"Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, . . . . that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection." Phil. iii. 8, 10.

We have in these words a statement by a man who, measured by whatsoever standard you please, takes first rank among men. If you measure his influence on the work of the world, you will find that he takes first rank in this respect, for no man ever influenced the work of the world more than the Apostle Paul. If you measure him again by his influence on the thoughtlife of the world, here he stands alone, for the writings of Paul have influenced human thought more than the writings of any other man. Again, if you measure him by his influence on the ideals of the world, this man is without an equal. He is, therefore, an ideal for us, one whom we may well choose to-night to give to us the keynote of this convention. This I believe may

Thursday evening, July 5, 1906.

be found in the words we have chosen for our text. Look if you will at these words. I. AS EMBODYING THE SECRET OF A GREAT LIFE. The aim of life determines the character of the life. You tell me what your goal is in life and I will tell you what your character will be and ultimately what your destiny will be. In these days there are many aims bidding for our life. Here is a man choosing the materialistic aim in life; life with him consists of "meat and drink," the mere matter of accumulation of money. Here is another man who is making the intellectual aim the goal of life. To him knowledge, abstract knowledge of God's relation to the world, is all there is in life. Then there are those who turn away from the material aim, the intellectual aim, saying the goal of life is power, power over other men, social power, political power, power to stand above one's fellows. This aim is laying hold of many a young heart to-day. All of these aims bid for Paul's life, but he passed them all by and made the supreme aim of his life an undying desire "to know Jesus Christ." In this desire we find the secret of his character and his influence.

I dare say to the young women of this convention that if you can make this desire the sole aim of every hour, of every act, of every thought, of every impulse during these ten days in which you are to be together, you will go out into the world to be a stronger force for the kingdom of God and for righteousness than ever before.

II. Let us go on to ask WHAT IT MEANS TO "KNOW CHRIST." I never speak on this subject without feeling that I am confronted with a lot of people who say: "Yes, we know Christ; we would not come here if we did not know Him." But I am very sure that there are many of us here to-night who want to know Him better, and it is possible that there are some of us here whose hearts are hungering to know Him in a more personal and real way than ever before.

What then does it mean to know Christ? (1) Surely it means something more

BETSEY MOODY COTTAGE.

than having a nodding acquaintance with Him. I sometimes wonder at the flippancy with which we use these sacred words. It ought to be a very reverent subject. We ought to talk about it with solemnity, dignity, reverence, awe, as well as holy love. Do you know Jesus? Have you something more than a nodding acquaintance with Him? We sometimes ask one another, Do you know So and So? Yes, we know him, and about all we could say, if we were asked to define our knowledge, is that we met him somewhere at a reception, or heard him speak, or a friend introduced us to him and we passed on. Talk about knowing Him! Surely to know Jesus Christ is something more than this nodding and casual acquaintance.

(2) Surely it means something more than a historical acquaintance with Him, though that is very important. It is an exceedingly important thing that we should know about Jesus Christ. I think in these days when the historical Christ is being discounted it is worth while to fix forever the fact that all the Christ we will ever know in this life worth knowing is based on the historical Christ, and if there is no historical Christ, every other Christ is valueless. We want to know Him in a historical way, but it is not enough to trace His life through the four gospels and follow Him from Bethlehem to Olivet. I may be able to do that and yet not know Him. The sad thought is this: that there are men and women to-day in Christian America who know Him historically, but have no further acquaintance with Him. Oh, yes, we must know Him historically, but we must know something more!

(3) Surely to know Jesus Christ means something more than an ecclesiastical ac

quaintance with Him. How many are perfectly satisfied to have their names on the church roll and hold a certificate of baptism. God forbid that I should say a word to minimize the importance of church membership. Every Christian man ought to be in the Christian church, but after all a man is not saved because he is in the church, nor is he necessarily a Christian man because he is in the church. He ought to be in the church because he is saved. There is a vast difference between a tree and a post. You may take a post and plant it in the very best soil, and water it and nourish it and do everything you can for it, and still it is a post, and your care only serves the purpose of making it rot. But you take a tree and plant it in the soil, and nourish it and give it needful water and the proper opportunity, and its roots are driven down into the soil and nourishment is taken up and the trunk grows and you have, by and by, the great oak standing the strain of the storm. The man who comes into the church without being saved is like the post. The man who comes in because he is saved is like the living tree. We ought to have more than an ecclesiastical acquaintance. We ought to be able to show something more than our baptismal certificate, or confirmation card, or church letter.

(4) We ought to have something more than a theological acquaintance with Christ. I am not here to run down theology; I was brought up on it; I was born in its midst. I do not believe we can afford in these days to discount straight, strong, definite scriptural thinking. But nevertheless a man may have a scriptural and definite theological acquaintance with Christ and yet not know Him.

Now, there must be something more in Paul's desire to know Christ. You could not get such a product as the life of the Apostle Paul out of a mere nodding acquaintance with Christ, or out of a mere historical, or theological, or ecclesiastical acquaintance. Knowing Christ made Paul the colossal character of his day, the mightiest influence in the life of the world apart from that of his Master.

(5) To know Christ means a personal acquaintance with Him, that acquaintance with Him which made it possible for Paul to say: "I am crucified with Christ:

nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me." That is what the apostle means when he talks about knowing Jesus Christ, a life crucified with Christ, a life buried with Christ, a life risen with Christ, a life that is the Christ life. This personal acquaintance is what Paul means by "knowing Christ."

I have been very much impressed during the last few days in which we have been celebrating the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Mount Hermon with the number of men who came to me and said, "Did you know Mr. Moody personally?" There was something very pathetic about their question to me. It had not dawned on me that years had gone by and some men had gone out from Mount Hermon who never looked into those eyes of love, and never heard that voice, the sweetest voice that ever sounded in these regions; never felt the grasp of that hand, that was a father's hand to every one who laid hold of it. I shall never forget the man who said so earnestly, "I wish I had known him in that way." Young women, it is not your privilege to know this man of God whom some of us here have known, but it is your privilege to know the Christ Who made him what he was. It is your privilege to know Christ in this personal way. I want you to know Him. But let us understand what it means to know Christ in a personal way. III. THE CONDITIONS FOR KNOWING CHRIST. (1) There are some conditions with which we must comply if we are going to know Christ in this personal way. Those conditions are stated here in this old Book. "If any man wills to do his will he shall know." "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Those are not my words. Here they are in divine writ, and it is not my business to explain them away; it is my business to believe them. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Obedience, absolute, implicit obedience is one of the conditions for knowing Jesus Christ in this personal way. To know Christ I must obey Christ. No other way. Obedience is the

avenue of knowledge in the spiritual world. We say that in the realm of science we must know before we obey. Very well. In the realm of spiritual truth you must obey before you know. Now, what does it mean to obey? I watched the boat races a few years ago between two great colleges, and I think I have in it an illustration of what it means to obey. Eight men in the boat, but the success of the race depended upon each one of them being obedient to one single will, and that the will of the captain. Eight men, but one will. With all their energy back of that will they drove the blue to victory. Obedience means your will and my will in absolute submission to the will of Jesus Christ. One will for us, and that not our own will, but His will. You see what it means. You say you want to know Jesus Christ? Be careful what you say. Do not say it to-night unless down deep in your hearts you are willing to give the obedience without which you cannot know Him.

(2) "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God." Now listen: "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ involves not only obedience, it involves love. It involves loving as God loves, loving as Christ loved. But such love involves something more than wishing our friends well. There is a great difference between good wishing and good willing. Most of our good wishing ends in day dreams, but good willing results in deeds. This is the second condition involved in a personal acquaintance with

Jesus Christ, love. "He that loveth not knoweth not God." Do you not see, young women, where some of us have made our mistakes? We have been trying to know God through our intellects when God intended us to know Him primarily through our hearts. The way into the heart and life of God is through love. Love is the medium of spiritual knowledge. We must love in order to know. The nature of the subject determines the instrument of knowledge. A man who wants to study the stars will not use the microscope. A telescope is the instrument with which to study the stars. The man who wants to study a flower will not use the telescope. He will use the microscope. There are men and women who are using the microscope of reason to find the living God. He is not found that way. O what a comfort it is to some of us that He is to be found through the heart! what a comfort it is to a man who has never had a chance to cultivate his intellect that the ordained way by which God is to be known is through love!

(3) The last and third condition for this personal acquaintance is found in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (ii. 14): "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." This is a perfectly simple law. It simply means that to have the sensation you must have the sense. If I say here to-night that mathematical things are mathematically discerned, there will be no question; that artistic things are artistically discerned, or that literary things are discerned by those who have literary taste, that would be a fair conclusion; no man would question it. Do you not see that this same law is laid down here,-spiritual things are spiritually discerned? Two unlikes can never understand each other. Here are two people. One man's life is in the world, the flesh and the devil. It is an absolute mystery to him that any man should think of giving his life to preaching the gospel to the heathen in China. Some months ago Bob Gailey visited me, and I introduced him to a business man in our city, who could not understand how any one could go to China as a missionary. "It

is an absolute mystery to me," he said. Of course it was. But Gailey, filled with the love of Jesus Christ, so that his heart would break if he could not go to China, finds it no mystery. This man, filled with the world and the things of time, living in the dirt of life, of course could not understand my friend's life.

This personal acquaintance of Jesus Christ involves likeness. To know Christ you must be like Him. You see that? To know music I must be musical; to know art I must be artistic; to know literature I must have a literary taste; to have a sensation I must have a sense; to know Jesus Christ I must be like Christ-and to be like Him I must have His nature. Do you want to know Him? Are you sure that you want to know Him?

IV. THE COST OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. All knowledge costs something. The Apostle Paul found it so and states the cost thus, "Yea, I count all things but loss." For what? For this knowledge of Him. I shook hands with my college roommate, last night, who went to college without a cent. That man was so earnest to get an education that for two years, to my own knowledge, he lived on just the smallest amount of food possible. He counted all things but loss, that he might get a university education at Princeton. Yes, it costs. Some of us have paid infinite cost for this knowledge of the world. Are we willing to pay the cost for this highest of all knowledge-the knowledge of Christ? "Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss," Paul says. My time, my pride, my friends, my own life, if I can only know Him. Are you willing to say on this first night of the convention: "O God, I, too, count all things but loss, that I may know Him. I want to know Christ. Take away every barrier"?