ng. There is a great host coming in to stand under
the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be among them? It is
going to be a great harvest-day. Will you be among the gathered
sheaves?

Some of you have been thinking on this subject year after year. You
have found out that this world is a poor portion. You want to be
Christians. You have come almost into the kingdom of God; but there
you stop, forgetful of the fact that to be almost saved is not to be
saved at all. Oh, my brother, after having come so near to the door of
mercy, if you turn back, you will never come at all. After all you
have heard of the goodness of God, if you turn away and die, it will
not be because you did not have a good offer.

"God's spirit will not always strive
With hardened, self-destroying man;
Ye who persist His love to grieve
May never hear his voice again."

May God Almighty this hour move upon your soul and bring you back from
the husks of the wilderness to the Father's house, and set you at the
banquet, and "put a ring on your hand."

HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT.

"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
Anathema Maranatha."--I COR. xvi: 22.

The smallest lad in the house knows the meaning of all those words
except the last two, Anathema Maranatha. Anathema, to cut off.
Maranatha, at His coming. So the whole passage might be read: "If any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off at His coming."
Well, how could the tender-hearted Paul say that? We have seen him
with tears discoursing about human want, and flushed with excitement
about human sorrow; and now he throws those red-hot iron words into
this letter to the Corinthians. Had he lost his patience? Ok, no. Had
he resigned his confidence in the Christian religion? Oh, no. Had the
world treated him so badly that he had become its sworn enemy? Oh, no.
It needs some explanation, I confess, and I shall proceed to show by
what process Paul came to the vehement utterance of my text. Before I
close, if God shall give His Spirit, you shall cease to be surprised
at the exclamation of the Apostle, and you yourselves will employ the
same emphasis, declaring, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be Anathema Maranatha."

If the photographic art had been discovered early enough, we should
have had the facial proportions of Christ--the front face, the side
face, Jesus sitting, Jesus standing--provided He had subm