re are a great many of you, my friends, who do not act in that
way. You all want to get the truth, but you want the truth to come
to-you; you do not want to go to it. There are people who fold their
arms and say: "I am ready to become a Christian at any time; if I am
to be saved I shall be saved, and if I am to be lost I shall be lost."
A man who says that and keeps on saying it, will be lost. Jerusalem
will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. The religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and get religion.
Bring out the camels; put on all the sweet spices, all the treasures
of the heart's affection. Start for the throne. Go in and hear the
waters of salvation dashing in fountains all around about the throne.
Sit down at the banquet--the wine pressed from the grapes of the
heavenly Eschol, the angels of God the cup-bearers. Goad on the
camels; Jerusalem will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem.
The Bible declares it: "The Queen of the South"--that is, this very
woman I am speaking of--"the Queen of the South shall rise up in
judgment against this generation and condemn it; for she came from the
uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and,
behold! a greater than Solomon is here." God help me to break up the
infatuation of those people who are sitting down in idleness expecting
to be saved. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened to you." Take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. Urge on the
camels!

Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that religion is a
surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in
Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of
Christ--that story rolls on and on, and is told by every traveler
coming back from Jerusalem. The news goes on the wing of every ship
and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold,
and by the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia
Felix, and the Queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story.
And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although she had heard so
much and had her anticipations raised so high, the half--the half was
not told her.

So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of
grace--an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain;
martyrs declared it with arm of fire; death-beds have affirm