you. Would to God that I had the tongue of St. Paul to speak to you
with--though even when he preached some mocked, as it will be to the end.
But if to one of you God has brought home His truth, then to that one
conscience-stricken sinner I will say, "You confess with David that all
your sorrows are your own fault. Thank God that He has taught you so
much."

But what will you do to be saved from your sins? "I cannot wait," you
say in your heart, "to go home and begin leading a new life. I will do
that, please God, but I want to know at once that I am forgiven. I want
to be saved. I cannot save myself. I cannot save myself from hell
hereafter, or from this miserable sinful life, nearly as bad as hell
here. Oh! wretched being that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death?"

Friend, dost thou not know it is written, "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

"_Ah yes_!" _says the sinner_, "_I have been hearing that all my life_,
_and much good it has done me_! _Look at me_, _I want something more
than those words about Christ_, _I want Christ Himself to save me if He
can_."

Ah, my brother!--poor sinner! thou hast never believed in Christ, thou
hast only believed _about_ Christ. There was the fault. But Christ
Himself will save thee, though thou hast been the worst of reprobates, He
will save thee. Only one thing, He _will_ have thee answer first. "Dost
thou wish to be saved from the _punishment_ of thy sins, or from the sins
themselves?"

"_From my sins_--_from my sins_," says the man who truly repents. "_They
are what I hate_, _even while I commit them_. _I hate and despise
myself_, _I dare look neither God nor man in the face_, _and yet I go on
doing the very things I loathe the next minute_. _Oh_, _for some one to
save me from my own ill-temper_, _my own bitter tongue_, _my own
laziness_, _my own canting habits_, _my own dishonesty_, _my own
lustfulness_. _But who will save me from them_? _who will change me and
make a new creature of me_? _Oh_, _for a sign from heaven that I can get
rid of these bad habits_! _I hate them_, _and yet I love them_. _I long
to give them up_, _and yet_, _if some one stronger than me does not have
mercy on me_, _I shall go and do them again to-morrow_. _I am longing to
do wrong now_, _and yet I long not to do wrong_. _Oh_, _for a sign from
heaven_!"

Poor sinner!--My brother! _there_ is a sign from heaven for thee! On
that tab