at the eleventh hour, and when they found they were only to get the same, they began to murmur and complain. But what was the good man’s answer: “Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way; I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last.” I have generally found that those workers who are all the time looking to see how much they are going to get from the Lord are never satisfied. But love does its work and makes no bargain. Let us make no bargains with the Lord, but be ready to go out and do whatever He appoints.

I am sure if we go out cherishing love in our hearts for those we are going to try and reach, every barrier will be swept out of the way. Love begets love, just as hatred begets hatred. Love is the key to the human heart. Some one has said: “Light is for the mind, and love is for the heart.” When you can reach men’s hearts then you can turn them toward Christ. But we must first win them to ourselves.

You may have heard of the boy whose home was near a wood. One day he was in the wood, and he thought he heard the voice of another boy not far off. He shouted, “Hallo, there!” and the voice shouted back, “Hallo, there!” He did not know that it was the echo of his own voice, and he shouted again: “You are a mean boy!” Again the cry came back, “You are a mean boy!” After some more of the same kind of thing he went into the house and told his mother that there was a bad boy in the wood. His mother, who understood how it was, said to him: “Oh, no! You speak kindly to him, and see if he does not speak kindly to you.” He went to the wood again and shouted: “Hallo, there!” “Hallo, there!” “You are a good boy.” Of course the reply came, “You are a good boy.” “I love you.” “I love you,” said the other voice.

You smile at that, but this little story explains the secret of the whole thing. Some of you perhaps think you have bad and disagreable neighbors; most likely the trouble is with yourself. If you love your neighbors they will love you. As I said before, love is the key that will unlock every human heart. There is no man or woman in all this land so low and so degraded but you can reach them with love, gentleness and kindness. It may take years to do it, but it can be done.

Love must be active. As some one has said: “A man may hoard up his money; he may bury his talents in a napkin; but there is one thing he cannot hoard up, and that is love.” You cannot bury it. It must flow out. It cannot feed upon itself; it must have an object.

I remember reading a few years ago of something that happened when we had the yellow fever in one of the Southern cities. There was a family there who lived in a strange neighborhood where they had just moved. The father was stricken down with the fever. There were so many fatal cases happening that the authorities of the city did not stop to give them a decent burial. The dead-cart used to go through the street where the poor lived, and the bodies were carried away for burial.

The neighbors of this family were afraid, and no one would visit the house because of the fever. It was not long before the mother was stricken down. Before she died she called her boy to her, and said: “I will soon be gone, but when I am dead Jesus will come and take care of you.” She had no one on earth to whom she could commit him. In a little while she, too, was gone, and they carried her body away to the cemetery. The little fellow followed her to the grave. He saw where they laid her, and then he came back to the house.

But he found it very lonely, and when it grew dark he got afraid and could not stay in the house. He went out and sat down on the step and began to weep. Finally he went back to the cemetery, and finding the lot where his mother was buried, he laid down and wept himself to sleep.

Next morning a stranger passing that way found him on the grave, still weeping. “What are you doing here, my boy?” “Waiting for the Savior.” The man wanted to know what he meant, and the boy told the story of what his mother had said to him. It touched the heart of the stranger, and he said, “Well, my boy, Jesus has sent me to take care of you.” The boy looked up and replied: “You have been a long while coming.”

If we had the love of our Master do you tell me that these outlying masses would not be reached? There is not a drunkard who would not be reached. There is not a poor fallen one, or a blasphemer, or an atheist, but would be influenced for good. The atheists cannot get over the power of love. It will upset atheism and every false system quicker than anything else. Nothing will break the stubborn heart so quickly as the love of Christ.

I was in a certain home a few years ago; one of the household was a boy who, I noticed, was treated like one of the family, and yet he did not bear their name. One night I asked the lady of the house to explain to me what it meant. “I have noticed,” I said, “that you treat him exactly like your own children, yet he is not your boy.” “Oh no,” she said, “he is not. It is quite true I treat him as my own child.”

She went on to tell me his story. His father and mother were American missionaries in India; they had five children. The time came when the children had to be sent away from India, as they could not be educated there. They were to be sent to America for that purpose. The father and mother had been very much blessed in India, but they felt as though they could not give up their children. They thought they would leave their work in the foreign field and go back to America.

They were not blessed to the same extent in working at home as they had been in India. The natives were writing to them to return, and by and by they decided that the call was so loud the father must go back. The mother said to him: “I cannot let you go alone; I must go with you.” “But how can you leave the children? You have never been separated from them.” She said: “I can do it for Christ’s sake.” Thank God for such love as that.

When it was known they wanted to leave their children in good homes, this lady with whom I was staying said to the mother if she left one of them with her she would treat the child as her own. The mother came and stayed a week in the house to see that everything was right. The last morning came. When the carriage drove up to the door the mother said: “I want to leave my boy without shedding a tear; I cannot bear to have him think that it costs me tears to do what God has for me to do.” My friend saw that there was a great struggle going on. Her room was adjoining this lady’s, who told me she heard the mother crying: “O God, give me strength for the hour; help me now.” She came downstairs with a beautiful smile on her face. She took her boy to her bosom, kissed him, and left him without a tear. She left all her children, and went back to labor for Christ in India; and from the shores of India she went up, before very long, to be with her Master. That is what a weak woman can do when love to Christ is the motive power. Some time after that dear boy passed away to be with the mother.

I was preaching in a certain city a few years ago, and I found a young man very active in bringing in the boys from the street into the meetings. If there was a hard case in the city he was sure to get hold of it. You would find him in the Inquiry Room with a whole crowd round him. I got to be very deeply interested in the young man and much attached to him. I found out that he was another son of that grand and glorious missionary. I found that all the sons were in training to go as foreign missionaries, to take the place of the mother and father,