We have to say night by night, “Forgive the ill that I this day have done.”  And if we say it as we ought, as really believing that God forgives us, so that we may not lose heart, may never encourage despair of final victory, we shall get up next morning resolved to make a fiercer fight than ever with the evil that sent us on our knees last night.  Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins?  Let the joy of it come to you, and as your own heart overflows with the fulness of that joy, declare unto others God’s salvation, and teach transgressors His way.  Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins?  Then find in that faith an impact to obedience to the law of Jesus:  “Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect”; and do not forget that He who begins the good work in you with His pardon will carry it on to the day of Jesus Christ; so that you may add the last words of the Creed:  “I believe in the resurrection from the dead and in the life everlasting.”

It is not altogether a good sign that we have pushed eternity out of our modern thought.  Confronted as man is every moment by a sense of the fragility and the brevity of human life, it is not surprizing that we should welcome everybody who comes with a message concerning eternity.

Is there not, in truth, beauty in the old Anglo-Saxon story of the bird that shot in at one open window of the large assembly hall and out at another, where were gathered together a great company of thanes and vassals; and when the missionary was asked to speak to them concerning God and His salvation, the thane who was presiding rose and said, recalling the bird’s speedy flight from side to side of the hall, “Such is our life, and if this man can tell us anything concerning the place to which we are going, let him stand up and be heard.”  Brothers, a few days may carry us into eternity.  “Boast not thyself of to-morrow, thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”  Strong, hopeful, rich in promise of service is to-day; to-morrow friends may be weeping, kith and kin full of sorrow for our departure.  This life does not end all; we are going to an eternity of blessedness, to progress without limit, to an assimilation with God that shall know no sudden break or failure, but shall be perfect, even as He is perfect.

MOODY

What think ye of Christ?

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Dwight Lyman Moody, the evangelist, was born at Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1837, and died in 1899.  As a business man he brought to his evangelistic work exceptional tact, initiative, and executive ability, but the main source of his power lay in his knowledge of the Bible, his constant companion.  In preaching he largely disregarded form, and thought little of the sermon as such.  His one overwhelming and undeviating purpose was to lead men to Christ.  His speaking was in a kind of monotone, but his straightforward plainness never failed to be effective.  He usually held the Bible in his hand while speaking, so that there was little of gesture.  His great sympathetic nature is spoken of by Henry Drummond in these words: