the next time. It hardens a great many. It hardened this man. Six months from that time I got a message from him that he was sick and wanted to see me. I went to him in great haste. He was very sick and thought he was dying. He asked me if there was any hope. Yes, I told him, God had sent Christ to save him, and I prayed with him. Contrary to all expectations and to the belief of the physicians, he recovered and got off from his sick bed. One day I went down to see him. It was a bright, beautiful day, and he was sitting out in front of his house convalescing rapidly, and I said "You are coming out for God now, aren't you? You will be well enough soon to come back to our meetings again?" Said he, "Mr. Moody, I have made up my mind to become a Christian.

Said I,

66

"But you don't "Oh," said he, "I will

I'll risk it.

My mind is fully made up to that, but I won't be one just now. I am going to Michigan to buy a farm and settle down, and then I will become a Christian.' know yet that you will get well." be perfectly well in a few days. I have got a new lease of life. "Oh," said I, "it seems to me that you are tempting God," and I pleaded with him, and tried every way to get him to take his stand. At last said he, "Mr. Moody, I can't be a Christian in Chicago. When I get away from Chicago, and get to Michigan, away from my friends and acquaintances, who laugh at me, I will be ready to go to Christ." Said I, "If God has not got grace enough to save you in Chicago, He has not in Michigan ;" and I preached Christ to him, and urged Christ upon him. At last he got a little irritated, and said, "Mr. Moody, you can just attend to your business, and I will to mine, and if I lose my soul, no one will be to blame but myself—certainly not you, for you have done all you could." I went away from that house then with a heavy heart.

I well remember the day of the week, Thursday, about noon, just one week from that very day, when I was sent

for by his wife to come in great haste. I hurried there at once. His poor wife met me at the door, and I asked her what was the matter. "My husband," she said, "has been taken down with the same disease, and I have just had a council of physicians here, and they have all given him up to die.” Said I, "does he want to see me?" "No," said she. "Then why did you send for me?" Said she, "I cannot bear to see him die in this terrible state of mind." "What does he say?" I asked. Said she. "He says his damnation is sealed and he will be in hell in a little while." I went in, and he at once fixed his eye upon me. I called him by name, but he was speechless. I went around to the foot of the bed and looked in his face and said, "Won't you speak to me?" and at last he fixed that terrible deathly look upon me and said, "Mr. Moody, you need not talk to me any more. It is too late. You can talk to my wife and children; pray for them; but my heart is as hard as the iron in that stove there. My damnation is sealed, and I will be in hell in a little while." I tried to tell him of Jesus's love and of God's forgiveness, but he said," Mr. Moody, don't you mock me. I tell you there is no hope for me." And as I fell on my knees he said, "You need not pray for me; you need not pray for a lost soul. My wife will soon be left a widow and my children will be fatherless. They need your prayers, but you need not pray for me." I tried to pray, but it seemed as if my prayers didn't go higher than my head, and as if the heaven above me was like brass. As I took the cold, clammy hand the sweat of death was upon it, and it seemed like bidding farewell to a man I should never see in time or eternity. I left him with a broken heart. That was about noon. The next day his wife told me he lingered until the sun went down behind those Western prairies, and from noon until he died all he was heard to say was, "The harvest is past, the Summer is ended, and I am not

66

saved." After lingering along an hour, he would say again those words, and just as he was expiring, his wife noticed his lips quiver, and that he was trying to say something, and as she bent over him she heard him mutter, The harvest is past, the Summer is ended, and I am not saved," and the angels bore him away to judgment. He lived a Christless life; he died a Christless death; we wrapped him in a Christless shroud and bore him away to a ChristOh, how dark and sad!

less grave.

Are there some here that are almost persuaded to be Christians? Take my advice and not let anything keep you away. Fly to the arms of Jesus this day and hour. You can be saved if you will. Son, remember! I have warned you to-day. Daughter, remember! you cannot say that I did not lift up a warning voice to-day and exhort you with all my soul, to escape the damnation of hell.

WHAT SEEK YE?

THERE are two things I want to call your attention to this afternoon. The first is in the words of the 1st chapter of John, 40th verse, and the second is in the 6th chapter of Matthew, 33rd verse. The first text is the first words that fell from the lips of Christ at the commencement of His ministry. It was the question He put to those two disciples that came and questioned Him as to where He dwelt. One afternoon, about four o'clock, John the Baptist stood with two of his disciples, and Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, a little way off, and John lifted up his hand and pointed to the man off in the distance and said: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world!" and John the beloved disciple, and Andrew left their old master and went together toward Jesus,` and Jesus turned around as they came up to Him and said: "What seek ye?" I thought this afternoon I would like for a few moments to call your attention to that text and press that question home upon the people here. I would like to have all of you ask yourselves the questions. What are you seeking? What did you come for-what motive brought you here this afternoon? What do these great crowds of people here mean, day after day, week after week?

There were all classes of people seeking for Christ, and they had every kind of motive for seeking Him. There

would happen.

were some who came out of curiosity, just to see what There was another class who came to Him just because they had friends that were diseased, and they wanted their friends to be healed and blessed. There was the class who came with the hope of getting the loaves and fishes. And there was still another class that were trying to murder Him and to get Him out of the way; they were watching Him and striving to get Him into some conversation in which they might entangle Him with His words and so get an excuse to bring Him before the Sanhedrim, and cause Him to be called guilty of blasphemy and punished. Some sought Him for what they could get, and others sought Him for what He was; and that is the class we are after, namely, those who are not seeking Christ for what they can get, but who are seeking Him for what He is personally. I have no doubt but that a great many of the disciples at first sought Him in order to be identified with Him, because they thought He would set up an earthly kingdom, aud establish His throne upon earth. Judas perhaps thought so, and that he might become the chief treasurer of such a kingdom; and perhaps Peter thought that he might become the chief secretary; and when the sons of Zebedee found out that it was a spiritual kingdom that He was to establish, their mother came and asked of Christ that her sons might be placed the one upon His right hand and the other upon His left. All the time during His ministry Christ constantly found men seeking for office and honor; and that is precisely the spirit to-day. One of our greatest troubles, and one great reason why we do not get greater blessings from God, is because we are not

pure in our motives for seeking Him.

I say there is not a

man or a woman (and I see they are nearly all women here to-day) who has come here for a blessing from God, and who had that motive, but will get it. Others will go away

without any blessing and with hearts as hard and cold as