THE WORLD-WIDE SWEEP OF RUSSIAN BOLSHEVISM AND ITS RELATION TO THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

“The Coming of the Lord Draweth Nigh”
Sermon by Dr. J. Frank Norris.

My message tonight is based on the 5th chapter of the Epistle of James, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborours who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.”

My theme tonight is the “World-wide Sweep of Russian Bolshevism and its Relation to the Second Coming of Christ.”

If time permitted we could dwell at length upon a review of the tremendous world events that are taking place this very hour! Events that are literal fulfillment of inspired prophecy given to the world through Holy men of old, as God moved upon hearts and hands to write, more than two thousand and three thousand years ago.

The most tremendous event of this hour has little recognition, even from the daily press, and that is the movement among Jews. It was prophesied 3500 years ago that the Jew would first live in the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then be scattered abroad throughout the earth, then be regathered to that land – these three events have already taken place; first, established in the land; second, dispersed from the land, and third, now in your and my day, the land is given back and the Jew has returned to that land. We are told in the Word of God that would be the last act – it is one of the sure signs of the near approach of the end of the ages.

It is also prophesied that there would arise rulers, and at last one tremendous iron dictator who would hold the nations of the world in his hands, and as we see dictators rise on the ruins of Monarchies of yesterday and Democracies, over night, and behold how these dictators hold the destiny now of a large portion of the world in their hands we wonder what a day may bring forth.

It is also prophesied, my friends, that there would be revolutions in rapid succession – there have been more revolutions in the world during the last decade than in any preceding thousand years of human history.

It is also prophesied that faith would almost leave the world, and we would have the black night of atheism – I will notice that later.

It is also prophesied that there shall come in the last days a conflict unto death, a fight unto the finish, between a class of men, known in Scripture as “ye rich men,” on the one hand and another class known as the “laborours.” Now we read about it in the 5th Chapter of James – the world laughs at it. Oh, friends, the blindness of the world, the blindness of its wisdom, it is but foolishness, the blindness of the leaders, of even religious thought! How true are the words of our Lord concerning the condition before the flood, of the blindness of the ante-diluvians! It is a prophecy that this same blindness of the world shall characterize the last days. He said, “And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

Why, instead of the religious leaders of this hour sounding forth the note of warning, to get the world ready for coming judgment, we find men in religious gatherings trying to imitate the wisdom and foolishness of the world – putting on their worldly schemes and programs – did not Jesus say, “Woe unto you, ye blind guides!”

We have a three-fold program of modern, unscriptural Protestantism. You hear the different evangelical denominational leaders going talking about “our threefold program”; first, evangelization; second, education; third, hospitalization.

Now, so far as evangelization is concerned, that’s all right, but you cannot add anything to God’s program – the minute you do you vitiate it. You might as well try to help a chicken hatch that is about to get out of its shell.

There are three stages of modernism that end in Atheism. The question the devil asked Eve, in his attempt to deny God, “Hath God said?” Question the Word of God. Second, he denies the Word of God when he said, “Ye shall not surely die.” Third stage, you have no need of God – “then your eyes shall be opened, and you will be as God.” My friends, that’s exactly what is going on in this present hour. We have religious leaders who first question the Word of God, then deny the Word of God, and we have the Clarence Darrows, who say, “there is no God.” I say to you, in kindness to all, I would rather have the Clarence Darrows, who deny God, than to have the wolves in sheep’s clothing, as religious leaders, who question the Word of God, for you know where the Darrows stand. (Applause.)

The Signs of the Times

The Word of God is very clear upon the proposition – we are exhorted again and again to study the signs of the times in which we live, and to study the prophecies of the last days that shall come on the earth. Jesus in the 16th Chapter of Matthew, the second and third verses, said: “When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye discern the signs of the times ?”

Again in Luke He says: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars”; God help us to study these signs, signs in the sky, signs in the heavenly bodies, signs among the nations – “Distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Listen, I want to stop here and give this example: About a month ago there was a meeting of the heads of the great life insurance companies, the presidents and actuaries. Do you know what they discussed in that meeting? They discussed the present suicide wave – a short time before a man had taken out a life insurance policy, up into the millions, I don’t remember the exact amount, but it was more than twenty million, and when the first year was out, the suicide limit, he committed suicide, and it was very clear he contemplated suicide before he took out these policies. Now it is prophesied there would be a wave of it – “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth”: “distress of nations, with perplexity.”

I hear somebody say, “But wait, Mr. Norris, don’t tell us about that dark picture, we know about it.” I will give you the remedy, it is not mine, but it is the Word of God. Jesus said there shall be fearful signs and great signs shall there be from heaven,” and then He said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Oh, let me emphasize it tonight. We go to the average church. I say this kindly – what do we find? They are discussing some modern educational program, or some little social service program. Yes, all these programs will not tell a mother that she shall see her babe that occupied the empty cradle; all these programs don’t tell a man like J. W. Smith, whose funeral I conducted this afternoon – on Saturday night when he lay dying, I sat on the bedside of that old engineer that had pulled the throttle for thirty years he said, “I am happy – as I think of the hour that is coming.” All the wisdom of the world hasn’t anything to give that man they can’t tell him as he looked down the rail and kept his hand on the throttle that he is going to roll into the Union Station above! They are just as blind, the religious leaders are today, as the wise men of Babylon, when the fingers of God wrote over against the candlestick upon the wall – listen, “Then came in all the king’s wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.” Then we hear the word of the queen who was awakened and brought into the presence of the king and his drunken lords – “There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom of the gods, was found in him.”

The Great Tribulation That Is Coming

Paul says: “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

This word – I haven’t time, only to state it – if all the signs mean anything at all, if the prophetic word means anything at all – I say it deliberately – I have thought about it a long time, and after studying the map of the world, together with the open pages of God’s inspired word, and listened to the words of prophet after prophet and to the blessed words of the Son of God – I believe, with all my soul, this old world is rapidly approaching the tribulation hour! We are coming to the beginning of sorrows. This is not some temporary affair – friends, the very foundation of the world is giving away. Jesus says, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

Isaiah prophesied the tribulation period, he says, “The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.’ What a picture of toppling governments this hour! What a picture of the wisdom of man of this hour! What a picture of the social rottenness of this hour!

“Come near, ye nations,” says the prophet – “to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it, For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to slaughter.”

That is the same time Jeremiah prophesies as a time of Jacob’s trouble. For the Jew is in blindness now and ail will go into the tribulation period – “Alas!” says Jeremiah” – for that day is great so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”

And Joel prophesied the same hour: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even too the years of many generations.”

Now this proposition – my faith is greatly strengthened, greatly confirmed when I see the fulfilment to the letter of the very word of the prophecies of the Word of God. As I see these things fulfilled, then I want to know what else He has got to say – then we will look at what else – a mother called me the other morning in San Antonio and said, “I haven’t slept much since I was out to hear you” – as you know I am in a great tabernacle meeting in San Antonio, and I am going back. In many ways it has been one of the most delightful times I have ever had – this woman said, “I am the mother of five children, and with my husband there are seven in my family, and I am the only professing Christian. Now,” she says, “the thing I want to ask you – I heard you last night – who will go into the Tribulation period?” I said to her, “That question is very clearly answered in the Scripture,” and I gave her several Scriptures – I cited the ten virgins, five that were wise and five foolish – the five wise virgins had their lamps trimmed and filled with oil, and they were bright and shining, ready to go, the five foolish virgins had no oil, therefore they had not light and could not go in. Another illustration I gave her, Jesus said: “But as the days of Noe were” – all the world laughed at Noah, but when the flood came, God had shut Noah and his family of eight in – So shall also the coming of the Son of man be” – the believer will be caught up, and shut up in His pavilion, as David says, during the Tribulation period. Another illustration I gave her was, as in the days of Lot, so shall the coming of the Son of man be – before God could rain down fire and brimstone – and I believe it took place just 1like the Word says, and not as Dawson says, which the Texas Baptist machine endorsed – they don’t believe. it, but now they have their foot in it, and they haven’t got enough courage to get out of it – before God could rain down fire on the cities of the plains, he had to take Lot out, and Mrs. Lot thought of her card parties and she looked around – and I do not believe she was enveloped in a salt slime (laughter) – I believe the instant she turned around she turned to a pillar of salt – (voices, amen). Now, as Noah and his family were taken out of the world. delivered out of the judgment of the flood, even so will the children of God be called out when the Tribulation period shall come.

“When Noah, with his favour’d few,
Was order’d to embark,
Eight human souls, a little crew,
Enter’d on board his ark.

Though ev’ry part he might secure,
With bar, or bolt, or pin:
To make the preservation sure,
Jehovah shut him in.

The waters then might swell their tides,
The billows rage and roar;
They could not stave the assaulted sides,
Nor burst the batter’d door.

So, souls, that into Christ believe,
Quicken’d by vital faith,
Eternal life at once receive,
And never shall see death.

In Christ their ark they safely ride,
Nor wreck’d by death or sin:
How is it they so safe abide?
The Lord has shut them in.”

Money Loses Its Purchasing Power

In this Scripture I read to you from James, six times we have the coming of the Lord mentioned. First, “The last days:” second, “Entered into the ears of the Lord sabaoth”; third, “Coming to the Lord;” fourth, “The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit;” fifth, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh;” sixth, “Behold the judge standeth before the door.” He starts with the last days and ends with “the judge standing at the door.” With those six prophecies of the coming Lord in nine verses what else do we find? “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold – Oh, look at the word “your” – “your miseries,” “Your riches,” “Your gold and silver,” “your treasure” – its God speaking, I am not talking, “Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you.” My friends, what does that mean? Now let’s notice it literally – I believe it should.be taken that way – “Your gold and silver is cankered – rusted” – that means it is not used – you go out and plow in the earth and that plow gets as bright as a new made dollar, but you lay by the corn and put that steel beam plow out in the weeds and in a week’s time, the dew alone, without any rain, will rust it – it means it is not in use – that’s what it means when James says the time is coming when the gold and silver will be rusted. Why? Because it is not being used. Why? Because it has no purchasing power. Listen to this – I quote from one of the greatest economists of today, the head professor of political economy of Duke University, who spent two years in Soviet Russia, studying conditions. He has the name of Calvin B. Hoover. He says:

“The recent reform of the banking system has brought the goal of a moneyless economy within striking distance. It is the purpose of this reform to mediate all exchanges between governmental and so-called co-operative institutions with bank credit instead of money. If the Automotive Combination buys steel from the Black Metals Combination it pays for it not with money but by transferring the appropriate amount from its account in the State Bank to that of the Black Metals Combination….

“Furthermore, the movement now on foot to pay workers through savings banks is seriously discussed as a means to still further reduce the use of money. It is hoped that the worker will become accustomed to paying all his important items of cost of living by cheque. The development of communal living, by which everyone is eventually to live in large houses, with common kitchens and dining halls, will also operate to lessen the need for money. It will be possible for the worker to give one order to the savings bank which will cover all his expenditures for food, shelter, light and heat. Or it is possible that in factory communities these may be included in the wage, so that no additional mechanism of payment will be necessary.

“The writer has frequently heard the complaint that it is very difficult to spend money in Moscow.

“As a result of this shrinkage in the functions of money, there has come about a curious change in the attitude of the population toward money. People no longer desire money itself with the almost unreasoning intensity which is frequently characteristic of a bourgeois society, where money has so long been a medium of exchange and a standard of value that it has taken on a sort of independent value. In the sadly diminished bazaars of Bokhara and Samarkand this was as noticeable as in Moscow. Native merchants were almost indifferent as to whether they sold their silks and rugs or not. They seemed to feel that whatever the amount of money which they received it was certain to be worth less than the commodities themselves.” Their garments are moth-eaten!”

Oh, my friends, that was said, not by some preacher, that is the report of a great economist, the head of political economy of a great university of America – where a great country is aiming for a moneyless economy, and they have almost reached it – you can’t buy a railroad for money – you can’t buy an acre of land with money – you can’t buy a theatre ticket in Russia, for money. Why? We are coming to the hour of a casteless society ? James said it 1900 years ago, and Russia is giving us a demonstration of it in your and my day. “Oh,” somebody says, “that’s over in Russia – you wait until we, intelligent America, get hold of it” – they are shooting this country through and through and don’t you forget it. Let me tell you what is happening. It is sweeping through China like a prairie fire. I’m talking about the prophetic word – I am giving you the signs – did you know this, that one-tenth of one per cent, one-tenth of one per cent of China’s four hundred million, own ninety per cent of the wealth of China. China is a place of two extremes. There is a small coterie called “the rich,” and there are hundreds of millions who live in squalor and poverty. China is the most fruitful field where the bottom rail is to go on top – now some of you folks don’t know what that expression means – out in East Texas, or in the country east of the Mississippi, when they move a rail fence, do you know what they do? – do they put the bottom rail back at the bottom? No, they put the bottom rail on top and the top rail on the bottom. That’s exactly what is going on – I’m not telling you whether I believe in it or not, I am telling you the signs of the times. Wait a minute, here is something for you to think about friends: Russia has put on what is known as the “five-year plan,” some of it will be completed in four years, many of the great schemes have already been completed in two years. In brief it is this – Russia is spending fifty billion dollars to put the plan over. Instead of the antiquated bull tongue plow, the tractor has come; no longer. is there any individuality or separate family life, but it’s all one great community – Russia is out to break down all national lines, all racial lines, that there is to be no color lines, the negro, has equality with the whites. They have no religion, absolute atheism. Now here is how they get in their work. The country they are fighting tonight is England. They have honeycombed India, and they are sweeping through Asia, Manchuria, Mongolia, Thibet, Afghanistan, Persia, and Germany is trembling on the brink of an awful abyss, staggering. under sixty-two billion dollars indebtedness placed upon them. Germany will never pay that staggering debt. Now then with her shrewdness, with a diplomacy that outdistances anything the world has ever seen, Russia Sovietism with the zeal of crusaders, that outdistances Peter the Hermit and his ten million crusaders – they are going forth with two flags, one the red flag of Sovietism, the other the black flag of atheism. Ezekiel saw this Gog and Magog of prophecy, and names it. It is headed by “the chief prince of Meshech,” and from the word “Meshech” we get our word “Moscow” and “Tubal,” there we have the land of “Tobolsky,” and then he calls the roll of all the countries that will be in this great federation: Persia, Ethiopia – which is Africa, Libya, which is Asia, Gomer, ancient Gauls, Togormah, Northern Europe, all including the countries that are the Gog and Magog of prophecy.

The Prophecy of Ezekiel and J. R. Graves

Ezekiel was rejected by the ecclesiastics of his day but 2,500 years ago prophesied that the Gog and Magog, Russian Sovietism, would sweep the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa.

More than 50 years ago J. R. Graves, the outstanding fundamentalist of his day, was rejected by the machine of the Southern Baptist Convention – “Rejected of men” is the crown of glory of every prophet from the days of Noah to the end of time for the prophet must live ahead of his time – and on this same prophecy of Ezekiel he gave the following translation:

“Son of man, set thy face against Gogue, the emperor of Germany, Hungary, and Autocrat of Russia, Muscovy and Tobolski, and prophecy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord, behold, I am against thee, O Gogue, Autocrat of Russia, Muscovy and Tobolski, and I will turn thee about, and put a bit into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth from the north parts, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them accoutered with all sorts of armor even a great company of bucklers and shields, all of them handling sword, among whom shall be Persians, Ethiopians and Libyans; all of them with shields and helmets. French and Italians, Circassions, Cossacks, and the Tartar horses of Usbeck, and many people not particularly named besides.

“Be thou prepared; prepare thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled unto thee; and be thou Imperial Chief to them.”

Farm Relief

It’s the age-long question, the ancient Romans had their agricultural problems. Russia is solving it by the collectivization method – having al1 things common. There is but one trouble with the farm problem – the fields are fertile, the seasons are abundant and God giveth the increase, but the conspiracy of the monopoly – “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your feilds, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.” (James 5:4.)

What a fulfillment of prophecy – the crashing of huge fortunes, the wealth of the world in the hands of a few men, and judgment has come; witness the crashing of the four greatest estates of Chicago; suicides filling untimely graves; witness the crashing of the greatest power trust in the world, the head of it a refugee from justice in the remote corner of Europe; witness the head of the world’s greatest bank on the way to the Federal penitentiary; witness the world’s greatest private International banking house brought to judgment; witness the world’s match king dying by his own hand in a hotel in Paris; witness the head of the world’s monopoly of rubber, leaping from his own plane crossing the English channel, and the end is not yet.

How true are the prophecies – the Word of God shall stand forever – I Tim. 6:9, 10, 17.

“9. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

“10. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

“17. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”

Soviets War on Three Peoples

Listen, there are three points of attack, first, England, second, America, and third, the Jewish race. The Jew will withstand the attack longer than anybody because of his racial integrity, and because he will fight for the land of his fathers.

Friends, read your Bible, read your Bible. The same Bible that tells us what is going to happen, tells us what is going to be the outcome: “After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land” – Palestine – “that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.” Oh, in this great federation, the Jew will make the last stand against the Gog of Magog and atheism – the Jew will never deny his God.

Modern education of America has already denied God – what’s the meaning of the philosophy of evolution? All from below – there is no such thing as Theistic Evolution – it’s all atheistic. Why was it Clarence Darrow, as a friend in San Antonio told me, when he spoke there, received more applause than the other three together – not because he made any converts, but because he expressed the atheism of this hour. Why do we have the flood tides of atheism, because we have left off the preaching of the judgment of Almighty God and the revelations of God – that’s why atheism is sweeping over the land – because the pulpits of the land and the denominational machines have left the God of Elijah and bowed down to the gods of Baal, that’s why, friends – that’s why there is so much confusion. What is going to be the result ? Thank God there is going to be a result! “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The Valley of Hamon-gog.”

And Daniel saw this same hour – he saw how he would put his faith in the god of force and deny the God of heaven.

Daniel saw that hour and he says: “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas – the Mediterranean – in the glorious holy mountain; – that’s Jerusalem – yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” We hear these prophecies – so let’s take God’s Word – Ezekiel says: “And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.” Then again says the Word of God – “The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness” – and Isaiah saw the end when he said: “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off!”

Yes, we are in the most tremendous hour of the world’s history – nations are giving away, humanity is being uprooted. What will a day bring forth? Listen to what God’s Word says: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh; behold, the judge standeth before the door.” We will open our Bibles and say to every red flag and every black flag on earth, outside of hell: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying – here is what they say – “there shall not be a church left” – 70,000 out of 120,000 have already closed in Russia – there is no religion of any kind – here is what they say, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” That’s atheism. But they have reckoned without God – “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh:” Oh, the laughter of God! “the Lord shall have them in derision.” It’s God’s time to speak now – the beast has been speaking, the anti-Christ has been speaking, the blasphemer has been speaking, the lion of hell has been roaring, terrifying the people – “Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.”

Turn away from the blackness of atheism, and look yonder on Mount Zion! “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” – It’s God speaking now, “I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee,” speaking of the time the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary – and He protected the child Jesus from the bloody sword of Herod, and God shielded Him in the Wilderness, and He led him forth from the baptismal waters of Jordan, and God stood silent by while darkness wrapped itself around the cross on which He died, dying the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, and allowing Satan to bruise His heel. He rolled the stone to His grave and sealed it with hate, but that same God says, “and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth – Mongolia, China, India, the Philippines, Siberia, Russia, the Balkans, Asia-Minor, Italy, France and America – “for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel,” What is the admonition? “Be wise now therefore, O, ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” “Rejoice, and again I say rejoice.” “Kiss the Son – be reconciled – lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”

Be reconciled to God, trust Jesus Christ, your Lord, let the world give way, let the heavens melt with fervent heat, let all the works of the earth be burned up – “Kiss the son'” and be reconciled!

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Now is the time to make your choice,
Say will you to Mount Zion go?
Say will you have this Christ or no?

Say, will you be for ever blest,
And with this glorious Jesus rest?
Will you be saved from guilt and pain?
Will you with Christ for ever reign?

Make now your choice, and halt no more,
For now He’s waiting for the poor;
Say now, poor souls, what will you do?
Say will you have this Christ or no?

Ye dear young men for ruin bound,
Amidst the Gospel’s joyful sound,
Come go with us, and seek to prove
The joys of Christ’s redeeming love.

Your sports and all your glitt’ring toys
Compared with our celestial joys,
Like momentary dreams appear;
Come go with us – your souls are dear.

Or must we leave you bound to hell!
Resolv’d with devils there to dwell!
Still we will weep, lament, and cry,
That God may change you ere you die.

Young women, now we look to you:
Are you resolved to perish too?
To rush in carnal pleasures on,
And sink in flaming ruin down?

Then dear young friend, a long farewell!
We’re bound to heav’n, but you to hell:
Still God may hear us while we pray,
And change you ere the burning day.

Once more I ask you in His name:
I know His love remains the same:
Say will you to Mount Zion go?
Say will you have this Christ or no ?”

Who will repent and confess Him tonight? Who will be the first? Come on! (Many came.)