And the fact that the miller knew the way to heaven because his own feet were lighted in that path by God's Word, made him a good guide for many people who were no doubt wiser than he on many other questions. I would to God we could multiply the number of soul-winners who, carefully walking the way to heaven themselves, would seek after the lost with God's lighted candle in their hands. Christ gives in the conclusion of this little story a very beautiful and suggestive picture, where he declares that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. That brings heaven close to us; it does not seem so far away. It is not a cold, aristocratic, exclusive place, where people are so happy in their own selfishness that they do not care what goes on down here in this dusty, sinful world. No, indeed; it is a very different place, for Jesus says there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over every lost sinner that is found. Mr. Spurgeon, one of the greatest soul-savers who ever lived, paints a very striking and graphic picture of this loving spirit of the angels rejoicing over repenting sinners. He tells the story of a poor lost woman in a garret where the stars looked between the tiles. There is a miserable bed in that room, with but one bit of covering, and she lies there to die. Poor creature! Many a night she has walked the streets in the time of recklessness; but now the pleasures of sin are over; a deadly disease, like a demon, is devouring her heart! She is dying fast, and she feels that no one cares for her soul! But there, in that garret room, she turns her face to the wall and cries, "O thou that saved Magdalene, save me! Lord, I repent; have mercy upon me, I beseech thee!" Did the bells ring in the streets? Was the trumpet blown? Ah! no. Did men rejoice? Was there a sound of thanksgiving in the midst of the great congregation? No; no one heard it; for she died unseen. But stay. There was one standing at her bedside who noted well that tear; an angel, who had come from heaven to watch over this stray sheep and mark its return; and no sooner was her prayer uttered than he clapped his wings, and there was seen flying up to the pearly gates a spirit like a star. The heavenly guards came crowding to the gate, crying, "What news, O son of fire?" He said, ""Tis done." "And what is done?" they said. "Why, she has repented." "What! She who was once the chief of sinners? Has she turned to Christ?"""Tis even so," said he. And then they told it through the streets, and the bells of heaven rang marriage peals, for Magdalene was saved, and she who had been the chief of sinners was turned unto the living God. It was in another place. A poor neglected little boy in ragged clothing had run about the streets for many a day. Tutored in crime, he was paving his path to the prison. But one morning he passed by a humble room where some Christian men and women, in the Sunday-school, were teaching just such children as he how to read the Bible. He stepped in there, a wild Bedouin of the streets. They talked to him. They told him about his soul and eternity— things he had never heard before. They spoke of Jesus, and of good tidings of great joy to this poor friendless lad. He went another Sunday, and another, his wild habits hanging about him, for he could not get rid of them. At last one day his teacher said to him, "Jesus Christ receiveth sinners." That little boy ran-not home, for it was but a mockery to call it so, where a drunken father and a wicked mother kept a hellish riot together; he ran out into the darkness of a narrow alley, and in an unfrequented corner he bent his little knees, and there he cried, that little bundle of rags, "Lord, save me, or I perish;" and the little Arab of the streets, the little thief, was saved! He said "Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly;" And up from that little alley a happy spirit flew and told the news in heaven, and there was great joy there because a little boy was saved from a life of sin. Shall not the Master's sweet story be a great blessing to us to-night?—a great blessing to all of us who are Christians, to arouse us to our opportunity of taking the lamp of God's Word and seeking after his lost children? And shall it not be a great message to some of you who are lost in sin? I come not to you with my own message to-night, but I come in humility and love with the message of my Master. With this story of Jesus Christ in my hand, carrying it like a lamp, I come to show you, if you will let me, the path out of the swamp of your evil habits, out of the wilderness of your sins, sinto forgiveness and peace. THE ROMANCE OF THE HUMAN HEART "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."-Matthew 12:35. “And make you a new heart and a new spirit."-Ezekiel 18: 31. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."-Proverbs 4:23. "My son, give me thine heart."-Proverbs 23: 26. The heart is the treasury of the life. It is the fountain whence springs the streams of conduct. It is the storehouse from which must be drawn conversation and deeds. It is the fortress in which the garrison of the soul keeps watch. Men are good or bad according to their hearts. It is not some accident of life which causes one man to do good and another to do evil; it is the bringing out of the treasures of good or evil which are in his heart. Sometimes when a man falls into sin in the midst of a great city, he will try to attribute it to the wicked surroundings, as though he did not have the power to resist them. It is a common thing to hear a young man say, "I was all right when I came up to the city, and if I had stayed at home in the little town where I was born and reared, I never would have fallen into these wicked ways." But that is no excuse; men do fall into wicked ways in little towns, and on the other hand men do live pure and holy lives in great cities.Tote The city gives the man the opportunity to bring out what is in him. What is there in your heart treasury? What are the purposes John Clarence Vête sive Hood in Victong Spritual life - To Tanquerey of sulferia prayer Quiet Time, house, Пелали з God's blessing, then you may be sure that until your heart is different, and a new store of goods is laid up there, there is no likelihood of good things coming out in your conduct. But a man says weakly, "How can I help it? Evil came upon me, and ere I knew the danger I was overborne and carried away by sin." In harmony with Dr. Horton's little allegory of life, you say that when you were a child there was a strange beginning of conflict in your heart, when the voice of good was sweet and musical, but very low, and the vision of its beauty seemed to haunt you like a dream rather than a waking reality. But the voice of evil was loud and tyrannical, and she spoke with a brazen face, and she bore you down, poor little child, and the silent voice of all good was throbbing in your heart but could not speak, and the loud, cruel voice of evil was hurrying you with fiendish laughter along some broad way of delusion and pleasure that ends in death. What a strange experience it was! And as you look back upon it in the light of your manhood or your womanhood, and try to unravel all the threads that have made your life, the mystery grows upon you. Yet doubtless, though it is never explained, its reality is beyond question. You say that the voice of evil was loud when the voice of good was soft; you say that the great vicious devil was so strong when the angel of God seemed so weak. And so, this boy, brought up in the midst of a pure home, with clean and reverent and noble surroundings, comes here to the city where those who want to do good and be good find currents which bear them ever onward toward God and heaven, and where those whose hearts turn toward evil find tides which sweep always downward toward hell-and this youth, coming into the midst of these contrary winds and diverse currents, turns away from the good and thrusts himself into the influences that fill his heart full of vile and unholy treasures. And that leads us to this second Scripture, which seems to lay with great clearness the responsibility of the character of our hearts upon the sinner himself. The command is plain and direct, "Make you a new heart and a new spirit." It would be the height of folly to give such a command as that if a man had no power in the case. There is a sense in which we have not the power, but the initiative always lies with us. We make ourselves a new heart by turning from the sin we have committed and taking the step that leads toward reformation. Charles Kingsley says, "If any one feels, 'I am fallen very low in the world; here all has been so much against me; I am too far gone; I ate sour grapes in my youth and my teeth must be set on edge forever; I have been a bad man, or I have been a foolish woman, too many years to mend now,' let him remember this commandment of God, 'Make you a new heart and a new spirit.' Ezekiel and Christ, alike, hold out this new incentive to the man that has sinned. The mistake that men make is in feeling that they must wait until some strange divine influence which they cannot understand, and which they cannot resist, takes hold of them and turns them about and bestows upon them the new heart and the new spirit. To every such an one I say to-night, Hear this command of God's word: "Make you a new heart and a new spirit." You have fallen by sin; rise again by repentance and amendment. You may be punished for a long time; you will be handicapped in many ways by your sins after they have been forgiven. But if you will rise up and make you a new heart, a new spirit about life, cease to do evil and begin to do well; from that very day everything will look different to you. The clouds will begin to clear away; the soil of your heart, which never belonged to the devil, will respond in nourishment to the new seeds of goodness which you plant there, and your life will begin to clothe itself with the beauty of this new heart and new spirit formed within you. Now most of you who hear me at this time have passed through these experiences; once you were innocent children with hearts as clean and sweet as the flowers on the hillside, which are just now blushing into beauty at the call of the sun. Then sin came and you were conquered by it, and the days and weeks and months, and with some of you many years, passed by, during which the heart was under the control of sin and gathered evil treasures. Then there was a day when the call of God came to you. The particular way in which it came is of no importance. Your conscience was aroused; you saw the guilt of your sins. But your hope was aroused also; you came to believe that God did not mock you when he called you to a new life as his son; and so, inspired both the sense of guilt and the hope of its forgiveness in Jesus Christ, you made you a new heart and a new spirit; and you are seeking to live in that rightful heartrelation toward God. To all who are in this condition our third Scripture appeals. Our heart is a fortress which we hold against many foes. A good life lived in this world is only sustained by struggle. There are many enemies who are seeking to break the barriers and get into the |