The very Scriptures you have woven into your plea are the sword of the Spirit by which the Lord shall pierce hearts this night. You are not sent forth to crawl about the outer court, hoping for some distant mercy. No, by the blood of Jesus you are bid come boldly to the throne of grace, right up to the mercy seat, and there ask with confidence for every soul appointed to hear. The veil is torn. Your intercessions are not the whisperings of beggars at the gate, but the voice of children in the presence of a Father who delights to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.
Why should you doubt that the Lord shall order steps and open doors? Is not the Gospel itself the power of God unto salvation? You have not taken your own contrivance into the street. You carry the very Word that the Holy Ghost delights to own. When we press Scripture to our bosom and speak because “it is written,” we stand upon a rock that no cunning of the evil one can shake. Let your tracts, your words, your very looks be saturated with the old, old story. The Lord hath said, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else.” It is his own sovereign command, and the power goes with the message. He breaketh the high places and exalteth the valleys. None can stay his hand.
This salvation you proclaim is no stinted dram, but milk and wine, wine indeed that maketh glad the heart, and milk fit for the feeblest babe. It speaks full discharge from sin’s guilt, snapping of the chains of its power, and shelter from the wrath to come. There is in it everything a sinner needs. You go forth to hold out this common salvation, common because it springs from the same Divine grace and is the treasured inheritance of all who believe. Go then, and make it common. Labor for names and addresses; follow up the weary wanderers; watch for them as they that must give account. Yet remember that your hope lies not in your earnestness alone, but in the Spirit’s drawing. It is he who opens eyes to see Jesus even in the most unlikely place, as old Simeon beheld the Lord’s Christ in a child brought with two turtledoves. Pray for those gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and healing to be in full operation, and be quick to obey his faintest monition.
Your prayer for protection is heard. He who taught you to ask, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” will not now leave his little company to the jaws of the devour. Imposters shall be unmasked, evil men turned aside, and your own feet kept from falling. The Lord shall perfect that which concerneth you, for it is a part of that great work by which he is teaching the universe that he is God alone, Jehovah, mighty to save. Yours is the sweet privilege of carrying the very salver upon which the water of life is placed. So speak with boldness, for you are not under law but under grace, and the goodness of God leads sinners to repentance.