Godliness | Page 7

supplied strength, and he stretched it
forth, and you know what happened.
Don't look forward, and say, "I shall not have strength;" that is not your
matter--that is His. He will hold you up;--He is able, when you once
commit yourself to Him. Now then, say, "_I will._" Never mind what
you suffer--it shall be done. He will pour in the oil and balm. His
glorious, blessed presence will do more for you in one hour, than all
your struggling, praying, and wrestling have done all these weary years.
He will lift you up out of the pit. You are in the mire now, and the more
you struggle the more you sink; but He will lift you out of it, and put
your feet on the rock, and then you will stand firm. Stretch out your
withered hand, whatever it may be;--say, "I will, Lord." You have the
power, and mind, you have the obligation, which is universal and
immediate. God "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent," and
to believe the Gospel. What a tyrant He must be if He commands that,
and yet He knows you have not the power!
Now, do you repent? Mind the old snare. Not, do you weep? The
feeling will come after the surrender.
Now, do not say, "I do not feel enough." Do you feel enough to be
willing to forsake your sin? that is the point. Any soul who does not
repent enough to forsake his sin, is _not a penitent at all!_ When you
repent enough to forsake your sin, that moment your repentance is
sincere, and you may take hold of Jesus with a firm grasp. You have a
right to appropriate the promise, then it is "look and live." "Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
Will you come to that point now? Don't begin making an excuse.
_Now!--all men! everywhere!_--NOW! Oh! my friend, if you had done
that ten years ago! You have been accumulating sin, condemnation, and
wrath ever since. God commanded you these ten years to repent, and

believe the Gospel, and here you are yet. How many sermons have you
heard?--invitations rejected? How much blessed persuasion and
reasoning of the Holy Spirit have you resisted?--how much of the grace
of God have you received in vain? I tremble to think what an
accumulated load of abused privilege, lost opportunity, and wasted
influence, such people will have to give an account of. Talk about
hell!--the weight of this will be hell enough. You don't seem to think
anything of the way you treat God. Oh! people are very much awake to
any evil they do to their fellow-men. They can much more easily see
the sin of ruining or injuring their neighbors than injuring the great God;
but He says, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me." Do you
not see; the awful weight of condemnation that comes upon you for
putting off, rejecting, resisting, vascilating, halting, while He says,
_Now--now?_ He has had a right to every breath you have drawn, to all
your influence, every hour, of every day of all your years. Is it not time
you ended that controversy? He may do with you as He did with such
people once before--swear in His wrath that you shall not enter into His
rest. Are you not provoking Him as they provoked Him? Oh! my friend,
be persuaded now to repent. Let your sin go away, and come to the feet
of Jesus. For your own sake be persuaded. For the peace, the joy, the
power, the glory, the gladness of living a life of consecration to God,
and service to your fellow-men, yield; but most of all, for the love He
bears you, submit.
A great, rough man (stricken down), said to my husband, a few weeks
ago, when he looked up to the place where other people were being
saved, "Mr. Booth, I would not go there for a hundred pounds!" My
husband whispered, "Will you go there for love?" and, after a minute's
hesitation, the man, brushing the great tears away, rose up, and
followed him.
Will you go there for love--the love of Jesus!--the great love wherewith
He loved you and gave Himself for you? Will you, for the great
yearning with which your Father has been following you all these
years--for His love's sake, will you come? Go down at His feet and
submit. The Lord help you! Amen.

CHAPTER II.
SAVING FAITH.
And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And
they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,
and thy house.--ACTS xvi. 30,31.
This is one of the most abused texts in the Bible, and one which,
perhaps,