Where Art Thou?

Where art thou? — Gen. iii. 9.

This was the first question put to man after nis fall, It was not said to a congregation like this. There were only two in that congregation, the Lord himself was the preacher, Satan had been in Eden and had been doing his work. Adam had been listening to the lies of Satan, and had been tempted and had fallen; and we find God coming down that very day to seek him out. And this was a call of love; it was a call of grace; it was a call of mercy. If God had dealt with him according to his deserts he would have hurled him from the face of the earth.

Six thousand years have rolled away since God put that question to our parents in Eden, but it is a question in my mind if there have been any of Adam’s sons and daughters that have not heard that question sometimes in their lives. It may be in the silent hours of the night, it may be while they are busy at work or in the midst of their pleasure — at some time the question has come stealing home upon them, “Who am I, what am I, and where am I going?” It has come rolling along down the ages.

Now, my friends, it is of very little account where you and I are in the sight of our neighbors — where we are in the sight.of the public. It is of very little accoun* what people around us think of us. They will soon go away. Their breath is in their nostrils, and God will change their countenances and send them away by and by. But it is vastly more important to know what God thinks of us, and where we stand in his sight; and that is the question I want to press home upon each one. It is a personal question.

I hope this text will be sent home by the Spirit of God to each heart here to-night. I hope the oldest and the youngest person in this house will ask the question, “Where am I? Who am I? What am I, and where am I going?

Now I am going to divide this audience into three classes. I think we will all come under three heads. I would like very well if each person would take the portion that belongs to him. Of course I cannot read your hearts. I want to talk to the professed Christians, to those who have backslidden, and to those who are strangers to the grace of God. I want to ask each one, Where art thou? To all in this audience to-night that profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ, I would ask, Where art thou? Where is your influence? Who claims you? Think a moment. “You may be a member of some church. You go to the communion table. You profess to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. But where is your influence? “He that is not for me is against me.” Is your influence felt for Christ in your business? Is your influence felt in the circle in which you move, in the fashionable circle, it may be — is your influence felt for Christ? Where art thou, O, professed child of God!

You know, I am one of those that believe we are living in the days of sham. It don’t mean anything to be a Christian now in the estimation of a great many.

I firmly believe to-day that the world is stumbling over us professed Christians. We are so conformed to the world that people do not see Christ in us. Many of them say that Christianity is a myth, that it is a fable, that it is a thing of the past, that it is not true. Do you know that where one man reads the Bible a hundred read you and me? They do not read the Bible — I would to God they did. They do not look to your Master and mine, but they look to us; and that is what Christ meant when he said, “Ye are the salt of the world; ye are the light of the world* Ye are my witnesses. I leave you down here to testify for me.” As I heard some one say the other day, “If our Master represents us up in heaven as we represent him down here, we would have a very poor representative, wouldn’t we?” Ah! how we misrepresent him down here! How unlike Christ we are! Mr. Sankey and myself went into a place in this country not long ago, and there was a lady there that had a son, and she said, “I am not going to have that boy of mine under the influence of these meetings.” She was a wealthy lady, a lady of position. She wanted her boy to move in fashionable society, and she was afraid he might be converted and taken out of that society. I believe when a man is truly born of God he has lost his taste for that kind of society. A godless, christiess, fashionable world is the thing that the true child of God abominates. She said, “I will take him out of town.” The day we went into town she went out with her only child. We were thirty days in that city, and the afternoon we had our farewell meeting I missed one of the prominent ministers that had stood by my side, and just as I was closing up and leaving the building he came and said, M I am sorry that I could not be here at your last meeting. Mr. Moody. I want you to understand it is no want ol interest, but,” said he, “I have had a very solemn duty to perform.” Then he went on and told me that that mother who had taken her son out of that city had brought him back there that day in his coffin, and he had just attended the funeral, and while we were closing up our work there that mother was there laying awaj her only child. And she a professed Christian!

My dear friends, do you know that we have a great many of those people to-day that profess to be children of God and yet stand right in the way of their children coming into the kingdom of God?

A friend of mine was talking to a young man some time ago about his soul. The young man turned up his nose, and throw up his head, and said, “Christianity is all a farce.” “Why?” said my friend, “Are you in earnest?” “Yes,” said he, “I believe that Christians are hypocrites.” He knew that he had a mother that professed to be a Christian, and he said, “You would not call your own mother a hypocrite, would you?” “No, sir, I would not; that would sound very disrespectful. But I will say that my mother don’t believe what she professes. If my mother did, don’t you think she would talk to me about my soul? My mother never got down and prayed with me. If my mother believes what she professes don’t you think she would be concerned about my eternal welfare?” I tell you there is no reality in it. And that young man had reason to think so.

O! professed child of God, where is your influence in your family? While you are sitting in this building to-night, where is your boy? can you tell? Where is that daughter of yours? Is she growing up to hate Christianity? Is that young man growing up to despise your God? If he is, I think the fault lies not with God but with ourselves. There is one thing that I have been more anxious for than anything else — that my children should have confidence in my piety. What we want at this present time, I think, is more piety in our homes — more of Christ in our daily life. We want to carry this blessed religion of Jesus Christ into every day life — into our daily walk and conversation.

I saw an account some time ago going through the press that made an impression upon my mind, of a father that took his little child out one day into the field. While he was lying down under a shade tree, the little child was picking wild flowers and little blades of grass, and carrying them to its father, and saying, in its childlike way, “Pretty, pretty.” The father fell asleep, and, while he slept the little child wandered away. When he awoke from his sleep he looked all about him for his child, and lifted up his voice and shouted, but all he could hear was the echo of his own voice. Going to a precipice some ways off he looked down, and there upon the rocks and briars he saw the mangled form of his little child. He rushed to it, took up its lifeless corpse, pressed it to his heart and accused himself of being the murderer of his own child.

O! how many are sleeping in the church of God to-day while their children are falling over worse precipices than that! O! let me press the question home upon every professed child of God here to-night: In the sight of God where are you?

But there is another class I want to speak to — that is the backslider. Now, I will venture to say in this congregation there are scores, may be hundreds of men and women that once knew the Lord; that were once in fellowship with Him; once delighted to go to the house ot the Lord and sit down at the communion table; once had a family altar; once delighted to be with His people. All that is gone now. Perhaps I can tell you how you got away from Him. It may be that you were converted down here in some little town in this State and identified yourself with the church there. You knew every one that belonged to the church; they knew you and helped you. At last perhaps your business brought you to Cleveland, and you were among strangers. You went into this and that church, and they did not seem exactly like the churches in the country. There was no one to shake hands with you or take any interest in you; and you began to think you didn’t like the Christians here in Cleveland. They were not so warm-hearted as they were down in the country where you came from* You can’t find a church like that where you were converted. The trouble was you went to the churches, but didn’t make yourself known. You didn’t tell them who you were, and where you came from. If you had done that they would have gathered around you and took your hand and given you a warm welcome. You went to the public services; no one spoke to you and you thought they were very cold. I have always noticed when a man is himself cooling off he always thinks other people are cooling off likewise. When he is cold he thinks every one else is cold. Before you came to Cleveland you had a family altar, You prayed to the Father to protect you from sin; but the family altar has been broken down. O, backslider! I want to ask you to-night where art thou? If God should summon you into eternity what would become of your children.

I never saw a man that could give a reason for leaving the Lord. A backslider is one who has backslidden from the Lord. It is not backsliding from the Church, because the church don’t save us.

In the second chapter of Jeremiah the prophet is pleading with Israel. They had backslidden. They had gone away from the God of Moses. They had gone away from the God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob. They turned away to the gods of the nations around them. Here is a prophet raised up by God to plead with them and woo them back to the fold they had wandered from. Now, backslider, listen; this is for you: “Thus, saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” What has the Lord done to you? Can you find any iniquity in him? He is unchangeable. He has been in all these years, the same true and best friend you have had. “Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your childrens’ children will I plead. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. You do not forget those diamond rings. If you lost a diamond to-night you would be around here to-morrow morning early searching for it diligently. Think of of your soul. It is worth more than the world. See what He tells Jeremiah to tell them: “Go and proclaim these words toward the North, and say, Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O, backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you.” Think of the Lord Almighty using such an illustration. It shows what love he has for the backslider. I want to say to the backslider to-night there is one thing you haven’t lost. You have not lost the love of God; He loves you still. You gone so far you have lost the benefit of it, but He loves you still. The most touching most tender and most loving words in Scripture are words that hae been sent to the backslider.

O, backslider, hear the voice of the Shepherd this 34 WHERE ART THOUf

night calling to you from the dark mountains of sin, and say as the Prodigal did, “I will arise and go to my father.” You know Peter backslided. He denied the Lord, I will tell you what won him back. It was the loving look of his Master. It broke his heart when Christ turned and looked at him. O, may the tender, loving look of Christ fall upon your heart to -night, sinner, and may you go out and weep bitterly, as Peter did.

Now, if you listen to what I tell you, and carry out my instructions, you will never backslide. Treat the Lord Jesus Christ as you do any other friend. If you have an intimate friend in Cleveland and were going away you would not think of going without bidding him good bye. Did you ever hear of a backslider bidding the Lord Jesus Christ good bye when he went away. Did you ever hear of a backslider going into his closet, closing the door, and getting down on his knees and saying to the Lord Jesus Christ, “I have now been with you these ten years; I have been serving you, but I have got tired of the service and want to go back to the world. I am craving for the fleshpots of Egypt. I will have to go now, Lord Jesus I bid you good bye. Farewell, I am never going to call on you again.” Did you ever hear of a backslider leaving the Lord in that way? Never. You run away. You desert him. There is one peculiarity about the backslider’s ditch — you have to get out the way you got in. How did you get in? You ran away. Now just get out the way you got in. Go into your closet and lock the door. “Only acknowledge thine iniquity,” He says, “Just confess your sins, and He is just and faithful to forgive us our sins.”

O, may the backslider be brought home to-night. It would be a terrible thing if you should die in your backsliding state*.

Now to the third class I want to speak. You may find a good many flaws in our characters — a great many things that are not right. I admit that professed Chris* tians are not what they ought to be. I want to ask every unsaved man “Where art thou?” As Christ said to Peter when he asked the Lord what John should do, “What is that to thee. Follow thou me.” We do not ask you to follow us, If we did you might bring up these excuses. We came here to preach Christ. We invite you to Him. You cannot find fault with Him. For eighteen hundred years the devil and man have been trying to find a flaw in Christ’s character. Thank God, they can’t do it. He is a lamb without spot or blemish. We do not ask you to-night to follow us, but follow Him.

If the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear. I want to say to you men that are hiding behind the failings of us Christians, you have got very poor stuff to feed on. You never heard of a soul getting very fat on that kind of food. So I want to ask every unsaved woman and every unsaved man in this hall to-night, “Where art thou?” Just think a little while now. Ask yourself, “Where am I, what am I, and where am I going?”

I am a man in what is called middle life, and the last four or five years have been the most solemn years of my life* Life does not seem like a fiction now. Life seems real to me. I have got up, you might say, on the top of a hill, for life is like a man going up hill and then down. Three score years and ten is the time allotted to man. There is one here and there that is living on borrowed time. A great many are taken away before they get to the top of the hill. Men do not average three score and ten. As I look upon this assembly to-night I would like to ask every man and woman on

WHERE ART THOS

the top of the hill, or you that have just passed over it, as I have, to just pause with me on the top of the hill and look around; forget all about things around you and just think,” Where am I in the sight of God.’5 As we stand on the top of the hill of life let us look back on the cradle from whence we came; let us look down the hill of life. Perhaps, as you look down part way, you will see a grave. The grass is growing upon it to-night. It may be that some flowers have been planted on that grave. It marks the last resting place of a loved mother, Let your mind go back to the night you bid her farewell. It was perhaps at the midnight hour that she called you to her bedside, and then she took you by the hand, and that night you promised you would meet her in the kingdom of God. You told her you would be a Christian and follow her into that land where she was going.

I would like to know how many in this audience, to-night, have made vows. Won’t you, to-night, pay your vows? Long years have rolled away since you made that promise. You promised yourself you would settle the question then, but you did not. Then you said, Well, I will do it a little further on.” That time has come again, and you have not done it.

I may be talking to some that made a promise in their childhood that they would become Christians. Childhood is gone and you are now not only in manhood, but you are passing over that hill. A sermon that would move you to tears ten years ago makes no impression on you now. Time has rolled on. Here and there you see a gray hair in your head. Your eyes are growing dim. Come back with me, my friend, and as we look down the hill again we may see a little short grave. It marks the resting place of a loved child. The night death came into your home and took away that child, don’t you remember that then you made a vow that you would see your child again in the kingdom of God. Oh! my dear friend, won’t you to-night make good that promise before lou sleep, and let the news go up on high that you are coming up there.

Last night a fine looking young man came upon this platform. He had been a skeptic, He was inclined to believe that the Bible was a myth. But he had a godly sister who believed in that book. She used to pray for him. A few days ago that sister died. Then his infidelity did not comfort him. Ah! how cold infidelity is in the time of affliction, when we stand by the open grave of a loved friend, Ah! atheism don’t comfort us then! Infidelity don’t comfort us then!

That young man wants something besides skepticism now. He wants something besides cold, hard infidelity now. That loving sister has passed within the vale. He wants to go and meet her. He has stood by that grave, and dropped tears upon it. While I am standing in this house talking I will venture to say his mind is upon that sister, and he says, “I want to meet her.’’ Well, young man, you can. Christ says, “I go to prepare a mansion.” He is up there fitting up the mansions and by and by you shall meet the loved one with the Master and be forever with Him. Thank God for the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It is downright madness, it is the height of folly for a man to turn a deaf ear to the gospel of the Son of God. Come again and stand on top of this hill and look down on the grave. It is very short after all, from the cradle to the grave. Look down the hill of life to-night. It may be that the shroud is already woven that shall be wrapped around these bodies. It may.be the coffin is already made that you and I shall be laid in. It may be that while I am talking here to-night death may be on your track- — we know it is on the track of each one of us? and it may be a good

38 WHERE ART THOU t

deal nearer than you think; and the time may come a great deal sooner than you expect that you shall be cut down; and if you die without God, without hope, what excuse will you have? Here you are in a Christian land where you hear the gospel preached. You are invited to come to the gospel feast. Here is another invitation. What will you do with it? Oh! my friends, to-night be wise and accept of salvation as a gift from Him who came into the world to bring life and immortality and light.

When I was in England in 1867, there was a young French nobleman came to consult Dr. Fox Winslow, that celebrated Doctor that had a great deal of experience and practice with the human mind. He brought letters from the French Emperor, Napoleon III. and the great leading men in Paris, asking the Doctor to do ail he could to save the man’s reason. When the Doctor examined him he found the man was troubled about something — had great trouble that was weighing upon his mind, and he went to work to find out the cause. He says, “Can you tell me what is weighing upon your mind? What is the trouble?” The young nobleman said that he could not tell. “Well,” says the Doctor, “I must first find out the cause of this disease, before I can do any thing.” Says he, “Have you lost any friends.” “No sir, none lately.” “Have you lost any property.” “No sir.” “Have you lost any reputation or standing in your country.” “No sir.” “Well, sir I want to have you tell me what it is that is weighing upon your mind? “The young nobleman hung his head as if he was ashamed to tell, and at last he says,” Well, Doctor, my fathei was an infidel, and my grandfather was an infidel and I have been brought up an infidel, and for the last two years this question has haunted me day and night: u Eternity, and where shall I spend it? I try to get to sleep at night and if I sleep an hour or two and I wake up that question comes up to me — ‘Eternity and where shall I spend it.’ “” Well,” the Doctor says, “You have come to the wrong physician.” The young nobleman sprung to his feet and says, “Doctor, is there no help for me? Have I got to be haunted day and night with this question? Can’t you help me?” The Doctor says, “I cannot help you, but I can tell you of a physician who can;” and the doctor went on to tell his own experience; he said that he was once an infidel and had been blessed by reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and he commenced to read that wonderful chapter, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” He gave Him the remedy for sin. He held up a crucified Savior and the young nobleman said, “Doctor, do you really believe that Jesus Christ was in heaven and that he voluntarily left heaven and came down here and suffered and died for this world? “” Yes,” says the doctor “I believe it, and by believing that I got rid of my infidelity, and by believing that I got rid of my sins.” Says he, “and I have no doubt about where I am going to spend eternity. It is all clear in my mind.” “Well,” says the nobleman, “if that is true, I ought to believe it.” “Well,” says the doctor, I don’t want you to believe it unless it is true. There is a way of finding out whether it is true or not. Let us get down and ask the God that created us, to teach us if it is true.” And down the doctor went and he prayed for the nobleman, and he asked the nobleman to pray for himself. He went back to the doctor day after day for about ten days or two weeks, and then went back to Paris as a Christian man, and when I was there in 1867, he was writing -ick to

4:0 WHKRB ART THOU?

the doctor as one Christian writes to another. He had got that question settled.

Young man, I would like to ask you to-night where will you spend eternity? That is the question to-night. We are free agents. God allows us to choose. He has set before you life and death He set before you a blessing and a curse, and it is for you to choose. Where will you spend eternity? Will you spend it with Christ in yonder world of light? Will you spend it in those mansions He has gone to prepare for you, with that sainted, godly mother, with that praying, godly wife? Will you spend it with that lovely child that has gone on high? Ah, my friends, it is in your power. You can settle this question to-night; or will you be banished from God and heaven? I wan’t to give you one word that the Son Jesus said, “If ye die in your sins, where I am ye cannot come.” Away with this doctrine that a man is going into heaven with all the sins of life upon him, a man that is polluted with sin — a man that has fought against God all his life. Why, heaven would be hell to him.

Yes, my friends, if you ever see that kingdom you must believe on His Son. Say, skeptic, what ar* you going to do? Are you going on in your infidelity f Are you going to hold on to unbelief and die in your sins* and be banished from God and from heaven? or will you this night believe on the Lord Jesus Ch**& and be saved?