up, and said, "Where are you going, Dr. Wilson? Can I run for you?"

"I'm looking for the owner to see why he gave me a dry pump," I replied.

"Let me fix it for you, will you, please, Dr. Wilson?" he asked eagerly; "I've fixed 'em lots of times."

"All right, come along, son," and I took him back into the cottage. He picked up a can that I thought was a part of the trash left by the former residents, and dipping it into the Lake, brought it back full of water.

"You see, Dr. Wilson," he said, "if you don't put nothin' in, you don't get nothin' out." He started pouring in the water and working the pump handle. The thing groaned miserably, then gurgled, and all of a sudden the water came gushing out of the spout.

Has the Lord ever poured anything into you that put you in touch with the reservoir, so that you became a fountain?

I pumped out all the water I wanted, and took it out to my wife. As I came back into the kitchen, I heard a sort of forlorn gasp from the pump—it had gone dry again.

Are you like that, stirred up when the preacher comes along, and down and out when he goes away? God help us to have a fountain inside, whether the preacher is around or not—in school, at the store, in the kitchen, in the parlor, and at the office—always a fountain flowing for Christ. That is your birthright privilege. The Lord wants you to be that.

A Scripture-Saturated Home and Heart

I was invited as a guest one day to the home of a precious friend, and saw there something I had never seen before, and have not seen since. When I looked at the piano I saw the text, "Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). I looked at the bookcase, and saw there, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God" (II Tim. 2:15). On the vase there was the phrase from II Timothy 2:21—"A vessel unto honour." Then I got to really nosing around. On the broom I read, "Doth she not sweep diligently till she find it?" The text on the stove was Revelation 3:15—"I would thou wert cold or hot." She had a scripture text on everything in the house. On the bed, she had "Come unto me...and...rest" (Matt. 11:28). "Dr. Wilson," she said, "I want my mind and heart to be always saturated with my Lord."

"A fountain!" You remember Billy Bray who said to his persecutors, "If you put me in a barrel, I will call 'Hallelujah' through the bung-hole." That is the fountain you should have in your soul.

One day, while I was still engaged in business in Kansas City, a contractor came into my office, and said, "Dr. Wilson, do you know that there is a spring under your desk? It has been there since 1881 when the building was erected. Yesterday, the city engineer and I walked through the large drainage sewer under Delaware Street, and we were examining it to see if everything was all right. When we got down to Seventh Street, I saw the pipe that I had placed there in 1881 to carry the water from the spring in your building down to that sewer. We couldn't stop the spring when we were erecting this building, and the water was still running when we went through the sewer yesterday, after about fifty years." Nothing could stop it. They had tried and failed.

That is what He wants you to be. It "shall be in him a well of water springing up." What people say about you won't stop it. It will run every day of every year. There is plenty of water, and more where that came from.

So often we find in a church, when Mrs. Jones is asked why she doesn't come anymore, she will reply, "They can run their own whole shebang better without me, and I'm not going back. After me being there twenty-three years, and giving more money than that Mrs. Charles ever did, and then for them to do a thing like that. She hasn't been there half as long as I, or given a third as much money. If they want to run their church like that they can run it." They had not asked her to give the flag to the Sunday school.

The Lord wants us to have in our hearts such a knowledge and love of our Lord and His Word that nothing can stop that living water from springing up in the soul. It "shall be in him a well of water." Do you have that well, or have you just a nice little religion that keeps you nice?

When folks get around you, do they find a dry well, or a lovely stream of eternal water from heaven's reservoir? That is your privilege and right. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

Look at John 7:38, and you will see the result of this drinking of heaven's water. Out of him shall flow "rivers of living water." Water for the little children, for the aged ones, for fathers and mothers, for high school children, for sorrowing and for sick ones, for disabled and suffering ones, for sad ones and singing ones. Water flowing, not just a few drops, but "rivers." I am not telling you fables; these are the words of the Lord Jesus. Is there anything flowing out of you? Notice it doesn't say, "Into him shall flow rivers of living water."

No Living Water in the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea has water from the Jordan flowing into it continually, but nothing ever flows out of that Sea, and therefore it is Dead. You can attend every Bible Conference and every meeting, and be dead because nothing ever flows out. "He that believeth on me . . . out of his belly shall flow." If there is a spring within, there will be a river flowing without. You can't hold it in. It will spring up of itself. You will have to talk to be refreshed. "I will speak, that I may be refreshed" (Job 32:20). "I believed, and therefore have I spoken" (II Corinthians 4:13).

One evening a certain group of young people asked me to speak to them on church work. I called a young lady to the front, and asked her to sit down, and then called up another young lady to tell her how to be saved. It was a heartbreak. Both of them had been in the church for I don't know how long.

The second girl started the conversation, "You're a stranger in our city, aren't you?"

"Yes," her friend replied, "we just moved here from Oklahoma."

"Have you ever gone to church?" she continued.

"No," was the answer.

"Then we should like for you to come to our church. We have a fine young people's group, and we play games and sing."

"That is enough, sister," I interrupted at this point, "you may go back to your seat." There wasn't a drop of life in her. I tried out four of these young folks, but not one of them had a drop of water to give to this poor sinner. They talked about their church, their society, and their good times, but said nothing about the Lord Jesus.

Beloved, let us quit playing, and be out-and-out for Christ. "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." That will bless others and give life more abundantly. "I am come that they might have life,"—do not stop there—"and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

The Flow of Living Water

Did you notice that He said, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"—not "out of his head"? Why out of his belly? Because the belly is that particular part of the anatomy, way down in the bowels, where the food that you have eaten has been thoroughly mixed with the saliva and gastric juices until it has become chyle, a white substance ready to go into the blood. At that place in the bowel this substance goes through the bowel wall by the process of osmosis, and goes into the lacteals. They take it up, and in them it turns to blood. It isn't in the stomach, but way down there in the bowels that the food goes out of the bowel into the blood stream to give life.

The living water isn't something you have heard and not felt. It is a living message; it has life in it; it comes into your very soul because you have been in touch with God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. You give that message and your friends are saved. You reach their hearts because something that has life in it is coming from your heart and soul. It isn't just a dead, dry talk about religion; it is a living, vital message, savored with heaven's perfume, and the life and love of God flows from your soul into the hearts of others.

Has anyone ever learned of Christ through you? You never have to force the river to flow, it flows of its own accord, and you can't help it or stop it. Have you that river?

First, have you that thirst? There will never be a fountain within or a river without, unless you have that thirst. "If any man thirst." If there is a lack of thirst, kneel down right now, and say, "Lord, give me a thirst for the things of God." Don't go on in your deadly religion. It is a tragedy not to have a thirst for the living water. He will give it to you, if you ask. After the thirst, the fountain within produces a river without.

Beloved, the Lord Jesus calls you now. "If any man thirst, let him come . . . come unto me." Go to the Lord Jesus personally, and drink and drink all you want, all you can hold, and then there will be an out-flowing river to others.

Chapter 4—Angels for Pallbearers

"And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments" (Luke 16:22, 23).

In this unveiling of the unseen, we find a graphic representation of many important truths. In this one message from the lips of our Lord, we find the answers to many of the false doctrines which are being taught today. The Lord Jesus knew that cults would spring up and that false prophets would arise, teaching errors utterly contrary to the mind of God. In this portion of God's Word, the Saviour draws aside the veil and gives us a glimpse into eternity, that we may know the truth concerning those things which lie beyond the portals of the grave.

As we go through the story, we shall ask questions and find the answers. No doubt you will find the answers to many questions that have arisen in your own mind.

The rich man, mentioned in verse nineteen, prepared well up to the grave. He bought fine garments to clothe his body, and splendid food to strengthen his body. No evil is recorded of him, nor any good. He lived without God. He rejected the Word of God, and he had no interest in the godly man at his gate.

In verse twenty, Lazarus is brought before us, lying in poverty and pain, with dogs for his companions. Here we learn that a wicked man may be wealthy, and that a saintly man may live in poverty. To belong to the Lord does not necessarily carry with it freedom from earthly distress. A righteous man may be wretched; a godly life may be lived in the midst of sorrow and pain.

Does Death End All?

Death enters the scene in verse twenty-two. Death ends all things earthly for both the believer and the unbeliever. For the Godly Lazarus, it ended the company of dogs and brought the company of angels. It ended his lying outside the gate and began his living in the mansions of God. It ended the ministration of the dogs and began the ministrations of angels.

For the rich man, death ended all his pleasures and began his pain. When God's longsuffering ended, the rich man's long suffering began. Death ended his reveling in wine and began his eternal torment of everlasting thirst. Death ended his luxury and began his poverty. Death ended his comforts and began his curses. Death ended his singing and began his sighing. Death ended his mercies and began his miseries.

In verse twenty-three the question is answered, "Do the dead know anything, and will we know anything after death?" Neither Lazarus nor the rich man slept in the grave. Probably Lazarus was not even buried. Bodies such as his were often cast out for the wild dogs and wolves to devour. These men were conscious after death. They saw each other after death. They spoke to each other after death, and so the question is answered, "Are people obliterated after death, or is there a life after death?" Abraham had been dead many centuries, yet Lazarus and the rich man saw him and recognized him.

We find in verse twenty-four that the rich man who thought that he did not need to pray while he was living began to pray when he was dead. He did not pray to get out of hell, but only for some comfort while he was there. He had shut God out of his life, and, therefore, God shut him out of eternal bliss. He did not believe in showing mercy to poor Lazarus, but after his death he wanted mercy from both Abraham and Lazarus. He did not believe in missionaries while he was alive, but he wanted one sent to his brothers after he was dead.

Will God Punish Sinners?

Sometimes the question is asked whether a good God will punish sinners. It is answered in this verse which reads, "And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." The Lord has given us this answer to remove all doubts about it.

In order to convince us that there is no second chance for salvation after death the Lord gave us verse twenty-six, "And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." If you fail to trust Jesus Christ, you will certainly go the way of the rich man to the place of suffering, from which there is no escape.

One church system has devised a plan or scheme whereby those who die in their sins may be taken out of the place of punishment upon the payment of certain sums of money. The verse that we are considering precludes the possibility of any such deliverance. Money is paid by the bereaved friends and relatives to those who will promise a certain number of prayers for the dead. Those who receive the money promise to perform various religious exercises, including prayers, in order that the lost man may escape further torment. The Lord Jesus gave us verse twenty-six to refute such evil teachings.

There are those who make the claim that a living person may be baptized for the dead. It is taught that one who is still alive may become a Christian for and in place of a friend who has died unsaved. Their program is to have this living friend make a public confession of faith for the dead, and then to be baptized in place of the dead man. They claim that this performance is acceptable to God for the salvation of one that has died in his sins. Verse twenty-six shows us very plainly that such a program is utterly futile and worthless.

Can Sinners Be Saved After Death?

There is no hope whatever for the salvation of that person who dies without Christ, and refuses the gospel of God's grace in this life. No comfort or hope is held out anywhere in the Scriptures for that one who refuses to obey the gospel and to receive the Saviour while he is living. To turn away from Christ now is to close the door eternally to heaven and to God. The rich man thought that his brothers could reject the Word of God, and still receive a blessing from God through a messenger of God from the dead. No such promise is made by the Lord. We are entirely dependent upon the Scriptures for God's message of salvation. There is no other way and no other plan. He that rejects God's Word in this life will be rejected by God in the next life.

Sometimes we hear of the living people praying for their dead. In verse twenty-seven, however, we find the dead praying for the living. This rich man had no interest in the spiritual welfare of his five brothers while he was living with them on the earth. After death he exhibited a deep concern. While living he did not care for the gospel message of Lazarus, but after death he realized that this message was what his brothers needed. During life he had made no effort to keep their souls from going to hell; but after death he vainly endeavored to bring salvation to them through Lazarus.

Lazarus received a wonderful compliment from the rich man. He lived such a Godly life in his wretchedness and rags, in his poverty and pain, that he commended himself fully to the conscience of this rich man. He was the one selected by the rich man to be a missionary to the five brothers. What a commendation that was, and what a tribute to his holy and excellent behaviour as a pauper! Have you any lost relatives who are praying for you? Are there those who loved you, who died in their sins, and who are now pleading with God least you come to the place of torment where they are? You will notice that the five living brothers did not attempt to get their dead brother out of hell. There is a way to keep a man out of hell, but there is no way to get a man out of hell.

The Gospel in the Old Testament

Another important question may be raised, "Is there enough gospel in the Old Testament to save the soul from hell?"

The answer is found in verse twenty-nine. Abraham referred to the Old Testament as a sufficient remedy for the five brothers. There is enough gospel in the Old Testament to reveal the way of salvation, and to bring the soul to God. Abraham had no doubt about the authorship of the first five books of the Bible. He should know, for he was living there with Moses. It is better for us to take the word of Abraham than the statements of so-called critics.

Another interesting question may be asked, "Do the dead know what we are doing on the earth?" Abraham knew that there was a Moses, though he died several hundred years before Moses was born. He knew that there were several prophets after Moses. He knew that these had written books. He knew that these five brothers had the books in their homes. He knew that these boys neither read nor believed those books. It is quite clear that at least one person in eternity knew what was happening here on earth.

The rich man had no faith in the Word of God. In verse thirty he utterly rejects the suggestion that his brothers would read their Bibles. Rather than the Scriptures, he prefers the return of one from the dead. He had more faith in the word of a dead man than in the Word of the living God. His rejection of God's Word caused God to reject him. Our Lord Jesus said in John 12:48, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."

We may ask the question, "Can the dead come back to talk with the living?" Christ's answer is, "No!" The reason is quite evident from the statement in Luke 16:31. We find that the Bible contains a clear and complete revelation of all that we need to know for time and eternity. What can a dead person tell us that is not already unfolded in the Scriptures? What information has God withheld from us that could be brought to us by a dead man?

In the Old Testament, four dead men were permitted to return to the earth, but none of them brought any messages for our minds or hearts. In the New Testament, four dead men came back; also one dead woman, and one little girl; but none of these brought back any message concerning the things of eternity. God does not permit the dead to propagate His truth. The ministrations of His mercy are through living lips of those who love the Lord. No spirit medium has ever brought any new light on spiritual problems, nor any new revelations concerning the mysteries of death and of the life beyond.

Lazarus was not permitted to return, for God does not require His saints to work overtime. Lazarus had finished his work on earth and had gone to his rest. He was not permitted to return because he had no new message. Everything he had learned in eternity was fully described in the Book which was in the hands of those brothers of the rich man. God shuts us up to His Word. We must accept His Word or die in the dark.

The rich man lived for himself while on earth. His plans and desires while here came first. In hell he thought of himself first; he prayed for his own comfort first, and afterwards for his brothers. He did have some sense of justice in hell, for he requested only a drop of water from Lazarus. In life Lazarus had asked him for crumbs. In death the rich man could ask for no more.

Does Fire Consume the Resurrection Body?

The unbeliever sometimes states that the fire would consume the unsaved man. The rich man did not think so. He did not say, "I am being consumed," but he did say, "I am tormented in this flame." Hell does not annihilate, nor destroy man's existence. The Lord gives us a picture of this truth in Daniel 3:25 "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt." The sinner would like to believe that he is to be blotted out of existence, but this story proves convincingly that such is not the case.

The rich man had no interest in Abraham during his life time. After his death he found that Abraham had a very important place in regard to his soul. Abraham believed God, but the rich man did not. Abraham obeyed God; but the rich man disobeyed Him. Abraham loved God, but the rich man ignored Him. If the rich man had sought the God of Abraham and had exercised the faith of Abraham in the promises of God while he was living, he would never have been in hell. If he had cared for the teachings of Abraham on earth, he could have enjoyed the fellowship of Abraham in glory.

Let us refer again to the wonderful truth contained in verse twenty-six which deals with the possibility of a second chance for salvation. This passage completely refutes such a theory. In John 8:21, the Lord Jesus said, "Ye . . . shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come." To die without a Saviour is to be lost forever. The rich man had no second chance, neither did he ask for it. You will notice that he did not request his release from hell, but only for a little relief from his suffering. He did not complain that he was being unjustly treated, but only desired a temporary release from his misery. He did not argue with God nor with Abraham about his punishment, but only sought for the salvation of his brothers. His prayers were made too late; his request fell on deaf ears; he might have prayed at an acceptable time, but he did not.

May the reader of these lines be warned by the message of our merciful Master, Jesus Christ, before it is too late. The Lord Jesus will save you from the fate of the rich man, if you in this life will believe His Word, receive Him as your Saviour, and trust in His precious blood, which was shed on the cross of Calvary for the remission and forgiveness of your sins.

Chapter 5—A Precious Death

"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).

Death may take the Christian down, but it cannot keep him down. Death enables the saint of God to leave his body that he may be present with his Lord. Death is God's porter to open the door, so that the trusting child may go home to the Father and to the Father's house. Death is a "grim monster," but for the believer death is a conquered foe. Death comes to the saint to permit him to pass safely from the scene of suffering to the place of singing; from the shadows of earth to the sunshine of heaven.

In this remarkable passage our Lord reveals how precious to His own heart is that which brings such deep sorrow to the human heart. Of course, the question arises at once in our minds, "Why is death, the death of the saint, precious in His sight?" We must look through the Word to find the answer.

The Lord watches at the bedside of His suffering child. He sees the anguish of heart, and the sadness of the dear ones. He hears their prayers, but provides some better thing for them. He watches the life as it ebbs away. He sees the strength gradually leaving the body. He sees the ravaging effect of the disease as it consumes the vital forces of the dying saint. All the sufferings in the sick room are in His sight.

As the candle flickers in its socket, and the shadows of the valley fall athwart the path of the suffering child of God, He watches, He sees, He permits. It is all done in His sight. Then as the eyes fail, the eyelids droop in death, and the spirit takes its flight, He is still watching and says to us that it is "precious."

When God says that such an event is "precious," it is not without good reasons. Let us try to discover the reasons for this blessedness in the sight of God. Let us consider seven reasons why the death of the saints is precious in His sight.

1. It Brings His Child Home

If the Lord has purchased you with His precious blood, then He will want you home with Himself. When any article is purchased at the store the buyer desires to have it for himself, and so he takes it home. No matter how insignificant the article may be, whether it costs ten cents or ten dollars, the buyer will take it along for his own possession and use.

In His high-priestly prayer, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, the Lord Jesus prayed, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou has given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (v. 24). By this we discern His desire that all who have believed on Him unto salvation shall be with Him and behold His glory. He would never be satisfied if one of His sheep was not in the fold. He delights in each one. They are precious in His sight.

It may be that you have felt that you are quite obscure and of not very much value and really very inconsequential. Do not think so, my Christian friend, the Saviour paid a great price for your redemption, and He will surely have you in the Father's house with Him. If He does not descend from the skies in glory, He will permit death to take you through the valley, and thus enable you to go to His glorious palace. He will not overlook the least of His children. He will take the smallest and the weakest as well as the greatest and the strongest.

2. The Training Days Are Over

All through this life our Lord is looking after His sheep, training and preparing them for His eternal kingdom. Here He must teach them many lessons, for this is the "schoolhouse for glory." Here He must bear with our dull minds, our slow intellects, and our poor comprehension.

Our Lord is not weary of training us, but it must grieve Him that we are so slow to learn all that He has to teach us, and that we must learn the same things over and over again. He must instruct us about Himself, so that we will not meet a Stranger when we go home. He must teach us heaven's ways, so we will feel at home among the saints when we arrive there. He must inform us about ourselves, so we will not be surprised at that which arises in our own lives. He must teach us about others, so we may know how to wisely act towards them. He must show us how to employ our time for His glory, so we may win a reward and a crown.

All of these training days are ended when death takes the spirit home to the Father and the Saviour. It is a precious time in His sight when the "school days" are over and the "home days" begin. He would not have us always working, nor always studying, nor always fighting on the battlefield. He would have us come home for a lovely vacation. He would have us enjoy to the full the "secret place of the most High." He would have us put into practice to the fullest extent the many things we have learned to do down here. There may be stars to rule over. There may be great celestial kingdoms which require wise leadership. Who knows what our Lord has prepared for those who love Him and who know Him! He has not seen fit to tell us fully. There will be many surprises.

"But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (I Corinthians 2:9). And while these things are revealed to the child of God by the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, yet their full revelation to eye and ear and heart is still future.

It is a precious thing to our God when His child graduates from the schools of earth and takes his place in the Courts above, a product of His workmanship.

3. That the Lord May Exhibit His Workmanship

We are the products of God's "mint," and therefore should bear His image and superscription. We are the result of His handiwork, and therefore should be a joy to the angels and the heavenly hosts to observe us. We are the out-turning of the "Master Potter," and therefore should be a vessel which is delightful to Him in every respect.

Our Lord molds us in earth's furnaces. He trains us in the schools of tribulation. He teaches us in the college of strange experiences. His is a life-long task, and we are the product of the months and years of His workmanship. Circumstances and events have much to do with the character of the finished article. For the honor of His blessed Name He must do a good work in us, else we shall be ashamed when the final inspection takes place. Death ushers us out of the factory into the show-room, where we are put on display for our Maker. What a joy it must be to His heart when He makes an exhibit of us to His Father, to angels, and to the heavenly hosts!

Through all eternity He will show the exceeding riches of His grace and the exceeding greatness of His power and the exceeding wonder of His knowledge, as He shows off His children whose lives He has transformed. As He presents us to His Father, He will say, "Behold, I and the children which God hath given me." The children will be the result of His workmanship and will reveal in themselves the power of Christ as a Saviour, as a Teacher, as a Molder, and as a Shepherd.

His sheep should come home covered with much wool. His child should come home well taught in the Word. His pupils should come home well trained for His service. We should accept all of His ministry that we might be well-developed specimens of His handiwork when we appear for the final review.

4. The Worst for a Saint Is Passed

Saints die. Godly saints die. Precious saints sicken and suffer and fade away. But they are His saints. He could prevent it if He wanted to. He could shorten their days of suffering if He desired to do so. He sees the suffering. He beholds the tears. He hears their prayers, but His answer is "No!" He may take His saints out of the springtime of life, or in midsummer, or at the golden harvest. The oak outlives the ash, the ash outlives the willow, but they must all die. Death does not deal with seniority, but sometimes sends them first to the burial who came last from birth. The body's death to this earthly sphere is the soul's birth to that heavenly realm. Our Lord decides the length of time that His child shall endure the storms of this life. The Master Pilot determines the length of the voyage and the weight of the cargo for each of those who sail the sea of life.

Our blessed Lord will permit only as much trouble in our lives as will be for His glory and for our profit. He rules the raging of the sea, and will not permit it to go farther than it should. He may permit the boat to be filled with water, but He will not allow it to sink. He will only polish the precious stones purchased with His blood as much as is necessary to make them properly reflect the light of His glory. He will only crush the flowers of His garden sufficiently to bring forth the sweetest perfumes of their hearts.

It is a precious thing to our Lord when the sadness is turned to gladness. He is pleased when the crushing is changed to crowning. He rejoices when the sighing is changed to singing. It is His plan and purpose that His child shall walk no more among the thorns and thistles, but shall walk the street of gold amid the gardens of God. It is not His desire that the sheep shall always be threatened by wolves, but that they shall be safe home in the heavenly fold of the Father. The ultimate goal for the child of God is the "Haven of Rest." There will be only those storms that are necessary, and those perils which provide an opportunity for God to show His watchful kindness.

The final destination of the golden grain is the garner of God. The heat and the cold, the winter and the summer, the shadow and the sunshine will only be sufficient to ripen the grain and prepare it for the Master's use. Our Lord will rejoice when the grain is garnered, the harvest is passed, and He and His chosen ones shall be together forever.

5. Satan Is Fully Defeated

The devil is opposed to Jesus Christ. He does not want any soul to be saved. He does all he can to prevent the heart from responding to the gospel. After the soul is saved he does his utmost to wreck that person on the sea of life, and cause him to come limping into port with the cargo gone, the sails torn, the railings wrecked, and only a battered hull for the Owner. It is a precious sight to our Lord to see His child safely anchored at last in the harbour-home. What a joy it must be to His heart when the vessel enters port fully rigged, unhurt by the storms, and with all of its precious cargo on board!

There is a constant conflict between Christ and Satan over the child of God. Sometimes our Lord permits Satan to have his way, in order to prove the caliber of the Christian. Though Job was terribly assailed by Satan's forces and afflicted by Satan's malign schemes, he sang the praises of God and came forth from the fiery trial as pure as gold. Think of that wonderful day when Job was presented to God as a glorious testimony and a magnificent exhibit of the manifold grace of God!

Paul suffered greatly at the hands of men, tormented by every form of persecution, afflicted at the hands of Satan and of sinners, but he entered the final port with flags flying and the song of praises rising to his Lord. Many martyrs have suffered from Satan's wicked designs, and have laid down their lives under his persecution. These have had an abundant entrance into the presence of their Lord, and have become eternal testimonies to the defeat of Satan and the victory of Jesus Christ.

Satan's malice against Job, David, and James made them famous. Satan did his worst and released God's best. Satan's deep, dark design against the Lord Jesus sealed his own doom and gave to the world the mighty Redeemer. So at the end of the life of a saint, the work of Satan against him reveals the life and desire of the saint, and those blessed characteristics which the Holy Spirit placed in his heart, and brings glory to the name of our Lord.

6. His Protecting Care No Longer Needed

There are many evil influences at work to harm and hurt the saints. False doctrines present plausible arguments. Clever teachers with persuasive words offer cunningly devised fables about the Scriptures. Satan has many religions in which he cleverly uses the Scriptures to deceive the child of God who is not well taught. Satan allures and attracts the mind by beautiful words and by deceitful reasonings. Our Lord must preserve the minds of His saints.

The world seeks to draw the child of God away from Christ. The mirage of fame and fortune beckon to the saints. The attraction of pomp and power present themselves to the child of God from the social world, the field of politics and the realm of finance. Even religion offers position and place which the human heart naturally craves. The Lord must preserve His child from all such evil influences.

The heart is deceitful above all things and very hard to satisfy. It craves satisfaction from anything that is available. It does not question the wisdom of it, but grasps eagerly after its own desires. Men will part with health and comfort in order that they may gratify the desires of the flesh. Our Lord must needs provide a way of escape and furnish the means of protection for His child from these dangerous enemies.

At the home-going of the believer, the shelter of His wings is no longer needed. Sin cannot enter that heavenly abode. The Christian is safe from the attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the protecting care of his loving Lord is exchanged for an eternity of sweet and precious fellowship. The Lord Jesus assures us, "In my Father's house are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2).

7. His Name Is Glorified Thereby

How wonderful it will be for our wonderful Lord Jesus when He points out the glorified bodies of drunkards and lawyers, of doctors and street-sweepers, of college professors and railroad engineers, who have been saved and sanctified because of His own wonderful work. What glory it will bring to Him when the witnesses appeal before His throne and confess that once they were atheists, murderers, gamblers, religious hypocrites, empty professors, and dupes of Satan, but now they are washed by the precious blood, saved by God's grace, and brought home by the power of the Son of God.

The presence in heaven of those who were once sinners will bring eternal glory to the Man who died upon Calvary. He only is the Door, and by Him they entered in. He only is the Way, and by Him they came to the Father. He only provides the garment of righteousness, and thus clothed they appear in the presence of God. Our presence in heaven will bring eternal glory to Christ Jesus our Lord. How precious it is to Him whenever His saint comes home singing His praises!

Chapter 6—"BY HIMSELF"

"When he had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3).

Our Lord in His kindness to us has spoken very simply and plainly, so that we cannot misunderstand His words. He has conveyed His thoughts in such simple expressions that even a child can realize the great love of His heart.

In this passage in Hebrews, it states that the Son of God sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He sat down because His work was finished. There was nothing left to be done. He had shouted on the cross, "It is finished," and therefore He sat down at God's right hand to see the results of His great work at Calvary.

The work of saving the soul is exclusively in the hands of Christ. If your soul is to be saved, the Saviour must do it. God has given to Him the entire work of blotting out the sin stains, putting away the guilt, writing the believer's name in the Book of Life, and giving the gift of eternal life to the dying soul. He does all of this "by Himself."

There are a number of reasons why Christ alone can cleanse the heart from all sin. Let us consider some of these and believe that our souls shall be helped, as each reader shall apply the truth to himself. It is always the application that brings the blessing. To read of the composition of a loaf of bread will not satisfy the appetite. The bread must be eaten. To see the bubbling fountain of clear, cold water will not satisfy the thirst. The water must be drunk in order that the refreshment may be experienced. So is it with Christ. We must take Him for ourselves and apply the truth of His great work to our own souls. Therefore let us consider and believe that our Lord by Himself purged our sins, for the following reasons:

No One Else Cares Enough

You have no friend who would care to die for your sins. You may have friends who will do many things for you because they love you. They may do some things to reward you for your kindness, but no one will give his life for your wicked deeds, your sins, your trespasses. On the other hand it was "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He saw our deep need, He knew how helpless we were to meet that need, and so He loved us unto death. He did not desire that any should be lost. He knew there was no human remedy and so He gave Himself to die in our place for our sins. How much we should love Him for this wonderful grace! How much we should honor Him for His care!

No One Else Has the Right

On one occasion I was preaching in a large penitentiary. I asked the prisoners how many of them would like me to go to the warden's office and destroy the records written against them. Many raised their hands. I told them that I would be happy to do it for them, but that I had no legal right to do so; that I would be a transgressor if I attempted it.

No man has the right to alter or destroy the records of the court. But Christ has the right. God has appointed Him to blot out men's sins. He is God's official Saviour. It is God's will that He should with His precious blood blot out the records and remove the stain of every sin. Christ does it with a full knowledge and approval of the great God of heaven and earth. You should trust Him to do it for you. "By Himself."

No One Else Has the Power

None of us can reach up into heaven and destroy the records that are there. We are of the earth, earthy. Our efforts are confined to this earth. The records of heaven are entirely beyond our reach. The private archives of God cannot be reached by human hands. None but God's own Son can enter there, take the records out of the file and destroy them. Only He can blot out the indictment. In Colossians 2:14, we read, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." Only Christ could do this. How glad our hearts should be that Christ Jesus was willing to do it! Why do you not come to Him gladly and trust him to do it for you?

No One Else Can Complete the Work

Every single sin must be blotted out from the moment of our birth until the moment of our death. On the death bed the mind is not able to function. If death is by a sudden accident, there is no time to make preparation. Those who try to put away their sins by their own efforts could not possibly do so at the last moment, and probably would not make any effort to put away the sin of the last day of their life.

The Lord Jesus alone is able to save "to the uttermost." He will be with you the last day of your life. His precious blood is sufficient for every sin you may commit until the moment of your death. He only, without your help, is able to purge your sins, every one of them, to the full and complete satisfaction of a righteous God. He purges every kind of sin and He purges everyone of them "by Himself." You cannot possibly remember the majority of your sins, but He knows everyone right up to the very end. You do not know how you will die, nor when. The very uncertainty of it all should cause you to believe fully and to rely wholly upon this wonderful Saviour to put away all your sins.

No One Else Is Sinless

That one who purges your sins must be without sin. A lawyer who is guilty himself cannot represent a guilty client. The judge demands that the lawyer shall come into court with clean hands. One guilty man cannot plead for another who is guilty. The Lord Jesus is before the eternal God without sin or fault or blame. He is absolutely perfect. No one else in all the world could appear before God on behalf of another. Christ alone is the only Mediator, the only Advocate who has the right to plead for a sinner.

"Five bleeding wounds He bears, received on Calvary.

They pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me;

Forgive Him, O forgive, they cry,

Nor let that ransomed sinner die."

This blessed Lawyer will not plead for you, nor will He purge your sins unless you believe on Him and turn your case over to Him. May you see it today that He will "by Himself" purge your sins. Trust Him now to do it for you.

No One Else Can Perform This Miracle

It is nothing short of a miracle to have the records of evil deeds completely removed, a new life given, and a new righteousness supplied in the place of those sins. We are unable to change one another. We may correct the conduct of another, but we cannot change the character of another. When the Saviour purges our sins He gives a new life and a new nature. The cannibal becomes a God-fearing man. The wicked becomes righteous. The cruel becomes kind. The selfish becomes generous. Those who have been harmful become helpful. This miracle in the human life can only be brought about by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The God who gave life to every animal and plant is the only One who can change that life and place in the heart a new nature.

All of this He does "by Himself." You cannot help Him do it; you cannot assist in any way; you can have no part in it whatever. But you must be willing for Him to do it, and trust Him alone and no one else. You should rely upon Him just now. He will do all of this for you.

We have no trouble forgiving some sins and forgetting them, but we find it hard to forgive other sins in our friends. There are some sins which affect us so deeply that we carry the marks through life. Other sins we excuse both in ourselves and in others.

We are very partial both to people and to their deeds. For that reason none of us is fit to handle the sin question either for himself or for others. Christ must do it; He must do it "by Himself." If we should bring into this transaction anything from ourselves it would be tainted and soiled, for we are so sinful. The one who purges our sins must purge every one of them, the great and the small, and the sins of every degree. He must purge the sins that are pampered and cherished, as well as those that are distasteful and disagreeable. This our blessed Lord does perfectly. The trusting soul is cleansed, purged, and washed whiter than snow.

No One Else Can Defeat Satan

The devil is a powerful foe. He will hold us in our sins if it is possible. He will bind us in our habits and selfish ways with strong cords, which no human being can break. Christ is the stronger man mentioned in Matthew 12:29. Only Christ can conquer Satan, the "strong man," and deliver those whom Satan has bound in his castle of sin. "By Himself" He purges every sin, removes all the guilt, and breaks every chain. Satan is able to guard his property from all human schemes and plans for the deliverance of his captives. No human philosophy nor theosophy, no social gospel of soap, soup and sunshine, no educational program, no religious forms or ceremonies can deliver the sinner from his sins. Christ alone is able to do this. He does it "by Himself"

No One Else Can Do a Permanent Work

The work of purging the soul from sin must be a work that lasts forever. No change of circumstances, nor conditions of life must affect it. This purging must be effectual in youth and old age, and in times of stress and distress. Whether sleeping or waking, whether busy or idle, whether sick or well, whether conscious or unconscious, the purging of the soul from its sins must be always effectual. The presence of that One who does the purging must be always assured.

Often when the sick friend wants his doctor, the doctor is away on another case, or out of the city, and cannot help. It must not be so when the sinner needs the Saviour. Even if the doctor does relieve the pain and heal the wound, it might recur at a later date when the doctor was not at hand. Christ is a very present help in trouble. He is always near, ready at once to succor the needy soul. He alone can purge the sins at any time and do a work that lasts forever. Will you not come to Him now with all your guilt and sin, just as you are, and let the Saviour "by Himself" purge your sins?

Chapter 7—Five Aspects of Faith

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

Faith is constantly exercised in daily life. We go into the store, purchase an article, and say, charge it. If the credit manager has faith in us he permits us to take the goods away and pay for them later. The patient who lies on the operating table permits the anesthetic to be given, and trusts his body to the surgeon, because he has faith in his ability. The passenger retires to his berth in the sleeping car and goes to sleep, because he has faith in those who operate the trains. God brings this same great principle of faith into the matter of the salvation of the soul. Let us consider five aspects of saving faith:

1. Faith In His Name

We read in John 1:12, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." The name referred to is the title of the Lord. The title means a Saviour. He has this title because He is the only One in all the world who can save a sinner.

Other men have titles which attract customers. If you have a sore tooth you seek one whose name is Dentist. If the pipes in your home are frozen you seek one whose title is Plumber. If your auto is out of order you seek one who is called Mechanic.

The title which one bears tells the nature of the work he can do. The title of JESUS tells what He can do. He saves men who need to be saved. He has the power, the knowledge, the ability, the willingness, and right to save those who are lost. No other religious leader can assume this title. God gave this title to Christ when He spoke by His angel, "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21).

The names of great men bring before us at once those things for which they were noted. The name of Napoleon at once reminds us of war and conquest. The name of Hercules at once speaks to us of physical strength. The name of Edison is immediately associated with the electric light and other electrical products. When we hear the name of Nero we see the human torches blazing on the wall around his garden for his fiendish delight. The name of Moody stirs our hearts anew, as we remember his power in preaching the Gospel and his ministry to human souls.

The name of JESUS is associated always with the saving of men's souls. He is God's Saviour of men. He is the only One who can put away our sins and blot them out. He never fails to handle successfully every case entrusted to His care. As you journey along the pathway of life, lift up your eyes and you will see that wonderful name JESUS, who is Christ the Lord. He is the Saviour of sinners. As you read this sign, hurry to Him with your case. Your coming will prove that you really believe in His name.

2. Faith In His Person

Not only are we to believe in the name which God has given Christ, but we are also urged to believe in His own blessed person. This truth is found in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." On one occasion, when I was a young physician, just beginning to practice medicine, my sign attracted a patient into the office. She believed the sign which gave my title. She needed a physician and decided to give her case over to the man whose name was Dr. Wilson. She entered my office and after I had introduced myself to her, she said, "It must be your father whom I wish to see."

"No," I replied, "he does not come to this city; his practice is in another city."

She looked quite surprised and then asked, "Are you the doctor whose name appears on the sign outside?" When I replied in the affirmative, she said quickly, "Oh, I don't want any boy working on me." She then turned and quickly left the office. My title attracted her, but my youthful appearance repelled her. She felt that I was too much of a boy to be able to handle her case successfully.

The Lord Jesus invites us to believe in His own person. He is fairer than the sons of men. He is wonderful in His personality. He is worthy of the adoring worship of ange1s. He is of more value than any other person in the universe. If you will gaze upon Him in His triumphant death, you will say with the centurion, "Truly, this was the Son of God." If you gaze upon Him in His glorious resurrection, you will say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God." If you gaze upon Him in the majesty of His ascension, as He sits upon the throne of His glory, you will like John fall at His feet in utter amazement. You are called upon to believe on His own blessed person. Believe on what He is and who He is. Believe in His attributes and purposes and plans. Believe in His ability and His sufficiency. Trust yourself fully to Him.

3. Faith In His Official Position

God has sent Christ as His own selected and ordained Saviour. God has not chosen any other one to save you. The eternal God invites you to place your faith in this marvelous Man of Calvary in the glory. In John 5:24, we read, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."

In the passage to which we have just referred, you are not invited to believe in the name of Christ, nor in the person of Christ, but your attention is called to the fact that God, the great Judge, sent Jesus as His official Saviour. Your trust must be placed in One whom God will accept. You must place your faith in that One whom God has selected as the sin-bearer, the One whom He has appointed. It would be nothing short of a tragedy, an eternal tragedy, if you should trust your soul and yourself to one whom God did not recognize as the proper Saviour. In the passage before us Christ assures us that God did send Him to deliver us from condemnation. He affirms that those who accept this truth, because of the statement of the Scriptures, will be blessed by the gift of eternal life at once, and will never go to the judgment of the great white throne.

That one who commits his soul to the Saviour is immediately blessed with forgiveness. Christ blots out every one of his sins by His own precious blood, and that person is justified, pardoned, and cleansed. Since the sins are blotted out, you can readily see that there would be no need of bringing that one into judgment. There would be nothing to be judged for. Strangely enough, the verse tells us that the believing man is no longer dead in his sins and a stranger to God, but receives the gift of eternal life. In this new life he will live and move for the glory of the One who saved him. If you believe that God sent Christ to save you, then hasten to Him at once, accept Him fully, and become a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

4. Faith In His Words

We have seen in the Scriptures that we are called upon to believe in the Name of Jesus, the Person of Jesus, and the Official Character of Jesus. We shall now consider John 8:46, "Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?" The Lord Jesus on this occasion invited the public to examine all that He had said on every subject. He spoke freely and publicly before great crowds. He spoke privately to many individuals. He invited a careful examination of all that He had said, and then demanded to know whether He had said anything at any time on any subject that could be criticized as being sinful. What a challenge this was! What an opportunity He gave His enemies to bring an indictment against Him! But having waited for a reply and receiving none, He asked this remarkable question, "If I say the truth, why do you not believe me?"

One evening I was called to a home on a case of sickness. I made a thorough examination of the patient and reported my diagnosis to the anxious family. The husband of the sick lady was rather indignant because of my findings, as I reported them. He refused to believe that the wife was ill with a cancer, as I had said. He did not want me to continue as a physician for his wife, and so he paid me for the call and dismissed me from the case. He did not believe my words. The report I had given was not such as he wanted to hear. He rejected the doctor because of his words.

The Lord Jesus has diagnosed your case and He wants you to believe His words. The diagnosis from heaven is this, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Some come short more than others, but none reach up to God's standards. Some commit more sins than others, but all are guilty. You may not like the report, and you may reject the diagnosis, but our Lord said, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." You should believe what He says. He asks, "Why do you not believe?" What answer will you give His inquiry? If you reject; His findings, you will not accept His remedy, and this is fatal.

5. Faith In His Works

Those who offer themselves or their products to the public always seek to show samples, in order to inspire the faith of their prospective customers. This principle is used by our Lord in the next passage which we shall consider, John 10:37-38, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works." The work of our Lord in creation and in salvation is so wonderfully perfect that He invites the most critical to examine with utmost care all His works.

During my young days as a physician, it was most difficult for me to obtain the confidence of those who were ill. My youthful appearance seemed to repel those who were looking for an able and efficient doctor. After two months of waiting and longing for patients to present themselves, I knelt with my companion in the home and prayed that God would give a very difficult case, and then give me the necessary knowledge and skill in treating that case. I asked for a prominent case, an individual well known in the community who had tried other physicians without success, and was given up as hopeless.

Shortly after praying about this matter, I received a call to go to a certain home where there was a very poor woman who was quite ill with inflammatory rheumatism. Upon arriving at the home, I found that this friend was a washerwoman about 56 years of age. She was suffering greatly and had been confined to her bed for some months. Several physicians had been on the case, only to dismiss themselves after seeking in vain to help her. This was a charity case, for the friend had no money, not even for medicine. I knelt beside her and sought both wisdom and knowledge from the Lord for the wise handling of the patient. I then took from my satchel the remedies which I thought were indicated, prescribed their use to a neighbor who was acting as nurse, and then obtained some ice from the city plant to use for cold applications on the joints. I left her with a prayer for God's blessing. The prayer was heard, and our Lord relieved the lady to such an extent that she was able to be about her work in a little over three weeks.

I had asked the Lord in the prayer at home for a patient to whom I could point with pleasure and say, "That is one of my cases. She was given up by others and I was used to bring about her recovery. Go talk with her and then you'll have confidence in me." It was just such a case that the Lord gave me. This lady washed for the rich people of the city. Her work was confined to very expensive silks, laces, and such like, for which she received better than ordinary pay. She became my great advertisement. Those who saw her brought their cases to me. Those who heard her testimony felt that they could trust me. This case marked the turning point in my practice. The number of patients increased largely and my income increased correspondingly.

The Lord is asking you to consider His workmanship. Ask those who are saved to give you their testimony. Look at the lives of those who have been touched by the power of the living Christ. They are God's witnesses. They are samples of what Christ can do for sinners.

Chapter 8—Three Rich Men

"Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (I Timothy 6:17).

In the Gospel of Luke three rich men are mentioned. Dr. Luke has more to say about rich men than anybody else in the Bible. He also says more about women than any other writer in the Bible. God chose a doctor to write more than one fourth of the New Testament. God has chosen men from every walk of life to proclaim the glories of His lovingkindness and grace, so that we may know that He suits every kind of person, including those from the legal profession, the sciences, and the arts. I have a list of one hundred and fifty of the finest men of earth, from every department of life, who have given their testimony that Christ Jesus satisfies their souls and meets their needs.

In the twelfth chapter of Luke we read of a man who had his riches in the making; in the eighteenth chapter of a man who had great riches and kept them; and in the sixteenth chapter of a man who had made his riches and then lost them. Each of these men is brought before us for a different purpose.

The man who was making his riches had his own plans for the future. "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou has much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry" (Luke 12:16-19).

Let us remember that the Lord reads our very thoughts. We know what this man was thinking centuries ago across the sea, because God took this man's thoughts and broadcast every one. Our thoughts may be hidden from each other, but they are not hidden from our Lord. "What shall I do?" He had no idea that God would do anything about it, and he shut Him out of his plans. He wasn't satisfied with the riches he had acquired, and wanted still more riches. His satisfaction did not depend upon the amount he had acquired. He wanted a still larger amount. "What shall I do? . . . I have no room . . . This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater." He was going to do this, but never got it done. "There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul" . . . It was at this point that he made his mistake; he owned the grain, but not his soul.

Notice what God said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" He wasn't a fool because he was rich. God giveth riches and wealth. God never calls a man a fool because he is intelligent, and diligent, and successful in his business. But this man substituted his riches for God, and for that reason he was a fool. Here is a rich man who had no room in his life for God.

The reason I am talking to you about rich men is that most of us are after riches, but most of us never get them. There used to be a mule in the Barnes circus that they loved to tease by tying a pole on its back and hanging an ear of corn on one end of the pole about eighteen inches in front of his nose. That mule just about wore himself out trying to get that corn, but he couldn't quite reach it.

Maybe you haven't realized it, but the majority of us are just like that mule. We are after riches. We legislate for a minimum wage, invest our money, put on more salesmen, and do almost anything to get rich. That seems to be the goal of the human heart. This man got his riches, for our Lord says, "A certain rich man."

Rich Men Are Never Satisfied

But our Lord also tells us that he wasn't satisfied. He tells us this in order to keep us from thinking that we would be satisfied if we were in that man's place. Won't you take this lesson to heart? Whatever you are reaching for and trying to get, you will find described in the Scriptures. God let other men get what you are trying to get, and they were not satisfied. What makes you think that you would be? That which did not satisfy others will never satisfy you. But God does have that which will satisfy you: Christ Jesus will satisfy your soul.

"I will say to my soul (after I have pulled down my barns, and built greater), ...take thine ease." Why didn't he say to his soul right then, "Soul, take thine ease?" It was because the riches he had acquired didn't give his soul any ease. The heart is three cornered, and the world is round, and they never fit. Those who have tried to acquire riches are not satisfied.

I was talking to a man recently, and he was telling me of the heartbreaks, cares, sorrows, troubles and difficulties he experienced in his position. Yet there are three thousand men under him who wish they had his job and his income. He sat there before me broken-hearted, because he had just received a letter of criticism.

The grass on the other side of the fence is always the greenest. You invariably see cows and horses standing in a lovely pasture, but sticking their heads through the fence trying to get what is outside. What the other man has seems better than what you have. This man had riches, but instead of turning to God and thanking Him for the riches, he said, "I will prepare to keep on getting and getting." And then, what?

Let me tell you what our colored washerwoman said one morning when I asked her why she was so happy. "Wall, I'll tell you," she replied, "Ah ain't got no money to lose, so ah never worries about losin' none. Ah ain't got no furniture to lose, for ah gave it to the Lord, and if any thin' happens to it, the Lord did it to His own stuff, not mine. Ah has a fine, healthy body, but if ah gets sick and dies, ah'm goin' to heaven, and you don't think ah'll worry about that, do you?" She was satisfied with Christ.

This man had his riches, but he had no peace, no rest, no satisfaction. Sometime in the future he would say to his soul, "Eat, drink, and be merry." That is all he could say. If you have food and a place to live, and the Lord Jesus, you may have a happy, contented heart.

Solomon was worth seven and one-half billion dollars. Do you know what he said? He had the finest musical instruments obtainable and hired the finest orchestras to play them, but after hearing them he said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Then he hired the finest singers, and said the same thing after they sang. Then he had beautiful gardens built, with everything the heart could wish for, and after looking at all of them, he repeated the same words, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

God is very kind to you and me, wonderfully kind! He has let others get everything that you and I may wish we had, and then He has reported to us what they said after they had them. They said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." This rich man wasn't satisfied.

The Second Rich Man

In Luke 18:18, we read of a rich man who had great riches, and wanted to keep them. We read in verse 23 that "he was very rich." This means he had plenty. But notice, this man had common sense, for he went to the Lord Jesus. Although he had great riches, he knew that he did not have eternal life. What a revelation to the soul that a huge bank account, with no debts, and plenty of everything does not purchase or provide for eternal life! Also notice, he knew where it could be found. Why don't you go to Him, too? Go and kneel before the Lord Jesus, and say, "I have come to get this marvelous, wonderful, precious gift of eternal life that my soul needs so badly."

"What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him . . . Thou knowest the commandments . . . And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up." He knew the commandments, but he didn't know the One who gave them. He had kept them, he thought, and he could say something that most of us cannot say, but he knew he didn't have eternal life.

Why not be honest? We have a human life, for we can understand human things. I can understand music, electricity, printing, furniture-making, watch-repairing, laundry business, tent and awning business, but that never gave me eternal life. My human spirit enables me to understand human things, but I had to get a new life from God to understand divine things. This man had money, but he knew he couldn't buy that new life. He had position and power, why didn't he command it? Because he knew that he could not command it. Why didn't he educate himself into it? Because education can never bring inspiration and eternal life. He had to go to Jesus Christ for that.

Why don't you learn the lesson this man learned? This man, with all his riches, felt he needed eternal life. How much more should you feel your need for it! Most of us have had disappointments. We could write a book on our troubles. "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7). Go right to Him. This man knew that trying to keep the Ten Commandments did not give him eternal life. Has it given eternal life to you?

Have you ever noticed that "law keepers" never love the Lord Jesus? Those who command you to keep the sabbath, and join something, and do this and that, never sing about the Lord Jesus. They spend their time talking about ordinances, and do not know the beauties of the lovely Lord. They never have been saved. Only those who are saved by Him talk about Him.

You have riches and business and power and lands and cattle and cash to spend, but there is something lacking, young man: "Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me" (Luke 18:22). The Lord presented two propositions: Himself and His gifts. All the young man had he got from God. Christ asked, "Will you have the Giver or the gifts? If you would rather have the Giver, go sell all that you have, and give the money away, and follow me."

For which did the rich man care the most? Did he care for the Lord Jesus and a home with Him? No, he believed that "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." He kept the gifts, but had no further interest in the Giver.

Suppose God should allow you to receive a telegram today advising you that you had been left ten million dollars in cash. Would you go to church next Sunday? Ten million dollars in cash—your own! Which would you rather have, the gift or the Giver?

The Third Rich Man

We read of our third rich man in Luke 16:19-31. He got the gifts and the riches all right, but he held on to the gifts, and had no interest in the Giver. When he died, he left all his riches on earth, and when he got into eternity he started to beg from a beggar. The beggar had what the rich man did not have. He took his Saviour into eternity, and the rich man left all he trusted behind. The beggar had become rich, and the rich man had become a beggar.

This rich man had lived for years. He was wise in the ways of the world, and had made money, but he spent it all on his body, and was not rich toward God. He cared well for his body, but forgot that he had a soul. He left God, Christ, and the Bible out.

Do you know why the Lord in His lovingkindness has left these records for us? So we won't do the same thing. How good and kind and gracious to bring these things before us! One grasped after riches and was not satisfied; one got them and was not satisfied; and one got all that he wanted, but died and left them behind to become a beggar in eternity. The one who has Christ can sing, "I've tried the broken cisterns, Lord, but all their waters failed. Now none but Christ can satisfy."

The Beautiful Girl Sold Her Beauty

There is a girl in Kansas City whose riches were her beauty. But when she was twenty years of age she sold her beauty. When I went to see her ten years later in a hospital, her beauty was gone. "I have come to tell you the story of the Lord Jesus," I began, "but where has your beauty gone, sister?"

"I don't know," she replied, "but I'm an old hag now and nobody wants me." The world took her riches from her.

I approached a man one day in Kansas City, as I noticed him walking along the street, his head bowed and his shoulders drooped. "How do you do," I said; "I am your friend; let me shake your hand." He was the former Mayor of Kansas City. When the President of the United States visited Kansas City, this man introduced him.

"If I have a friend in Kansas City, I don't know it," he responded. The world had robbed him of his honor.

One of our prominent bankers in the United States died recently. He had formerly owned two banks, but they both had failed, and at the time of his death he was losing his home. The world robbed him of his wealth.

Can anybody take away the riches you have? Or have you "riches in glory by Christ Jesus" that no one can take away from you? Anything outside of Christ Jesus you can and will lose. Health and wealth will pass away, "but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." Make sure that you are rich in good works and rich toward God.

Chapter 9—The Empty Seat

"Thou shalt be missed" (I Samuel 20:18).

The main thought of this message is found in these interesting words, "Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty" (I Samuel 20:18). These words were spoken by Jonathan to David on the occasion of a feast which King Saul held regularly, and to which he invited the immediate members of his family and the leaders of his forces. The feast was to take place on the day after this conversation was held. A seat would be placed at the banquet table for David, but knowing Saul's enmity against him, as indicated to Jonathan, Saul's son, David did not intend to be present. Jonathan's reply to David is found in the words just quoted.

The empty seat may tell a sad story. The vacant chair at Saul's table told of David's fear and of Saul's enmity against him. It revealed the hatred of Saul's heart against the man whom God had chosen to be king. The empty place at the table aroused Saul's anger, and he inquired with much show of animosity concerning David's whereabouts.

Perhaps you have an empty chair at your table. It may be a high-chair where a little one once sat. That precious life has been taken and the vacant seat brings a heartbreak and the tears. It may be a vacant rocking chair that stirs the heart and brings back the days of precious fellowship with an aged grandmother. Perhaps it is the swivel chair in the den which once was occupied by an honored father. It speaks mutely of former days of blessing when his radiance filled the home with sunshine.

Sometimes a throne is vacant. A rebellion has robbed the people of their ruler and death has overtaken him from wicked hands. It may be that that throne-chair will never again be occupied by an imperial ruler. The democracy has superseded the autocracy.

Do you have a vacant chair in your home? Do the visiting friends ask about that little child's chair that stands in the corner unused, or the old, well-worn, reclining chair which silently testifies of its former occupants?

An Empty Seat Means Separation

David's chair at the feast would be empty because David was away from God's enemy and intended to stay away. He would not be found in the fellowship of those who were hostile to God's plans and enemies of God's people. He was away from the man who rejected God's Word. He would not sit with him at the same banquet table. He was away with one who loved the Lord, for Jonathan was true to God. David was away getting his faith renewed and his heart comforted. The Lord does not want His child to sit with the scornful, nor to keep company with those who are enemies of His Word.

The empty chair that day at Saul's feast was a potent testimony to the decision which David had made. He had separated himself to God. He chose rather to wander in the fields with God than to sit at the feast with Saul. It is never the will of the Lord that the child of God should feel at home in fellowship with an enemy of God. David was a man after God's own heart, and took God's path in separation.

Judas chose to vacate his place. He might have had a throne with the other eleven men, for Christ had said in Matthew 19:28—"Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Judas chose a rope instead of God's robe. He chose hanging instead of reigning. He preferred money to the gifts of his Master. He hung from a tree instead of sitting on a throne. He became an enemy of Christ instead of ruling with Christ. He kissed the Saviour instead of crowning Him. His seat and his throne were taken by another. We may wonder whether Judas is missed in glory by the other eleven disciples who are there.

Empty Seats in heaven

How tragic it is that in heaven there will be many empty seats! Perhaps they will not be empty. They may be occupied by others, but those who might have had them and should have occupied them chose rather to find comfortable seats in this world and forfeit a throne in the next. Let each one of us ask ourselves whether we have chosen a seat there, or whether we are content with what we have here.

There was an empty chair at Jacob's table—Joseph was missing. The other boys were there, but his was an empty chair. Joseph was gone. The empty place at the table held the secret of the desperate, dark deed which the other brothers had perpetrated against the younger one. The father looked at the empty chair and checked back the tears. He looked at the vacant place at the table and wept over the tragic loss. Will the circle be broken in heaven? Will your chair be empty? Will your seat be vacant? Will you let another take your place there while you are shut out?

There was an empty seat at David's table—Absalom, his own son, had rebelled. He had turned his back on his father and left the palace. David, the sweet singer of Israel, could only look at the vacancy and seek to control the emotions of his heart. He loved Absalom greatly and grieved over his absence deeply.

Absalom chose a path of wickedness and sin, and his chair remained empty. The grave in the woods and the vacancy at the table scarred David's soul grievously and he carried the wound to his death.

An Empty Chair in Father's House

There was an empty chair one day in the home of a loving father. A prodigal son chose the gifts of his father, but rejected and refused the father's love. Having received his inheritance, the son said good-bye to the one who had made the money, the one who had saved it for him, the one who loved him. He left an empty chair in the home, an empty bed upstairs, and an aching heart in the father's breast. How long that chair remained empty is not told. The vacant place at the table reminded the heartbroken father constantly of the absence of the boy he loved.

As the days went by, and the money was being spent by the prodigal, the call of the vacant chair became stronger and stronger. The father watched for that lad to come home—waiting, hoping, longing. Perhaps you are that boy. It may be you, too, have preferred the gifts instead of the giver, and the gifts have gradually or suddenly faded into oblivion.

The heavenly Father is watching and waiting for you to return and to occupy your seat at His table. It may be you would like to return just now. The chair is still there; a welcome awaits you. The Father desires to see your happy face again in the circle of His loved ones. Will you not come home just now?

The Wedding Robe Rejected

In Matthew 22:11 there is the beginning of a story which starts another vacant seat. The friend in this passage had come in to occupy a chair, but he was not robed with the wedding garment. He had not complied with the requirements of the host. He had presumed to wear his own suit, instead of receiving the garment which the master of the feast had specified. He had rebelled in his heart against the robe which the others had received and substituted his own will and wish, instead of the will of the Lord of the banquet.

When the king entered the room, he questioned this friend about his impudence and his antagonistic attitude. No answer was received because the conscience of the friend reproved him and prevented the making of an excuse. The king ordered his servants to bind the man hand and foot and to cast him into outer darkness. The empty seat that remained was a mute witness to the severity of God against the one who rebels at His Word. Will there be an empty chair in glory because you would not bow to God's will and receive by faith the robe of righteousness obtained through the Lord Jesus Christ? Do let the warning of that empty chair prevent you from doing likewise!

Absent Ones Forever Missed

How sad is the cry, "He should be here!" How deeply grieved our hearts become when we note the absence of a dear one and the empty seat! It is so difficult to go back into the home after a funeral and see the chair where father sat, and the bed where he slept, and the desk at which he worked, all vacant and silent. How much more so will it be in heaven when we find that those we hoped would be there and expected would come, are absent!

The Lord does not tell us just how we shall feel about it. Of course, we shall have the mind of Christ. We shall think as He does about lost souls, but no doubt there will be a consciousness of the empty chair in the family circle, and the vacant seat which should have been occupied by a loved one who would not come.

Those words of Jonathan to David, "Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty," should stir our hearts to gather in as many as possible to the great feast of our Lord.

Will you be there, my friend? Someone will occupy the seats in glory. Will you have one? Do not permit the precious blood of Christ to be shed in vain as far as you are concerned. Do make Christ Jesus your Lord and Saviour now and He will have a seat for you in the Father's house.

Chapter 10—The Judgments

"The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether" (Psalm 19:9).

The subject of "Judgments" is an important one.

If God did not care for you and me, He never would have told us anything about these matters; He would let us go on in the dark, and slip off the brink into hell. When you see a red lantern by a ditch in the road, you feel thankful to the man who hung it there, for he did it because he cared for you. He wanted to save you from an accident.

So our Lord has hung up red lanterns because He loves us. In His kindness He tells us about the judgments that will take place, and the results of those judgments. Let us feel grateful to our Lord for telling us about these things, for He not only tells us about them, but He tells us how to escape from them. He tells us how to get ready for judgment. How kind it is of our Lord to forewarn us.

The Judgment of Sin

The first Judgment we shall consider is a judgment you and I should be very deeply interested in, because it is the judgment of the Lord Jesus at Calvary for the sin of the world—your sin and mine. In Luke 12:50 we read this significant statement of the Lord: "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! "Not until it occurs," but "until it be accomplished," for He deliberately planned that baptism, and deliberately went into it. What an agony surged in His heart! Listen, I will tell you something that will help you. Do you know why the Lord Jesus was in such terrible agony of soul about that judgment on Calvary? It was because He would there go down under the waves and billows of God's wrath. The angry surges of the wrath of God were going to roll over Him. He was going to be submerged under the terrible outpouring of the wrath of God.

Do you remember how in Gethsemane He agonized with strong crying and tears, and sweat drops of blood? Why was it? Because He was soon to become what you and I are by nature. Do you think you are lovely, especially nice, sweet and beautiful? Notice the agony He went through when He looked forward to taking your place and mine. If I want to know what I am by nature in the sight of God, I need only look at Christ when He was about to become sin for Walter Wilson. It was agony to His soul. If I was so nice and so good, why should He go through all that agony? I want you to consider that. God was going to do to Christ everything He should have done to you and to me. Notice, I'm including myself, for we are all the same in God's sight (Romans 3:22, 23).

But those who never trust the Saviour, and never receive Him as their Substitute, will have the wrath of God upon them forever (John 3:36). They will have to face a righteous God in judgment. If the Lord Jesus received such treatment when He took my place and the place of other Christians whom you know so well, what will God do to you when you face Him? I say to you that the judgment of Calvary is the most wonderful, marvelous revelation of what God thinks of sin that He could possibly devise.

I was impressed with the death of the man who was shot some days ago, because he carried diamonds on his person. This man in the hour of his need sought a shelter and couldn't find any. He was seeking shelter from the gun of an enemy. When you get before God, where are you going to hide? How thankful I am that we Christians have a blessed hiding place! In Isaiah 32:2, we read: "And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest." Thank God for that Man, Christ Jesus. Make Him your hiding place without delay. You know not what a day will bring forth. The only opportunity you have to hide from coming wrath is now. There is no hiding place for the sinner who dies in his sins.

That is the first Judgment: the judgment of sin at Calvary when the Lord Jesus took your place, and bore the guilt of your sins. Whether your sins have been few or many, if you want to know what God thinks of them, just look at the cross of Christ. See what God did to Him, when He took the sinner's place. God treated Him with more wrath than has ever fallen on any human being in the world. You should have a saving interest, a deep interest in that judgment, for if He isn't your Substitute, you will have to go through the same thing yourself.

The Judgment of Self

The next judgment is mentioned in I Corinthians 11:31 - "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." This is the second judgment, the judgment of our own selves. We all do that to a certain extent. We look at our lives and recognize our failures. No one knows them better than we do. No one knows about your sins like yourself. But you may look right at them and then excuse yourself for having committed them. You have a very active memory, but when you look back over the things you have done, you decide that they are not so very bad. Everyone of us excuses himself. Isn't it wonderful to be both the judge and the jury of your own case? You sit on the judgment bench, and look over the list of your sins, and say, "You can go free."

In Luke 10: 29, a certain lawyer was "willing to justify himself." Who isn't? Why aren't you fair with yourself and judge yourself with a righteous judgment? Are you afraid to? I was afraid to do it. If you find yourself guilty you will be subject to punishment. You know that you are guilty already in His sight. It is not necessary to produce further evidence. But now the Lord gives us the privilege of pleading guilty before we come into judgment, and taking advantage of the wonderful provision He has made to remove our guilt. But there are those who are like the Irishman who was brought before the judge. "Mike," the judge inquired, "are you guilty?"

"Faith, and your honour, how can I tell until I hear the evidence," Mike replied.

Are you like that? Waiting for God to bring out the whole terrible thing? Our Lord says about the sins we have committed that they are going to be witnesses, for "our sins testify against us."

Let me go with you into eternity. Our Lord is on the bench, an inquires, "Where are the witnesses against this man?" Up comes sin number one and two and three, and each one tells what you have done. In the meantime thousands and thousands of sins are lining up waiting to say, "He did it." Your sins are represented as having life, and coming before the throne of God to speak against you. Think of each one walking up—sins of omission, of commission, of presumption, of ignorance, of deceit, and of pride. Like a ghastly line each one comes to testify, "He did it."

How wonderful it is to have all the witnesses put away, never to appear against us! He says, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgression, and, as a cloud, thy sins" (Isaiah 44:22). Won't it be wonderful to stand before God at the judgment, and when He asks, "Where are the witnesses against this man?" there will not be a single one? The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, wiped them out. Hallelujah, there are no witnesses against me and never will be! Are there going to be any against you?

The verse says, "If we would judge ourselves." The Lord gives you the privilege of judging yourself, finding yourself guilty, and taking advantage of God's remedy. But many do not do it. They look at themselves and decide, "Well, I'm better than some, and not so bad as others, and a lot better than most people." We judge ourselves by others whom we think are worse than we are. "Why I'd never think of doing what she does!" some will say.

Then, too, we judge ourselves by what others say about us. They tell us how lovely we are, and we believe it.

I have seen my wife go into a store to buy cloth. She takes the material out on the sidewalk to look at it. She doesn't like the dim light in the dry goods store, so she takes it out in the sunlight to look at it, and there she finds it quite different from what it seemed to be in the dark.

I think my hands are white, but when I put them next to this white page I see that they are not.

You may compare yourself favorably with another sinner, but our Lord does not compare you with your neighbor, but with His Son, and declares, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We cannot come up to God's standard.

Do you remember the story of the two men who wanted to enlist in the king's guard in London? One said to his friend, "I'm much taller than you are, Jack. You probably won't be able to get in."

The other one was much shorter, but replied, "You may be taller, but I have a stronger body than you." Each of them was confident of getting into the guard.

When they went down to headquarters? the officer in charge said to the first one, "Get on this stand, and we'll get your height." In a moment he said, "Sorry, sir, but you are one inch too short." And when Jack got up on the box, the verdict was, "Sorry, sir, but you are seven inches too short." Which one was the most rejected? They were both the same!

You may be a lot better than somebody else. I expect you are, and I hope you are, but you have never attained to the standard of God—the highest place—the place to which God requires you to attain. I found I never could come up to His standard, so I got inside of the Man who does come up to it. I am walking in another's merits?—hidden "in Christ"—He has the height. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (II Corinthians 5:17).

It is wonderful to face the facts and judge ourselves now. If we do it, He will not do it. If we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. You come to the same conclusion He has come to, that your sins have kept you "short of the glory of God." Why not just plead guilty, and throw yourself on the mercy of the court? You know what He will say to you if you do: "Son, thy sins are forgiven."

The Judgment of the Saved

Now turn with me to II Corinthians 5:9-11, "Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences." This is the judgment of the Christian. When you read "we" in the Epistles, the author is talking about believers; and when you read "they," he is referring to unbelievers.

We Christians must appear and be exposed before the judgment seat of Christ. It is the judgment of saved people to determine what reward they will receive. It will not be a question of salvation, for you will already be in heaven. It is rather a question of whether you lived well for God after you were saved, and are entitled to receive a crown, or whether you will be "saved; yet so as by fire"—just "by the skin of your teeth." Even though you have lived a miserable, wasted life as a Christian, you will get in all right, but "knowing...the terror of the Lord," we who are Christians must report to the Lord Jesus. I wonder how many of us are of value to God and to the Church!

A friend of mine told me of preaching a funeral sermon on one occasion, during which he said, "This corpse has been a member of my church for ten years." Are you a corpse in the church? As soon as the meeting is over, do you run for home? Why don't you young people take notes when you hear a good sermon? You wouldn't go to school and neglect to take notes. There are so many corpses in the church, because people don't remember the sermons they hear, or even the points that are stressed. They sit and listen to a message, but the next day very few can tell what it was about. That is why there are so many corpses who don't endeavor to make themselves able servants of God. When I studied medicine I took notes. When I studied Latin and Hebrew I took notes. When the instructor told me anything I wrote it down, for I wanted to remember. I learned how to cut a tent when I was in the tent and awning business. I wanted to know how to cut a tent and awning, so I wrote down the instructions I received.

We are corpses because we don't endeavor to learn anything. We don't intend to remember. We go to church for ten years, and after that time we couldn't give an outline of the judgments, justification, the Lord's coming, angels, or anything else, because we didn't try to remember. When we meet Him, He will hold us responsible. In school we try to remember because we know there will be an examination day. Beloved, there will be an examination day for you, and He will hold you responsible to know His Word,

How many of us are trying to learn His Word? We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Then we will hear the Lord say, "I gave you my Bible; did you learn it? I gave you my Spirit; did He teach you? I placed you in that church; did you take advantage of the opportunities to become really useful there?" Oh, the heartbreaks there will be at the throne. Live daily as though you were going to be judged at the judgment throne of Christ tomorrow. Don't waste any more time.

What will you say when you meet Him, and He says to you: "Sister, how long did you sit under that thing-a-ma-jig that fixed your head up in the beauty parlor, and then how long did you sit with me, letting me fix up your heart? How much time did you spend over the newspaper, and how much time over my Word? How much time did you spend talking about politics, and how much time in teaching others of my power to save?" We can live as we please here, but some day our Lord is going to ask us what we did with the assets we had, and the opportunities and privileges that were ours.

The Judgment of the Lost

We must now look at the last judgment. This is the judgment of the unsaved: "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works . . . And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:11,12,15).

No Christian will ever go to the Great White Throne Judgment, for he has no sins against him to be judged there. When we trust Christ Jesus, He blots out every sin stain from the cradle to the grave. They are all gone. He tells us this in John 5:24, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." We shall never come to this judgment, for our sins are gone.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." These are those who are dead in trespasses and sins; who have no eternal life, because they have never received the gift of eternal life from Christ. He saw little sinners and big sinners; those who had committed very few sins, but had never had them forgiven; and those who had committed many sins.

"Stand before God." They have to stand in judgment. "And the books were opened: . . . and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." He'll not judge you by what false teachers have said, but by what He has said to you in His Book. Then there is another book, "the book of life," which is opened; and the unsaved are not found written in the book of life.

I have a book of life. Whenever a patient commits her life or her case to me, I put it down in this book: "On such-and-such a day, Mrs. James Cook gave herself to me;—age . . . , height . . . , weight . . . , diagnosis . . .," and I keep that name until I am through with the case. When I consider the patient well and discharge the case, I close the record.

God's Book of Life

Christ has a book in which He puts the names of His patients—all those who have committed their cases to Him; all who have turned the saving of their souls over to Him—all who have said, "I receive You as the Lord of my life. I believe You will save me, and I trust myself to You"; then down goes the name in that book. It is the book of life. All whose names He puts in there He takes care of; He blots out the sins; He keeps the name there until He is through with the one who has come to Him, and yet He has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." How long is that? It is for all eternity.

When you come before the judgment throne, He gives you a fair deal. He looks all through His book: "Did this man ever trust Me to save him? Acknowledge Me to be the Saviour of his soul?" He looks in the book for your name, but doesn't find it. He doesn't find any indication that you ever came and knelt to Him. "He never came," is the verdict. "Take him away," is His command. "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

That is the most terrible thing that can ever happen to you. It is called "the second death" in Revelation 20:14 - If the first death annihilated you, as some teach, there would be no "second death," for there would be nothing to die a second time. But death gives up the body, and hell gives up the soul. These are reunited before the Great White Throne, and the individual is cast into the lake of fire in his body, but he will not burn up. This was proven when Nebuchadnezzar had the three young Jews thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3), for they were not burned. All that burned were the cords that bound them. The fire doesn't destroy the resurrection body of the sinner who is cast into the lake of fire; that is why God gave us this story in Daniel.

He raises up the body, because everything you do you do with your body. It was your body that took you on errands of mercy, or errands of hate. With your lips you spoke words of comfort, or you spoke words of bitterness. It was with those eyes of yours that sin was committed, or love was expressed. With your body righteous acts were done, or wrongs were perpetrated. He rewards or punishes the body, for it was in the body that the deeds were done.

If you come into judgment without Christ, without having your name written in the book of life . . . Listen! It is the Judge telling you beforehand what He is going to do, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Heed the warning now, and make sure that your name is in the book of life. Present yourself before the Saviour, and say, "I want You. You can save me—no one else can do it—and I trust You." He is willing to save all who come unto God by Him and in His name. Do you want Him to save you now?

Chapter 11—The Spiritual Man

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus ... For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:1, 2).

"The law of the Spirit of life" is the law of liberty. It is spoken of again in James 2:12—"So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." What is this "law of liberty" that is mentioned here? The law of liberty is the law that makes a person, or an animal, or gas, or metal, or anything else act in a certain way when it is free. If I had a balloon filled with hydrogen gas and gave it its liberty, it would go up and strike against the ceiling, because the law of hydrogen is to go up. If I had another balloon filled with chlorine gas and it gave it its liberty, it would go down and stay on the floor, for the law of chlorine gas is to go down. If I have some water in a glass it is a prisoner, for it will not go up, and the glass keeps it from going down. But the moment I release it, and give it its liberty, it goes down. The law of liberty for a fish is to swim in the water. If I hold it in my hand, it is a prisoner, but the moment I release it, it goes to the water.

How Young Lions Act

You judge everything by the law of liberty. Suppose you went to the zoo to look at the baby lions, and said to the keeper, "Are these lions docile and tame?"

"Oh yes," he might reply, "they are lovely. Watch, and I will show you." Then he goes up to one of the cages and starts to stroke the lion's ears and rub his neck and back. "See how nice they are," the keeper would say.

"But do they ever kill or hurt anything?" you inquire, and the answer would probably be, "No!"

Then you might ask, "Would you mind if I took one of them home to keep over Sunday?" Would you say that? Well I did, on one occasion.

The keeper looked at me and said, "Wilson, I wouldn't suggest that you do it."

"But," I protested, "they are so docile, and look how you play with them. If I took one home I could have all my friends come in to see it."

"Dr. Wilson," he said seriously, "they act one way in the cage. but they might act differently at your home."

"Well, if that's the case, I don't want it," I replied. I judged it by the law of its actions outside the cage when it would be free.

Our Lord said. "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty," and the "law of the Spirit of life." If I could have put the spirit or nature of a shepherd dog into one of those lions, I could have taken the lion home. If I could have put a sheep's spirit in another of those lions, I could have taken it home, too.

Man Needs a New Nature

Our Lord has said that He wants to do just that with us. Man is born a wild ass's colt, and we therefore need a new nature. There must be another Spirit imparted unto us if we are to live a different life—"The law of the Spirit of life"—God's life, a new life, a strange, peculiar and heavenly life. When the "law of the Spirit of life" comes in, it enables us to live as Christians should live.

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3). The law is all right, but the flesh isn't.

"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). Here we have again the thought of walking after another Person; walking after the Spirit.

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit" (Romans 8:5). Sometimes the things of the flesh appear to be very nice, but they that are walking after the Spirit will mind when the Spirit speaks and brings before them the way of life and peace.

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14). That is the subject for consideration: "Another Spirit."

Being Made Like Another

I have a friend that is a wonderful "Hamlet" player because he forgets that he is the head of a college, and that he has many duties in the college to look after, and he wraps himself up in "Mr. Hamlet." When he puts on his make-up and goes on the stage, he forgets all about everything else and lives only as "Hamlet."

Those who take part in the Passion Play in Oberammergau live the lives of the characters they impersonate. The one who represents Christ in the play lives all year round as he thinks Christ lived. He lives as a carpenter and seeks to do and act in such a way that it will be easy for him to impersonate Christ. If I were to be a Shakespearean player, I, too, would seek to imbibe the spirit of the man I was to Impersonate.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is held out as the goal of salvation. "Repent and be baptized . . . for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift"—of wonderful peace? an honest life? No! "Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). That is the aim and object of salvation: having another Spirit.

When Peter baptized Cornelius, it was not alone because he had received Jesus Christ, for Peter asked, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost?" (Acts 10:47). The presence of the Holy Spirit proved that Christ had blotted out their sins.

I wonder how many of us would like to be as spiritual as it is possible for a redeemed sinner to be? Absolutely unworldly? Absolutely pure? Ask your own heart.

A Wholly Consecrated Christian

I had an unsaved girl named Bessie in my office. After I led her to accept the Saviour, she lived for God until she started to keep company with an unsaved boy, which is always a wreck and ruin to any Christian girl. One day I said to her, "Bessie, do you ever sing 'Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee?'"

"No," she answered, "I never sing it, for I am afraid He might do it."

I wonder how many of us are "afraid He might do it," and so we stay away from the consecrated life! There are those who don't want to be considered fanatics or crazy on religion; they want the picture show on Saturday night, and a "harmless" game of cards once in awhile. Of course, you must not expect us to have a long face all the time, they say. We don't expect you to have it any of the time.

A young man came to a friend of mine one day, and said, "I don't see any harm in a good motion picture; I learn good lessons from some of them."

"The next time you are hungry," my friend replied, "come to my house; there is some good food in our garbage can."

You wouldn't treat our neighbors to that, would you? "The devil's garbage can" may contain some good things, but it is best to stay away from it.

I wonder how many of us would like to be as near like Christ as it is possible for a redeemed sinner to be! Would you like to answer that in your own heart just now? That is the test as to whether we are playing with this matter of your soul's salvation, or really mean business.

Minding the Spirit! "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." I imagine that it is a picture of a horse between the shafts of a wagon. The Christian is the horse, and the Holy Spirit is the Driver of the wagon. The horse is a tame horse, like the horse I used to have on my paper route. That horse obeyed the driver fully. "Blessed are the meek," and "meek" is the word for "tame." The Lord can turn things over to His tame ones, for they will do what He desires.

The Horse Obeyed Her Master

My horse was a wonderful horse! She knew my mind perfectly. And do you know I never caught my horse lying down, not once in five years. I took my horse out at 2:30 in the morning to deliver papers, but I never found her lying down. She was always on her feet when I went into the barn; she wanted to be ready when I got there. When I untied her and opened the barn door, she would back right in under the shafts of my cart and put down her head, open her mouth for the bit, and after it was placed, back the cart from the barn. I never had to say anything to her.

She would wait for me, and then off we would go. I never had to touch the lines; she knew where we were going. If a street car was coming, she would move over. When we reached the KANSAS CITY STAR office, she would back up under the chute to get the papers. She knew the papers came in three bunches; she wouldn't move until three had fallen into the cart.

She was a tame horse that knew my mind. My first customer was on the wrong side of the street going east, on the left-hand side of the road. That horse would stick back her ear to hear if anything was coming and go slowly past that house, because the elderly lady living there upstairs had a little porch, and I had to get the paper on that porch or she wouldn't pay for it. That horse knew it, and if the wind was blowing and the paper missed the porch, she would stop so I could get the paper. She was like that all along my route.

That is what our Lord is talking about here. My horse might have had some notions of her own, but she never indicated them. She never said, "Oh, it's too cold; let's go tomorrow." She never yawned and said, "Oh my, do I have to get up this early? Tell them to wait." One morning it was twenty-two below zero, but she acted as though it were nothing out of the ordinary. When it was one hundred and fourteen degrees in the shade, she went along as usual. It was because she was mine and was absolutely obedient to my will. She never stopped to eat grass, though she might have wanted to. If I drove her into the mud, she went through it with no complaint.

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God,"—another Spirit—"they are the sons of God." Let each one ask his or her heart, "Has that other Spirit taken charge of my life, my heart and my body, my money and my deeds, my time and my reading matter, or am I just in for a good time, to do as I please?" It's a lovely truth, isn't it? "As many as are led by the Spirit of God."

She Went to the Picture Show

Let me tell you about the old gentleman, a precious child of God who knew his Bible so well, and who came to the factory one day, and said, "Dr. Wilson, will you put an old man to work?"

"But your business is in the coal mines," I replied. "Why do you want to work?"

"Well, if you will let me be a janitor I will clean up slowly," he replied happily, "so I can talk to the employees about Christ." He got the job, and I often saw him in the factory talking to this one and that one, his Bible open, telling them how to be saved.

One day I said to him, "I wish you would hunt up Mrs. —. She is an old lady about sixty-five years of age, and lives at —, here in Kansas City."

"Dr. Wilson," he said, "I'll go and see her." He lived over that way, and one evening he saw her coming out of a picture show. The next night he called at her home, and said, "Sister, I haven't seen you out to the services lately."

"No," she replied, "it is difficult for me to get out at night; I can't stand the night air, you know." How could there be any other kind of air at night but night air? He didn't tell her that he had seen her coming out of the Apollo Theatre the night previous.

"Have you given up reading the Bible?" he inquired. "Oh, no, I love the Bible," she responded.

"Is that so?" he continued with interest. "May I ask what is your favorite passage?"

"I always liked the Twenty-third Psalm the best," Mrs. — replied without hesitation.

"Let me see . . . how does that go," said my friend, thoughtfully, apparently trying to recall that particular psalm. "Oh, yes, I remember: 'The Lord is my Shepherd,' He led me to the picture show." I won't tell you what color she turned.

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God" means going along in the shafts, with Him on the seat, wanting to know and do His will and please Him; wanting to know Him. The Lord is referring to those who have made the Spirit their Master, Lord and Sovereign.

Wholly Relying Upon the Spirit

Old father R— was a great blessing to me when I was a boy. "Walter," he said to me one day, "I look to the Spirit for everything."

"Do you, for everything?" I asked.

"Yes, Walter, for everything. A few days ago I had to buy a pair of socks, and so I said to the Holy Spirit, 'Holy Spirit, don't let that fellow cheat me, for I don't know wool from cotton; and give me a color that will not cause people to look at my feet, but rather at what I have to say.' If the Spirit didn't help me in every little thing, I would wreck so much of my life.

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." I wonder if you know Him, this wonderful Person, or do you just know about Him?"

A young preacher came to me at the hotel the other day, and told me a heartbreaking story of the failure of his life, though he had been saved for fifteen years. "When did you get acquainted with the Holy Spirit personally?" I asked him.

He appeared rather startled, and replied, "I don't understand you."

"When did you ever meet Him, and talk with Him, and make Him your Lord, and give yourself and your life to Him, as Romans 12:1 says?—'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service'."

"Why, I don't know as I ever did," he answered.

"That is the reason you have had fifteen years of failure," I told him.

Upon Whom Do You Rely?

I want to ask you a question, a practical one, my reader, and I want you to answer it:—Would you rather have the Lord Jesus on earth with you, or have the Holy Spirit? You know you would rather have Christ; and do you know why? because the Holy Spirit doesn't mean much to you. You feel you can get along without Him, for He is such a stranger to you.

Our hearts are all right toward the Saviour, and we long for Him to come back, but He intended that the Holy Spirit should be just as precious to us as He, and the Spirit isn't, is He? The Lord Jesus said something very strange in John 14:28—"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father," but how few Christians are glad that Christ went away and that the Spirit has come. Why? because the Spirit isn't a Person to them. We don't treat Him as a Person. That is why we treat Him like He were an it, or a thing, or an influence; or something that God works with, and not a lovely Person.

Now we read in John 14:17 the words of our Lord, "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him." I wonder if we do know this lovely Person. I don't mean know about Him, but know Him personally. Do we have a personal knowledge of His precious presence, so that we commune with Him and love Him?

Did you ever notice that the Lord Jesus never went about preaching until after that day when He came up from the water, and the Holy Spirit descended and rested on Him? But wasn't He the eternal, holy Son of God as much before, as after? Yes, but He never preached a sermon until after that peculiarly strange experience, when that other precious Person came down to be with Him, and then immediately He began to preach.

Weren't the twelve with Him, and didn't they love and adore and worship Him? But He said, Don't you go forth to preach "until." They had been with Him three and a half years, and had forsaken everything to follow Him; wasn't that enough? But He said, "Tarry ye . . . until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).

The Samaritans were saved through the preaching of Philip, and were baptized, and were gathered together as a Church of God; but the disciples sent Peter and John to tell them of the other Person whom Philip had forgotten to tell them about.

He is just as essential for a successful Christian life as Christ is for the unsaved soul. Do we know Him, and love Him, and trust Him, and give ourselves to Him? Are you saying just now, "I want another Spirit?" When the Saviour saved you, He made your body the temple of the Holy Spirit, and now He asks that you turn the temple over to Him. When people walk past you, do they smell tobacco, or do they sense the presence of the Spirit of God? "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

Remember Galatians 6:1—"If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one." He refers to the "spiritual" Christian.

What Do You Talk About?

There is a Christian in Kansas City whom I have known for forty years, and I am certain just what I will hear every time we talk together. I will get the "latest joke" and the "latest" on this and that. I've never engaged in conversation with him five minutes that was worth listening to.

Then there is an old woman in Kansas City who is close to eighty now, for I've known her more than forty years. I used to cut the grass for her when I was a boy, but I never was with her that she didn't tell me some gossip—she lived for that.

I remember a man who invented a mousetrap. His wife made the living by taking in washing, and he did the heavy "looking on." He talked of nothing but mousetraps, and finally he did invent a trap that would drown one mouse. After much more sitting and talking and thinking, he hit upon an excellent improvement; he enlarged the can so that it would drown two mice. He had the spirit of mousetraps, and talked about them all the time.

And there is another friend who has a "condition." That is all she talks about. I never ask her how she is anymore, for I know she will tell me all about herself for at least three hours.

What kind of spirit is filling you? What do you talk about? "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit."

I stood in the depot before leaving Kansas City one evening, and saw two sober men helping their companion who was drunk. He was leaning on the other two, and I said, "Thank you, Lord, for that lesson; the man who is filled with the Spirit will lean on the other two Persons of the Godhead."

I stood in New Orleans in front of a Western Union telegraph office, and learned something about being full of the spirit of giving. As I was sending a telegram, I heard boys yelling out in front, and occasionally I heard a man's voice. When I went out I saw the man leaning against a lamp post, and fifteen or twenty boys were out in the street scrambling around in the dirt. Pretty soon the man put his hand into his pocket, got a handful of change, and threw it out to the boys. "Thank you, Lord, for that lesson on giving," I said, for the Lord loves the hilarious giver. The man was full of wine, and didn't stop to count the change; he just threw it out to the boys.

Be Controlled By the Spirit

The Spirit of God keeps you from wasting your time or anything else. You are glad to spend it on the church and the Sunday school and the mission board. Be drunk with the Spirit until you don't care about the weather or the distance; and are anxious and willing to spend and be spent for Christ.

If you are filled with the Spirit of God you won't waste your time. You will be glad to go to Sunday school and stay for church. Perhaps you go to the young people's meeting, but leave before the evening service, when the preacher is trying to win hearts for Christ. So when the Spirit has control, you will not be drunk with wine, but, will be saturated, permeated, and filled in every part of your being with the Holy Spirit.

Did you ever notice that the Lord Jesus gave us bread and wine —something to take inside? The bread represents the precious body of the Lord Jesus, and when you take it, it goes into every part of our body:—part into the feet, and part into the ears and mouth, and part into the hands and eyes and brain. That which represents Him goes into every single part of your body; so we take in Christ. The Spirit of God enables us to appropriate the Lord Jesus, and He affects our feet and brains and eyes and ears and hands. If you pretend to belong to the Lord Jesus, and your feet are taking you elsewhere, there is something wrong.

I wonder how many of us would like to let the Spirit of God have complete charge of our being, so that we just move out and let Him move in; just vacate for Him and to Him. Would you like that? It is like dying, as far as your living as you want to live, and then letting Him live as He wants to live. It is a wonderful thing to go to your own funeral, and be done with your old self that gives you so much trouble. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all did that—"die daily"?

Have You Received the Holy Spirit?

The first concern Paul had when he heard of the converts at Ephesus was whether they had met the Spirit or not. His first question was, "Have you received the Holy Ghost?" not, "Did you receive the Lord Jesus?" He never asked unsaved persons if they had received the Holy Spirit, but he asked this question of those who had received Christ under the preaching of Apollos. He realized that their lives would not be profitable unless they knew the Spirit of God.

Are you longing to know Him, and make Him Lord of your life? When the Lord Jesus went away He breathed on them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22). Will you receive this blessed Gift—this wonderful Gift?

How we do prize a gift. Some of my friends gave me a new automobile recently, and how I prize it. Some friends gave me a lovely watch, and how I prize it, too. My Bible class gave me a suit of clothes, and I prize that gift. A Christian doctor gave me my glasses, and I prize them. A dentist gave me three bridges, and I prize that gift.

I wonder how many of us prize the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that our hearts go out in adoring worship to God that we are not being left alone and are not alone. We have Somebody to talk with us, and to love us, and be at home with us now on earth, while Christ is up there in heaven. We are watching and waiting for His return, but He has given us Somebody to make us like Christ. Do we appreciate Him? Have we made Him our own? Do we know Him personally, so that we do not treat Him as a stranger? Have you ever said, "Lord Jesus, I thank You for sending me the Holy Spirit? You went away and didn't want me to be alone, so You sent Him to me." And then have you turned to the Holy Spirit and welcomed Him, and told Him, "You are just like my Lord Jesus"?

Christ said about the Holy Spirit, "Whom the Father will send in my name," as though He had the Name of "Jesus" Himself. Do you welcome this Gift? Have you said, "Hallelujah, You can possess me"?

I saw a dog once, and I didn't have to guess who was his master. The man was walking up the street, and the little rat-terrier was running along between the man and the buildings; the ear towards the man was up, but the ear towards the buildings was down. As he walked along, he kept the ear towards his master always up. If he ran in front of the man, he ran backwards, with both ears up towards his master. Then when the dog came back behind his master, he put up the ear that was towards his master. Did I have to guess who he belonged to?

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). Would you like to be a "spiritual" Christian? If you are unsaved, just let the Lord Jesus wash you in His precious blood, and then it will be possible for the Spirit of God to fill you. He never fills an unsaved person—only Christians. You may be saved, but wouldn't you like to be a "spiritual" Christian? Not only orthodox, but spiritual as well? One who lets the Spirit own and control him?

Chapter 12—Why God Punishes Men Throughout Eternity

"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm 9:17).

Everything that God does is done sensibly and reasonably. He never does anything unreasonably. He is a reasonable God. If He has men cast into the lake of fire, there is a reason for it, and He tells us why He does it.

Let us look at Matthew 3:7—"When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Here we find John the Baptist talking to "vipers" bound for "wrath." They were not adulterers, robbers, or murderers. They were the best people in Israel, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who studied their Bible from their childhood. They boasted in their knowledge of the Bible, yet He calls them "vipers." They took the Scriptures, and used them for a wrong purpose.

All snakes are not vipers, but we treat them all alike. There are snakes that are as harmless as a kitten. You could play with garter-snakes, but you wouldn't do it, because you hate snakes. If a garter-snake came in here, you would treat it the same as you would a rattlesnake; you would kill it. There are snakes that are poisonous, as the rattlesnake and the cobra. If they bite a man, he will probably die.

God says certain people are vipers, and everything that comes from their mouths poisons the people who hear them. You would be surprised to know how many vipers there are in the United States today, damning people's souls by what they teach; denying the fact of the world's salvation by the blood of Christ. God will put them into the lake of fire, because they are poisoning, damning and ruining other people. "Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

The Man Had Been Poisoned

When I was in a Missouri town at one time, I was asked to baptize about twenty people. The women were to be baptized first; and while I was doing that, I noticed a man leave the group and return to the frame house where we had changed our clothing, and he did not come back. After I had finished the service and went to the house to change my garments, I found the man still there. When I asked him what was the matter, he replied, "Dr. Wilson, I believe I am saved and I trust Christ, but while I was standing there, all the stuff I had learned from Robert Ingersoll swept into my soul, and I felt so filthy and contaminated I didn't dare to go into those waters." Robert Ingersoll had been dead for years, but he had poisoned and injured that man. God has the lake of fire for those who poison others by their teachings.

While attending high school, I always carried a Bible. There was a professor in Physics who never failed to hold me up to ridicule before the class. He always challenged my faith. But one day he jumped from the top of a building and killed himself, because he had no peace. Every student who came into his class was contaminated.

God will not let anyone get away with such work. He will punish those who injure the souls of others. We always find these folks spreading their poison in the religious world; not in the teaching of dentistry or electricity or music, but in the lines that touch the truth of God. They are the first whom He punishes.

The next kind of people He punishes are described in Matthew 3:10—"And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." John the Baptist is talking about professing Christians who show that they are not fruit trees at all. They profess to be, but God says in Hebrews 6:8, "That which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned." They pretend to be fruit trees, but bear no fruit.

The Minister Was Saved in the Morning

At one time, when I was holding a series of meetings in a Baptist church, I spoke on the book of Revelation for two weeks. I spoke the first night on "The Place of the Lamb of God in the Book of Revelation," and the next night on "The Place of the Blood in the Book of Revelation." When I arrived at the church the following evening, the pastor said, "Dr. Wilson, I would like to say a few words during the first half of the service, if I may." He accordingly rose to his feet a little later and addressed the audience: "I have been preaching in this church for seven years, but never met Christ until 5:00 this morning. After the service last night, I went to my study with my Bible, and at five o'clock I met Christ, and He saved my soul." He had been pretending to be a Christian, but had never met the Saviour. "There has been no fruit as the result of my work and ministry," he said. "I may have been giving wonderful lectures, but now I am going to exalt the Man—Christ Jesus."

Test yourself and see if He is going to cut you down because there is nothing in your life for Him. He cuts down unfruitful trees and casts them into the fire. He gets rid of those who are pretending to be Christians, but are bearing no fruit.

Now look at Matthew 3:11, R.V.—"he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost, and in fire." Emphasize that little word "in." He puts some in the Holy Spirit and others in the lake of fire. Some He puts in the Spirit by His grace, so they will live for God, honour His Name, walk with Him, love His Word, preach the gospel, and testify for Him. Others who don't want Him and who don't care for Him are punished for their attitude and are not given salvation.

The Patient Finally Believed in Hell

In the practice of medicine, I try to speak to every patient in some way concerning his soul. It is remarkable how many of these folks prove to be atheists or infidels. One of them said one day, "Dr. Wilson, I don't believe what you are preaching about eternal punishment."

"Why don't you?" I asked.

"Oh, I just don't," was the reply.

"Then why don't you go and kneel at the feet of Christ, and find out where you are going?" I continued. "Go and ask Him."

"I don't care where I'm going," he replied, carelessly.

"Don't you?" I inquired. "Well if you don't care, why should God care where you are going? No wonder He leaves you out. If heaven isn't worth wanting and seeking, why should God bother offering it to you? He won't give it to you, because you don't want it. Good-bye."

The next day he looked me up, and said, "Dr. Wilson, I don't want to go to hell. If there is a hell, I don't want to be found there."

"Very well," I said, "you bow your knee to Christ and see if He will take you and give you eternal life."

We knelt together, and he said, "Lord Jesus, I wonder if you will take me?" What answer do you suppose God gave him? God saved that man right then and there.

We play with this business, but we wouldn't play with it if we realized the tragedy of meeting God in our sins. Indifferent ones are cast into the lake of fire, as well as the outrageous sinners (Rev. 21:8).

Chaff Will Be Burned With Fire

Read on through Matthew 3:12—"Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

"Chaff" is quite different from "vipers." In verse 7, John the Baptist speaks of "vipers," but here he speaks of "chaff." But he is not talking about the same kind of folks. Chaff is the husk that is around the wheat. Wherever you see thrashing, you see a pile of chaff. It is absolutely worthless; it cannot be used for anything. It contains no nitrogen, and would be of no value if it were plowed into the ground. Cattle won't eat it. You can't make a bed from it. You can't use it for anything, so farmers burn it. A farmer couldn't sell a pile of chaff as big as a barn for ten cents.

The Lord says that there are some people like that. They are close to the real grain, but have no life in themselves. They are of no value to God. They never give thanks to God for their food or anything else. They never serve Him. They are useless to Him.

I went into a restaurant one day, and after bowing my head and giving thanks for the food, a waitress came over to the table and said, "Pardon me, but you must be a Christian. I have looked for three months for a Christian to come in here, because I would like to be saved." I knew of at least fifteen professing Christians who were eating in that restaurant, but apparently not one of them had bowed his head and said, "Thank you, Lord"; and here was this woman watching for a Christian and wanting to be saved, but seeing no one to help her. Many professing Christians are only "chaff."

God gets nothing from such a life. No plans are made for a day of spiritual blessing and refreshing on Sunday, but rather they get to bed late Saturday night, because they can sleep during the pastor's sermon on Sunday. They plan no time to get alone with God in prayer, but rather for picnics and socials and parties. What does He get out of such lives? What will He do with us? Do we sing His praises, and walk with Him, and worship Him?

There are no vitamins in chaff. You could eat it, but you would get no nutriment from it. It would not hurt you, but you would not get anything out of it. What you need is to accept Him and become "wheat."

Helen Thought He Called Her a Snake

A girl was won to Christ one evening in a Methodist church in Kansas City, when I was preaching on "Vipers," because she thought I had called her a snake. I was glad that she did get mad about it, for it brought her up to see me. "I don't believe it," she said.

"Well," I responded, "I didn't ask you to believe it. My business is to preach the Word, and leave it with folks to believe or reject. If they like it, fine; if not, I am very sorry."

"I want you to know," she flared up again, "that I am just as good as you are."

"You are perfectly right, Helen," I replied. "The marvel is not that God sends some people to hell, but that God takes anybody to heaven. I can't understand that. God compares us to three things: "snakes, maggots, and tares, and people on the earth appear to Him like these things.

"Suppose I should come to your house, and you showed me around the rooms, and then you showed me your room. It is a beautiful room with new paper on the wall, and lovely lights, with blue carpets, an a blue bedspread, "blue gadgets on the dresser, and blue drapes at the window. You have a mahogany bed in the room, and a beautiful mirror, and lovely pictures. Suddenly I say, 'Helen, what is that I see? Why, it is a pile of maggots lying right there in the middle of the room!'

"But you say, 'Oh, Dr. Wilson, but they are such nice ones. They are so big and fat. They're the very best that there are. And see what a lovely time they are having with each other, just loving each other. They are such lovely maggots.' Then you reach over and pick up the biggest one there is and put it on the dresser, and say, 'Dear little Sammy, you are to be my companion now the rest of your life.'"

"Doctor," she said with a shudder, "don't talk like that!"

"That is what the Lord did when He picked me up," I said. "He calls us maggots three times in the Bible. We look like that in His sight, even though we may look nice to each other. God doesn't look at things as we do. He sees the unrighteousness and selfishness, the sin and evil, and says we are maggots, weeds, and serpents; and then He deliberately reaches down and picks up one of us and says, 'Will you live in my home forever? I will make you an heir with my Son, and we shall live together for all eternity.' That is grace, absolute grace. We look at each other and think we are nice, and perhaps we are in the sight of each other, but we are not so in the sight of God."

She Had an Elegant Bathroom

Last year I was entertained as a guest in a beautiful home in Chicago. The stuff which my hostess had in her parlor was worth more than I have in my whole house.

She was continually telling me how good she was, so that I had no opportunity to talk to her. She told me she was good, so I know she was, but I wanted to win her for Christ. Later, she took me upstairs and showed me the bedroom I was to occupy. The only trouble with the bed was the job of getting out of it. When I had put down my satchel, she showed me the "ba-ah-th."

I don't know if you ever have seen a "ba-ah-th." Most people have a bathroom. That is a room where you put old clothes and old shoes, and half-empty bottles in the medicine cabinet, and old rags on the back of the door. You recognize it! But this was a "ba-ah-th." I'll tell you what was there. The tile matched the ceiling, and the ceiling matched the soap, and the soap matched the towel. There was only one cake of soap, one towel, and one person. That is a "ba-ah-th,"

She took me in and said, "Dr. Wilson, the towel on this rack is for you."

"But I don't want it," I protested, "I want to use your towel."

"Why, Dr. Wilson," she said with a horrified gasp, "you amaze me."

"No," I continued, "I want to use your towel, and I want to use your tooth-brush, too."

She was about ready to call the police by that time. "I never heard of such a thing," she exclaimed.

"Probably you haven't," I agreed; "but you said downstairs that you were so nice, and anybody who is as nice as you are should permit me to use everything you use. But isn't it a fact, sister, that you wouldn't let anybody use anything you use, and isn't it a fact that nobody would want to?" We went downstairs and I had the joy of leading her to Christ.

You should get a job in a laundry counting the incoming laundry, and see how nice you are. When God looks down on us, He not only sees us but He can smell us, for He says we are full of "wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores" (Isaiah 1:6). He says that about the best of us.

We look at each other and think we are quite nice. Like likes like. Dogs like dogs. Snakes like snakes. Think of God looking down on us! We will not be judged by our estimate of ourselves, but by His estimate of us.

Our Filthy Rags' Righteousnesses

Look at Matthew 5:20—"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Why are they shut out? For having the wrong kind of righteousness. It is home-made righteousness, born, bred, and brought up in their own heart and mind, and they intend to rely upon that instead of the righteousness which God has provided in Christ.

In Matthew 22, when he came in to see his guests at the wedding, the king found one who did not have on the wedding garment, and said to him, "Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?" And the man was "speechless." That garment speaks of God's own righteousness.

"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" in His sight (Isaiah 64:6). It doesn't say "all our sins," but "all our righteousnesses"—the best we have. Suppose I should take an old dirty rag and fold it up, and wrap it in tissue paper, and tie it neatly with ribbons, and send it to King George for a Christmas present, do you think he would be pleased? But when you offer to God your righteousness, He says that is what you are doing. It has on it something that came out of you. That expression "filthy rags" isn't [exactly worded] properly in our Bible, for the translators had a sense of propriety... I won't tell you what the word is, but it is a rag that has on it something that comes out of you; and as that is an abomination to another human, anything that comes from our hearts and lives is an abomination to God. God accepts only imputed righteousness, that is, His righteousness given to the account of the soul that trusts His Son. He puts a faultless, stainless, spotless and perfect righteousness on that person. We go to heaven on an imputed righteousness, clothed with a righteousness we neither earned nor merited. The righteous work of Another is imputed to us, and a new life is imparted. That is the only way anybody can enter into heaven.

"Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees," said the Lord Jesus, "ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." They had the Old Testament and loved it, and kept the law carefully and zealously, more than anyone of us does, because they loved it. That was their business. Yet God says you must have something better than that, or you will be shut out.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian Christians from his prison cell in Rome that his great desire was to be found in Christ, "not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:9). Only those who have this righteousness, taken as a free gift by faith, will stand with Christ in glory. All others will be cast out of His presence and out of the place He has gone to prepare for those who love Him.

None of us has a dress or a suit that could be worn in the throne room of the King James' Court in London. We might have a very expensive one, but we couldn't wear it there, because there are certain rules that stipulate the kind of dress or suit you must wear. You must dress according to the laws of the Court.

The law of the Court of heaven is that you must have on the garment of righteousness Christ gives, and nothing else will do. If you don't have it, you will be shut out. There are twenty-six reasons given in Matthew why men are shut out from heaven and God. The question is, "What will the Lord do with you?" Ask your heart before it is too late.

Life Is Very Uncertain

It doesn't take long to die. I was preaching in a church in Kansas City, and a dear old Swedish couple were on their way to the service. For some reason they stopped their car on the opposite side of the street from the church, and as they started to cross the street a sixteen year old boy drove past, skidded on the wet pavement, and both of them were killed instantly. They never got to the service.

Then there was another friend who had been attending the services with his wife and seven children. One night I was talking to Charlie and telling him how glad I was that he had come back to the Lord. We went out together, and as we parted, I said, "Good-bye, Charlie; come back tomorrow."

"I'll be back tomorrow night," he assured me, but at 12:30 o'clock his eldest daughter called me and said her father had just died.

You see you just don't know when your last hour will come. You have no lease on life. Neither do you know whether you will be where the gospel is preached when you want to be saved.

We had a young intern in Kansas City whose mother and father were missionaries, but he had gone far from God. One night he was awakened by a young fellow of his own age, who was dying in ward No. 1 of the general hospital. The young man pleaded with this intern to tell him how to be saved, but he had to tell him, "I don't know anything about it. I'll see if the nurse knows." He called the nurse, but she didn't know anything either. Finally, they sent for a preacher, but before the preacher could get there, the young man was gone.

The intern came to my house the next day, and said, "Dr. Wilson, that taught me a lesson. I may not be around where anyone can tell me how to be saved when I am dying. I want to find out while I can."

I wish to remind you that God has a reason for what He does. If He shuts you out, you will never complain against Him. You will not find a single man who will find fault with God throughout eternity. If you live without Him, He will live without you. If you decide that there is no God, He will decide there isn't anyone for you when you need Him most. If you want your sins, He will let you have them, and punish you for them.

All the while He holds out His hands, and says seven times "Come," because He means it. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD" (Isaiah 1:18). Why "now?" Because now is the only time you have—it is the best time. God shuts out those who do not agree with Him. He never blesses anybody who argues with Him. Believe what He says, and make Christ your own. He has a Saviour for everyone. Do you need a Saviour? He is sufficient to meet every need.

That is one of the miracles of John 3:16—He gave one Gift to everybody, from pole to pole, to every nation, to young and old, to sage or ignorant, to the pauper or to the wealthy one, to king and peasant. That one Gift is Christ, because He is sufficient for everyone. "He that hath the Son hath life" (I John 5:12). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5: 24). Why won't the believer come to judgment? Because the moment he trusts in Christ, all the evidence against him is blotted out. Come to, Christ now! He will make you fit for glory.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1—A Grave In A Garden

Chapter 2—A Cure For Troubled Hearts

Chapter 3—A Drink, A Fountain, A River

Chapter 4—Angels for Pallbearers

Chapter 5—A Precious Death

Chapter 6—"BY HIMSELF"

Chapter 7—Five Aspects of Faith

Chapter 8—Three Rich Men

Chapter 9—The Empty Seat

Chapter 10—The Judgments

Chapter 11—The Spiritual Man

Chapter 12—Why God Punishes Men Throughout Eternity