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■r.ote: During the vacation of Dr. T ?■’ .ton, our Pulpit Editor, in America, The Age is fortunate in be/ng able to furnish a every week from Dr. A. C. Dixon, whose Sermons are published regularly in The Christian Globe, of London, England. Dr. Dixon is Dr. Brough ton s “Father in the Gospel” and is doing a great work as pastor of Spurgeon’s Tabernacle, London.) Text: ‘’And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto nie, speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. Ex. 14:13, 15. TaND still, and go forward. The stand ing still is the preparation for the go ing forward, and if we never learn to s stand still we will never learn to go forward. Notice these three expressions: ‘‘Fear ye not, ’ ‘‘Stand still, and ‘‘See.” Courage, quietness and vision. They have a very inti mate relation to each other. Cowards are never quiet. 1 hey are restless. They get ner vous, agitated. And as you are brave and quiet you have a clear vision. A man who is fright ened does not see so well. His vision is apt to be blurred. He must have peace of soul, peace of mind, in order that he may see. No tice the kind of courage. Courage in the face of danger. There was danger behind them. she» Egyptians were behind them and the mountains were on each side. But I hardly think Moses had in view courage in face of danger. He was not telling these Israelites to face about and fight. He knew they would have been at a disadvantage. They would have been overwhelmed. It was courage in the face of difficulty. There lay before them the Red Sea. No human power could divide it. And the courage in meeting the difficulty was more needed than the courage in meeting the dan ger. 1 think, weak as they were, if you had asked those Israelites which they would rather do, turn round and fight the Egyptians or di vide the Red Sea, I think they would have se lected the Egyptians. They would have had more hope of overcoming the organized army of the Egyptians, equipped with all the re sources of the Empire, than to open the Red Sea. And I think they could have done it more easily. Be courageous in the face of im possibilities. When God has put an obstacle before you be brave. Jehovah said to Joshua, Be of good courage,” when he commisisoned him to go to battle. And in speaking to Solo mon concerning the building of the Temple He used exactly the same words. Solomon needed couaage amid the difficulties of tem ple-building just as Joshua needed courage to meet the danger of battle. “At Him.” Fear not under God’s leading though there be a Red Sea ahead of you. Then the quiet ness. You cannot accomplish things by activ ity only. It must be a movement of power. If we know how to be quiet before God, simply to wait upon him, there would be a baptism of power as the result. It is more difficult to be FD STILL” AND “GO FORWARD” rSermon by DR. A. C. DIXON, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF SEPT. 18 quiet than it is to be active. Old soldiers tell me that they would rather charge in the battle than lie in the trenches. It takes more grit ami grace to wait than it does to charge, even into danger. Stand still and see the sal vation of God. See God destroy your ' icmies. One of the best ways to destroy enemies to be be quietly restful in heart. Stand still. Look up. and God will do the rest. Your God will fight for you. I get great encouragement from Luthers table Talks. You may remember what he said was his former temptation. When he saw the devil coming he would brace him self up and say, “Oh, Lord, my enemy’s ap proaching. Help me to meet him.” And he would meet him with all the force that he had, and usually was conquered. Now, he said, when I see the devil coming, I just say, “Lord, here is the devil. At him.” And I just stand still and see the Lord settle him. Influence. May I be permitted a word of personal tes timony. I was pastor of a little church at a university town, my second little pastorate. There were 350 young men in the university. Mothers sent me word asking me to pray for their sons and seek their salvation. I tried to do it. I visited them. I invited them to the church. They came in large numbers. They seemed interested. I used all the scrip tures, and all the logic and all the philoso phy and all the poety and all the illustrations I had in those boys, and I felt rather grateful that they were coming, and were so courageous and kind. And yet not one of them was con verted. And so it seemed I ought to have a special service, and appointed a mission that was to last through the week. The boys came to the mission, 75 or 90 at a time. After the first few days they became boistrous. They were full of mischief, as boys of a university will be . It was rather hard to grapple with them. They tried to tease me as the young pastor. As I walked through the grove of the university buildings I could hear my voice. Some one had been to the service and heard my sermon and was imitating me to a dot. And I heard my voice in prayer from a window and he was imitating me again, and then roars of laughter all over the camp. And I felt op pressed in soul. I was defeated. I was about to resign. “Let someone come in and influ ence these boys and lead them to Christ. I had failed.” I was so agitated and restless I could not sleep, and, after a sleepless night I took my Bible in my hand and went into the Grove, back of the university buildings. I can see the old stone under the tree where 1 spent the day till three o ’clock in the after noon. Didn’t want breakfast. Hadn’t thought of fasting. Didn’t care for lunch. I was there waiting upon God and asking him to tell me what was the matter. And as a result of that day s experience there came to me a vision of the distinction between influence and power. Influence is made up of everything that is good; influence, wealth, social position, educa tion. All of it ought to be used for God, but all put together could not save the university students, could not save a child ten years old. 'Che word “influence” does not occur but once in the Bible. That is in the book of Job, where Jehovah is talking with the old patriarch about the “sweet influence of the Pleiades.” That is a beautiful text, referring to spring time "when the flowers bloom, the birds sing. But somehow, the “sweet influence of the Pleia des' ’were not enough for a lot of college stu dents. , Did not seem to take hold of them and convert them as we were praying for. The word that gripped my heart and warmed it was the New Testament word, “power.” “Tar ry at Jerusalem until you get—not more in fluence—until you have power.” And some of the most influential people in the world are the most powerless. It is possible to fl influential church powerless, and an uninflu ential church powerful, because it is linked to God in prayer. The Lord Jesus was not a man of influence. He made himself of no reputa tion. He emptied himself. He had the power. You remember Paul and Silas had not enough influence to keep out of goal. When a man has not enough influence to keep out of goal he is in a bad way certainly. But when in goal he was in touch with power so that God shook the doors open. That is what we need, to keep in touch with the power that will shake the doors open. I spent that day trying to get in touch with it. And when I went down to the meeting room in the college buildings, without breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper, I was just certain that God would save those young men. I had quit looking at logic, poetry, illustra tions, Scripture, oratory. My eyes were fixed upon God, and I believed he would do it. I was certain he was hearing me as I read that portion of Scripture and expounded. Ido not remember what it was, with the boys sitting there before me. I got down and said, “Now, if there is any here who would like to be Christians and are willing to let me know it, won’t you come and take the front seats.” And you know, they filled two or three rows. And God, before that mission closed, saved 75 of those bright university students. It mark ed a crisis in my life, and if God has ever done anything through me it has been through the change of vision from trusting influence to trusting power in the Holy Spirit. If I had to depend on influence, on men or money, or anything else I would quit the tabernacle pul pit tomorrow. But my trust is in God. “Stand still and see God work.” The Egyptians were overwhelmed. The sea came together. The best way to overwhelm the Egyptians is just to trust in God and move forward the line that he marks out. Especially is that so in reference to your sins. I remember in my my own life when I had an experience of con viction of sin. Though but a lad the Egyptians of guilt seemed to be pursuing me. I am not ashamed to say I was afraid of hell. My dear old father believed the Bible and preached it without apology. I believed there was a doom (Continued on page 14.)