ation.

Suppose we should write out here to-night this excuse, how would it sound?

To the King of Heaven:--While sitting in the Tabernacle in the City of
Chicago, January--, 1877, I received a very pressing invitation from
one of your servants to be present at the marriage supper of your
only-begotten Son. I PRAY THEE HAVE ME EXCUSED."

Would you sign that, young man? Would you, mother? Would you come up to
the reporters' table, take up a pen and put your name down to such an
excuse? You would say, "Let my right hand forget its cunning, and my
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I sign that."

Just let me write out another answer:

"To the King of Heaven;--While sitting in the Tabernacle, January---,
1877, I received a pressing invitation from one of your messengers to
be present at the marriage supper of your only-begotten Son. I hasten
to reply: BY THE GRACE OF GOD I WILL BE PRESENT."

Who will sign that? Is there one who will put his name to it? Is there
no one who will say, "By the grace of God I will accept the invitation
now"?

GOLD.

-- There is not an excuse but is a lie.

-- God's service a hard one! How will that sound in the judgment?

-- It is easy enough to excuse yourself to hell, but you cannot excuse
yourself to heaven.

-- When a man prepares a feast, men rush in, but when God prepares one
they all begin to make excuses, and don't want to go.

-- My friends, to accept this invitation is more important than anything
else in this world. There is nothing in the world that is so
important as the question of accepting the invitation.

-- If everybody could understand everything the Bible said it wouldn't
be God's book; if Christians, if theologians, had studied it for
forty, fifty, sixty years, and then only began to understand it, how
could a man expect to understand it by one reading?

-- If God were to take men at their word about these excuses, and swept
everyone into his grave who had an excuse, there would be a very
small congregation in the Tabernacle next Sunday; there would be
little business in Chicago, and in a few weeks the grass would be
growing on these busy streets.

FAITH.

How Moody's Faith Saved an Infidel.

When I was in Edinburgh, at the inquiry meeting in Assembly Hall, one of
the ushers came around and said, "Mr. Moody, I'd like to put that man
out; he's one of the greatest infidels in Edinburgh." He ha