 Preface of Life and Death In consenting to publish the following addresses, I have acceded to the very earnest solicitation on the part of numerous hearers and friends, who wish for some more direct and pointed truth on the subject of personal salvation. I deeply regret the imperfect manner in which topics so momentous are handled, but time and strength fail for more complete revision. So I commit them to God, praying that the great end, both in their delivery and publication, may be accomplished, even the salvation of those who read. Catherine Booth, London, November 1883. Chapter 1 of Life and Death This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Susan Moran, Sabatis, Maine. Life and Death by Catherine Booth. Chapter 1 Religious Indifference Acts Chapter 18, Verse 17 And Galeo cared for none of these things. When riding in the train a little while ago, I overheard a conversation between two gentlemen, a young man on one seat, and an elderly man opposite to him on the other. They were conversing about some person recently dead, and I heard the young man say to the other, Oh, he had no more religion than I have. I thought to myself, there is a state of confessed indifference on the subject of religion. I wonder whether that young man is an infidel. I will try to get an opportunity of speaking to him before the journey ends. And so I did, and I found that he professed to believe in God, and the Bible, and heaven, and hell, as much as I did. And yet he had betrayed in that conversation that he had no religion. And that it was a matter of indifference to him. And I thought, now this is the state of tens of thousands. And this is so called gospel land. They like Galeo care for none of these things. These words with respect to Galeo were not spoken directly of his spiritual state, but with respect to matters that affected him more as a magistrate and a ruler. Nevertheless, they convey an idea to us of his indifference on great spiritual questions, which concerned him really as much as they concerned Paul, only that he did not see it. If it had been, as he supposed, a question of mere names and Jewish ceremonies, his indifference would have been justifiable. But he was mistaken here, his premises were wrong, and therefore his conclusions were wrong. The questions as to how God ought to be worshiped and served, as to whether the Bible were a divine revelation as to whether Jesus Christ was really the Son of God, were questions quite as important to Galeo as they were to Paul. If he had only seen their importance, his indifference sprang out of his mistake. He was mistaken about the whole question, and therefore was indifferent, and he drove them away as having no responsibility in the matter. This is just the position of tens of thousands round about us today. They have heard about religion, but they have a notion that it is a system of absurdities and contradictions and can't fit only for half imbecile minds that is no question of theirs and so dismiss it from their minds. They care for none of these things. Now I want tonight to talk about the state of religious indifference. I want just to inquire into it for a little. In passing we might say, who knows what Galeo lost by his indifference. If he had just taken the trouble to inquire into these matters about which Paul had been dragged before his judgment seat, who knows what the issue might have been both to Galeo and the church of that time. For anything we know we might have had an epistle of Galeo to the churches. He might have helped to roll along the rising tide of salvation and been instrumental in the conversion of hundreds of souls. But all this was lost for the want of a bit of trouble. Oh, what a great many blessings, how much light, how much instruction, and how much influence for good. Many professing Christians lose for lack of a bit of trouble. And how many sinners will lose their souls from the same cause. No soul was ever saved yet who was too idle to seek. But I want to distinguish in the first place between indifference and indecision, which is quite another state of mind. Indivision always presupposes controversy going on in the mind, a state of unrest. A person may be undecided who is not indifferent. He may be wide awake, anxious, deliberating, and arguing the question as to whether he shall give his heart to God or not. God is not indifferent. Neither is infidelity. Infidelity is not indifferent. Infidels are rarely at ease. They wish they were. They would give anything to be at ease. I have met and talked with many, and God has used me to the saving of a few. But with one or two exceptions I never met with an infidel who, on close conversation, made it manifest that he was satisfied with his condition. He is in the position of the man who had been to a lecture, the object of which was to prove there was no God. And as he was coming out another man said, well, hasn't it been good? Yes, he said, I am almost satisfied. I intend to send the lecturer a sack of corn. But if he had quite satisfied me, I would have sent him too. And there are many in that condition. They are not quite satisfied. This is a state of unrest, not of indifference. Indifference is often a state of mind of people who intellectually believe in God and in divine revelation. How wonderful it is that any being with a mind, a conscience, and a soul can remain indifferent after he has once heard or once professed to believe that there is a God, an eternity, a heaven, and a hell, and that he is a candidate for one or the other. Nothing can explain this mystery except that the God of this world has blinded his mind. If people were to be told half as much with respect to their bodily danger as they often hear in one sermon about their souls, you would never be able to make them indifferent anymore until they had adopted the means recommended for the improvement of their temporal condition. You convince a man that he is out of health, show him the importance of seeing a physician and getting a remedy, and if he is a sane man, he will never rest again until he has put himself under the means which he thinks most likely to cure him. But it is not so with people's souls. How can this be when the interests at stake are so much greater? How can you account for it? You get them to a service and a little bit aroused, but the first great anxiety of the devil is to get them to sleep again, he says. I must not let that man hear such truths anymore, and he finds something to attract his attention as soon as he gets outside. The seed is sown, but the birds, evil spirits, come and snatch it away before it has time to take root. The great effort of the devil is to keep people indifferent, and nothing does he dread so much as awakening and arousing preaching or other instrumentalities calculated to awaken and alarm them. Oh, that the church understood this, oh, that Christians understood it. It seems to me sometimes, instead of understanding it, they appear to be partners with the devil in trying to keep people asleep. They shrink away from any direct personal earnest, thorough dealing with souls that would be likely to awaken them to a sense of their danger. They do not recognize the fact as they ought, that Satan has got men fast asleep in sin, and that it is his great device to keep them so. He does not care what we do if he can do that. We may sing songs about the sweet by and by, preach sermons and say prayers, and go the jog trot round and round, barrel organ fashion till doomsday, and he will never concern himself about us if we don't wake anybody up. But if we wake anybody, he will gnash on us with his teeth. This is our work to wake people up. That is your responsibility, you Christians. If that man with whom you are coming in contact dies and is damned in his sleep, and you never went the common sense, reasonable way to wake him, God will demand his soul of you. Wake him, wake him, remember sinners are indifferent. Let us look at one or two causes of this indifference. I say continually, how is it that we cannot get men awake, cannot get them to realize the verity and importance of spiritual things? How is it they can be indifferent? The first cause is that they are in ignorance of their danger. They are like a man walking asleep by the side of a precipice. They do not see their danger. They do not apprehend the dire, devilish, damning character of sin. They do not realize the consequences of sin. They do not understand. They are in darkness, in ignorance on the whole question. Now, what we want to do is to enlighten them, make them face the great problems of existence, life, death, judgment, eternity, heaven, and hell. Enlighten them. They are in ignorance. Ah, how many are in willful ignorance? Of this they are willfully ignorant. There are some in this hall. You need not have been ignorant. Some of you had a Christian mother who did her best to enlighten you before you came to the age of maturity. Some of you have sat under gospel ministries where there has been both light and power, and yet you remain willfully ignorant. God has taken endless trouble with some of you. He has knocked you about to try to awaken you, but you would not be aroused. He has got your head round sometimes and made you face the problem of the future. But as quick as ever you could, you have turned it back the other way. You would not look. You are willfully ignorant. Mine, it won't make damnation any easier. You will be woke up by and by and never go to sleep again. If you once get to hell, there is no sleeping there. Indifference is the last thing that will ever visit that dark, black abode. You can shut your eyes now, oh yes, against the glorious son of righteousness himself. You can turn your head away and refuse to see, but you will never go to sleep anymore once you are awake for the last time. May God wake you now. Awake thou that sleepeth and arise from the dead. You can do it, or he would not bid you do it. It is your work to arise. God will make you stand and keep you going when you are up. Arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Will you awake tonight? Will you face right round? Will you let the light of the eternal world come streaming on your spiritual eyeballs? Will you look? If you will only look, you will be saved. If you go to sleep again, Christ himself cannot save you. The Lord help you to wake up. The cause of this indifference is preoccupation of mine. A lady said to me, how have you managed to get your children converted so early? Oh, I said, I have been beforehand with the devil. I have not allowed my children to become preoccupied with the things of the world before I have got the seed of the kingdom well in. I have taken time by the forelock and cheated his satanic majesty out of his opportunities. And now he can only grin and abide the consequences. The Lord help you to be beforehand with the devil with your children. You have a baby. Don't be afraid of beginning too soon. If you give the enemy an inch, he will take a yard. Be beforehand with him. The reason why the great proportion of people remain indifferent is that they are preoccupied in the race for riches, for learning, for gentility, for position. There will be more souls lost through striving after position among decent people than through all other sins put together and all other ambitions put together. They say, we will be up in this world if we go down in the next. And some of them get up and the higher they get up, the deeper they fall. The Lord have mercy upon people who are selling their souls and the souls of their wives and children for position. I said to a gentleman at St. John's Wood once, have you settled this matter? He said, almost grinning in my face with vexation. No, I have not. The fact is, I have no time to think about religion. He was very much annoyed that he had been made to think about it for three quarters of an hour. I said, you will have to find time one day. How shall you manage that? Death won't ask your leave. Don't you think it would be wise to find a bit of time to prepare for it? Preoccupied, full of other things people tell us in our anxious meetings. I am so busy or I am set on this or on the other. And alas, alas, while they are running hither and thither, the reckoning day comes. Death overtakes them. Bronchitis or fever or apoplexy or accident comes and they are gone. And they never thought they would be damned. They never intended such a thing. They not likely with all their light and opportunities. Oh dear no, but they were preoccupied. They did not see whether they were going. Satan took care to keep them too busy to look God and death and judgment and eternity in the face. We read that there are something like 350 people killed in the streets of London every year. How is that? Oh they tell us it is through preoccupation of mine. Here is a gentleman walking to his office. His thoughts are carrying him on swifter than he is aware of. He is not thinking of the handsome or the omnibus close by. He is wondering whether that ship has come in, what he shall make by that cargo or by that scheme he is negotiating. He forgets he is in the midst of danger. When on comes the handsome and down he goes and he is killed. He was preoccupied. That preoccupation led to his destruction. Oh what an illustration of people on the platform of time. The devil never lets people be awake if he can help it. He never puts them on the sick bed. It is God does that. Do not think Satan will make you break your leg or do anything else that will give you time to think. He will keep you going and never give you time. He will keep you going and never give you one stopping place nor one hour to look back and think of God or eternity or your soul. He will keep you on, on, on, rushing on ever. The other morning as I went through the city I said to a friend who was with me. Look at the men streaming along. Look how they go, how energetic they are, how intent. You can see what is going on in many of their minds I said. If we could only get people as much concerned about God, eternity and salvation of the world as these men are about their earthly affairs. What might not be done? If you were to speak of them about eternity, they would think it an impertence that you should dare to intrude religion upon them at such a time when they are so full of other things and on they go. And there is scarcely a weak passage but brings us the intelligence of some suddenly gone into eternity. The day dawned on them most unexpectedly, perhaps in the height of their prosperity, when God said, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Let me try to show you the folly of this state of indifference. It would be very foolish to expose yourself to any great temporal loss or suffering. If by a little forethought and consideration it might be averted. Suppose you were afflicted with some terrible disease, which by the use of judicious means might be arrested and your life be saved. But when your friends warn you and counsel you to seek medical aid, you say, I don't care about my lungs or my liver. Here are these books I must attend to them. Here is the shop, this building. I cannot stop to think of my body and on you go indifferent to the consequences. What folly, your friends would say, he is mad and truly you would prove yourself to be so. Ah, you say there are no people so foolish as that. No, perhaps not in temporal things, but alas, there are thousands of such fools spiritually. How the devil laughs at such people, what chuckling they have over them down below. My friend, will you stop? Will you give your soul a chance? Will you make a bit of time to think about your dying bed and the judgment bar? Will you stop in your chase after riches, position, learning, pleasure? Will you pull yourself up as a rational being ought and face about and look God and eternity in the face? Oh, will you? Would to God I could make you. Would to God I could come and put my arms around you and entreat you with tears and prayers to stop and think. If you will only stop and think, you will be saved. It is not in human nature to go into hell with the full realization of the danger. If you will not think now, remember, I beseech you that you will have to spend eternity in thinking. Oh, how wicked in the sight of angels and all holy intelligences. Thus to murder your soul for want of a little thought. Oh, how wicked to circumvent the purposes of God and to help the devil to dam the world when a little thought and consideration would have prevented it. Oh, what a monster of wickedness you are to be thus indifferent. What an example to set to all created beings. What a strengthening of the hand of all the wicked. What a vile murderer you are in the estimation of angels and even of devils. But they can see the heinousness of your conduct, whether you see it or not. You are worse than an infidel for you are more inconsistent. He does profess not to believe in a God, but you profess to believe in one. And yet take no notice of him. He professes to believe there is no hell or heaven. You profess to believe in both and yet you are planning to plunge down to hell. Your sin is more monstrous than infidelity. You are saying I care for none of these things. I say this indifference is the height of folly and the extreme of wickedness. May God help you to see it. Have you a soul? A woman was very angry once when I asked her this. What do you mean? She said, I said, I mean, what I say, have you a soul? She said, do you mean to insult me? Of course I have a soul as much as you have. I am glad to hear it. Is it saved? Saved? No, I don't know that it is. Then how monstrously inconsistent for you to be so offended at my asking if you had a soul. And in the next breath you confess it is not saved. Do you not see what monstrous folly it is to profess to have a soul? And yet never take one hour serious consideration to know how it is to be saved. You had better believe you have no soul at all. You would be far less inconsistent and wicked. My friend, have you a soul? Will you stand there and tell me you have at the same time that you have never taken any time to consider what is to become of it? That you have never faced a great problem of this book? Nor ask yourself what you are going to do in case of death? That you have no plan for salvation? And yet you believe you have a soul? Surely the time past shall suffice for such folly. You will act like a rational being. You will face the fact of your soul's destiny and settle the question whether you will be saved or lost forever. Will you? I call on you to name a reason of God, of Christ, of eternity to settle it whether you will have your soul saved or not. And if you will come and let it be done tonight. End of chapter one, recording by Susan Moran, Sabatis, Maine. After two of life and death, this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Susan Moran, Sabatis, Maine. Life and Death by Catherine Booth. New Life, Chapter Two. John, Chapter Three, Verse Three. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Accept a man, be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. We meet with a great many people in meetings of this con, who seem to have a general notion of their obligation to serve God and a desire to do so. They feel that they are not right, are not quite what they ought to be and would like to be if they were going to die. And they desire to be so. They are sincere so far as they go. But they seem to have no definite idea of that experience, which is necessary in order to make them right. They do not understand how they are to be saved. Nicodemus seems to have been one of this class. He seems to have come to the Savior with these general sort of notions. I daresay he thought he was a pretty good man, but he wanted to be a better one. There was the same dissatisfaction, the same disquiet in his soul that there is in every human soul till it finds God and which nothing else can ever satisfy, because God has made us for himself. Until we find the end of our being, we can never rest. We are like Noah's dove, wandering hither and thither and finding no rest for the souls of our feet. It was just so, Nicodemus. He wanted something he had heard of this teacher. They had probably heard him speak and felt that he was a teacher come from God. And like a great many other Nicodemuses since, he felt the words of the teacher to be true. But he had a great many ifs and buts about it. He wanted to hear more and so sought a private interview, no doubt thinking that he could bring out his own personal difficulties and get more light in that way. So he makes a sort of introduction to our Lord and begins in a way which would lead us to think that he expected that Jesus would enter into an elaborate conversation as to the orderings and method of his outward life. But Jesus stopped him right in the middle of his introduction with a doctrine that utterly confounded him. It was so adverse to all his preconceived notions and so utterly beyond any of his present conceptions. One can imagine him fairly gasping as he looks at this wonderful doctrine, for he seems to have comprehended its magnitude, its importance, and its definiteness a great deal better than many of the Nicodemuses of these days. But he stumbles at the difficulty and begins immediately as people do now to ask, how can this be? The Savior does not retract or explain away or go one iota from what he has previously advanced. He not only does not weaken his assertion, but he strengthens it by a verily, verily. He says, do not be surprised. I admit there are difficulties you cannot understand and I cannot explain how this great spiritual change is wrought. But I tell you it must take place both in you and in every other candidate for my kingdom. This text ought to be rendered. Except anyone be born again, he cannot mark the term. It is not shall not, but cannot enter into the kingdom of God. This new birth is a necessity of the case as if the Savior had sent to Nicodemus, you are a purely natural man of a verily natural life actuated by natural instincts, hopes, and aspirations. Whereas my kingdom is a spiritual kingdom and its subjects are spiritual people actuated by holy motives, holy desires, and purposes. Therefore it is indispensable that this great change take place in you before you can become a member of my kingdom. You must be born again. And to answer to the surprise of Nicodemus he says, Marvel not, neither reject this doctrine because you cannot comprehend it. For you enter quite as great mysteries every day of your life. For instance, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. This is a great mystery, yet you know the wind does blow because you see its results and you feel its power. It is just so with the operations of the spirit we see its results and feel its power and know that we are under its influence. It would seem that under the surprise there was looking some repugnance in the mind of Nicodemus to this doctrine which is so obnoxious to human pride, self-sufficiency, and morality. Nicodemus betrays his utter ignorance of spiritual truth by the question, how can a man be born when he is old? Now, Mark, I want you who are anxious about your souls to note this. The savior here lays down a definite experience which he declares all must pass through, no matter what a man may be or what he may do or what he may believe. If he have not this experience, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God and oh, how we see it illustrated every day found us people like Nicodemus, moral, amiable, and religious in their way and yet have never been born again and we know that they do not, as a matter of fact, enter the kingdom of God. They know nothing of that kingdom which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. They cannot enter the kingdom of God because this great internal change has never taken place in them. I want you, my friends, to mark this well. Don't let Satan tempt you or anybody persuade you to rest short of this new birth. You must remember that there is not a glorified spirit in heaven nor a sanctified saint on earth who has not passed through it. Some may have experienced it in childhood and therefore not have a very distinct recollection of the time, but every saint has experienced it. Well then, just let us for a few minutes try to find out what the Savior intended by this new birth. Evidently, he meant the beginning of true spiritual life to the soul. He intimates that so great a change must take place in our souls as could only be illustrated by the great change which takes place in our bodies at our natural birth. I want you carefully to mark the terms used by the Savior here and also the figure. You cannot follow it out, but I will confine my remarks to its meaning by the terms used, our Lord evidently signifies an alteration or change passing upon something which before existed. Mark, the Savior does not say except a man be born. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God for everybody is born, but except a man be born again. In another place, this change is called the regeneration of the spirit. Mark, not generation, but regeneration. The soul existed before, but it is to be regenerated by the Holy Ghost. That is, the old soul is born into a new life Again, this change is spoken of as being renewed in the spirit of our minds. The same idea you see that what previously existed shall be renewed, transformed and changed in character. In another place, this change is spoken of as having the heart purified. In another, as having it circumcised. In another, as having it washed, cleansed, et cetera, all terms you perceive showing this new birth is not a new creation in the sense of having a new soul or a new something apart from ourselves introduced into us to live alongside the old, unrenewed wicked heart till death when I suppose in such a case one would have to go to hell and the other to heaven. No, neither the Saviour nor the Bible teaches any such nonsense, but they teach that this new birth is a renewal of the old soul, making the man himself a new creature in Christ Jesus. Hence, the figure used by our Lord truly illustrates his meaning. Seeing that the natural birth is not a new creation, but the introduction of something previously created into a new life. Just so the soul, when it is born again, is introduced into a new life, into new relations with God and man, new duties, new obligations, new responsibilities, a new world, what a glorious experience to know that we have passed from death unto life, from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. Then comes power to walk in the statues of the king and to enjoy the pleasures of the kingdom. People often say, religion will deprive me of all that has hitherto constituted the joy of my life. Yes, but the joy of your life will be changed. Your appetites will be changed. Have you not known people in a severe sickness to lose their appetite for things of which they were previously very fond? Well, that is just what God does for the soul. He takes away the appetite for those things which have been their joy in their unconverted state and gives them new tastes, new joys, new impulses, and new aims in life. Both things are passed away and all things are become new. But further, I want to show the necessity for this great change. Why the Savior so emphatically insists on it, although surely the fact that He does insist on it ought to be sufficient. Seeing that man was the rebel, having broken the law and thereby excluded himself from the kingdom of God, it was for God to dictate the conditions on which He would receive him back. God has fixed these conditions and no less than three times in a few verses in this chapter, our Savior has laid them down. It is useless to kick against them or to ignore them. We can do so if we like, but that will not alter them. God will not depart from them in order to meet our obstinacy. Nevertheless, as we observed at the beginning, this is not an arbitrary arrangement. God has always good reasons for what He does and in this instance, there is an indispensable necessity in the nature of the case. This necessity arises out of the fact that all hearts are depraved by nature and therefore out of harmony with God and incapable of entering into the privileges and duties of His kingdom. Does any man ask for proof of this depravity? We might cite the testimony of scripture and quote numbers of passages which directly or indirectly assert that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We might also refer to the history of our race, a history written in blood and watered by tears. But we prefer to come to experience what does your own heart say? Ah, there is the difficulty. You readily admit that a portion of the race is depraved and if the Savior had confined His declaration to the openly wicked and profane, you would admit its necessity. He declares that everyone must be born again or he cannot enter His kingdom. You perceive this declaration includes you and those whom you love and your heart says, I was never a drunken or immoral or profane. I never wronged anybody. I have always led a good, respectable moral life. Therefore, I don't see why I should be class with the reprobates of creation and be required to go through a change which may be very necessary for them, my friends. It was to one of your class exactly that our Savior declared this necessity. Nicodemus was respectable and moral and with all a religious man in his way, a master in his realm. And yet Jesus assures him over and over again that neither he nor anyone can enter His kingdom without this new birth. You see this change is to take place in the heart, not merely in the life. And your heart is as bad as anybody else's. If you doubt this, just ask yourself a few simple questions. You say, I do none of these wicked things to which you refer, perhaps not, but why your circumstances have been more favorable? The restraints of providence, such as kind friends, education, Christian influence, and other causes have modified your outward life, not because your heart is any better, but for these restraints, you would have been as wicked as many around you, but though you are not outwardly wicked, have you not sufficient evidence of the sinfulness of your heart in other directions? For instance, you are conscious that you have no true religion. You don't even profess to have, you practice none of the duties or exercises of religion. You have never truly repented of and forsaken sin. You don't truly pray and habitually read God's word. You are not even striving to love God with all your heart. And your neighbor as yourself, no, you live an indifference towards God. And in the rejection of both his law and gospel, what further proof can you require of the depravity of your heart than this? But further, you know not only that you have no true religion, but also that there is much in your heart that is opposed to God. You entertain hard and disordering thoughts of God. Your heart often rebels against his government in order to meet your own evil propensities. And your rebellious will often sets itself in open defiance of his purposes. You know that God commands you to repent and to forsake sin, ask for your heart and your love, and requires you to form your plans and purposes with respect to his will and glory. But you systematically ignore both and form them with reference to your own ease, pleasure, gain, or ambition. With all your post and morality, you have thought and felt and desired and done many things for which your own heart has condemned you and which you would not for the world confess before this assembly. I ask you why you have thus thought and acted contrary to the dictates of your conscience? Because your heart is depraved, alienated from God, and committed to self and Satan. Therefore, you see how this heart depravity unfits you for the kingdom of God. The true service of God is obedience, prompted by love. If you love me, keep my commandments. Why call you be, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say? The first and greatest commandment is this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. How can a man love God when his heart is estranged and full of sin and rebellion and selfishness? Impossible. Sinner, you hear the Bible and your conscience calling on you to love God. You feel that you ought and perhaps you have tried, but you cannot. Your heart will love the world, pleasure, sin, business, anything but God. The moment you turn your thoughts towards God, instead of love and desire, there springs up repugnance and dread. Why is this? Because your heart is wicked, and therefore it is contrary to its evil nature to love God. Before you can love him, your wicked heart must be changed. And this is the reason why you cannot enter his kingdom except ye be born again. Further, the natural, unrenewed heart is incapable of entering into the enjoyments of the kingdom of God on earth or in heaven. Nothing seems to puzzle unsaved people more with respect to the Salvation Army than the happiness of our people. Sinners don't understand and cannot appreciate the joys of the spiritual kingdom. They are spiritually discerned through the natural man. They are foolishness, and he cannot know them. One of the chief of these enjoyments is knowing and loving God. To the wicked, the very thought of God is misery, but the pure heart see him, fellowship with him, and rejoice in the light of his continents. His smile is more to them than thousands of gold and silver. Another of the joys of the kingdom is the communion of saints. The very sight of each other makes real saints happier. An interchange of thought and feeling and desire fills them with unspeakable joy. They realize that oneness with each other for which the Savior prayed that they all may be one as we are one, but nothing is more irksome to the unconverted than intercourse with real saints. In fact, they cannot endure it and always run away from it when possible. Sinners find their happiness here in eating and drinking, reading novels, dress, business, going to concerts, theaters, etc., from which to say the least, God is shut out. Unconverted people would be wretched without these and kindred occupations and amusements, but the kingdom of God provides occupations and joys of an entirely different character. Therefore, for the sinner to enter into these, he must be born again. Further, this depravity unfits man for the enjoyment of the kingdom of God on high. If the joys of heaven consist of a continuation of the employments of earth, then sinners would be happy there. But heaven is a holy place prepared for holy beings whose employment will be to serve God continually. They serve Him day and night in His temple. Their happiness will consist in their perfect love and complete obedience to His will. The multitude which John saw who had on white robes emplomatical of the purity of their hearts had been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Sinner, would you like to appear in such a place surrounded by those beings with your unchanged, selfish, worldly heart? Supposing God would let you enter, do you think you would feel at home there? Are you prepared for the enjoyments of heaven? No. Fairly, if you were admitted, you would seek the first opportunity to escape. The light of that glorious abode would be more intolerable to you than the darkness of hell itself. Why? Because your heart would be out of harmony with it all. And you would stand self-revealed before that glorious company. Do you not see then how true are the Saviour's words? Accept a man be born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God. Do you say, well, I admit the truth of what you say, but what can I do? If I am thus depraved, I can only be fitted for the kingdom of God by this new birth. What can I do? Can I do anything to help myself? Yes, you can. In this case, the figure used by our Saviour is not a perfect illustration as figures seldom are. Though you are in one sense dead in trespasses and sins, yet the Spirit of God has already breathed upon your soul and he now waits for the response of your will in order that he may accomplish his great change in you. It is vain for you to sit there in an action waiting to be born. You must follow the directions of the Holy Spirit in complying with the conditions on which alone the change can be wrought. You say, you don't know the difficulties. In my case, no, I don't. But I know this, that if you are willing, or possessed with a legion of devils, God is able and willing to cast them out and to renew you in the Spirit of your mind, I know that the whole legion of them cannot resist his power. If you will only fall at his feet and yield whatever may be the point of controversy between you and God. If you are willing to be born into the kingdom, God has pledged himself to bring you in. You say, I desire it. I want to be a new creature in Christ Jesus. I would like to be able to enter into the privileges and enjoyment of the kingdom. But there is one thing in the way, ah, that is the reason why many of you have been standing outside so long. Will you come to the point tonight and trample that one thing under your feet? If you will, the strong arm of omnipotence is reached out to you and the almighty hand will grasp you and plunge you into the flood, the all-cleansing flood of your Savior's blood and you shall know what it means to be born again, to become a new creature in Christ Jesus. May the Lord help you to yield just now. Amen. End of chapter New Life, recorded by Susan Sabatis Main. Chapter 3 of Life and Death This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Susan Moran, Sabatis Main. Life and Death by Catherine Booth, Mercy and Judgment, Romans Chapter 2 Verses 4, 5, and 6 Or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurous thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds, Paul wrote some things which as Peter a fellow apostle says are hard to be understood and which many rest misinterpret and misapply as they do also other scriptures to their own destruction and alas alas the destruction of others also perhaps no utterances of man have been more unfairly dealt with than those of Paul odd paragraphs having been separated from the arguments or illustrations of which they form a part and made to teach doctrines and dogmas which other parts of his writing show to be entirely at variance with both his spirit and design. In fact whole systems of theology have been built on some of these isolated paragraphs systems as repugnant to our innate perceptions of rectitude and benevolence as they are inimical to the character of God alas these theories have been pressed on the minds of benevolent and thoughtful men as a true theory of Christianity and knowing no other they have rejected it altogether and become infidels until theologians arrive at some settled consistent fundamental principle of interpretation they can make the bible teach anything and while they persist that it contradicts itself they must expect it to be held up to ridicule and contempt we must ever bear in mind that there can be no inconsistency or contradiction in the divine mind God is light and in him is no darkness at all consequently when speaking under the inspiration of the spirit the apostles could not contradict themselves when I was 14 years old I rejected all theories about God and religion which contradicted my innate perceptions of right and wrong I said no I will never believe any theory which represents that a course of procedure is good and benevolent in God which in man would be despicable and contemptible I cannot receive it I could not then put it into this language but I remember distinctly the feelings of my soul I said no what is in me akin to goodness and truth God has put there and I will never believe that what God has put in me contradicts what he has put into this book there must be a mistake somewhere and thank God I came to the scriptures for myself which I recommend you to do don't imagine that the repugnant views of the character of God which have been forced upon you by professed theologians will form any excuse for your rejection of this book or of the divine authority of it in the great day of account God will say had you not the light for yourself you do not shut your natural eyes against the light of the sun and permit yourself to be led about the world anywhere people choose to lead you no, you open your eyes and look where you are going why don't you open the eyes of your soul and take in the light of the spiritual sun that you may walk and not stumble if you refuse to do this you will be condemned amongst those who love darkness rather than light don't imagine that these supposed contradictions will be any excuse for you at the judgment seat it is not many weeks since a gentleman said to me while you Christians are quarreling there's hope for us sinners one teaches one thing and another another till a poor fellow doesn't know what he is to believe ah that is a comfortable way to put it down here but when you get to the bar of God he will say to all such thou wicked and slothful servant why didst thou not go to my book for thyself and be at the trouble to get to know my will we ought to study this book as a whole especially the writings of this apostle and surely we should take that which is plain and unmistakable as a key to unlock and interpret that which at first sight is difficult and contradictory is not this the principle which prevails in all rightly constituted human courts are not all human documents judged and disposed of according to this rule is it not insisted that these shall be interpreted consistently with themselves and with the generated scope and design of the writer you say yes and that is the only rational rule of interpretation if you were interested in a will which was in dispute you would have a keen appreciation of the importance of this rule then if this is necessary with respect to the writings of men of comparatively recent date how much more is it necessary with respect to writings of God many of them having come down to us from ages back and notwithstanding all the care that must have been taken in their preservation subject to many changes of phraseology thus requiring in difficult passages the utmost care and skill and yet so much skill as honesty in order to understand their meaning but after all there is very little word of God which practically affects our salvation which is hard to be understood the things that Paul wrote on this subject were plain enough thank God and this text is one of the plainest and most unmistakable in the whole Bible moreover it is complete in itself and it enunciates a great truth which underlies all God's dealings with our race it shows most blessedly that a back of all this apostles reasoning about Jews and Gentiles and the predestination of the former to special privileges and then to special judgments for the abuse of them that a back of all this he had deep down in his soul the belief and realization of this blessed and glorious truth that all God dealings with our race are merciful and restorative and that in the case of the very worst of men God is doing all he can for their salvation that he in no single instance consigns to wrath before he has truly and honestly tried to save blessed the Lord we ought to get up and sing a song of praise before we go any further poor sinner don't think there is any eternal decree barring thy way back to pardon and peace not a bit of it don't think there is any subtle mysterious influence to the back while God professedly is inviting the near away with such blasphemy thou art welcome this very hour, this moment however far thou hast traveled on the way to ruin God has spared thee for this very purpose to bring thee to repentance first I want you to note that the apostle assumes in this text that God is good to all men even to those who despise his goodness and perish despise thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee is intended to lead thee to repentance Moses clearly in the world's history asked the Lord to show him his glory Moses was one of God's favorites because he chose to be because he loved and sought after God before anything else when you forsake the riches of Egypt in all its phases and choose rather to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness you will be one of his favorites well this favorite of God when he got close to him one day said I beseech thee show me thy glory what did a divine being do did he unveil the splendors of his person oh no did he draw aside the curtain of his dwelling place no did he summon to his side countless multitudes of created intelligences who run to do his bidding no perhaps Moses expected something of this kind for he was only a man but God said I will make all my goodness to pass before thee as though thus early he were intent on fixing it the minds and hearts of his creatures that his goodness was his greatest glory he is good to all and although in a special sense the father and protector of his own people he is in a very important sense the benevolent father of all mankind as Paul said to the philosophers for we are all his offspring he hate us nothing that his hands hath made he is good and oh how this goodness has flown out from the very beginning how many orders of beings and how many myriads of beings his goodness has enriched and will enrich to all eternity we cannot tell we do know that it has people heaven with glorious happy beings and that it is trying to save and rescue from earth those who have fitted themselves to become vessels of destruction we know that it flowed out to man in Eden where the father placed him in innocence and purity and surrounded him with all possible facilities for temporal and spiritual happiness and we know that the fall did not even interrupt its flow but that immediately the divine plan for man's restoration and salvation was launched and a way made back again to the father's heart and home but sinner do you want any proof that he is good? granted that there is a God and that he is infinitely powerful and holy which your very instincts tell you he is I say grant me these two premises and your appearance here this afternoon is proof enough that he is good if he had not been good where would you have been? his holiness forcing him every speck of inequity that ever showed itself upon your soul and his power great enough to damn you in a moment where would you have been? but you live is not this proof enough that he is good? there is a father yonder who had a bad rebellious prodigal boy he began to trample on his commandments at 12 years of age and has despised his goodness wasted his money and ruined as far as he could his father's influence and reputation he has gone on till he is 33 and there is that still you say do you want any further proof that the father is good? the very fact that the son is not finally cast off the fact that his father will hold any communication with him proves of a truth that he is good how much more is the case of the great benevolent and infinitely holy god sinner you are here that is enough proof that god is good ah good some of you have been living in utter neglect of him some of you perchance have been absolutely denying him others have been abusing him and yet here you are alive today when by look evolution he could have sent you to the bottomless pit years ago further I want you to note that the apostle positively asserts that the end or purpose of this goodness is man's salvation despise thou language implying rebuke blame his goodness and long suffering which is intended to lead thee to repentance repentance here covers the whole of salvation as it frequently does in the New Testament that is it is equivalent to saying lead thee to salvation in scriptural language when a man truly repents he is saved all you say but that cannot always be true because I have been repenting a long time and I am not saved then yours is not true repentance oh there is nothing will be shown up at the last day more than the oceans of crocodile tears that have been shed by professed penitence making out God to be a liar and throwing back the blame of people's damnation on him do not be deceived your repentance is a spurious repentance or it would long ago have led to your salvation Jesus Christ says the angels of God rejoice over one sinner that repentance why because they see repentance and assurance of salvation God never left a truly repentant soul in the dark he will bring it out into the light therefore the apostle puts repentance for salvation and he asserts that God tries to lead the worst of men to repentance look at the text and see if I am mistaken he says that the goodness of God is intended to lead who those who despise the riches of his goodness and long suffering and forbearance those in short who are heaping up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath those very men God's goodness is trying to save but they frustrate his purposes and turn the very means he uses to save them into a means of cursing sinner do you see what he has spared you for what his long suffering desires and intends the apostle refers here especially to two characteristics of God's goodness forbearance and long suffering forbearance this looks like the withholding attitude of divine mercy like a father who was going to chastise his child but his forbearance pleads he holds back the rod here is divine mercy holding back the long deserved blow and long suffering seems to indicate the waiting attitude of divine mercy not only holding back the blow but holding it back a long time waiting waiting if perchance the sinner will repent and turn back to him and hold eye your God and Savior stand at the door and knock wonderful infinite incomprehensible and how long has he been knocking at some of your hearts any other friend you would have got up and let in years ago but it was only Jesus so you have kept some of you will till your hair is gray oh what long suffering mercy how long he has waited years ago under the godly minister whom you can never forget you woke up to realize it you looked at yourself you contemplated the dark guilty past and you couldn't help saying oh depth of mercy can there be mercy you still care for me the flood tide of mercy was then at its ebb flow the minister said come and the Holy Spirit said come your own conscience said come Jesus said come but there was another preacher the devil he said not now a more convenient season and here you are today with added years of guilt added years of sadness and unbelief and rebellion and added years of wrath despises thou oh man the riches of his goodness you have been despising them all this time mine mine there are bounds even to his patience if he bears long and endures much the stroke comes at last and the longer it is withheld the heavier wrath against the day of wrath shall the past suffice thee sinner will thou listen and flee from the wrath to come the apostle asserts that this is the very end and purpose of God in sparing your life hence he says in another place those who fitted themselves to destruction as vessels of wrath he endured with much long suffering oh what a wonderful thought but then you see God is God that is the reason you would not have born with a fellow creature a tithe of the time nor to anything like a degree that he has born with you but he is God and there is no sounding of infinite compassion he knows what it will be to be lost I often think of that oh it doesn't seem to me so wonderful after all that Jesus Christ should die because he comprehended the depths of the unutterable desolation to which sinners were going he realized the bitter cup they would have to drain and cook it and try to save them from it but mine a sore punishment awaits those who despise such love and oh it seems as though some people were making haste and trying their best to treasure up wrath as the apostle says as though there would not be enough against the day of wrath sinner remember for every sin there is wrath you can label it off as surely as you do the prophets of your day's business every day is forbearance so much more wrath you are heaping it up treasuring it up it is hovering over the path you tread like some great towering black mountain just a puff of God's breath or a touch of his finger and it will come down to you as the waters did Pharaoh and his host you are making it higher denser blacker every day you live you know it is true you have had a foretaste of it already the rumblings of its hidden fires have scathed your soul and darkened your mind and blighted your happiness even now while you only catch the angry billows loving mercy is holding it off but it has done enough already to show you what it will be when it overwhelms you forever will you give up despising the riches of his goodness will you now begin to flee from the wrath to come the Lord help you further I want you to know the God's purpose is frustrated continually by impenitent sinners Paul declares this as unmistakably as that God tries to save them this idea shocks some people's notion of the divine sovereignty I cannot help that here it is as plain as ABC not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure us unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and not only is it here but in a score of other texts of Paul's writing the apostle had a profound sense of the divine sovereignty which shows itself all through his epistles but we see you from such passages as these of it which was the least incompatible with man's entire free agency here and in many other places he shows that his idea of God's sovereignty is that it asserts itself in legislating how man ought to act and in punishing him for disobedience and not in divesting him of his freedom in order to prevent disobedience Paul carefully discriminates between the physical and moral sovereignty of God a distinction which many theologians disregard and thus are guilty of confounding things that differ and of traducing the divine character both Paul and all the inspired writers deplore again and again the fact that men do frustrate the loving purposes of God and thus bring upon themselves destruction did not the Jews what did Jesus Christ mean when he wept over Jerusalem and said oh that thou hath known in this thy day away with a theology that makes that out to be hypocrisy it was the heart's sincerity of the son of God and every word he said what more could he have done to make them or us believe that he was sincere he wept and groaned and spread his hands over the rebellious people and said how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hand gathers her chickens under her wings and ye would not ye hard hearted stubborn as Stephen said of them as your fathers did so do ye ye do always resist the holy ghost that was the secret of their destruction and alas they treasured up wrath both for this world and the next such as never fell on any other people alas men do frustrate God's purposes we see it all around us now God's desire is that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth that those very men who despise him should be saved and come to repentance but all of these are not saved then God's purpose is frustrated in their case is it not some of you confess that you are not saved then my friends the purpose of God's goodness is not answered in your case whose fault is it dare you look him in the face and charge him with the murder of your soul whose fault I demand will it be if you are lost if you never hear anything more than you have heard here this afternoon you will have no excuse your conscience says amen to what I am saying God's voice thunders amen in the ears of your guilty soul you are not saved why because you are despising the riches of his goodness forbearance and long suffering because you are throwing back the offer of his mercy in his face and saying no no I love my sins I will have my ungodly pleasures I will live on in my rebellion I will not listen I will be like those disobedient rebellious Jews I will not know the things that make for my peace very well my friends if you will not let God make you a vessel of his mercy in which to magnify the riches of his goodness and salvation you will by this perverseness fit yourself to be a vessel of destruction and as such God will have no alternative but as our text says to give you over to the revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds you see will not put you out of being to oblige you and to save you from the consequences of your willful rebellion you exist you must exist at the judgment day you will exist and you will exist forever God will have to do something with you and seeing that you will not let him wash and sanctify and glorify you he has no option but to leave you in your filth to curse you and to put you in the scavenging house of his universe with the devil and his angels you say stop I am not despising his goodness are you not what is it to despise anything it means treating it with contempt neglecting it mean saying bad words about it it does not mean blaspheming God I should hope none of you are bad enough for that it does not mean throwing it absolutely back and telling him so many words that you will not have him to reign over you oh no it means treating him with contempt and his salvation as a light thing you are doing this and some of you have been doing it for long years if you had some money in a certain bank and you heard that it was in a shaky condition what a hurry you would be to secure your treasure you would not lose a moment you would be investigating and inquiring and running to the bank to secure your money you would not treat that with contempt you would not despise the opportunity of securing it why? because you deem your money an important thing now if you value the mercy and love of God for your poor soul you would deem that an important thing and you would not neglect it mind it is written that all those who forget or neglect God shall be turned into hell my friend despises not the riches of his goodness will you stop despising him will you come to his feet this afternoon will you say it is enough lord oh if I were to stand here till tomorrow afternoon I could occupy the time in telling you of awful cases that have come under my own observation of people who have despised his goodness there is a day coming when God says I will say behold services and wonder and perish now is the accepted time when I was holding services in in P a man who kept a public house came to a meeting and was deeply affected some of the friends gathered around him and tried to persuade him to stop to the prayer meeting he had been convicted many a time before he knew all about it and he knew the soul ruining traffic in which he was engaged God pulled him up and arrested him once more made him think and feel and tremble friends said stop and give up your business and give yourself to God but he shook his head and went away he said no not this time he despised he died there is a raving man without a ray of hope he despised the riches of his goodness I was just getting up to speak in a large theatre when a bible woman at work in the town said I want to tell you something there was a woman hearing you last Sunday who was deeply affected she wept and trembled to give her heart to God she said she couldn't then but she would come another time she died on Tuesday without hope and was buried on Friday she despised his goodness at Whitechapel one day I had been speaking and there was a woman who very much impressed me I went to her and besought her she said yes I know it's all true I have known it for years she said how dare you risk putting it off she said I can't speak of it tonight treating it as if it were a matter of no consequence I will come another time I followed her right into the draft of the door for I felt my heart go out after her I showed her the danger of delay she said I will come at the close of the meeting on Tuesday on the following Thursday she was buried and died without hope she neglected despised the riches of his goodness another case a man in the iron works had been at one of the services at Portsmouth he was working one day when a massive piece of iron fell on him but did not kill him on the spot as the man carried him away he observed the lady said trouble was ahead now it has come I had been speaking from the text he that being often reproved hardened his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy one of our men at Whitechapel used to go to a particular druggist to get prescribed for when not well and he used always to warn the doctor about his soul whose invariable reply was oh never fear I shall be in time I shall be in time I shall send for you when I am dying one day he fell down in his surgery and never spoke again he neglected he despised the riches of his goodness I could tell you numbers of such stories alas man do fill up in these days the measure of their inequity they do put the last drop into the cup God says it is enough it is not always by an outward or manifest act the cup of rebellion is filled it is often done in secret those Jews little thought they were filling it by neglecting and despising the Nazarene you may think you are only neglecting the entreaties of a little woman and yet before next Sunday you may be in hell every time I hear of such things I say I will be clear of the blood of souls I don't care what people say of me I will never speak to sinners so that one man or woman in my audience can stand up and say you might have warned me more faithfully told me more plainly than you did I would rather die than that should be the case what will you do mind Paul says our treasure is up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath it is not God who treasures it up it will be God's wrath against your sins but you and you alone will be responsible for its coming on you you need not inherit it for another has born it for you if you would only accept it as your sacrifice and your savior will you deliberately reject his way of escape and in spite of all his goodness make good your claim to everlasting wrath will no mercy no long suffering no past experience no forebodings of conscious no shadows of the pit bring you to repentance will you despise any longer or will you yield now will you give up will you go down at his feet will you turn away from sin and evil companions and old associations and come right to the foot of the cross go down at his feet and say lord Jesus I will be thy disciple end of chapter 3 mercy and judgment read by Susan Warren Sabatis Maine