day--there are those who recommend good books. That is all
right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under
such circumstances. Baxter wrote "A Call to the Unconverted," but the
Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote "The
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," but the Bible is the best
rise and progress. John Angell James wrote "Advice to the Anxious
Inquirer," but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer.

O, the Bible is the very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul! A
dying soldier said to his mate: "Comrade, give me a drop!" The comrade
shook up the canteen, and said: "There isn't a drop of water in the
canteen." "Oh," said the dying soldier, "that's not what I want; feel
in my knapsack for my Bible," and his comrade found the Bible, and
read him a few of the gracious promises, and the dying soldier said:
"Ah, that's what I want. There isn't anything like the Bible for a
dying soldier, is there, my comrade?" O blessed book while we live!
Blessed book when we die!

I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. "What,"
say you, "can't a man be saved without going to church?" I reply,
there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church: but
the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God;
and if truth affects us when we are alone, it affects us more mightily
when we are in the assembly--the feelings of others emphasizing our
own feelings. The great law of sympathy comes into play, and a truth
that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man, beats mightily
against the soul with a thousand heart-throbs.

When you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion,
and only for one purpose--to find the way to Christ. When I see people
critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voice, and
critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in
prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the government
brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison, and
says: "Here is your pardon. Come and get it." "What! Do you expect me
to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such
an awkward manner as you have? I would rather die than so compromise
my rhetorical notions!" Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It
is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if, this
morning, that pardon from the throne of God is offered to ou