ith Himself. When God and
man work together, then it is that there is going to be victory. We
are coworkers with Him. You might take a mill, and put it forty feet
above a river, and there isn't capital enough in the States to make
that river turn the mill; but get it down about forty feet, and away
it works. We want to keep in mind that if we are going to overcome the
world, we have got to work with God. It is His power that makes all
the means of grace effectual.

The story is told that Frederick Douglas, the great slave orator, once
said in a mournful speech when things looked dark for his race:--

"The white man is against us, governments are against us, the spirit
of the times is against us. I see no hope for the colored race. I am
full of sadness."

Just then a poor old colored woman rose in the audience, and said.--

"Frederick, is God dead?"

My friend, it makes a difference when you count God in.

Now many a young believer is discouraged and disheartened when he
realizes this warfare. He begins to think that God has forsaken him,
that Christianity is not all that it professes to be. But he should
rather regard it as an encouraging sign. No sooner has a soul escaped
from his snare than the great Adversary takes steps to ensnare it
again. He puts forth all his power to recapture his lost prey. The
fiercest attacks are made on the strongest forts, and the fiercer the
battle the young believer is called on to wage, the surer evidence it
is of the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. God will not desert
him in his time of need, any more than He deserted His people of old
when they were hard pressed by their foes.

The Only Complete Victor.

This brings me to the fourth verse of the fourth chapter of the same
epistle: "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:
because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."
The only man that ever conquered this world--was complete victor--was
Jesus Christ. When He shouted on the cross, "It is finished!" it was
the shout of a conqueror. He had overcome every enemy. He had met sin
and death. He had met every foe that you and I have got to meet, and
had come off victor. Now if I have got the spirit of Christ, if I have
got that same life in me, then it is that I have got a power that is
greater than any power in the world, and with that same power I
overcome the world.

Notice that everything human in this world fails. Every man, the
moment