. I thought it was hard to have to work in the field all the
week, and then be obliged to go to church and hear a sermon I didn't
understand. I thought I wouldn't go to church any more when I got away
from home; but I had got so in the habit of going that I couldn't stay
away. After one or two Sabbaths, back again to the house of God I
went. There I first found Christ, and I have often said since:

"Mother, I thank you for making me go to the house of God when I
didn't want to go."

Transplanting the Lily

"It is easy to go when the time comes. There are no ropes thrown out
to pull us ashore; there are no ladders let down to pull us up. Christ
comes and takes us by the hand, and says:

"'You have had enough of this. Come up higher!'

"Do you hurt a lily when you pluck it? Is there any rudeness when
Jesus touches the cheek, and the red rose of health whitens into the
lily of immortal purity and gladness?"--Talmage.

Election

How many men fold their arms and say:

"If I am one of the elect, I will be saved, and if I ain't, I won't.
No use of your bothering about it."

Why don't some of these merchants say: "If God is going to make me a
successful merchant in Chicago, I will be one whether I like it or
not, and if He isn't I won't."

If you are sick, and a doctor prescribes for you, don't take the
medicine--throw it out the door. It does not matter, for if God has
decreed you are going to die, you will; if He hasn't, you will get
better. If you use that argument you may as well not walk home from
this tabernacle. If God has said you'll get home, you'll get
home--you'll fly through the air.

I have an idea that the Lord Jesus saw how men were going to stumble
over this doctrine, so after He had been thirty or forty years in
heaven He came down and spoke to John. One Lord's day in Patmos, He
said to him:

"Write these things to the churches."

John kept on writing. His pen flew very fast. And then the Lord, when
it was nearly finished, said, "John, before you close the book, put in
one more invitation. 'The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him
that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come. And
WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.'"

The Mysteries of the Bible

Dr. Talmage tells the story that one day while he was bothering his
theological professor with questions about the mysteries of the Bible,
the latter turned on him and said:

"Mr. Talmage, you will have