In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of making divine truth vividly real to our spirits. He prays for God to turn the bright light on so that we can see the landscape of theology clearly, and to make it so bright that we won't perish in the midst of truth, but be saved by it. The preacher also expresses gratitude for the faith once delivered and for Jesus, the Son of Mary and the Son of God. He prays for those listening to have a lasting conviction and personal encounter with Jesus, and emphasizes the need for true discipleship and knowing the truth that sets us free.

Oh, blessed Lord Jesus, blessed Lord Jesus, Thou didst come on a mission. Our trembling hearts tell us Thou shouldst have come with blazing eyes to be our judge. Thou shouldst have come as our executioner to put to death such moral vermin as crawl over the face of the earth, polluting each other and ourselves, that Thou didst not come to condemn the world. Thou didst come that the world through Thee might be saved. What can we say, Lord, to thank Thee, O gentle Savior? How can we borrow language to thank Thee for this Thy dying sorrow and pity without end? We thank Thee, Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, we won't fight about Thee, and we won't argue about hypotheses. We will only kneel and say, My Lord and my God. We have found Him of whom Moses and the prophets did write. Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Son of God. We have found Him. Hallelujah. We have found Him. We thank Him. We pray thee for the friends present tonight. We thank thee for those who responded last evening. Lord, we pray thee tonight, thou grant that there may be those who will go out of this place now with a solemn, lasting conviction that this means the personal individual person, the one, knowing, knowing, knowing that for them he came this way. Blessed Jesus, help us as we wait upon thee just to live longer tonight in the name of Christ. Lord, we pray for these probably 40 people who stand here tonight. Oh, God. The world is busy counting numbers, and the Church is even counting numbers, worshiping success, promoting flesh, pushing Adam to the front. These are saying, I desire to put Adam under my feet and to promote Jesus Christ and to glorify the Father who art in heaven and to make Christ appear large and myself small. These are strange people, Lord, strange. For they have heard a strange voice from another world calling them to humility and meekness and lowliness to take thy yoke upon them and follow thee and to bear the cross that will slay them out to the place of death that they might rise in newness of life and promote the high glory of the Most High God. So we pray for these. We pray that all their hearts yearn for may be theirs and that this may mark in each of their lives a specific spoon of memory. A time when they'll say, from that night on things changed in my life. And things have been different. The old desire for honor and praise and credits all gone and only desire to make Jesus all in all. By the Holy Ghost come and protect these friends till they shall be all, nothing in Christ, all in all. Grant this, we beseech thee, for Jesus' sake. God our Father, we bless thy name that thou didst send us help from the sanctuary out from the heavenly palaces down from the lofty heights above. He came. He came to be born under law, to be born of a woman that he might redeem us who were under law. Who by the curse of the law were lost hopelessly down to the mud and the blood, down to the shadows and the gloom, down to the tears in the tomb. He came. We bless thy holy name for sending him. He came because he wanted to come. But he came because thou didst send him. And father and son agreed. We bless thee, O child of God. We praise thee, O blessed Holy Ghost, the conscience of the world that still keeps dimly alive the racial memory of the world from which we fell. Great God, we do not want thy wrath to be upon us. We want to have that eternal life which was with thee. We pray help tonight. There might not be one go out of here who has not received the Son, who has not obeyed the Son, who has not now taken the Son, believed the Son. O Son of Man, we hear thy voice. Son of God, we see thy light. With our grant we pray that as we go from this place tonight, we may go driven by the hard, overwhelming force of logic to Jesus Christ, the Lord. To know that there is nothing on our level, ancient or modern, that can help us remotely, but only he who came from above, only Jesus. Blessed be the name Jesus. We pray he help us to love that name and follow with us wherever he goes. Help these friends who have listened tonight. We thank you for the privilege of speaking to them. O Lord, we pray send them out with a bit of another world on their hearts, a yearning, a longing, an aspiration that they may open wide the gates of their soul and receive the Lord Christ in, and rest in him and trust him and know that even now in spirit they can be raised out of the valley, and finally that he is coming, taken out for good, and the valley itself transformed, no longer into the valley from the valley of death, but now of life. For the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let's watch. Lord, we thank thee, we thank thee for the faith once delivered. We thank thee for all the music and poetry and artistry, all the high flights of the religious spirit, all the dreams of holy men and the visions of sage and seer. We thank thee for the places that are marked to remind us of men who once walked on earth, good men and true, faithful men and true. And we thank thee that all their activities in faith and belief and discipline and prayer and warfare all led us to him who is its fulfillment. Now we have found him. We have found him, this man who told us everything we ever did, this wondrous man who never sinned, who will sit and talk to us, who never did anything else but sin. How we thank thee for this miracle, this wonderful, shining miracle of the man who came from men. Blessed Jesus, receive our thanks. We thank thee, Lord, we thank thee. We pray that thou will help everybody here tonight to open his heart, her heart, wide to the Savior and to believe that he will come in instantly and at once and plant a well there and spring up and spring up and spring up on and on while the ages go by up unto eternal life. Lord, help us. Help any who may be on the borderline tonight. Help any who may be partly backslidden. Help any who may be wandering. Help any who may be doubting. Lord, may we beseech thee this night, may there be a quick turning of the Spirit to the God of Spirits, who seeketh such to worship him, these who worship in Spirit and in truth. We ask it in Jesus' holy name. Amen. If you'll only believe, let us pray. Lord, we love thee tonight. We confess we do. We want to be restrained and conservative, but we want thee to know, and we want the public to know that we love thee for loving us. We love thee for coming for us. We love thee because thy holiness was not sullied and thy character degraded. For now these come down for me. We love thee for this, Lord Jesus. We bless thee and worship thee this night. And truly we can sing that thou art the one whose presence our soul is delighted. Lord, thou art with thy sheep. Lord, hunting thy sheep. Lord, searching them out from their ravines and gullies caught between sharp points of rock or among the briars, finding them here and finding them there, but finding them. Lord, we pray for any lost sheep here this evening. We pray, Lord Jesus, that thou would find that sheep. May that sheep not go out any longer to redeem the peril of its life. May it bleat until it attracts the shepherd's notice and he comes and takes it on his shoulder and carries it home rejoicing. Blessed be thy name. We thank thee for thy great flock of all tongues and tribes and nations everywhere, O Lord, that have been found, the found ones. We think a lot of the lost ones, but we thank thee for the found ones, which will make in aggregate a group that nobody can number like the sands of the seashore. All lost, but all found. The found ones. Blessed be thy name. Bless every man who is preached in this city tonight or is now preaching, who is now or will be shortly offering the gospel to many invitations. O Lord, blanket Chicago with the cloud of the Holy Ghost. Come down on us, we pray thee, like the descending chicken. May many who are out tonight be in before ten o'clock. Were lost tonight, be found before this service closes. We trust thee that the recent answers to Jesus. You'll do it all right, shall we pray. O thou Son of God, thou most holy Lamb. We are here, thy servants, this evening. And oh, we thank thee, Lord, we're not all there are. We thank thee, Father, that there are many others. Thank thee this is not the only church. Thank thee, Lord, that there isn't a choice between the alliance of church and hell. For there are thousands of churches on this continent where justice, true and wonderful truth is preached. And many of them in this city. For this we thank thee this night and give thee praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for all the good churches and good preachers and good faithful men of God. But Father, there are churches that fatten and grow on those who won't take them our way. Great God, pity and spare this refuge for cowards, these great ornate edifices dedicated to the deserters, paid for for the cowards, kept up for the ignoble deserters from the army of God. Have mercy on such. Oh, have mercy on such. But bless every gospel church, Lord. Bless every gospel church, whatever denomination. Bless every man that stands to preach tonight. And Father, some of them will stand with robes on, but they'll preach the word. And some choirs tonight, wearing robes, will sing the wonders of redemption. Blessed be thy name. Now, look, it's not on the outward appearance, but on the heart. We bless thee and worship thee tonight that we have found the way past the veil, through the blood, to the holy of holies with God. Blessed be thy name. And now, Lord, we pray thee for any who may be discouraged, who may be having a hard time, who may have been secretly toying with throwing it all up and saying, What's the use? They've been tempted and they've even fallen. Great God, have mercy upon thy sheep tonight, thy poor, bruised, battered sheep. Satan and wolves and bears and lions, they've been after thy sheep. Their jaws are slavering and their eyes are keen and sharp and penetrating, and their paws are soft as they pat around waiting. O Lord, save thy sheep from the maw of the dragon tonight. Bless this truth. Show us plainly through it that there's nowhere to go, but show us also that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, that Christ who should come to turn our feet toward thee as well as our hearts. Help us now as we wait upon thee, Father. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Means. Believe on him, obey him, and let the world know. Let us pray. O Lord, O Lord Jesus, our Lord, the great world, sons of Cain, nice people, many of them, friendly people, people that would give a dollar if we got in trouble, lend us their lawn mower, help us if we got a flat tire, good people. But in religion, followers of that man who brought the flowers and didn't bring the blood. Maybe Cain, maybe Abel's disposition wasn't as nice as Cain's. But he had found a refuge under blood, and he was born of the new spirit. Then he that was only born once murdered him that was born twice. O God, we hate to think it. We love people, we love the world, we want to get along with everybody. We wish that we could always nod our head and amen everything everybody says. We hate to be on the other side. We hate to be stubborn, contentious. But O Jesus, there's a saying, thou art a good man. Now there's a saying, no religion deceives people. So they're fighting it out, and they're both wrong. O Christ, thou art more than a man. Thou art God, thyself God, begotten of the Father before all ages. Thou art thyself man, born of Mary in time. The perfect man and perfect God compounded. This night, O Lord Jesus, we pray that the carelessness and the breeziness might go out of our spirits. We might wait and know whose side we're on. O Lord, we take thy side. Even if it's against our friends, we take thy side. We own thee, Lord, to boss us, to tell us what to do, and we promise to obey thee, O Lord. We would be disciples of thine, taking the cross and following thee. We pray for any who may this night not have taken this way. We pray for such. They be here. God, have mercy. Have mercy, O Son of God. Have mercy tonight for the world is very evil and the times are waxing late and the judgment's drawing near. We beseech thee, Lord, to pity and spare and forgive and have mercy on our poor souls. We ask of thee. O Lord Jesus, thou art the light of the world, the light of the world. O lighthouse, shine on me. Shine on me. And please, Lord, don't let anything prevent the light from shining. Thou hast said, if anybody is willing, he shall know. We believe in the body of truth, and with full stentorian tones we can say, I believe in God the Father almighty and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, and I believe in the Holy Ghost. We thank thee we believe the body of truth. We thank thee also thou hast taught us that there are depths beyond and beneath and above that we must plunge into by obedience and faith. And when we find the inner soul of truth, then we are converted and not till that time. O God, save us, we pray thee, from the snares and the traps into which we so easily fall. Save us from textualism. Save us from rationalism. Save us, we pray thee, our God, from the error of the Pharisees. Save us from the cold hand that would teach us the code. We pray thee, give us light from above. O light, come down. Illuminate our souls. Make heavenly things vividly real. Make divine truth vividly real to our spirits. Turn the bright light on until we can see the landscape of theology lies shrouded in night. Turn the bright sun on, God, so we can see everything down to the four-leaf clover or a butterfly there. Make it so bright, O my God, that we won't perish in the midst of truth, but we'll be saved by truth. Save us, we pray, from hanging on to the things that will bind us and going the way of evil, wanting to be good but not wanting to be good bad enough to be good. Great God, help us to repent. Help us to hate ourselves. Help us to hate sin. Help us to hate the sin that makes thee mourn and keeps thee from our rest. Help us, God. This is people tonight. Let there be no deceived people walk out these doors. Let there be none go out of here who have a name to live but are dead. Let there be none go out who are reprobates. Let no one walk down these winding stairs onto the street in inward blindness. But may they obey. For thou hast told us, if we would be willing to obey, we should know. Knowledge follows willingness to obey. So help this night, we pray, for Jesus' sake. I give thee praise. Lord, we are more concerned that if everything be all right with us now and in the day of our death or at the coming of thy Son, we're more concerned than that we stand well in religion. That we have a reputation among the Saints. We're more concerned, Lord, that things be now right with us. Oh, we thank thee, Lord Jesus. How didst say to such poor world-wanderers as we are, If ye become my disciples and follow me and go on and become disciples, indeed ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And if the Son sets you free, ye shall be free indeed. For I am the light of the world and he that follows me shall never walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Thank thee, Lord, there need be no concern, need be no doubts, need be no worries. For we can know that we're following thee. As we walk in the light, as thou art in the light, we have fellowship with thee and with one another. In the blood of Jesus Christ thy Son friend is us from all, and this is a greater treasure than all, the gold of Ophir and the diamonds of Africa. More to be desired is it than all jewels, all rubies, all the corn and wheat and all the granaries of the world. So we seek tonight to know and be sure that we're not only sons of the descendants of the Reformers, but true sons of their faith. Whatever our denomination is, we're not only in the tradition of our denomination, but that we have the spiritual experiences of those who in other days brought those denominations into existence by their faith. Thank thee for every true Methodist. Thank thee for every holy Presbyterian. Thank thee for every godly Baptist. Thank thee for every happy Nazarene. Thank thee, O Lord, for every blessed, heart-happy Quaker. Thank thee for every man and woman of God of whatever denomination that loves thee tonight, and we feel we're a part of their fellowship. But, O, save us, we pray thee from the tragedy and snare of imprinted privilege, of vested interests, believing everything's all right because we're descended from parents that are all right. Great God, save us from this. And we trust thee that thou wouldst send us out from this church with a quiet, certain, sure gaze at the light of the world, meekly disclaiming all felt righteousness, humbly denying ourselves, willingly taking the cross, sorry for all that is imperfect and wrong, glad for the blood that cleanses, grateful for the grace that pardons, and remembers sin no more forever. Blessed be thy name. You heard him. God help you. Let's pray. O thou shepherd of Israel, thou shepherd of the sheep, the Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me down to lie in pastures green. He leads me to the quiet waters by. O Lord, thou art the shepherd of thy sheep. We're so pleased with the arrangement. We're so glad it's worked out that way. We're so glad that thou didst so have it. We wouldn't have felt comfortable if thou hadst made Moses our shepherd. We remember Moses broke some rocks one time, smote another rock, killed a man. We wouldn't have been comfortable if thou hadst made Elijah our shepherd, because Elijah called down fire. O Lord Jesus, we're comfortable having thee as our shepherd. We're relaxed and restful, for thou art a good shepherd and a great shepherd, an understanding, sympathetic, loving shepherd. We thank thee, Lord Jesus, for being our shepherd. Thank thee for David, but we're glad he's not our shepherd. He didn't like a man, he ordered his head off. But O Lord, we thank thee, thou art our shepherd. Now we pray thee for any who may be lost this night. For Jesus' sake, we pray, before the lights go out in this building, they may have found the shepherd, or the shepherd found them. Grant it for Jesus' sake. Enlarge our hearts. Make us big inside, bigger inside than we are outside. Make us as big as the world. Make us as big as the whole Church of God. Inside, big enough to contain every saint. Let thy mercy be over us now, through Jesus Christ our Lord.