t and let you see.

In the morning he had gone into the deep woods to study and pray, as
was the wont of the forest preachers. Here he had prayerfully and
carefully completed the outline of his sermon. Then a great burden of
unfitness and helplessness came upon him. Like his Master he threw
himself prone upon the ground and poured out his soul to the Father. "O
God," he cried, "who am I, that I should be thy ambassador to beseech
sinners to be reconciled to thee? Who am I that I should stand between
the living and the dead and offer life and immortality to men? Thou, O
God, only art my sufficiency, my hope, my expectation. Stand by my side
and help me in this hour, for my need is great. This I ask in the name
of thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen."

Coming thus from the hidings of divine power, with the Spirit of God
like dew resting upon him, he announces his text: "Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our
God, for he will abundantly pardon."

He began by describing the way of the wicked. He unmasked sin, showing
its hideous deformity, how it pollutes the soul, and makes man unfit
for fellowship with a holy God. Then he passed on to show the guilt of
sin, the awful misery coming to a man when he is face to face with his
iniquities. With great skill he pointed out condemnation arising from
particular transgressions,--the defaulter fleeing from his country, the
murderer with his victim's bloody form ever before his mind's eye, the
lustful man tortured and consumed with the rewards of his own folly.
Continuing, he proceeded to tell the final punishment of these sinners.
In those days ministers at camp meetings preached a literal hell; and
as the speaker uncovered the pit of destruction and compelled his
hearers to look into it many felt that they were "hair hung and breeze
shaken" over the mouth of perdition.

Now his manner changed. His voice, instead of being loud and startling
like thunder, producing awe and terror, became sweet, tender, and
appealing, like a shepherd calling his sheep to the fold.

Having opened the wounds of sin, he poured into them the cordial of
gospel grace. He dwelt upon the words, "abundantly pardon," showing how
God had planned to put away sin by the gift of his Son and had promised
forgiveness to all guilty mortals wh