In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about a clever young man who made a mistake and ended up in prison. The preacher emphasizes that in nature, breaking the laws results in permanent consequences, but God offers a new beginning through forgiveness. The preacher recounts an experience at a dance where God's presence was felt and a headmaster cried out for forgiveness. The sermon also mentions a young sailor who returns home after a failure, unaware of the revival happening in his district. The preacher highlights the importance of testimony and God expressing himself through holy personalities.

Will you turn with me to the book of Exodus and to the 40th chapter. Exodus chapter 40, and we shall read the first five verses. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the veil. And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it, and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamp thereof. And thou shalt set the altar of gold before the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. The divine record of the tabernacle is a story of absorbing interest. It presents a field of study at once beautiful and edifying. We are not left in doubt as to its true meaning in the camp of Israel. You remember that the writer to the Hebrews speaks of it as a shadow of heavenly things. For as we have it in our Gaelic Bible, a shadow of things that are heavenly. Now this morning I am not going to speak of shadows or of types. We have bowls in this interesting record. What I purpose doing this morning, tomorrow morning, and the following morning, is to direct your attention to three songs suggested by the story. Today we shall consider the time of its setting up. On the first day of the first month set up the tabernacle. Tomorrow we shall consider the purpose of its setting up, that I may dwell among you. And on the third morning the place of its setting up in the midst of the camp of Israel. And now this morning consider with me the time of its setting up. On the first day of the first month set up the tabernacle. Now it seems to me that these words have a message. At least they have a message for me. Are they not suggestive of new beginnings? Some little time ago it was my privilege to listen to one of our great Scottish preachers, Professor James S. Stuart. And he was on this occasion speaking on the subject of revival. And this is what he said. Revival is a new discovery of Jesus and his power to save. Suggesting a new beginning. Now is the Christian life not made up of new beginnings. I believe, dear people, that while it is true that there comes an hour when we enter into saving and covenant relationship with God. When God stoops down or comes down the soul to greet and glory crowns the mercy seat. And we discover for the first time that heaven has invaded the soul and God as savior has become supremely real. It is equally true that there ever must be in my mind and heart this conviction that I must begin every new day with a new beginning with God. I recall the words of Hesychius. There was an hour in his life when he registered a new beginning. In the following words, I found it in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel. And I frequently say to my students in Edinburgh that it is a good thing in the early hours of our meeting with God to make a covenant with him. That that day will find us walking with him, talking with him and listening ever to the voice that gives direction through every hour of every single day. Yes, surprising though it seems, it is always God's way to lead us on to new beginnings. And I wonder if among those who responded to the appeals yesterday, young men and young women have been found registering a new beginning and saying life, life can never be the same again. It just means that the truth that grips me today must find expression and embodiment in a new building of myself. Dear God, this is a message to those who may have been trying and who today are conscious of defeat. Yes, they have tried again and again, they have knelt in the presence of God and they have said never again, never again will I yield to that temptation. Never again will I be found in that company. Never again will I dishonor the Christ who saved me and the Christ whom I promised to serve in this convention. And at this hour, because of repeated failures, you are gripped by a sense of baffling and a sense of frustration and you are saying, can it ever be different? Can I ever get back the year that the locusts have eaten? Can the waste places be made again? Can the marred vessels be made? Yes, I say it can be made if it is in the hands of the party. That to me is a glorious truth. I remember some years ago when as a minister conscious of frustration and baffling I found myself prostrate on my face before God wondering if I could ever get back the years that the locusts had eaten. Could I ever again register a new beginning with God? And God in his mercy led me to that passage in Old Testament stories that speaks of the vessel marred. And I kept saying yes, I'm marred. Yes, I'm marred. Then suddenly, suddenly there came to me this glorious conviction that somehow I was still in the hands of the party. He could have thrown me on the way of teeth. He could have left me on the shelf as a castaway. But the hand that gripped me at the moment of my regeneration the hand that lifted me from the miry clay of sin was the hand that still held me so marred. And that hand, oh blessed God that hand could make me again and I could register and heaven could record a new beginning. Oh that this truth may grip us again this morning. A truth spoken by God to his ancient people. He brought them out not to leave them in the wilderness not to have them ever moving in a dry and parched desert. He brought them out that he might bring them in. Now I'm speaking to some today who have been brought out. Egypt is behind and I trust behind forever but yet in a wilderness experience grumbling, grumbling conscious that things are not just what you had hoped they would be. Listen my friend the God who brought you out is the God who is anxious to bring you in and in that very wilderness experience you can build a tabernacle and you can register a new beginning for God. I think just now of one of our own workers she was mightily used in revival wonderfully used in revival but if the devil can't push you down he'll push you up and the devil got in and pushed her up. She was the instrument used in revival. She was the instrument used to lead hundreds of God's people into a deeper experience of God and Satan came and told her that as I already said if he can't push you down he'll push you up and he pushed her up. There came a day when the Holy Spirit of God brought that revelation to that young woman what happened? She had a nervous breakdown smashed, broken until at last she even went as far as to wonder if she was ever born again. Oh, how the devil can get us how the powers of darkness can hold us how necessary it is in every stage of Christian experience on the mountain or in the valley to be in vital contact with God my brother and sister you will stay only when you're there. She had flipped out somehow and for three long months she was in darkness in terrible darkness until one day in her bedroom she read the word the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time and she in that wonderful hour recognized the voice that was speaking through that word and to her mind there came the thought the gospel of a second chance and I'm glad today that I can proclaim the gospel of a second chance not on the other side of the grave but here there's no second chance over there as the tree falleth for shall it lie as death finds you so will judgment that is not commonly believed today oh no the damnable doctrine of universalism is aching after very vital of truth and Christian experience I think I ought to tell you here because it comes to my mind an experience that I had some time ago I was asked to address a conference of ministers in Oxford there must have been between eighty and a hundred ministers gathered and I was asked to speak on the Holy Ghost in evangelism but they suggested that I might select the closing address myself so I choose as my subject for the closing address the goodness and the severity of God the goodness and the severity and of course I spoke of judgment and I spoke of hell where the world never dies and the fire is not quenched after the meeting those responsible for bringing me to Oxford asked if they could see me in the vestry of the church I naturally thought that they were gathering there to pay my travelling expenses that was all that I had in my mind but I tell you I found something very different they shut the door, now listen they were all reputed to be evangelical men as a matter of fact they were having nights of prayer for this minister's conference and they were men who took coach loads to Haringey to listen to Dr. Billy Graham of course they were evangelical men as I thought but listen to them now Mr. Campbell surely you do not believe in the hell of the Puritan I looked at them and said now what do you mean by the hell of the Puritan I believe in the hell that Christ believes in the hell that the new testament speaks about the wicked shall be cast into hell says the old testament and the nations that forget God that's the hell that I believe in the chairman looked at me and said had we known that these were your views and convictions we would never have asked you to address this conference evangelical men my dear people that's the day in which we're living no wonder the stream of vital Christianity is running so low and sin is walking unashamed through our courts one brother spoke and said Mr. Campbell you must not misunderstand us we believe in we believe in the second death but the second death is death it's annihilation if you accept Christ you remartial if you reject Christ you die like your dog no no second chance there but thank God a second chance here I wouldn't be standing before you this morning did God not give me a second chance oh think of Jonah for a little the word of the Lord came to him the second time Jonah had failed and as he lay there on the shores of Nineveh oh he is conscious very very conscious of his failure then God comes oh thank God he comes has he come to you did he come to you last night did he come to you yesterday afternoon did he come to you yesterday morning speaking words of rebuke speaking words of correction speaking words of deconviction relative to your failure and to your sin but did he come with a word of pardon to forgive us all thy iniquities to heal us oh wonderful word to heal us all oh how I thank God for that word all all thy deceit as I go up and down the country today in Britain I find that many of God's dear people are deceived oh I could tell you story after story of young men deceived and gripped by a sin that I wouldn't spoil my lips just four months ago sitting in my study the telephone rang the long distant call my secretary said so I went to the phone the young man from Cambridge is anxious to speak to me Mr. Campbell I was listening to you in Westminster Chapel last week and I'm terribly disturbed can I see you could I see you on Saturday in Edinburgh oh I'm sorry I'm to be in Aberdeen on Saturday then can I see you in Aberdeen oh you see this man was in desperation in desperation yes you can see me in Aberdeen then I shall fly to Glasgow and train from Glasgow to Aberdeen if I cannot get a suitable plane so in Aberdeen I met him and I cannot tell you the sin that gripped that young man except to say this that it was the sin of impurity impurity a sin that is too prevalent today in the student community and I'm not talking in ignorance I'm not talking in ignorance I've worked too long amongst students in Britain I can only speak of course for business but that young man told me a story yes he was actively engaged in the Christian Union he was assisting art campaigns and crusades in different parts of England under the auspices of the InterVarsity Fellowship but he was deceived by a sin that conquered him and conquered him and conquered him again was there deliverance could he be delivered from this awful sin the damn pardon could he be delivered and I'm thankful to say that as we knelt together and I spoke of him who was manifested to destroy the works of the devil that he suddenly came to see that the God who shed the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleansed from all this is the word all again cleansed from all sin he could cleanse him from the sin that mastered him and kept him in bondage and I'm thankful to say that that young man registered a new beginning and today he is a curate in a church of England and I believe the day will not be long until he will be a vicar in one of our evangelical churches in England God gloriously delivered him and in that room he built a tabernacle and registered a new beginning oh am I speaking to any here and you are fettered you are bound and you loathe yourself for yielding so often you loathe yourself and again and again you are servile if the principle knew my thoughts and my desires and my actions he would send me home have you said that have you said that I remember not so very long ago we were having our time of prayer in the college we are just there now in Edinburgh they'll be praying for us we spend Friday morning on our knees lectures put aside everything else put aside the way upon God well some time ago while waiting upon God one of our highland students born again in the Jewish revival was suddenly caught up in God do you know friend what it means to be caught up in God the spirit of God fell upon us gathering and we were on our faces till twenty past four lunch was forgotten oh it's wonderful to be in such a meeting a meeting that left its mark upon staff and students it was revival in the college but after that meeting a young man came to me now he was a very keen student with a clear keen interest he came to me can I see you Mr. Campbell in your study when do you wish to see me I want to see you now so to the study we went Mr. Campbell I've just discovered that I was never born again when Duncan was praying that revelation came to me I was never born again I am a deceiver and I am going home and he went home the following I am thankful to say that since then he has come into saving relationship with Jesus Christ and he is now actively engaged in evangelistic effort in England but what I want to impress upon you is this that when God the Holy Ghost came when the spirit of God began to work men and women there discovered things about themselves that they never suspected before and adjustments had to be made and new beginnings registered and I trust I pray that something similar to that may happen at this convention oh see him there prostrate broken on the shores of Nineveh and then God comes to him oh so like God oh like God God comes and he says to him Jonah here is an opportunity to make a new beginning you have failed yes you have failed me but I am here to speak to you again you can register a new dedication you can register a new I am here to deal with the sin of disobedience and I am here to make your and listen God made him again now I have a truth here that we do well to remember and it is this that in recovery in revival the first step is and remain with God God came and God those convictions that you have those aspirations that have listen friends they have their origin in the sovereign mercy of God God yes in effect God is saying to Jonah Jonah you are in a mess there can be no doubt at all about that you are in a wilderness that is certain but Jonah you are just in the place where you can build a tavern thank God for that oh there isn't a wilderness but God has his ministry to meet me and to help me indeed God himself comes to the wilderness oh how precious are the words of Rita Snowden you recall what she said if you read her book The Dawn God's forgiveness is just God trusting me again in the place where I disgraced isn't that wonderful God trusting me again in the place where I is that the place you're in today is that the consciousness that is gripping you now that you have disobeyed and in your disobedience you have dishonored God oh I'll never forget the cry of a schoolmaster in Louis he at one time loved the Savior as a young lad he professed faith in Jesus Christ went to university in Glasgow and while there lost out and back slid to terrible death during the revival indeed it was in a dance he was head of a concert party about concert and dance God swept into the dance swept in young men and women fled from the floor gripped by the fear of God one man described it thus I felt the flames of hell licking my very soul as I fled from that den of iniquity speaking of this dance this concert and God's visitation this headmaster was found on his face on the floor crying God is there forgiveness for me is there forgiveness for me hell is too good for me that's conviction that's God at work but listen on that dance floor God came to him again the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time yes he's in a wilderness but there he built a tavern and registered a new beginning I want to tell you what that man said speaking at a testimony meeting in connection with wonderful communion you see in the highlands Friday is given over to testimony you must have a testimony to the saving grace of God before you're allowed to sit at the Lord's table I would that was impressed upon people everywhere as Lord's table wouldn't be cluttered with men that are living in sin I say that as a Presbyterian minister this man is giving his testimony and this is what he said if there is one thing that lies heavy upon my spirit it is this that during those years of backsliding I helped the devil to damn the young people of the past oh my dear people helped the devil if I'm not gathering I'm scattered if I'm not living for God I'm living for the devil if I'm not winning for Christ I'm winning them for the devil I care not what I possess that was the truth that gripped me and troubled me the number of young people that he that were living in sin and he said that day I believe some of them are in hell because of my disobedience yet God came to him and God spoke the word of forgiveness and God made him again oh thank God for the gospel of a second chance that you today in this convention can register a new beginning can build a tabernacle in your wilderness and know the glorious truth relative to the vest that can be made again I remember one of the elders in Louis saying to me after the great awakening in the parish of Barber he said Mr. Campbell you must have lived for this day and now you will live in the memory of it of course I knew what the dear man meant I'm sure he was thinking of the rest and the joy and the peace that must have flooded the soul in seeing prayer answered and God moving but is that the real thing oh is that the real thing I say a thousand times no the real thing is to be saw in the will of God that today surprises in the realm of grace makes yesterday's experience but a commonplace each day registering a new beginning with God now let me say and I wish this to be clearly understood that the gospel of a new beginning is only possible as an expression of God himself nature nature knows nothing of it it is a fixed rule in nature that if any of her laws be broken they're attached to the one who breaks them a permanent disability and this truth is contrary to the spirit of the world oh the world worships power success is its deed but let a man fail let a man break down let a man fall beat in business or out of business he seldom he'd ever get another chance he's down keep him down that's the spirit of the age oh he seldom gets a frank a fool and a free forgiveness that sets them again on the way of life humbled humbled but inspired I was preaching at the mound in Edinburgh some little time ago and after a message a young man came to me oh he was in trouble he was just released from prison he was a very clever young man highly educated but in an evil hour yielded to temptation and found himself behind prison bars you know what he said to me I've walked Edinburgh during the past week seeking employment and when I tell the truth to them no one will have me no one will have me and I looked at him and said young man I know one that will have you I know one that will have you he's face lit up oh he says tell me tell me who is he is he in Edinburgh yes I said and he's at the mound he's here now here now could I speak to him yes would you like to go on your knees on my coat here and we'll talk to him and then it dawned on what I meant and a cloud came over his face and I stood beside him and I prayed and then he said do you think that he would help oh I felt now I'm getting there do you think that he will help me yes I said he will on one condition and on one condition only that you repent of your sin and accept him as your saviour listen just like a flash he said Mr. Campbell my parents have been praying for me I'll do that now and he did it and today he's in employment and doing well oh thank God it may not be the spirit of the world but blessed be God that's how Jesus he comes and he meets me at the very point of my need and he organizes victory for me on the very ground of my defeat and there oh blessed God there I can register a new beginning oh the inspiration of I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten and ye shall know I am in the midst of Israel I believe dear people that listening to me this morning there are those to whom God is speaking you know where you have failed him young man you know young woman and that you listen to me there is within your heart oh such a longing to be real my appeal these days is for reality for reality in godliness in holiness in vital Christian living oh how desperate it is to hear people today talk about the need of a new technique and I listen a new approach in the field of evangelism so in Edinburgh they've introduced the in one of our churches reputed to be evangelical oh god help us this is a new approach that is why I say I'm tired listening it's not a new approach or a new technique but a new dissertation of God through consecrated godly living oh give us that in our churches give us men and women possessed by God let me tell you a story illustrating what I mean during the revival I had a letter from an atheist he was headmaster of one of our schools, an atheist would you call I'm anxious to have a talk with you people with whom I stayed were amazed, surprised that I should receive a letter from this desperate man so I called in course of conversation he said this would you prove to me or could you prove to me theologically that there is a god theologically I wouldn't attempt it no I said I wouldn't attempt to prove to you logically that there is a god because finite mind can never grasp the infinite the world by wisdom knew not god but if you wish to be introduced to the god that I believe in to the god that saved me and to the god that is real to me now spend half a day in the village of Arno and I can still see that proud atheist bow his head I can see the tears streaming from his eyes half he said did you say half a day half an hour did he I was in that village yesterday and I met who was little Donald McHale a lad of sixteen years of age who was gloriously saved the night the revival swept through that community a fortnight after that young Donald was out on the hill sending some cattle he is praying as he lay among the heather and suddenly God the Holy Ghost he was baptized into Christ kneeling by a peat sack the night that God visited the village on the hill he was baptized explain it as you will give it any term you like he was baptized by the Holy Ghost and so baptized that he couldn't rise from the good parents found him there his mother said Donald we've been looking for you for hours oh mother leave me I'm having a boy of sixteen years of age I may say that he is today a minister and a missionary in southern Arabia and seeing a wonderful work done among the Arabs yes that was the last that met the proud old school man and when he met him he met God he met God God expressing himself through holy personality that's it that's the impact may I tell you another story it was the following week he is again leading the cattle out of the village to the moor just as he is passing through the village gate a coach, a bus from the town stops and a young man he is carrying two cases he is just home from Australia he is a sailor no he knew nothing about the revival he was on the sea when revival swept his district he is home for a short he is carrying two heavy kids young Don goes over to him Norman we are glad to see you home especially at such a time now that was all he said that was all that he said passed on with the cattle by the time Norman got to his home he was in the grip of deep conviction, something laid hold of him that he never experienced before and he kept repeating to himself I am quoting him now, I am quoting him he kept repeating oh my God I am a sinner I am a sinner won't you see me now he hadn't heard about the revival he hadn't heard that God had swept into the village some weeks before but he is now in an environment where the supreme reality is God has revival he went to the home his mother met him at the door and embraced him we are glad to see you home Norman he had been away for two years oh mother won't you pray for me won't you pray for me Norman we have need to pray for ourselves yet God hadn't visited that home I believe God ordained that what I now going to tell you was to happen the mother said Norman no we have much need to pray for ourselves but your old companion was saved last night and I'll ask him in to pray for you and she went and she asked this young man the neighbour took him in and that young lad that young man born again on the previous evening poured out his heart that God might save Norman and God saved Norman and God saved Norman to that God oh that God because the Holy Ghost the power of the city he shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and the Holy Ghost came upon that young lad we frequently speak of him as the Evan Roberts of Louis I believe more souls were saved through his prayer than through the preaching and the prayer of every minister in Louis to be among them God came empowered him set him free they leave me mother I'm having an audience with the living in high places with God and it's in the high place my brother that the miracle happens it doesn't happen down here oh to get to high out at this convention to get to high places with God then the miracle happens and a tabernacle is built in the wilderness and the community sees a new beginning and God marching gloriously as hell is made to sleep back before the presence of the Lord of life oh may God grant it may God grant it