Saved (Jeremiah 8)

… We might read tonight, first of all, in the 8th chapter of the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 8. We'll read at verse 15. We looked for peace, but no good came, and for a time of health, and behold trouble. The snorting of his horses was heard from down. The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones. For they are come and have devoured the land, and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell therein. For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. Behold the voice and the cry of the daughter of my people, because of them that dwell in a far country. Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their driven images and their strange vanities? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt. I am black. Astonishment hath taken hold on me. There is no barman Gilead, there is no physician there. Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people the covenant? Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. And then the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah, chapter forty-five, and verse twenty. Assemble yourselves and come, and draw near together ye that are a scape to the nations. They have no knowledge, but set up the wood of their driven image, and pray unto a God that cannot save. Tell ye, bring them near, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside me, but just God and a Saviour. There is none else beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word that is going out of my mouth in righteousness shall not return, but unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall And then, finally, in the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts, and these verses are well known, verse twenty-five. And at midnight Paul and Cyrus prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake. So at the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awakening out of his sleep, seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. They called for a light and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Cyrus, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. There is the same word that runs right through these scriptures, and it's the word said. We find that in Jeremiah's day the people were marked with confidence in themselves, and they were marked with indifference. Probably a day something like that in which we live. It was a day of casting aside what was of God, and that which they feared and trembled at. In the days of their fathers, they had become hardened to, and the word of the Lord had no place with them. God had borne with them as he had sent prophet after prophet. He had raised them up and sent them in the way of warning. But as warnings precede judgments, so it was with Israel. And the time had come when even God told Jeremiah, he says, Don't pray for this people. The time had come when things had gone beyond their limit, and they were going to be carried to Babylon. We find in the book of Acts where the apostle was preaching, and after he had proclaimed the word at Antioch, and said, Be it known unto you that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, that then he said, Beware lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold ye despisers, and wander and perish. In Habakkuk's day, they were about to go to Babylon, and so the prophet Habakkuk also was one that warned them. And in the book of Acts, it was coming near the time again of another dispersion, and so the apostle says, Beware lest that come upon you. Some years previous to that, this very race of people, they had crucified their Messiah. They had rejected him. They tried a way with him to crucify him. And the time was coming of God's retribution. The time was coming when they were going to reap what they had sown. And the very people that had rejected Christ, they in turn would be rejected. And not only so, but the retribution of God would come upon them. And the ones who tried to crucify him were the ones who later were crucified themselves. For when the Romans came and went against Jerusalem, they crucified so many of those who had rejected Christ, that even there wasn't any wood found for to crucify any more of them. And even the temple itself, where the Lord said there would not be left one stone upon another, that wouldn't be thrown down. And Titus had given the command that they weren't to fire the temple. And yet in spite of that, there was a fire brand cast into the building. And the gold of the temple ran down about the stones. And the soldiers with their instruments or bayonets, they picked out these pieces of gold. And so there wasn't one stone left upon another, but all was thrown down. And so the very thing that Christ predicted actually came to pass. Men have predicted things here, but nothing has come of them. They've said this and that, but nothing happened. But what Christ said was sure to come to pass. He said heaven and earth would pass away, but my word shall not pass away. It proves to us of who he was. Because in the Old Testament times, there was that which told that a prophet was a real prophet of the Lord. It was this that his word came to pass. It says about Samuel, the Lord let none of these words fall to the ground. And so all Israel from Dan to Bathsheba knew that he was a prophet of the Lord. And so what marked in a very distinctive way the words of Christ was this, that they were fulfilled. So we find the people here and they're about to go into dispersion. And there was so much built up in themselves. Indeed there's some chapters here after this, probably chapters 10 and 11, where they were built up on the old tradition that they had. And in spite of the fact that they were going on to the judgment of God, they were saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. But that meant nothing really, for they were going to be carried into a strange land. We live in days when there's the casting aside of what is of God. You only listen to men and what was probably 40 or 50 years ago will be looked upon with scorn. It's taken now as something that can be listened to. Men who question the very existence of God. Other things, they even can have now, they can even mock at sin and make sport of it. But yet sin is such a thing that the power of the evil one leads men on in this track of sin. And then once they're engulfed in it, the enemy himself turns around and laughs them in the face. Sin can mock men. Men may make a mock at sin, but sin mocks men. And sin will ultimately, and the rejection of Christ, which is the crowning sin, will take men down to a lost eternity. So Jeremiah, he was so overcome and so humbled, and he was a man of tears because of this people that were going on to judgment. And so he says here in this 20th verse, it speaks of this people and it says, the harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not sailed. That means the whole thing's up, the whole thing's finished with. And you know where there's apostasy? Where there's a person who has sinned against God, God can meet that person because he has made a rich provision in the death of Christ so abundantly that whosoever will may come. None need perish, all may live, for Christ has died. You can know that tonight. Know it here and now. But there's that which there is no sacrifice for. There's no forgiveness. And what is it? It's apostasy. And that's what men are going on with today. That's what the world's going on. Something, an advancement of what we have known in the past years, something really of an advancement, so that we're living in a world, a material world, a world that men are occupied with tangible things. And the things that are unseen and the things that are eternal, they have no time nor place for them. Such is the world. And it is remarkable that the last church in the Revelation, it's spoken of there as the Laodiceans, it means righteous people, or the people's rights. And so what we have today is people standing up for themselves. And they are occupied with material things, because our Father says, I am rich, increased with goods, and what is the result? There's one who stands outside. There's one that they have no time nor room for. Such is the world today. We speak in a general way, we don't speak as regards just mere individuals. But the point is that Christ is outside, and men have no room for him. You come to a door and you knock at it, and you know that behind that door there is someone that could open the door and let you in. But you knock, you take a stand there, a stand that's stationary, and you knock and you knock and you knock, and yet that door does not open. The masks don't open it. And yet there's individuals here, there, somewhere else, because there must be. Because the Lord says, if any man hear my voice and open the door, there must be individuals who hear his voice. The masks don't hear it. The multitudes know nothing about this, but there's one picked out here and there, and they hear. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him. He does not come into the multitude, he comes into that one individual. But the point that I had before me is, knocking at the door, and there's no response. I wonder who the person is that's inside. Are you inside, inside that door, and you don't open the door? But the remarkable thing is, those who hear that voice, they open the door. If you hear that voice, you're opening the door tonight, you will indeed. I think it was Horatius Bonner said, I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest. And he says, I came to Jesus. That's what happens. You hear that voice, you respond, and you make Christ your own. Now it says here, the harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. The summertime was a time of preparation. They read about the ants, they prepare their food in the summer, and it mentions the harvest time as the time of ingathering, the gathering in of the fruits of the earth. But the summertime is a time of preparation, and so that is something that we need to have. We need to have the necessary preparation for the future. We must act in the light of the future, to merely sit down and you don't know what's coming. They say to you, well there's nobody came back from the dead to tell us, and how do you know? Well we do know, because we know a man who has been into death, and we know a man who has been out of death, and we know a man who has gone to the right hand of God, and he offers you the pardon and the forgiveness of your sins. There's a young man, I knew him as a boy, we went to school together, and he came in touch with the gospel, but never seemed to be any response. And then he went one way, and I went another. He took up a post in a funeral establishment, and I met him time and again. There were different intervals, but I met him at a certain cemetery, and had a friendly word with him. And he said to me one day, he says James isn't death a great mystery? So I said John, you know I made that decision early in life. He said see James, I know you did. And he's just now where he was then, seemingly, whether he has a concern or not, but he has never really responded and confessed Christ as his savior. Now it's summer time, it's a time of preparation. You prepare for the winter that's coming, and there's an awful winter coming. If you're here tonight unsaved, let us tell you kindly, let us tell you lovingly, let us tell you faithfully, that if the Lord is to take his people out of this world tonight, the salt of the earth, that's what they are, the salt of the earth, they are the excellent ones that are in the earth, and if the Lord took them away tonight, you talk about the corruption that's in the world. We know nothing of what's going to engulf this world, the darkness that's going to settle down upon it, and what's going to come up from heaven itself, the very origin of what's going to darken men's minds, that's going to come from the pit itself, and what's going to mark it here, apart from what's eternal, that must be awful. And if you belong to a Christian home, father and mother converted, or has come under the influence of gospel in some way, to be left here, for what to come after during the first three and a half years and the terrible yet the second half of Daniel's 70th week, that must be a terrible time of judgment that's coming in the world, but well for you to get saved tonight, because salvation is something that's for this life, it's profitable unto the life that now is, as well as that which is to come. Think of it this way, I know that there's some who preach the gospel and they tell us what they're going to get out of it. Sometimes we preach, and rightly so, for what God gets out of it, and all that, but mind you'll get everything out of it. You'll have every advantage, the person that's saved, they have every advantage in being saved, but the whole thing is putting it off. Now is the summer time, but then what's going to follow the summer is going to be the winter. Paul said to Timothy, we use the words just with reference to what we're speaking now, and he says, do thy diligence to come before winter. That's what we will say to you tonight, before the darkness settles down, before the winter comes, you make sure that you prepare now the summer. The Lord Jesus spoke in the summer time when he was in synagogue at Nazareth, and he read those words, that the Lord God hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, the acceptable year of the Lord, and it has been nurtured in, and it's still here, and mercy's door stands open wide, and you can be saved tonight, if you are but willing to come to Christ and make him your own. Now the summer time is a time of preparation, but you prepare in the summer time for the future. What have you for the future? What prospect? What have you for to meet God and to meet eternity with? People say, well, I do the best I can, and I can do no more, and I never did anybody any harm. Now this is what we're really told, but the great point is that there must be that preparation that's found alone in Christ. It's not found in ourselves, it must be in him. There's a young lady, and she was dying in one of our hospitals, and they were going around this hospital, and this young lady was there, and her mother had died, and she was left with the charge of some children, and this had undermined her health, and so she was spending her closing days in this hospital. So they went around, and someone said to her, have you been baptized? She said, no. Have you been confirmed? She said, no. Have you taken communion? She said, no. Well, what are you going to meet God with? They were offering her sacraments, and this man said to her, what are you going to meet God with? And first of all, she stretched both her hands, and they had grown thin. She says, I show my hands, and that was her own work. I wrote to this man, and I told him, why did you not tell her about the pierced hands of Jesus? Why did you not tell her of a Savior who died for her on the cross, and you standing up there to tell people, just show God your hands, show God your work, and he'll accept you? He never answered it. You see, dear friends, anything that's of ourselves, if we have the least thing to do with our salvation apart from accepting it, then there's something wrong about it. But God provides it. God provides all that's necessary, and all that you have to do is receive it. Salvation's a gift. It's a gift. Christmas time is coming, and the idea of receiving a gift and saying to the person, oh, how much is it? How much have I to pay you for it? The person would be insulted. And for you to come to God and say, I want to work my way to heaven, and I want to receive this from you, but I want to do a bit of it myself. Well, you cannot do. If you're going to receive God's salvation, that must be a gift. You must receive it as a gift, or you'll not have it at all. Now it's the summer time, but the winter's coming. It'll be a long winter, dear friend. For you, if you're unsaved, it'll be an eternal winter. Could I speak of what Murray McShane said? Who can tell the place of woe where the wicked dwell, where the world needs to go? And it's for you tonight, in the light of eternity, in the light of what lies in the future, to avail yourself of some great salvation. The Lord Jesus said, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. The idea of meeting God, and then having for to see whether you're fit for heaven or what else, it's outside common sense whatsoever, because the scripture says, shall not come into judgment. Well, for those who believe, as we know, our life will come under review. Our acts, what we say, and what we do will come under review, but our person, our person will never come under review, never, because we have passed out of death and passed into life. Now then, the harvest time is the time of in-gathering. It's the time when you gather in the fruit of the earth, and probably you know of someone, someone else who you've been gathered in, and still you're unconverted. Someone you never thought of, lived in the same avenue, lived on the same street, and you got a surprise, and you heard that there was some meeting, and they had got converted, and yet you were outside. Others were gathered in, and you were left outside, at least you left yourself outside, and it's a time, the time of in-gathering, and so it's making that preparation, and the in-gathering, being gathered in for a coming eternity. Now Israel had the harvest. When it says here, the harvest is past, it might speak to us of the the harvest, the outer harvest at the Passover, the time of the unleavened bread, speaking to us of the death of Christ, telling us that the first harvest, it drew it back to the time when they'd left Egypt, and tells us of the death of Christ. And during that week, there was a wave, sheaf was waved before the Lord, reminding us that the Lord Jesus not only died, but he rose again. That was the first harvest. First harvest tells us of one who died, of one who rose again. Christ died according to the scriptures. He was buried. He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. The first harvest was redemption. The first harvest was the death of Christ. So that was, that's what we must build upon. We must build upon the first harvest, and that was the time when the blood was put upon the lintel and upon the doorpost. That was the time when they left Egypt, the time when God sheltered them. He passed over the houses of those who had the blood upon the lintel and upon the doorpost. Why did God pass over those houses? Simply because that which spoke of death was on the external, and so the destroyer never entered there. Where there's the acknowledgement of the death of Christ, there's no judgment. Payment God will not twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine. But the destroyer entered the house of the Egyptians where there was no blood. It was because there wasn't that which met the eye of God. In regard to those who had the blood upon the lintel and the doorpost, it was a passing over, a passing over the houses, and so it was called the Passover. For those who hadn't, it was a passing through. I will pass through the land of Egypt, and it was a passing through in judgment. So dear friend, it's the great question, is it the Passover or is it God passing through in judgment? It's either one or the other. We can accept one or we can have the other. So the first Passover was the first harvest was the time of the redemption in Egypt, and then the second harvest took place probably about in the third month. They come out in the first month, and then in the third month, you remember when they reached Mount Sinai, how they received the law. Moses went up onto the mount, and he received the law from God to guilt unto Israel, and what we have in the New Testament, what was the giving of the law to Israel is the giving of the Spirit in the church as we have it in the book of Acts at the Feast of Weeks, and so we find that the second Passover was the pouring out of the Holy Spirit of God. Now the Holy Spirit of God is here now, and he has come from the place where Christ has entered. Christ must go there first, and then the Holy Spirit came here, and his coming had a twofold aspect in regards to the world. His presence here would bear witness to the fact that they had rejected Christ. Secondly, that the Holy Spirit would take up his abode, take up his residence in the bodies of those who believed in Christ, and would take up Christ's things and reveal them to him. But then the Spirit of God has an individual work with those who would come into contact with these holy things, and they were moved on. There would be the work of God in their soul that would move them on to the moment of choice when they would trust Christ as their Savior. One does not like to speak of themselves, but I remember as a boy I had a mother at home, and she would have given anything to know that I was saved. I went to meetings one spring. I was just at school, and I remember it was about the month of April, and on the way home there was a fountain, and I used to wash my face, wash the tears away at that fountain before I went home. There was something, a dream that was working in my heart, was urging me on. There was a storm, a real storm had risen in my soul, and I longed to know the assurance that when this life would end that all would be well for eternity. I remember the autumn of 1918, just when the time of the first great war came to an end, there was a flu epidemic swept right over the country. When the horns were blowing to proclaim that the war was over, I remember I was sitting up a tree in one of the Father's fields, and I sat there and was trying to work out the great fact and how I really would be sure that all was well for eternity. Now, there's that work of God that takes place in souls, and the Spirit of God has come here to make good in the souls of those who respond to Christ, the work that Christ accomplished when he was here. Then the next autumn came. I think in the meantime I had got into company, and not that I was in bad company in any way, but I felt that I was getting away from the things somewhat, and then there's a man came to the town and he preached for six weeks, and there were 66 people professed to be converted at those meetings, and I remember an old lady called at our house, and sometimes you know people say things at random. They say things, but the Lord can use them just to push one on, to edge them on, for to know the blessed reality of what it is to be saved, and she said to me, see James, you will be the next. I tell you, you will be the next, and you know I was longing that I would be the next, so I went to the meeting this night, and they sang at the close Charlotte Elliot's hymn, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thy bits may come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, and there was a man at the close of the meeting, he spoke to me, and he put his Bible on one hand, and he had the other hand, and he says, James, well take for instance that's your sin, and there's your sin, and it's upon you. If you believe in Christ, and he turned the Bible over to the other hand, and he says, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. I didn't just say that I was saved at that moment, but when I got time to think it over, I really had believed that the Lord Jesus bore my sins when he died upon the cross. Some time passed, and there's things that happen in one's life, or some incident happens that really gives one great joy. There's an old woman, for quite a number of years I had been in and out of her company, and she was a very near friend, and she was on her deathbed, not that she had any disease, but she was just there by sheer weakness, and there was one half holiday. I went to see her, and when I was there, I said to her, would you say you were saved? She says, James, what can I tell you? Now, she was a woman that was kind, she was honest, she was true, and upright in every way, and what she said I would believe. She says to me, James, do you remember a certain man? She mentioned him, and I said, I faintly remember him. She said, you know, he used to have cottage meetings, and there's one night I was at the cottage meeting, and she says, the sound just as I am with her at one play, and she said, I came that night. I came that night, and shortly afterward, a few weeks afterward, she passed to be with the Lord. So, there is that coming into contact with the person of Christ, and the real work of God in one soul. So, there was a second harvest, the time of the pouring out of the Spirit, and then there was a third harvest, the gathering in of the vine, the fruit of the vine at the close of the year, and that was a wonderful time. So, it was the third harvest. Do you remember it was the third harvest? When Jesus was up at the feast, at the feast of the Passover, and when he was there, he saw the outward ritual. He saw all that was taking place, and he was really moved, and in the last day of the feast, there was a day that was added, and it was counted the great day of the feast. Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And I'm sure thirsty ones who heard that voice that day would respond, and as Horatius Bonner said again, stoop down and drink unto them. There's one part of that passage that really struck me time and time again. They had booths. They dwelt in tents or booths during the time of the feast of Tabernacles, and you know, they all left to go home. They all had their homes to go to at the end. You know, it says Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. It would speak to our hearts tonight that his was an outsider to this, and who would receive him? Here we have come, shall we say tonight, to another time when Jesus cries, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Would you open the door and receive him in? Would you make him yours tonight, ere it be forever? To that day, ere it be forever, to that. The second passage where the word saved, and just to touch on this briefly, in the 45th of Isaiah, you will notice that they had been occupied with idols, and it says that cannot save. Idols that cannot save. And so these idols are anything that takes the place of God. There might be something in your life tonight that keeps you from Christ. Something, some idol that keeps you from Christ. I knew a man in Belfast, and his business kept him from Christ. Do you know what he had? He had a public house, and there was one night he sat in a gospel mission, and he sat there, and he wouldn't go out, and he had his mind to make up whether he was going to accept Christ tonight, or whether he would open a public house tomorrow morning at Tannatrach. And so there was a number of men who got down and prayed with him, and he got the victory. Tannatrach came on the Monday, and what did he do? He went up the garden, and he sat down in the seat, and there's people waiting to get inside, and he came down and told them, see I was saved last night, there's going to be no drink sold here. And that man still goes on as a testimony for Christ. He made his decision. The time had come, and he didn't neglect, he didn't put it off. He made sure that night, and he has lived to prove it. Probably what's your hindrance is something else tonight. Maybe a companion. Maybe your home life. It may be something else. You want the world. But these are items, and that's what you're looking at tonight. Well, the Lord says they cannot save. These things cannot save. Now he says, turn around and look the other way. Look on to me. And the look there means to turn around. It's the same idea as we have of Gideon. The Lord looked upon him. The Lord turned around, and he looked and Gideon. And that's the same idea we have in Isaiah 45. Look on to me and be saved. Turn around, look the other way. Friend, if you're in this meeting tonight on convert, you're looking the wrong way. You're looking the wrong way. You want to turn and look to Jesus the crucified. He says tonight, look on to me. And the moment you look, you're saved. Would you look tonight? One simple look of faith at the crucified, and the burden rolls away. You're delivered. You know what it takes to be saved and saved here and now. Would you accept Christ? Look on to me, he says, and be saved. All the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. What precious words to turn. Turn away from sin. Turn away from self. Turn away from idols. Turn away from everything else. Turn to the precious Christ of God. If you turn to him, dear friend, you'll never look at me like this, because he'll satisfy your heart. He'll come into your heart. He'll come into your life, and your life will be altogether new. If you trust him tonight as your own personal savior, you'll be like a man in the book of Acts who went on his way rejoicing. Last of all, we have this passage where there was the jailer at the prison at Philippi. And he must have heard this singing too. Paul and Silas, you know, they weren't occupied with circumstances. Many of them would have been cast into that prison, would have been downcast, and say, what's the purpose of going on with it any longer? Sure, here we are. We're in prison, and sure we could have a better life than this. But the song praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. But mind you, of the 40th Psalm, many shall hear in fear and trust in the Lord. And I'm sure many of those prisoners, as well as the jailer, got converted that night. But anyhow, they had the opportunity of getting out. Their bonds were loosed, and now if they ever wanted out, the doors were open. Get away, boys. And you'll be free from it all. Not at all. They stayed. Was there not that compelling power of the Spirit of God that arrested them that night? And they waited. And so the jailer came out, and he thought that to resolve what his charge was, he had failed to carry it out. And he thought the prisoners had been freed. And Paul says, Paul and Silas cried, Do thyself no harm. We're all here, everyone. There was an earthquake, and not one of them was killed. They were all there. And there was another greater earthquake. There was an earthquake in the soul and heart of the jailer himself. There was a great upheaval had taken place. There was a mighty work had taken place. And he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. They didn't, you know, just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. In an ordinary expression, it's not like throwing something to a person. But it's to a person who has a concern. What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. If you say tonight, What must I do to be saved? Here's the answer. Only believe. Jesus says, Only believe. That's all you need to do. And how are you to believe? Well, just what you believe in, that's just the point. The faith that you exercised in coming into this building, and the roof wouldn't come down upon you. That you go home, and you get into bed tonight, and the home, your house will be all right. And you'll be all right there till the morning. And do you know every minute of the day, you're exercising faith. Some way or another, you get into your car, and you go somewhere, and you have that faith that you'll reach your destination. And 101 ways, you're exercising faith every day. If you know your need tonight, that's the whole thing. If you know your need tonight, it all depends where your faith is centered in. If it's centered in Christ, you're saved. And you're saved with an eternal salvation. Look unto me and be saved. For I am God, and there's none else. There's no place else you can look. Where could you go for salvation? What else could you rest upon? Rest your weary soul tonight upon the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be blessed forevermore. May the Lord grant it, for his name's sake. …