1 AUG 84

OXFORD

ADDRESSES BY D. L. MOODY.

Price One Penny each; 7s. 6d. per 100, either Assorted, or of any separate Address.

GOOD NEWS.

"WHERE ART THOU?"

"THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE."

CHRIST SEEKING SINNERS.

"LET THE WICKED FORSAKE HIS WAY."

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

"LOVE THAT PASSETH KNOWLEDGE."

CHRIST ALL IN ALL.

THE TWO CLASSES.

REPENTANCE AND RESTITUTION.

"DARE TO BE A DANIEL!"

WORDS OF COUNSEL.

May also be had, complete in a Packet, price 1s.

LONDON: MORGAN & SCOTT, 12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. And may be ordered of any Bookseller.

GOOD NEWS.

"I declare unto you the Gospel."—I COR. XV. I.

DO not think there is a word in the English language so little understood as the word "gospel." We hear it every day, and we have heard it from our earliest childhood, yet there are many people, and even many Christians, who do not really know what it means. I believe I was a child of God a long time before I really knew. The word "gospel" means "God's spell," or good spell, or, in other words, "good news." The gospel is good tidings of great joy No better news ever came out of heaven than the gospel. No better news ever fell upon the ears of the family of man than the gospel.

When the angels came down to proclaim the tidings, what did they say to those shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem? Behold, I bring you sad tidings?" No! "Behold, I bring you bad news?" No! "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour." If those shepherds had been like a good many people at the present time, they would have said, “We do not believe it is good news. It is all excitement. These angels want to get up a revival. These angels are trying to excite us. Do not believe them." That is what Satan is saying now. "Do not believe the gospel is good news; it will only make you miserable." He knows that the moment a man believes good news, he just receives it. And no one who is under the power of the devil really believes that the gospel is good news. But these shepherds believed the message that the angels brought,

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and their hearts were filled with joy. If a boy came with a de. spatch to some one here, could you not tell by the receiver's looks what kind of a message it was? If it brought good news you would see it in his face in a moment. If it told him that his boy, away in some foreign land, a prodigal son, had come to himself, like the one in the 15th of Luke, do you not think that father's face would light up with joy? And if his wife were here, he would not wait till they got home, or till she asked for it, he would pass it over to her, and her face would brighten too, as she shared his joy. But the tidings that the gospel brings are more glorious than that. We are dead in trespasses and sins, and the gospel offers life. We are enemies to God, and the gospel offers reconciliation. The world is in darkness, and the gospel offers light. Because man will not believe the gospel that Christ is the light of the world, the world is dark to-day. But the moment a man believes, the light from Calvary crosses his path and he walks in an unclouded

sun.

I want to tell you why I like the gospel. It is because it has been the very best news I have ever heard. That is just why I like to preach it, because it has done me so much good. No man can ever tell what it has done for him, but I think I can tell what it has undone. It has taken out of my path four of the bitterest enemies I ever had.

There is that terrible enemy mentioned in 1 Cor. xv., the last enemy, Death. The gospel has taken it out of the way. My mind very often rolls back twenty years ago, before I was converted, and I think how dark it used to seem, as I thought of the future. I well remember how I used to look on death as a terrible monster, how he used to throw his dark shadow across my path; how I trembled as I thought of the terrible hour when he should come for me; how I thought I should like to die of some lingering disease, such as consumption, so that I might know when he was coming. It was the custom in our village to toll from the old church bell the age of any one who died. Death never entered that village and tore away one of the inhabitants but I counted the tolling of the bell. Sometimes it was seventy, sometimes eighty; sometimes it would be away down among

the

teens, sometimes it would toll out the death of some one of my own age. It made a solemn impression upon me. I felt a coward then. I thought of the cold hand of death feeling for the cords of life. I thought of being launched forth to spend my eternity in an unknown land.

As I looked into the grave, and saw the sexton throw the earth on the coffin-lid, "Earth to earth; ashes to ashes; dust to dust," it seemed like the death knell to my soul. But that is all changed now. The grave has lost its terror. As I go on towards heaven I can shout, "O death! where is thy sting? and I hear the answer rolling down from Calvary—“ buried in the bosom of the Son of God." He took the sting right out of death for me, and received it into his own bosom. Take a hornet and pluck the sting out; you are not afraid of it after that any more than of a fly. So death has lost its sting. That last enemy has been overcome, and I can look on death as a crushed victim. All that death can get now is this old Adam, and I do not care how quickly I get rid of it. I shall get a glorified body, a resurrection body, a body much better than this. Suppose death should come stealing up into this pulpit, and lay his icy hand upon my heart, and it should cease to throb, I should rise to the better world to be present with the King. The gospel has made an enemy a friend. a friend. What a glorious thought, that when you die you but sink into the arms of Jesus, to be borne to the land of everlasting rest! "To die," the apostle says, "is gain." I can imagine when they laid our Lord in Joseph's tomb one might have seen death sitting over that sepulchre, saying, "I have Him; He is my victim. He said He was the resurrection and the life. Now I hold Him in my cold embrace. They thought He was never going to die; but see Him now. He has had to pay tribute to me.' Never! The glorious morning comes, the Son of man bursts asunder the bands of death, and rises, a Conqueror, from the grave. "Because I live," He shouts, " ye shall live also." Yes, ye shall live also-is it not good news? Ah, my friends, there is no bad news about a gospel which makes it so sweet to live, so sweet to die.

Another terrible enemy that troubled me was Sin. What a terrible hour I thought it would be, when my sins from childhood,

every secret thought, every evil desire, everything done in the dark, should be brought to the light, and spread out before an assembled universe! Thank God, these thoughts are gone. The gospel tells me my sins are all put away in Christ. Out of love to me He has taken all my sins and cast them behind his back. That is a safe place for them. God never turns back; He always marches on. He will never see your sins if they are behind his back-that is one of his own illustrations. Satan has to get behind God to find them. How far away are they, and can they ever come back again? "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.' Not some of them; He takes them all away. You may pile up your sins till they rise like a dark mountain, and then multiply them by ten thousand for those you cannot think of; and after you have tried to enumerate all the sins you have ever committed, just let me bring one verse in, and that mountain will melt away: "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." In Ireland, some time ago, a teacher asked a little boy if there was anything God could not do; and the little fellow said, "Yes; He cannot see my sins through the blood of Christ." That is just what He cannot do. The blood covers them. Is it not good news that you can get rid of sin? You come to Christ a sinner, and if you receive his gospel your sins are taken away. You are invited to do this; nay, He entreats you to do it. You are invited to make an exchange; to get rid of all your sins, and to take Christ and his righteousness in the place of them. Is not that good news?

There is another enemy which used to trouble me a great deal -Judgment. I used to look forward to the terrible day when I should be summoned before God. I could not tell whether I should hear the voice of Christ saying, "Depart from Me, ye cursed," or whether it would be, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." And I thought that till he stood before the great white throne no man could tell whether he was to be on the right hand or the left. But the gospel tells me that is already settled: “There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." “Verily, verily ”—and when you see that word in Scripture, you may know there is something very important coming-" Verily,