This Free Church has a work to do. All around us are men for whom Christ died, and yet many only use that name to swear by. In sorrow and sickness, in pollution and sin, there are men who live as though they thought they could die like oxen in the stall. Our Master’s work is our work. “The poor ye have always with you, and when ye will ye may do them good.” Will the day ever come when our eyes shall be opened to believe with all our hearts in the brotherhood of Jesus? when we shall see the name of the Lamb written on the poor man’s forehead? Beloved, it is not alms alone that he needs; he needs a brother’s hand and a brother’s heart””cheerful words to make him braver in his sorrow””wise planning to lift him out of trouble””a God speed””a welcome; these, with alms, are blessed: without this, alms to-day needs alms to-morrow, and the poor sink deeper in poverty and woe. This city has thousands of young men: a stranger notices this as he walks the street. The clear eye and commanding step, the young man hopeful of the future, are with us. They have no homes. To many the Sunday comes without a thought of God. If they were sought after, this would be their home; for, beloved, there are few young men who do not remember a mother, and when at unlooked-for times they catch the tones of that mother’s voice, they feel that they ought to go where that voice would lead them, and become Christian men. This city is full of craftsmen, those workers in wood and iron, men of strong frames and busy brains””they are the very life of the nation. On every railway, in every shop, on our inland seas””they meet us everywhere. They have warm hearts, and are generous to a fault; they are men of the very best intellects; they belong to the thinkers of the age””quick to grasp a truth and ready to fulfill. Why are they not the Sons of the Church? The fault is not in the invitation. Read the sentence on these walls: “The Spirit and the Bride,” which is the Church of Christ, “say come; and let him that heareth, say come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely.” The fault is ours. There is only one place to learn how to do this work. It is at the foot of the Cross.
