saved.
Thank God, salvation is within my reach always, and I have to wait
for no minister. This poor thief certainly never partook of the
sacrament. Was there a man on that hill that would have had faith to
believe he was saved? Would any church to-day have received him into
membership? He had not to wait for this. The moment he asked life,
our Savior gave it.

Baptism is one thing; the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is another
thing; and salvation through Christ is quite another thing. If we
have been saved through Christ, let us confess Him by baptism, let
us go to His table, and do whatever else He bids. But let us not
make stumbling-blocks out of these things.

That is what I call sudden conversion--men calling on God for
salvation and getting it. You certainly won't get it unless you call
for it, and unless you take it when He offers it to you. If you want
Christ to remember you--to save you--call upon Him.

TWO SIDES.

The cross of Christ divides all mankind. There are only two sides,
those for Christ, and those against Him. Think of the two thieves;
from the side of Christ one went down to death cursing God, and the
other went to glory.

What a contrast! In the morning he is led out, a condemned criminal;
in the evening he is saved from his sins. In the morning he is
cursing; in the evening he is singing hallelujahs with a choir of
angels. In the morning he is condemned by men as not fit to live on
earth; in the evening he is reckoned good enough for heaven. In the
morning nailed to the cross; in the evening in the Paradise of God,
crowned with a crown he should wear through all the ages. In the
morning not an eye to pity; in the evening washed and made clean in
the blood of the Lamb. In the morning in the society of thieves and
outcasts; in the evening Christ is not ashamed to walk arm-in-arm
with him down the golden pavements of the eternal city.

The thief was

THE FIRST MAN TO ENTER PARADISE

after the veil of the Temple was rent. If we could look up yonder,
and catch a glimpse of the throne, we would see the Father there,
and Jesus Christ at His right hand; and hard by we would see that
thief. He is there to-day. Nineteen hundred years he has been there,
just because he cried in faith:

"Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."

You know Christ died a little while before the thief. I can imagine
that He wanted to hurry home to get a place ready for His new
friend, the first so