“What must I do to be saved?” Acts 16:30

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"What must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30
In this question are involved all man's interests
for the life that now is, as well as that
which is to come. There was never a question
proposed since the fall so important; never
one that combined in itself so much that
ought to awaken anxiety; never one about
which men generally manifest so little
interest; never one from which their interest
is so easily turned away even after it may
have been once excited; never one in which
men affect to discover so much difficulty;
and finally, never one which it is so
easy to answer when the mind is fully
awakened, and really in earnest to
find the answer. There is one more remark

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remark to be made; so profound is it, and so full of
weighty + eternal truth, that altho' I have just
stated it as one easily answered, yet it is true that
it never could have been answered by all the
wisdom of this world combined. Like many
another truth when all its difficulties have
been removed, and its nature made clear, it seems
to be so plain + simple, that the wonder is
how it could ever have been regarded as a
mystery:- and it is only because the Eternal
source of infinite wisdom has revealed it
to mankind, that it has been understood
appreciated and embraced by any one
at all. In treating the question today I shall
not attempt to dwell so much upon the
answer, as to illustrate the anxiety of mind

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which the very asking of it [e?inces], and to
enumerate the reasons which justify that anxiety.
There are three conditions in which we may
suppose man to be placed, and in which
it might be a most desirable matter for
him to obtain the answer to this question.
1. His lot may have been cast in a land
of heathenish darkness and superstition, and
wherein his blindness bowing down to wood, + stone
his soul [may] of course will find no peace or rest to
its anxiety. The question is natural- but
the answer comes not from nature, or from

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man's devices. Though he might cry out for help
to solve the grand problem, and apply to all
the oracles of nature, Education, Art, Science
and Philosophy- the only response wd be
the miserable echo of his own question-"what"?
2. He may be in the situation of a lost soul,
a [?]-or a rich fool,-or a man who
had given his soul in exchange for the
whole world and now cries our "How shall
I recover my squandered immortality
and get back my lost vantage ground
and my vanished opportunities?" What shall

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I do to be saved? to answer wd be heard in
that love land of deep despair, save that given
in God's word, and which his memory,
one of his tormenting friends,- will bring
to him in terrible emphasis, "The harvest
in past, the summer is ended, and you
are "not only" not saved"- but lost-lost
forevermore! Too late! Too late! The door
is shut! The voice from within cries- "Depart
ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you!"
3. Or he may be still lingering by God's
mercy among the scenes of earth, and
surrounded by the means of grace, and
the privileges of religion, and in the
love of hope and mercy, grace + prayer.
Oh, that there were such in this assembly today

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today! The sweetest notes that ring out on the ear
of yr anxious friends who have been praying
for you, are those you give forth in this
great + solemn question, if indeed it is the
genuine utterance of the anxiety of your
soul. But alas!
I hear no such question. All in silent, and
the voice of an awakened conscience
is hushed into stillness by the repressive
command of the procrastinating spirit, or
drowned by the roar + clamor of the world's
business; or silenced by the superior charms
of the siren song of earthly pleasure; or its light flashing conviction into yr soul's eclipse
by the blaze + the glare of surrounding
allurements, and which are leading many a
soul unconsciously, yet steadily down into the regions

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where reigns only the "bleakness of darkness
forever!" Now Oh my beloved, my friends,
I would fain at this very time break the spell that is upon so
many. I would awaken now in you my
careless brethren, sons + daughters that anxiety
upon this subject which you will assuredly
feel one day,- on that day when you
will know of a truth that your path of life
has led you to the verge of that bourne
whence no traveler has ever, can ever
return; that would where light is
shed on all questions, correction is given
to all problems; and where uncertainty
in regard to your eternal destiny will
vanish, and it may be too late. Solemn thoughts

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like these of themselves were enough to impress
upon every mind the necessity of waking up to
the question before us. But were the questions
one referring to a [??ations] life; were it one
referring to the safety of this material world
around threatened with destruction, it
would not be invested with that interest and
grandeur which belongs to the single question
"What must I,- just one soul,- do to be saved"
We deem it a matter of wonderful interest when two
mighty + warlike nations are in deadly conflict,
and the calculations are deep + profound among
statesmen what political influences may result from
the war upon the affairs of other nations.
But the rearing up of Empires- their progress
+ fall-battles -conquests, extension of territory

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and enlargement of Power, great + important
and they are to the world in its present
condition, are "trifles light as air" babbles
riding upon the billows + suddenly to burst,-when compared with
the salvation of one single soul! These things
are for time,- transient,- and passing rapidly
away. But the soul of man is a thing for
Eternity, beyond the reach of death, and
destined to live thro' eternity, with all its years
It is about this deathless tenant of the perishing
clay tenement you inhabit, that our anxiety
shd be aroused, and must be aroused. There
is one consideration connected with this
subject which enhances its importance.
It is that this is an individual concern. There
are millions of souls in this world all of

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which are bound to ask this question. But each
must ask it for himself or herself. Each has
a complete distinctiveness of individual existence
a separate being,- an identity of his own.
A particular path is marked out for each as
he travels on to the Eternal World, and no two
pursue the same path; Life is in this sense
a broad plain traversed by as many millions of
tracks as there are inhabitants; and while no
one can live your life for you, yet it is equally
true that when you approach the grave, the
silent entrance to the other life, you will
know then what you might have known,
but refused to know that you must die
alone. No one can help you bear the pangs
the agony, the fierce conflict of nature with

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dissolution. You must live yr own life; travel
your own path; die alone,- render to the
Judge upon the great white throne yr individual
account of the deeds done in yr body; and
enjoy a special + appropriate share of the
Heaven provided, or dwell in penal fires
of the wrath of God in your own
individual person. So that it is nothing to
you in the way of personal concern that amid
the many millions around us, nearly all
seem careless; it is everything to you,
however, that you yourself be aroused, and that you give
no sleep "[?].
To intensify this anxiety it is needful that you call to
remembrance the vanished past the days of childhood,
youth + riper years, pass in review, with their joys

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and sorrows; their hopes and disappointments; their smiles and
their tears. But such reflections produce no reformatory
influence; only a pleasing sort of melancholy is aroused
by their recall. What ought to be done, however, and what
will be done is to bring up out of their forgotten
graves, the sins of past life. This part of Life is
called poetically,- "the dead past" the buried
past." It may be so. But it should not be forgotten
by us, that there is to be a resurrection of deeds
as well as bodies. On the "great Day for which all
other days were made," we learn that "the Books
will be opened;" and among those books
there is one wherein are recorded all the
deeds done in the body whether they have been
good or evil. The evil far predominating; the
sins outnumbering the virtues; dark crowds of

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iniquitous deeds done by you and forgotten, and
supposed to be forgotten by God + buried out of sight
darker + darker as you grew older; and as they
gather in countless numbers, and in all their
aggravations, like some portentous cloud covering
all the sky with gloom. It is this which makes the
past of many + indeed of most of us, terrible indeed.
If it be true that no good deed is ever lost it
cannot be otherwise with the evil, than that it will
live forever also. It may be that we have lost sight of it in the rushing
tide of years that have have swept on + buried it from
view. But let us not so deceive ourselves. That evil
deed was recorded. "It is not dead, but [?leepeth]" At the
last it will come forth to light, and if not washed away
by a Savior's blood, "it [?] like a serpent, + stringeth
like an adder." I counsel you to bring them all up at once

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today. Look then in the face in all their hideousness,
in all their aggravations and in all their multitude.
And when you remember that they are all sins against
God; not merely [for the] a wrong done to yr. fellow man,
but primarily + chiefly a wrong done to the God of all truth
+ Holiness; and when we add to this that all sins,
sins that we call small as well as those we call
great- "deserve God's wrath + curse both in this
life and that which is to come;" and furthermore,
bear in mind that every sin is recorded, not one
lost, and that we shall be judged according
to the things written in the Book of God's
eternal Record. Oh, well may it be supposed that
the lightness + frivolity of the young, the
worldliness and avarice + covetousness of the
men of middle life, and the stupor and deadness of soul

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which paralyse so many would be brought to solemn
pause, and in the midst of the pressure of the
things around them that are temporal + absorbing
and yet perishing, a deep anxiety might be aroused in every heart + they might redeem a brief
space of time wherein to consider this grand
inquiry:- "What must I do to be saved?"
2. So when the past comes up with its terrific record,
let us be reminded that the present of each one
of us is repeating the past at every moment,-
what is present will very soon be past;
what we are doing and saying + thinking now
will very soon be history; and one day or other
it will form part of the record to pass in
review before God's bar of infinite Justice
+ Wisdom unerring; and it is nearly certain that what
we do will be just what we have been doing in all the past.

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Time is not halting a moment. If we desire to [?]
[?] it;- if we desire to make no more such
past as we have already made in the
years that are gone, seize the flying moment,
and bring before your minds the solemn thoughts
of a Holy + offended God; and your condemnation as a
rebel against Him; of the impending doom of the
finally [impe?it?s]; of the world that is to succeed
this world; how you are rapidly tending on
toward that spirit Land; and that the things you
are doing now, are moulding yr character
+ destiny for an unending scene of life
beyond the grave.
3. And if you will surround yourself with the past
and mingle them with those things now in
actual existence + progress around you; their direct

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direct influence will be to lead you to the
contemplation of the Future. If any man will allow
himself time for serious meditation upon the
various themes of solemn interest involved in his
future, in which his interests are profoundly involved;-
such as Death- Judgement- Eternity; where
shall be his future Home- in Heaven; or Hell;
Whether he is to dwell among angels
and glorified spirits, or with friends
accursed, and lost spirits; and remembered that tho' he
is but a single individual he is under God's eye;
in this space of Immensity just as clearly in the
view of God as tho'[yo] he were [alo??]; with Eternity
just before him, and all its final senses of justice
and judgement;- it would seem that the question
"What must I do, [?]" wd spontaneously burst from the lips

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II.
But that no effort may be left untried to induce
in you, my heavens, this anxiety, let us multiply
reasons why you shd. study this momentous
question. I offer then as
One reason to arouse anxiety, the great truth that
you are immortal. I do not propose to attempt any
description of this element in our common nature.
It is entirely sufficient that the truth is beyond
controversy,- and you believe it,- that you
shall live forever! I know a lost Eternity
is called "the Second Death;" but it is everywhere
well understood to imply that existence will
underlie this second death in order that
the wretched victim shall be able to endure
it. Such beings are to be gifted with immortality
in order that they shall be enabled to endure

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the inconceivable pangs and agonies of this
second death; "where their [wo???] dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched"- The supreme horror
of it, being that it is eternal. In the material world
there is nothing so small but you conceive of it, +
there is nothing so great but you may compare this
small matter with it. Both the drop of water + the
Ocean; the grain of sand + this globe; a moment of
time and a million of ages;- are bounded, limited
circumscribed, and defined, + so however minute the one and vast
the other; however immense the diversity between these
two, still they may be compared + contrasted. But
all time is less in duration in comparison with immortality
than the drop to the ocean, the sand to the globe, or the
moment to millions of Ages. Be it remembered now that
this attribute of Immortality is the possession of every human

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being alike. Poor or rich, learned or unlearned,-
high in social position, or low in rank, Prince
or peasant, Philosopher or idiot, Great + mighty, or
humble and degraded; Righteous or wicked; saint
or sinner;- all alike are gifted with
immortality. Sick of life you may meditate [?];
but you cannot die! Tired of this world you
may rush uncalled into another; but you only
change the scene, and the mode of existence
-life,-life,- immortal life still stretches outward
and onward through the ever growing cycles
of Eternity. We cannot fully conceive its
meaning- but were it possible to have the vastness
of the idea projected into our minds its
gigantic shadow would so darken the scent, that
the silence of a death-like solitude would fall

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in terror upon all that now marks the
grandeur of this world;- its revolutions- its
pursuits- its commerce- its diplomacy
its wars, its pleasures;- its dark dens
of iniquity; its defiance of Law both of
God + man. This is what will take [pla?e]
in GOd's appointed time, "when God shall
arise to shake terribly the earth," and to
flash upon this guilty globe of ours the
lights of Eternity. Not if there were no more of
you than this life shows you to be;- if you were
to die + rot in cold obstruction; sleep an eternal sleep;
then yr present attitude of utter carelessness + indifference
would be consistent, and easily explained. But when you
know yourself to be gifted with one eternity of existence;- I
see not how it is that you can repress that anxiety which wd
prompt the question "What must I do to be saved?"

22.
Then consider another reason; while you are slumbering
all God's Universe is awake in regard to this subject.
The Adorable Trinity held mysterious council from Eternity to
devise the plan; the scheme was not devised after man
lost his Eternal life; but from all Eternity. This brought
God's eternal son down;- this sent H. S. to earth
and for this He abides in + around you; this brought
forth the Bible- precious book of revelation- wherein
are recorded- the lives of Patriarchs- the ministrations of
Priests; the predictions of Prophets; the teachings
+ miracles + crucifixion of Xr. God's Holy Son; the
preachings of Apostles; and the glad tidings of the
Gospel ringing in yr ears from [?] to [?]; the
Ch. of GOd awake; the Spirit of [?] Bride- he that [hea???]
all are awake + say "Come," and "whosoever will let
him come in the universal cry from all God's chosen

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instrumentality, addressed to you, oh my fellow sinner,
and "what meanest thou, O sleeper?' [?] Nay more,-
What is it to be saved? What is salvation? HIs for
both worlds! Sin even, if pleasant at all, only for [one] this!
[?] then followed by destruction. But if saved in Xr. yours is peace
of Conscience- "the sunshine of the breast"- peace with God-
pardon, justification, sanctification; comfort under all
affliction; triumph over all spiritual enemies;
victory over death + the grave here! And then
holiness, purity, joy unspeakable + full of glory;
Communion with all the holy ones of the
universe; perfect knowledge; uninterrupted Bliss; and
all this endless! This is salvation;- this is
Heaven faintly set forth,- and surely it is well
worthy that [a???t] of anxiety wh. wd lead you to ask how
you may obtain it- "what must I do to be saved?"

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On the other hand;- consider what is the destiny of one who
fails to be saved. He substitutes eternal ruin, soul +
body, for this blessed Heaven. God, the loss of Comm. with His wrath + [?] are under
liable to all the miseries of this life to death
itself, [?] the pains of Hell forever. No hope-
no mercy. Remorse, Despair, faithful memory
of lost opportunities; consciousness of unending existence in Woe in
tense + unutterable; and all this for Eternity! Oh Lord
can you restrain the anxiety and repress the question
"What must I do," [?] But [?] not have you terrified into asking it- tho'
better thus than not at all! As a last consideration I urge
that every soul may be saved! You may! There is room for
you. You have long refused- but Come! God is patient. You have preferred
the world- but Come, Jesus forgives. You have said Go thy way [?] but come,
the spirit pleads. You have refused [?]- but come! the Ch. is praying.
You have gone astray; but Come! The Good Shepherd is in search of you
and angels are holding their harps in mute expectation to rejoice over your return.