I see you laugh; but my friends you are laughing at yourselves. You
need not go far away to find these boys. Salvation is freely offered
to all, but the trouble is that men do not believe God's Word, and
do not accept the gift. Who will accept it now?

I found a few lines the other day on this point that I thought very
good. I will close with them:

"I would not work my soul to save,
For that my Lord hath done;
But I would work like any slave,
For love of God's dear Son."

CHAPTER IV.

GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS.

I WANT to lay emphasis on the fact that God desires to show mercy to
all. Christ's last command to His disciples was, "Go ye into _all_
the world and preach the Gospel to _every_ creature." There may be
some hearing me who have not received this grace, though it has
often been pressed on their acceptance. One reason why many do not
become partakers of this grace is that they think they can do better
without it. The Jews said they were the seed of Abraham. They had
Moses and the Law: therefore they had no need of the pardoning grace
of God that Christ had come to bring. We read in the book of
Revelation of a church that said it was "rich, and increased in
goods, and had need of nothing." That was the trouble when Christ
was down here. Instead of coming to Him to be blessed, the people
too often went away thinking and saying they had no need of His
favor and blessing.

THE TWO PRAYERS.

In the Gospel by Luke Christ brings two men before us. I do not know
that we can get any two cases in Scripture that will give us more
light on this subject than those of the Pharisee and the Publican,
who went into the temple to pray. One went away as empty as he came.
He was like the church described in Revelation, to which I have
referred. He went into the temple desiring nothing; and he got
nothing. The other man asked for something; he asked for pardon and
mercy. And he went down to his house justified.

Take the prayer of the Pharisee. There is no confession in it, no
adoration, no contrition, no petition. As I have said, he asked for
nothing and he got nothing. Some one has said that he went into the
temple not to pray but to boast. The sun and the moon were as far
apart as these two men. One was altogether of a different spirit to
the other. The one prayed with his head, and the other with his
heart. The one told God what a wonderfully great and good man he
was: "I a