Ask now that the Holy Spirit may give you a tender heart, and make your eyes a fountain of tears, that, with the sympathy of Christ, you may seek the lost and perishing.

STUDY XX.

BURDEN FOR SOULS.

Memory Verse:  “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ
    for my brethren.”—­(Rom. ix, 3.)

Scripture for Meditation:  Gen. xviii, 16-33.

How the great heart of the Savior was burdened for the lost!  See him standing on Olivet and weeping as he said:  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

Where there is no real soul-burden for sinners, there will be no revival.  The early Church travailed in pain for the souls of dying men.  One preacher said, “As I entered the pulpit, I could scarcely stand erect because of my concern for the people and solicitude for souls;” and another said, “I spent a whole night in prayer, and what I passed through was inexpressible.”  When we get a glimpse of the worth of a soul, and then of the death of a soul, and begin to realize that we stand between lost men and heaven or hell, then we shall have real concern, and the Lord will hear our prayer of intercession.

When Mr. Moody first went to London he preached in a Congregational Church, Sunday morning.  There was no particular stir.  That evening he spoke to a large audience of men in the same place, and scores expressed a desire to become Christians.  He went to Dublin next day, but was recalled by a telegram saying that a great revival had broken out.  And Mr. Moody accounts for this wonderful work of grace which followed by telling that, on that Sunday morning, a lady went home and told her invalid sister that Mr. Moody from America had preached.  “I know what that means,” said the invalid.  “We are going to have a great revival.  I have been praying for months that the Lord would send him here.”  She would not eat any dinner, but spent the day in fasting and prayer.  The revival began in that invalid’s room.

A gentleman waked his wife up at three o’clock in the morning to have her join him in prayer in behalf of a neighboring family who were unsaved; and at daybreak went to his neighbor’s house to entreat them to yield to Christ.

When such concern for the perishing is manifested by the Church, there is sure to be a gracious ingathering.

STUDY XXI.

A PERSONAL PENTECOST.

Memory Verse:  “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is
    come upon you:  and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
    and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
    earth.”—­(Acts i, 8.)

Scripture for Meditation:  Acts ii, 1-4; xix, 1-6.