Real Salvation and Whole-Hearted Service

My subject to-night is the first question that God ever asked of man. You will find that question in Gen. iii. 9, “Where art thou?” God asked the question of Adam. Adam had sinned, and on the evening of that awful day of the first sin the voice of God in its majesty was heard rolling down the avenues of the Garden of Eden. Adam had often heard God’s voice before, and the voice of God had been the sweetest music to Adam up till this day. Adam knew no greater joy than that of glad communion with his Creator and his Heavenly Father. But now all was different, and as the voice of God was heard rolling through the Garden, Adam was filled with fear, and tried to hide himself. That is the history of every son of Adam from that day till. this. When sin enters our hearts and our lives we seek to hide from God. Every sinner is trying to hide from the presence and the all-seeing eye of God. That accounts for a very large share of the scepticism and infidelity and the agnosticism and atheism of our day. It is sinful man trying to hide from a holy God.

Men will give you many reasons why they are sceptics, many reasons why they are infidels and agnostics and atheists, but in the great majority of cases the real reason is this — men hope by the denial of the existence of God to hide themselves from the discomfort of God’s acknowledged presence. That accounts also for very much of the neglect of the Bible. People will tell you that they do not read their Bibles because they have so much else to read, that they do not read their Bibles because they are not interested in the Bible, and that it is a dull and stupid book to them; but the real cause of man’s neglect of Bible study is this: the Bible brings God near to us as no other book does, and men are uneasy in the conscious presence of God, so they neglect the book that brings God near. This also accounts for much of the absenteeism from the house of God and its services. People will give you many reasons why they do not attend church; they will tell you they cannot dress well enough to attend church, will tell you that they are too busy and too tired to attend church; they will tell you that the services of God’s house are dull and uninteresting, but in the great majority of cases the reason why men and women, old and young, habitually absent themselves from the services of God’s house is because the house of God brings God near and makes men uncomfortable in sin, and their desire to hide from God, more or less distinct, leads them to stay away from the house of God. But Adam did not succeed in hiding from God. Neither

WHERE ART LEO? II

will you succeed. No man ever succeeded in hiding from God. God said to Adam, “Where art thou?” and Adam had to come from his hiding-place and meet God face to face, and make full declaration of all his sin. Sooner or later, no matter how carefully we have hid ourselves from God, sooner or later every man and woman in this building will have to come from their hiding-place and meet the all-holy God face to face, and make full declaration of just where they stand in His presence.

I believe that God is putting the quethon of the text to every man and woman in this building to-night, to every Christian, and to every one who is not a Christian. “Where art thou?” Where do you stand as regards spiritual and eternal things? Where do you stand as regards God, as regards heaven, as regards righteousness, as regards Christ, as regards eternity? “Where art thou?”

Every wise man in this hall will be glad to face and answer that question. Every truly intelligent man desires to know just where he is. In business every wise business man desires to know just where he stands financially. In our country, at just this time of year, every careful business man takes an inventory of his stock-in-trade, casts up his accounts, finds out precisely what are his credits and precisely what are his debits, how much his assets exceed or fall below his liabilities. He wants to know just where he stands. He may discover as a result of his scrutiny that he does not stand as well as he thought he did. He may find that he is in debt, when he hoped that his capital exceeded his liabilities. If that is true, he wants to know it in order that he may conduct his business accordingly. Many a man has made shipwreck in business through unwillingness to face facts and find out just where he stood.

Years ago I knew in America a very brilliant business man, a man really gifted along certain lines of business enterprise. But his affairs got into a tangled condition. His wise business friends came to him and advised him to go through his books and find out just where he stood. They said to him, “If you are in a bad shape we will help you out.” But the man was too proud to take their advice; he was too proud to admit that his business was in a bad way, so he refused to look into it. He shut his teeth, set his face like a flint, and tried to plunge through. But instead of plunging through he plunged into such utter financial ruin that though he was, as I have said, an exceptionally brilliant man in some directions, he made such complete financial shipwreck that he never got on his feet again, and when he died he did not have money enough to pay his funeral expenses, and I had to pay them out of my own pocket, simply because he was not willing to humble his pride and face facts.

It is just so with many of you gentlemen here to-night. You are too proud to face the fact that you are morally and spiritually bankrupt, so you are going to shut your teeth, to set your face like a flint, and plunge through. You will plunge into utter and eternal ruin.

Every man wants to know where he stands physically, he wants to know what is the condition of his lungs, of his heart, of his stomach, of his nerves. He may be worse off than he thinks he is; he may think his heart is sound when his heart is defective. But if that be the case, he wants to know it, because if he knows that his heart is defective, he will not subject it to the strain that he otherwise would. Many a man lies to-day in a premature grave who might be doing good work on earth; he was not willing to find out what his real condition was, and act accordingly.

Every man at sea wishes to know just where his vessel is, its exact latitude, and its exact longitude. I remember once in crossing the Atlantic Ocean some years ago, we had been sailing for days beneath clouds and through fogs. We had been unable to take an observation by the sun, and had been sailing by dead reckoning. One night I happened to be on deck, and suddenly there was a rift in the clouds just where the north star appeared through the rift. Word was sent below to the commanding officer... The captain of the vessel hurried on deck, and I remember how he fairly laid across the compass, and how carefully he took an observation by the north star, that we might know exactly where we were. We are all sailing to-night across a perilous sea, toward an eternal port, and every truly intelligent man and woman in this vast audience will desire to know just where they are, their exact spiritual longitude and their exact spiritual latitude.

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