PRE-06-Chapter Six
Chapter Six Meeting at St. Louis—Great Interest—Reports of the Press—Results. As one is insensibly attracted to the hero whose progress from victory to victory he traces on the page of history, so in pursuing the life of this true worker for Christ, I find my interest and admiration for him continually increasing. This, I am aware has a tendency to render me more partial than I desire to be; and yet no one could follow the current of a life like his without being similarly affected. I am glad, therefore, at this, one of the most successful periods of his career, to be able to present to the reader the views of those whose feelings had not been enlisted like my own, namely, the reporters for the press in one of the largest cities of the west, who drew the picture of his labors as they passed before them, as they would have presented before the public the work of any one in any department whatever, who was creating an interest in the public mind. A great speaker on any theme, of any party in politics, of any school of philosophy, or sect in religion, would have been treated in the same spirit of fairness, and freedom from either prejudice or undue prepossession, as was he. This was in the city of St. Louis, in the winter of 1874. It must be remembered that Shaw did not find the clergy and churches of that great city all ready to receive him and heartily co-operate with him in his work; not even a single large and influential religious party was thus prepared. His own brethren were neither numerous nor influential, and the influence of other denominations was rather against than in favor of the effort he was about to make. St. Louis did not prepare for his coming as did the various cities of the East for the coming of Moody—making success a certainty before he came. He came almost unheralded, and the success he achieved was his own. The reports of his meeting will be given at considerable length, and from them the reader will be able to draw a pretty correct idea of the course he pursued at nearly all the places he visited. A general idea of his manner and methods may be gained, the nature of his subjects and mode of treatment may be learned to a certain extent, but it must at the same time be remembered, as well as regretted, that neither in this place nor at any other, as far as I have been able to learn, was there a full and complete report of a single discourse taken and preserved; a synopsis of several is given. They are, however, meager in the extreme; outlines which the imagination will attempt in vain to fill up. But the greatest charms of all, the looks, tones, the earnestness and pathos of the speaker, are not, and cannot be described; and yet, to those who never saw and heard him, even what has been rescued from oblivion by the reporter’s pencil will be read with interest and highly prized. We shall present several notices of the progress of his meeting, as nearly as possible in the order in which they appeared. They are taken from the columns of the St. Louis Globe:
“ ELDER KNOWLES SHAW.
“ST. LOUIS, ‘February 22, 1874.
“To the Editor Of The Globe:
“Having learned that the great revivalist, Knowles Shaw, would preach at the Central Christian Church, Fourteenth and St. Charles Streets, on Sunday morning, I was induced to go and hear him. Mr. Shaw is certainly a man of extraordinary power, and, in my judgment, the equal, if not the superior, of Mr. Hammond in his influence over the masses. The hall in which he reached this morning was crowded, and I have seldom seen an assembly of people so deeply moved with seemingly so little effort on the part of the speaker.
“Mr. Shaw began his discourse by saying that he was not a ‘systematic’ preacher; that when he first began to preach he had his first, second, and third divisions of his subject, and then he divided his first into firstly, secondly, and thirdly, and then his second and third divisions into the same general heads, and so on through to the end; that he discovered before a great while that he was not doing any good, and that if he continued to preach he must change his method, and he at once did so. He said that he had discovered that the great majority of preachers were engaged in trying to convert the heads of the people to the utter neglect of their hearts; that by hammering away, driving doctrines and formulas into the heads of men, the people had not only become hard-headed, but hard-hearted also. He thought that the head and the heart both needed to be converted.
“Having failed in his first efforts, he determined to adopt as his motto the declaration of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, and ‘I determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified.’ He then announced as his text, ‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay.’
“I will not attempt to give any idea even of the sermon. It was of a character that cannot be even sketched. The streaming eyes of the whole audience gave evidence of the power of the man and the effectiveness of his words. If anyone desires to have his soul moved to its profoundest depths, let him go and listen an hour to Mr. Shaw.” The next is as follows:
“Elder Shaw had a good audience at the hall, corner Fourteenth and St. Charles Streets, last night.
“Taking for his text the words, ‘Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit,’ he illustrated it by the case of a young man learning to drink. How the first time of entering the rum-shop he would go in at the back door and take something, and, on coming out, look carefully up and down the street to see if any one had observed his movements. By and by he gets bolder, and at last enters the front door and calls for his brandy like the rest of the crowd. At first he conceals all this from his mother. Later he doesn’t care if the ‘old woman’ does know it. And so he goes on resisting the pleadings of his conscience till it no longer upbraids him. Resisting the Holy Spirit was explained as the resistance of any good influence, or any truth, which a man’s inward consciousness might declare to him. The subject was illustrated in other ways, and then the audience moved down-stairs to a room on the first floor, where three young ladies signified their choice of the good part which cannot be taken away by undergoing the rite of baptism at the Elder’s hands.
“Elder Shaw only arrived last Sunday, and already some forty additions have been made to the church.” The next is at greater length.
“The hall on the corner of Fourteenth and St. Charles Streets was crowded again last evening to hear Elder Shaw. The interest is increasing nightly, and it will soon be necessary to obtain another place in order to accommodate the audience. The subject of Elder Shaw last evening was ‘Angels And Their Mission.’
“This subject, he said, is supposed to belong by many to the dreamy realms of speculation, and that it evinces weakness to dwell upon such themes. If so, then we are identified with such weak ones as Noah, Job and Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Joshua, the holy apostles and martyrs and great reformers. This is a Bible theme to comfort God’s children and warn the sinner. Angel means messenger; any one sent may be called an angel, but I shall speak of angels as an order of beings in God’s creation.
“1. They were created angels. Many think they were once human beings and transformed into angels, but Paul says, in Hebrews xii: ‘Ye are come to the spirits of just men and an innumerable company of angels,’ thus drawing a line of distinction between them. He says, in Hebrews, first chapter and last verse, that the angels are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation.
“2. Their number. Jesus said he could call more than twelve legions of angels—more than 60,000. John saw ‘ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,’ one hundred millions and more—how many he does not say. Paul says the company is innumerable.
“3. Their strength. David sang of the angels that excel in strength. The angel destroyed the first-born in all Egypt where God’s direction had not been followed. An angel rolled away the stone from the tomb of Christ—strength to do whatever God has for them to do for man.
“4. Swiftness of their flight. They came on swift wings to comfort God’s people. Daniel was praying, and he says: ‘Gabriel was commanded to fly swiftly, and he came to me, and touched me, and spoke to me.’ He was comforted by an angel of God. If the poet is correct when he says,
“‘Tis far beyond the stars and sun,
That blissful heaven above,
Where we may dwell when time is done,
By serving God in love,’ then the angel’s flight—passing world after world, till reaching our sun, and yet 95,000,000 of miles to earth—sped through this wondrous space all in a very few minutes, for Daniel’s prayer occupied but a short time, and the angel came while he was ‘yet praying.’ This illustrates the swiftness of their flight; but all this, though wonderful, is of but little value without a knowledge of their mission.
“They are ministering spirits for the heirs of salvation, says Paul, Hebrews i. Notice a few instances: Daniel in the lion’s den rescued by an angel of God; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, the three Hebrew children cast into the furnace. God sent his angel to comfort them, and to quench the violence of the fire. But in the New Testament we learn that an angel announced to Mary that she should be the mother of the Saviour. Soon after Christ’s birth, during the edict of Herod, the angel warned Joseph and Mary to flee into Egypt for the safety of the child. After Herod’s death the angel told them to return. After he grew up to manhood, and immediately after his baptism, when tempted in the wilderness, the ‘angels ministered unto him.’
“When in dark Gethsemane, with no human eye to watch with him, and no sympathizing friend, behold an ‘angel came strengthening him.’
“When arrested, Jesus said he could call more than twelve legions of the angels. After his death and burial, on the third morning all angel rolled away the stone from the sepulcher, and told the women he was risen from the dead. After forty days, Jesus, as he was blessing his disciples, was taken up out of their sight. Two angels came down, stood by the weeping disciples, and said, ‘Why stand ye gazing? This same Jesus shall come again.’ They were comforted and returned to Jerusalem to await the promise.
“Yes, ‘Angels did his steps attend,
Oft gazed and wondered where at length
That scene of love should end.
“‘They saw him in the garden pray,
They saw his sweat and blood;
They saw his tender hands and feet
Nailed to the accursed wood.
“‘They brought his chariot from the skies
To bear him to his throne:
And with a shout exulting cried,
The glorious work is done.’
“But angels delivered the apostles oft from prison and trouble. They wafted the spirit of poor Lazarus to the Paradise of God, and laid him in Abraham’s bosom. So they ministered to salvation’s heirs. ‘They encamped round-about them that fear God.’ How thankful should we be
“That the angels of bliss
Can bow their bright wings to a dark world like this;
Can leave the bright mansions of glory above,
To breathe in our bosoms some message of love.
“Yes, they come; on the wings of the morning they come,
Impatient to hear some poor wanderer home;
Some pilgrim to snatch from this stormy abode,
And lay him to rest in the arms of his God.”
“But the angels are ANXIOUS FOR THE SINNER.
“There is rejoicing among the angels over one sinner that repenteth. Yes, poor sinner, they are ready to shout over your conversion to God; let them have a grand jubilee in heaven to night.
“Christ is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. Come and obey the Savior; be an heir of salvation, and all the comforts of angelic ministration may be yours. The angels will be used in the last days. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels, to gather the tares for the fire, but the wheat for the garner of the Lord. May you all be found in that day on the side of Jesus; to insure this, enlist in his army. Now, come to-night.
“There are reporters here taking down my poor scattering words, my weak and imperfect appeals to you to come to Jesus; but there are other reporters here—the angels of God are here—and they are taking note of emotions that crowd your hearts, and they will report them to the loving Jesus. They are here to waft the glad news of your return to God, when all heaven will rejoice. Will you come to Jesus, and come now?”
ELDER SHAW’S REVIVAL CONTINUES TO INCREASE IN INTEREST.
“The meetings at the Central Christian Church, Fourteenth and St. Charles Streets, are growing in interest. The hall was filled to its utmost capacity, many persons standing in the aisles, who were unable to obtain seats.
“Mr. Shaw, as his custom is, before the regular service, read a portion of Scripture—Luke , 19 th chapter—and made some practical comments respecting the necessity of sinners coming to Jesus. He said, if sinners would see Jesus, they must do as Zaccheus did, get above the world. They must persevere and press through difficulties, and Jesus will go with him and ‘sup with him.’ After singing and praying the speaker introduced his subject—
“‘THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL,’
Taking as his text 2 Corinthians iv. 3,4: ‘But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.’
“All God’s works are glorious, from the atom to the archangel. The flower that blooms at our feet, the grassy carpet of the earth, the songsters in the air, the beautiful stars in the vaulted heavens, all, to the Bible student, proclaim the glory of God. So that while the gloomy lie of the Atheist goes the rounds, that there is no God, every pulsation of his own heart, every atom of his own nature, everything around, above, and beneath contradict him, saying, ‘There is a God, and he is thy Maker.’ And yet there is one scene around which cluster the chief glory of God—one wreath, the most glorious of all—and that is the wreath around the cross of Christ. Let us consider some of the reasons for calling the gospel glorious. First, on account of its origin. It came from heaven; it is not a plant of earthly renown. Its author, Christ, came from the bosom of the Father. The all-glorious Saviour, by whom all worlds were made, is the center, soul, and circumference of the gospel. His death, his burial, his resurrection, as Paul saith— I Corinthians xv. —are the great themes of the gospel. But some will say, ‘This gospel came not from God.’ Then whence came it—from man? Did bad men make it? No; they would not condemn themselves on its every page. Bad men would not like to write their own eternal death warrants. If bad men made it, they have made the best book ever written. When I gather figs from thistles, grapes from the thorntree, and dip sweet waters from a bitter fountain, I may believe that bad men made the gospel. Did good men make it? No.
“ALL MEN MAY MAKE MISTAKES.
“Good men may err sometimes; but a good man will not lie willingly and die for his falsehood. All those whose names appear upon its page say it came from God. Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Spirit. The apostles spake the words the Holy Spirit taught them. Yes, glorious in its origin; glorious as its divine Author. The gospel is glorious on account of its rarity. It is the only thing of the kind in all God’s universe. If diamonds were as plentiful as grains of corn they would not be valuable. ‘Tis their rarity that is the reason of their value. The gospel is the only seed from which the Christian grows; the only plan of salvation for a lost world; the only proclamation of pardon and promise of life eternal in all the realms of God known to mortals. Let us illustrate. See that mother bending over that little pair of shoes and those little dresses in yonder drawer. Her tears drop like rain. What meaneth this? Mother, will you sell those little shoes? No, no, she replies. Will you sell those little dresses? No. Why not? She answers, there are no other little shoes my darling baby’s feet ever wore; no other little dresses she used to wear. Yes [here Mr. Shaw sung the song],
“‘Put aside the little dresses
That our darling used to wear,
She will need them on earth never,
She has climbed the golden stair.
She is with the happy angels,
And I long for one sweet kiss;
Where those little feet are waiting,
In the realms of perfect bliss;
For the angels whisper that our darling
Is in the land of love so fair,
That her little feet are waiting
Close beside the golden stair.
“‘Kiss those little curly tresses,
Cut from her bright golden hair;
Do the angels kiss our darling
In that world of love so fair?
Oh, we pray to meet our darling
For a long, long, fond embrace,
Where her little feet are waiting,
And we’ll see her face to face.’
“Were the gospel obliterated it could not be reproduced, and man would soon fall back into terrible heathenism. Glorious in its rarity; next, it is glorious in its simplicity. Its facts are easily understood; they are three: The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians xv. I, 4.) Its commands are simple and readily comprehended; there are three to induct us into the kingdom here: Believe in Christ (Romans x. 9, 10. John iii. 18); repent of all your sins (Acts xvii. 30. Luke xiii. 3,5); be baptized (Mark xvi. 16. Acts ii. 38. Acts x. 48, etc.). These several commands must be obeyed to finish the work. (See 2 Peter i. 5-9.) All these are easily understood. ‘The gospel is glorious on account of its simplicity. I am often amused, and sometimes pained, to hear ministers making such terrible efforts to display their learning, instead of using it to make a matter so plain that it cannot be misunderstood. They make it so mysterious with their highfalutin, toploftically, grandiloquent superlatives that it can’t be comprehended. What think you of a preacher who says, ‘A city situate on an eminence is conspicuous,’ instead of ‘A city set on a hill cannot be hid?’ The gospel is plain. The feeblest intellect accountable to God can comprehend it. It is perfectly adapted to all responsible beings.
“Fourth and last: The gospel is glorious in its influence. This influence is threefold; it is enlightening. ‘The entrance of thy word,’ says the Psalmist, ‘giveth light.’ Said Jesus to Saul of Tarsus: I have appeared unto you to send you to the Gentiles, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light. In nature, no light no life: so in grace. ‘It is pure, enlightening the eyes.’ It is controlling in its influence. How many are here whom the gospel has controlled; bringing them from awful sinfulness to the happy state of the justified! (See Acts ii. 23, to close of the chapter; also 1 Corinthians 6, 9, 10, 11.) These were all conquered by the gospel.” Here Mr. Shaw gave several touching cases of conversion under his own observation. One of the most striking was that of “Blue Dick,” a notorious drunkard, redeemed, happiness brought to wife and children, and to the poor man’s own heart, and to society. These were related with thrilling effect. “Lastly, the gospel’s influence is comforting in its promises, pardon, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and a home in heaven. It promises the rebel sinner pardon and peace; it offers to the homeless a home beyond the shadows of the grave; to the tempest-tossed mariner on life’s boisterous ocean a quiet haven, into which his vessel may sail for safety. To the weary, foot-sore traveler it offers a rest after the journey is past. Oh, glorious gospel! It gives us back our loved ones, now departed. It is balm to the wounded soul. It wipes the mourner’s tears away, and gives us peace; opens the gate to the soul when the night of death comes; ushers us into that blessed society of the angels and all the holy throng. Sinner, will you accept this glorious gospel? Come to the Savior; no longer delay. He calls you now; has been calling long; open your hearts and let him come in. Now, while the Father is smiling, while Jesus is pleading, while angels are ministering, while glory is beaming, while the glorious gospel is calling, and Christians praying for you, come; come now, a warm heart’s welcome will be given you. This offer will not stand forever; the time will come when these opportunities will be yours no more. Who will come?”
ELDER KNOWLES SHAW AT MASONIC HALL.
“The interest in these meetings does not flag in the least. There was a large audience present in the morning, and at night the large hall was literally full. We have seldom seen such marked attention in so large an audience. At the close of the morning services five or six persons were received into the church. The meetings will be continued through the week at the hall on Fourteenth and St. Charles Streets.
“It is Mr. Shaw’s custom to sing while the people are gathering, and this morning, although suffering from cold, he sang several songs from his own book, called ‘Sparkling Jewels.’ After these songs he read a portion of Scripture, and commented on it—particularly the text, ‘Receive ye one another, without regard to difference of opinion.’ He said that opinions are based on reason—human reason is fallible, and ought not, under any circumstances, be set up as conditions of fellowship. He illustrated his point by a number of examples, and closed this lesson with an exhortation to bear with one another; that none other than a selfish spirit would insist on the adoption of his opinions to the exclusion of all others. Such action on the part of any one demonstrated that he valued his own opinions more than he valued the wisdom of God and of Christ, who has taught us to receive one another in love, without regard to these differences. God is judge—who art thou, who condemns? Every man stands or falls before his own Master.
“The subject for the morning was “‘THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST,’ From the text in Second Timothy, second chapter and fifth verse—‘For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man—the man Christ Jesus.’ Not gods many and mediators many, nor, as we have it in our day, one God and any mediators—not that. There is one God, and there is one Mediator, and that one Mediator is Jesus the Christ.
“The necessity for mediation grew out of the fall of man. Before man sinned he communed with God directly—without a ‘middle one,’ or a ‘between man.’ How long this happy age lasted we know not, nor is it important that we should. It continued until man sinned; then came the necessity of mediation. Man could no longer approach God in his own person; he has become defiled by sin. For four thousand years the mediation was more or less imperfect. Man approached God through the sacrifice of an animal presented by one appointed and set apart for that duty. In the patriarchal age the father of the family officiated for himself and family. But these were but men, and imperfect men besides, who had first to offer “SACRIFICE FOR THEMSELVES, And then for the people, and the sacrifice itself had no consciousness of sin, and the mediation was necessarily imperfect. Then came the Mosaic dispensation. Moses was mediator between God and the people, and interceded for them when they sinned. Afterward the tribe of Levi was set apart to the priest’s office, and offered the sacrifices for the people; but these were only men, and imperfect men, too, the same imperfect mediators, the same sacrifices having no consciousness of sin, could not make the comers thereunto perfect. Angels partook not of the nature of man, and did not, therefore, possess the requisite qualifications. There is one mediator, between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. This leads to the inquiry respecting the characteristics of a perfect mediator. He must be acquainted with both parties; must understand the nature and disposition of both parties; he must understand the nature of the difficulty; He must possess the confidence of both parties; must be related to both. These qualifications are all possessed by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is divine, and he is human; consequently related to both parties.
“ ‘ HE WAS WITH GOD,’
He has been with man. He is acquainted with the requirements of the Divine government; he knows the weaknesses of the human nature, for he was human; he knows our frames; he experienced our sorrows, our tears, our disappointments, our anxieties; he has felt and he understands the depth and strength of the sympathies and affections of the human heart; he passed through them all, from the cradle to the grave. There are those who imagine that children do not have troubles and trials and disappointments, but they do, and Jesus sympathizes with them as he does with children of a larger growth; he took them into his arms and blessed them. He then gave several cases to illustrate the deep affections and anxious solicitude of the little ones, and the way in which parents often treat their little ones and crush out these emotions and loves; and sang two verses of a little song with thrilling effect.
“Jesus sympathizes with the young. He sympathizes with the race in every condition of life. He began at the base of the hill. He passed through every condition in life. He saw it all. He felt it all. He stooped to the lowest. None too low for Jesus’ sympathy—none so high he cannot reach. With one hand he lays hold on the throne of God, with the other the human race, and thus he mediates peace. He has purchased your peace by the sacrifice of himself. God is waiting for the sinner’s return. Will you not accept of the mediation of Christ, and become reconciled to God?”
We close these extracts with the following:
“Elder Shaw preached to another large audience last evening. Since the commencement of his meetings the interest has been steadily on the increase and many souls have been converted from the ways of sin to a belief in future salvation. After the services last evening a number of converts were baptized. We give below a synopsis of his sermon. The text was taken from Amos, fourth chapter and twelfth verse: ‘Prepare to meet thy God.’
“The meeting with God is inevitable, else the warning had never been given. It is a solemn warning, and admonitions come to us every day, every hour, every moment. We have this warning in the falling leaves, our dying friends; everything sounds out a solemn warning, yet thousands act as if they never expected to meet God. Yet Paul says: ‘All things are open to him with whom we have to do.’ We have to do with God, we have to meet him. All conditions must meet him, old and young, rich and poor, saint and sinner. There are no exceptions, “NO EXEMPTIONS—ALL, ALL
Must meet God. I wish I could impress this solemn truth on every heart in this hall to-night. It is God’s warning voice; will you heed it?
“We must meet God in providence. There are those who do not believe in the providence of God, particularly in special providences, but it is found in history, in the lives of the prophets, of apostles, of every man and woman that lives, or ever has lived. Every day we live we meet God in his providences, we meet in the death of friends, in hours of sorrow and of joy, in rejoicings and in tears, “ ‘In every condition, in sickness, in death,
In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth,’ And we must be prepared for all these. Men, when engaged in battle, prepare for the conflict; preparation is more than half the battle; we have to meet temptation and must prepare for it. Jesus prepared himself to meet death by prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Necessity for a preparation was illustrated by examples from life; the effect of want of preparation in adversity, and the result of a preparation, was forcibly and feelingly set forth.
“WE MUST MEET GOD IN DEATH.
“This is not a pleasant picture to contemplate. We love to talk of joy and pleasures and happiness, but it is not pleasant to contemplate the separation from friends, from all we love on earth; the decay of our bodies; the grave with all its darkness—but these are realities and must be met. We must meet God in judgment; that day which shall reveal the secrets of all hearts. The motives of the heart will be the basis of that judgment—not from mere outward appearance. All sins unforgiven will stand out in all their blackness and terribleness to condemn us forever. A preparation is absolutely necessary. Think not to leave it off till death shall come; do not wait for God to do more. Till you have done your duty God will do no more; he has done nearly all. Just a little for you to do—do it without delay.
“THE PREPARATION-WHAT IS IT?
“We find man unregenerated, unprepared in heart, in the purpose of his life, and in his relation or state. How came he so? When man dwelt in Eden pure and holy, he was first induced to unbelief through falsehood preached by Satan, who negated God’s word—this unbelief ruined the heart—then this bad heart suggested a change of will from good to bad, or repentance from God in a resolve to disobey God’s command; then when unbelief had ruined the heart, and a resolve to do wrong had ruined man’s purpose or will, then an overt act of disobedience, in eating the forbidden fruit, was the ruin of man’s state or relation. On account of this act man was driven out of Eden. Now, if belief of falsehood or unbelief of the truth ruins the heart, the belief of truth or faith will purify the heart. Paul says, ‘God purifies the heart by faith.’ After a preparation of the heart by faith, then the will is prepared by “ ‘ REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD.’
“This is induced by godly sorrow and leads to reformation of life. And as man is wrong in his relation, he must now file his intention to become a citizen of Christ’s kingdom, by a public confession of Christ as the Divine Saviour, the only atoning sacrifice for sin, after which his state is changed, by the ‘oath of allegiance’ in holy baptism, into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This preparation is finished by a life of piety and prayerfulness, thus becoming assimilated to the character of God. In all this we are aided, instructed, and guided by the Holy Spirit, who enables us to bear the precious fruits of a holy life. Prepare now; defer not this most important of all matters. The solemn warning is heard from all our dying friends. Your own hearts tell you we must prepare soon, or meet God unprepared. Oh, how solemn the thought—to be ushered into the presence of the Holy God and Jesus Christ without due preparation. Begin by giving your heart to Christ; then you may die with your face heavenward, with all the rich promises of the gospel to cheer you as you pass through the valley.” As the result of these labors one hundred and fifty persons were added to the church, many weak and weary ones strengthened and refreshed, and seed sown in many hearts, of which eternity alone will tell the harvest.