God loved you, couldn't He have kept you from breaking your back?'"

"What do you do when Satan tempts you?"

"Ah, I just take him to Calvary, and I show him Christ, and I point out those wounds in His hands and feet and side, and say, 'Doesn't He love me?' and the fact is, he got such a scare there eighteen hundred years ago that he cannot stand it; he leaves me every time."

That bedridden saint had not much trouble with doubts; he was too full of the grace of God.

Honey-Dew

I have sometimes been in a place where the very air seemed to be charged with the breath of God, like the moisture in the air. I remember one time as I went through the woods near Mount Hermon school I heard bees, and asked what it meant.

"Oh," said one of the men, "they are after the honey-dew."

"What is that?" I asked.

He took a chestnut leaf and told me to put my tongue to it. I did so, and the taste was sweet as honey. Upon inquiry I found that all up and down the Connecticut valley what they call "honey-dew" had fallen, so that there must have been altogether hundreds of tons of honey-dew in this region. Where it comes from I don't know.

Do you suppose that this earth would be worth living on if it were not for the dew and the rain? So a church that hasn't any of the dew of heaven, any of the rain that comes down in showers, will be as barren as the earth would be without the dew and rain.

A Personal Matter

"The life of Christianity," says Luther, "consists of personal pronouns. It is one thing to say, 'Christ is a Savior.' It is quite another to say, 'He is my Savior.' The devil can say the first. Only the true Christian can say the second."

They Knew It

Let me tell you how I had my eyes opened about the theater question. I had an assistant superintendent of a Sabbath school, a very promising young man, who seemed to be very happy in the work. A star actor came to the city, and he went to see him. I knew nothing of it, but the next Sunday when he came into the Sunday-school all over the building the boys cried out:

"Hypocrite! Hypocrite!"

The perspiration started out of every pore of my body; I thought they were looking at me. I said to the little newsboys:

"Who are you calling a hypocrite?"

They mentioned the assistant's name. I asked the reason, and they said:

"We saw him going into the theater."

I had never said anything about the theater to those children, but they saw that man going in, and called him a hypocrite. They seemed to know it was no place for a Christian to go. He lost his influence entirely, withdrew from the school, and after a while gave up Christian work altogether. He was just swept along with the tide in Chicago and his influence was lost.

Pull for the Shore

A vessel was wrecked off the shore. Eager eyes were watching and strong arms manned the life-boat. For hours they tried to reach that vessel through the great breakers that raged and foamed on the sand-bank, but it seemed impossible. The boat appeared to be leaving the crew to perish. But after a while the captain and sixteen men were taken off, and the vessel went down.

"When the life-boat came to you," said a friend, "did you expect it had brought some tools to repair your old ship?"

"Oh, no," was the response; "she was a total wreck. Two of her masts were gone, and if we had stayed mending her only a few minutes, we must have gone down sir."

"When once off the old wreck and safe in the life-boat what remained for you to do?"

"Nothing, sir, but just to pull for the shore."

Man can't save himself. He has been wrecked by sin, and his only safety lies in taking Jesus Christ as his Savior.

Easy, and Yet Difficult

It is the easiest thing in the world to become a Christian, and it is also the most difficult. You say: "That is a contradiction, a paradox." I will illustrate what I mean.

A little nephew of mine, a few years ago, took my Bible and threw it down on the floor. His mother said,

"Charlie, pick up uncle's Bible."

The little fellow said he would not.

"Charlie, do you know what that word means?"

She soon found out that he did, and that he was not going to pick up the Book. His will had come right up against his mother's will.

I began to be quite interested in the struggle: I knew if she did not break his will, he would some day break her heart.

She repeated, "Charlie, go and pick up uncle's Bible, and put it on the table."

The little fellow said he could not do it.

"I will punish you if you do not."

He saw a strange look in her eye, and the matter began to get serious. He did not want to be punished, and he knew his mother would punish him if he did not lift the Bible. So he straightened every bone and muscle in him, and he said he could not do it. I really believe the little fellow had reasoned himself into the belief that he could not do it.

His mother knew he was only deceiving himself, so she kept him right to the point. At last he went down, put both his arms around the Bible, and tugged away at it; but he still said he could not do it. The truth was—he did not want to. He got up again without lifting it.

The mother said, "Charlie, I am not going to talk to you any more. This matter has to be settled; pick up that Bible, or I will punish you."

At last she broke his will, and then he found it as easy as it is for me to turn my hand. He picked up the Bible, and laid it on the table.

So it is with the sinner; if you are really willing to take the Water of Life, YOU CAN DO IT.

No Difference

During the war, when enlisting was going on, sometimes a man would come up with a nice silk hat on, patent-leather boots, kid gloves, and a fine suit of clothes; perhaps the next man who came along would be a hod-carrier, dressed in the poorest kind of clothes. Both had to strip alike and put on the regimental uniform.

When you come and say you are not fit, haven't got good clothes, haven't got righteousness enough to be a Christian, remember that Christ will furnish you with the uniform of heaven, and you will be set down at the marriage feast of the Lamb. I don't care how black and vile your heart may be, only accept the invitation of Jesus Christ, and He will make you fit to sit down with the rest at that feast.

Drawing a Comparison

When I was in California I went into a Sunday-school and asked:

"Have you got some one who can write a plain hand?"

"Yes."

We got up the blackboard, and the lesson upon it proved to be the text, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."

I said, "Suppose we write upon that board some of the earthly treasures? We will begin with 'gold.'"

The teacher readily put down "gold," and they all comprehended it, for all had run to that country in hope of finding it.

"Well, we will put down 'houses' next and then 'land.' Next we will put down 'fast horses.'"

They all understood what fast horses were—they knew a good deal more about fast horses than they knew about the kingdom of God. Some of them, I think, actually made fast horses serve as gods.

"Next we will put down 'tobacco.'" The teacher seemed to shrink at this. "Put it down," said I; "many a man thinks more of tobacco than he does of God. Well, then we will put down 'rum.'"

He objected to this—didn't like to put it down at all.

"Down with it! Many a man will