Will you turn with me to the book of Exodus and to the 40th chapter. Exodus chapter 40 and we shall read the first five verses. And the Lord speak unto Moses saying on the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the veil. And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it, And thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamp thereof. And thou shalt set the altar of gold before the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. The divine record of the tabernacle is a story of absorbing interest. It presents a field of study at once beautiful and edifying. We are not left in doubt as to its true meaning in the camp of Israel You remember that the writer to the Hebrews speaks of it as a shadow of heavenly things. For as we have it in our Gaelic Bible, a shadow of things that are heavenly. Now this morning I am not going to speak of shadows or of types We have both in this interesting record. What I purpose doing this morning, tomorrow morning and the following morning is to direct your attention to three songs suggested by the story. Today we shall consider the time of its setting up. on the first day of the first month set up the tavern. Tomorrow we shall consider the purpose of its setting up that I may dwell among you. And on the third morning the place of its setting up in the midst of the camp of Israel. And now this morning consider with me the time of its setting up. On the first day of the first month set up the tabernacle. Now it seems to me that these words have a message at least They have a message for me. Are they not suggestive of new beginnings? Some little time ago it was my privilege to listen to one of our great Scottish preachers, Professor James S. Stuart, and he was on this occasion speaking on the subject of revival. And this is what he said. Revival is a new discovery of Jesus and his power to save. Suggesting a new beginning. Now is the Christian life not made up of new beginnings. I believe, dear people, that while it is true that there comes an hour when we enter into saving and covenant relationship with God, when God dupes down or comes down the soul to breathe and glory crowns the mercy thief. And we discover for the first time that heaven has invaded the soul and God our Saviour has become supremely real. It is equally true that there ever must be in my mind and heart this conviction that I must begin every new day with a new beginning with God. I recall the words of Hesychia There was an hour in his life when he registered a new beginning. In the following words, I found it in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel. And I frequently say to my students in Edinburgh, that it is a good thing in the early hours of our meeting with God to make a covenant with Him that that day we'll find us walking with Him, talking with Him and listening ever to the voice that gives direction through every hour of every single day. Yes, surprising though it seems, it is always God's way to lead us on to new beginnings, I wonder. is among those who responded to the appeals yesterday. Young men and young women have been found registering a new beginning and saying life, life can never be the same Again, it just means that the truth that grips me today must find expression and embodiment in a new building of myself to God. This is a message to those who may have been trying, and who today are conscious of defeat. Yet they have tried again and again, they have knelt in the presence of God, and they have said, never again, never again will I yield to that temptation, never again will I be found in that company. Never again will I dishonor the Christ who saved me and the Christ whom I promised to serve in this convention. And at this hour, because of repeated failures. You are gripped by a sense of baffling and a sense of frustration, and you are saying, can it ever be different? Can I ever get back the year that the locusts have eaten? Can the waste places be made again? Can the marred vessels been made, yet I say it can be made if it is in the hands of the Father. That to me is a glorious truth. I remember some years ago when as a minister conscious of frustration and baffling I found myself prostrate on my face before God, wondering if I could ever get back the years that the locusts had eaten. Could I ever again register a new beginning with God? And God in his mercy led me to that passage in Old Testament stories that speaks of the vessel Mar. And I kept saying, yes, I'm Mar. Yes, I'm Mar. Then suddenly, suddenly there came to me This glorious conviction was so mad I was still in the hands of the party He could have thrown me on the way of tea He could have left me on the shelf as a castaway But the hand that gripped me at the moment of my regeneration, the hand that lifted me from the mighty clay of sin, was the hand that still held me for my life. And that hand, oh bless God, that hand could make me again, and I could register, and heaven could record. I knew the beginning, O that this truth may grip us again this morning, a truth spoken by God to his ancient people. He brought them out not to leave them in the wilderness, not to have them ever moving in a dry and parched desert. He brought them out that he might brings them in. Now I am speaking to some today who have been brought out. Egypt is behind and I trust behind forever. But yet in a wilderness experience grumbling grumbling, conscious that things are not just what you had hoped they would be. Listen my friend, the God who brought you out is the God who is anxious to bring you in. And in that very wilderness experience You can build a tabernacle and you can register a new beginning for God. I think just now of one of our own workers. She was mightily used in revival, wonderfully used in revival. But if the devil can't push you down, he'll push you up. And the devil got in and pushed her up. She was the instrument used in revival. She was the instrument used to lead hundreds of God's people into a deeper experience of God. And Satan came and told her that. As I already said, if he can't push you down, he'll push you up. And he pushed her up. There came a day When the Holy Spirit of God brought that revelation to that young woman, what happened? She had a nervous breakdown. Smashed, broken, until at last she even went as far as to wander. if she was ever born again. Oh, how the devil can get us! How the powers of darkness can hold us! How necessary it is in every stage of Christian experience, on the mountain or in the valley, to be in vital contact with God. My brother and sister, you will change only when you're there. But she has flipped out somehow. And for three long months she was in darkness. In terrible darkness. Until one day In her bedroom, she read the word. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. And she, in that wonderful hour, recognized the voice that was speaking through that word. And to her mind there came the thought, the gospel of a second chance. And I'm glad today that I can proclaim the gospel of a second chance. Not on the other side of the grave, but here! There's no second chance over there. As the tree falleth, so shall it lie. As death finds you, so will judgement. That is not commonly believed today. Oh no, the damnable doctrine of universalism. is eating up the very vital of truth and Christian experience. I think I ought to tell you here, because it comes to my mind, an experience that I had some time ago. I was asked to address a conference of ministers in Oxford. There must have been between eighty and a hundred ministers gathered And I was asked to speak on the Holy Ghost in evangelism. But they suggested that I might select the closing address myself. So I choose as my subject for the closing address, the goodness and the severity of God. The goodness and the severity. And of course, I spoke of judgment, and I spoke of hell, where the worm never dies and the fire is not quenched. After the meeting, those responsible for bringing me to Oxford I asked if they could see me in the vestry of the church. I naturally thought that they were gathering there to pay my travelling expenses. That was all that I had in my mind. But I tell you, I found something very different. They shut the door. They were all reputed to be evangelical men. As a matter of fact they were having nights of prayer for this ministers conference. And they were men who took coach loads to Haringey to listen to Dr. Billy Gray. Of course they were evangelical men. As I thought But listen to them now. Mr. Campbell, surely you do not believe in the hell of the Puritan? I looked at them and said, now what do you mean by the hell of the Puritan? I believe in the hell that Christ believed in. of the hell that the New Testament speaks about. The wicked shall be cast into hell, says the Old Testament, and the nations that forget God. That's the hell that I believe in. The chairman looked at me and said, had we known that these were your views and convictions, we would never have asked you to address this conference evangelical men. My dear people, that's the day in which we're living. No wonder the stream of vital Christianity is running so low. is walking unashamed through our courts. One brother spoke and said, Mr. Campbell, you must not misunderstand us. We believe in judges. We believe in the second death. But the second death It's death. It's annihilation. If you accept Christ, you remartial. If you reject Christ, you die like your dog. No. No second chance there. But thank God, a second chance here. I wouldn't be standing before you this morning did God not give me a second chance. Oh think of Jonah for a little the word of the Lord came to him the second time you see Jonah had failed and as he lay there On the shores of Nineveh, oh, he is conscious, very, very conscious of his failure. Then God comes. Oh, thank God He comes. Has He come to you? Did He come to you last night? Did He come to you yesterday afternoon? Did He come to you yesterday morning speaking words of rebuke? Speaking words of correction? Speaking words of deconviction relative to your failures and to your sins? But did He come with a word of pardon. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth, O wonderful Word, who healeth all. O how I thank God for that word, all, all. thy deceit. As I go up and down the country today in Britain, I find that many of God's dear people are deceived. Oh, I could tell you story after story of young men deceived and by a sin that I wouldn't spoil my lips by mentioning. Thus, four months ago, sitting in my study, the telephone rang. The long-distance call, my secretary said. So I went to the phone. The young man from Cambridge is anxious to speak to me. Mr. Campbell, I was listening to you in Westminster Chapel last week, and I'm terribly disturbed. Can I see you? Could I see you on Saturday in Edinburgh? No, I'm sorry, I'm to be in Aberdeen on Saturday. Then can I see you in Aberdeen? Oh, you see, this man was in desperation. In desperation! Yes, you can see me in Aberdeen. Then I shall fly to Glasgow and train from Glasgow to Aberdeen if I cannot get a suitable plane. So in Aberdeen I met him. And I cannot tell you the sin that gripped that young man except to say this, that it was the sin of impurity. impurity. A sin that is too prevalent today in the student community. And I'm not talking in ignorance. I'm not talking in ignorance. I've worked too long among students in Britain. I can only speak of course for Britain. But that young man told me Yes, he was actively engaged in the Christian Union. He was assisting arts campaigns and crusades in different parts of England under the auspices of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship. But he was deceived by a sin that conquered him and conquered him and conquered him again. Was there deliverance? Could he be delivered from this awful sin that damned Sodom? Could he be delivered? And I am thankful to say that our three knelt together, and I spoke of him who was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. But he suddenly came to see that God who shed the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from all, this is the word all again, cleanses from all sin. He could cleanse him from the sin that mastered him and kept him in bondage. And I am thankful to say the fast young man who registered a new beginning and today he is a curate in a church of England and I believe a day will not be long until he will be a vicar in one of our evangelical churches in England. God gloriously delivered him, and in that room he built a tabernacle in the wilderness, and registered a new beginning. Oh, am I speaking to any here in your presence? You are bound and you'll loathe yourself for yielding so often. You'll loathe yourself and again and again you'll say this is the principal news. My thoughts and my desires and my actions, they will send me home Have you said that? Have you said that? I remember not so very long ago, we were having our time of prayer in the college. We are just there now in Edinburgh. They'll be praying for us. We spend Friday morning on our knees. Lecturers put aside Everything else put aside to wait upon God. Well, some time ago, while waiting upon God, one of our Highland students, born again in the Jewish Revival, was suddenly caught up in God. Do you know, friend, what it means to be caught up in God? The Spirit of God fell upon us, gathering, and we were on our faces till twenty past four. Lunch was forgotten. Oh, it's wonderful to be in such a meeting. A meeting that left its mark upon staff and students. It was revival in the college. But after that meeting, a young man came to me. Now he was a very keen student with a clear keen interest. He came to me. Can I see you Mr. Campbell in your study? Yes, I said you can see me in my study. When do you wish to see me? I want to see you now. Go to the study we went. Mr. Campbell, I've just discovered that I was never born again. When Duncan was praying, that revelation came to me. I was never born again I'm a deceiver and I'm going home and he went home the following day I'm thankful to say that since then he has come into saving relationship with Jesus Christ and he is now actively engaged in evangelistic effort in England But what I want to impress upon you is this that when God the Holy Ghost came when the Spirit of God began to work men and women there discovered things about themselves that they never suspected before and adjustments had to be made A new beginning's registered. And I trust, I pray, that something similar to that may happen at this convention. Oh, see him there, prostrate, broken, on the shores of Nineveh. And then God comes to him. Oh, so like God. So like God. God comes and infects us to him. Jonah, Jonah, here is an opportunity to make a new beginning. You have failed. Yes, you have failed me. But I'm here to speak to you again. You can register a new dedication. You can register a new consecration. I'm here to deal with the sin of disobedience. And I'm here to make you again. And listen, God made him again. Now I have a truth here that we do well to remember and it is this that in recovery, as in revival, the first step is and remain with God. God came to Jonah and God comes to you. those convictions that you have, those aspirations that have come. Listen friends, they have their origin in the sovereign mercy of God. God coming. Yes, in effect God is saying to Jonah, Jonah, you are in a mess. There can be no doubt at all about that. You're in a wilderness. That is certain. But Jonah, you are just in the place where you can build a tavern. Thank God for that. Oh, there isn't a wilderness. but God hath his ministering angel to meet me and to help me indeed God himself comes to the wilderness oh how precious are the words of Rita Snowden you recall what she said if you read our book, The Dawn, God's forgiveness is just God trusting me again in the place where I disgraced. Isn't that wonderful? God trusting me again in the place where I disgraced. Is that the place you're in today? Is that the consciousness that is gripping you now? That you have disobeyed and in your disobedience you have dishonoured God? Oh, I'll never forget the cry of a schoolmaster in Louis. He at one time loved the Saviour As a young lad he professed faith in Jesus Christ, went to university in Glasgow and while there lost out and back slid to terrible death. During the revival, indeed it was in a dance, he was head of a concert party about concert and dance. God swept into the dance, swept in. Young men and women fled from the floor, gripped by the fear of God, one man described it thus, I felt the flames of hell licking my very soul as I fled from that den of iniquity. Speaking of this dance, this concert, and God's visitation, this headmaster, was found on his face on the floor, crying, God, is there forgiveness for me? Is there forgiveness for me? Hell is too good for me. That's conviction. That's God at work. But listen, on that damned floor, God came to him again. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Yes, he's in a wilderness. But there he built a tavern and registered a new beginning. I want to tell you what that man said. speaking at a testimony meeting in connection with wonderful communion season. You see, in the Highlands, Friday is given over to testimony. You must have a testimony to the saving grace of God before you're allowed to sit at the Lord's table. I hope that's what impressed upon people everywhere as Lord's table wouldn't be cluttered with men that are living in sin. I say that as a Presbyterian minister. This man is giving his testimony and this is what he says, if there is one thing that lies heavy upon my spirit It is this, that during those years of backsliding, I helped the devil to damn the young people of the parish. Oh my dear people, help the devil, if I'm not gathering I'm scattering. If I'm not living for God, I'm living for the devil. If I'm not winning polls for Christ, I'm winning them for the devil. I care not what I profess. And that was the truth that gripped him and troubled him. The number of young people that he that were living in sin and he said that day I believe some of them are in hell because of my disobedience yet God came to him and God spoke the word of forgiveness and God made him again O thank God for the gospel of a second chance, that you today in this convention can register a new beginning, can build a tabernacle in your wilderness, and know the glorious truth relative to the vessel marred that can be made again. I remember one of the elders in Lewes saying to me after the great awakening in the parish of Bathurst. He said, Mr. Campbell, you must have lived for this day And now you will live in the memory of him. Of course I knew what the dear man meant. I'm sure he was thinking of the rest and the joy and the peace that must have flooded the soul in seeing prayer answered and God moving. But is that the real thing? Oh, is that the real thing? I say a thousand times no! The real thing is to be so in the will of God that today surprises in the realm of grace makes yesterday's experience but a commonplace. Each day, Wenchestering a new beginning with God. Now let me say, and I wish this to be clearly understood, that the gospel of a new beginning is only possible as an expression of God himself. Nature knows nothing of it. It is a fixed rule in nature that if any of her laws be broken, they're attached to the one who breaks them of permanent disability. And this truth is contrary to the spirit of the world. For the world worships power, success is its key. But let a man fail, let a man break down, let a man fall, be it in business or out of business, he seldom is ever get another chance. He's down! Keep him down! That's the spirit of the age. Oh, he seldom gets a frank, a fool, and a free forgiveness. That sets him again on the way of life, humbled, humbled, but inspired. I was preaching at the mound in Edinburgh some little time ago, and after a message, a young man came to me. Oh, he was in trouble. He was just released from prison. He was a very clever young man, highly educated, but in an evil hour yielded to temptation and found himself behind prison bars. Do you know what he said to me? I've walked Edinburgh during the past week seeking employment and when I tell the truth to them No one will have me. No one will have me. And I looked at him and said, young man, I know one that will have you. I know one that will have you. He taped it up. Oh, he says, tell me, tell me who it is. Is he in Edinburgh? Yes, I said, and he's at the mound. He's here now. Here now? Could I speak to him there? You can speak to him. Would you like to go on your knees on my coat here? And we'll talk to him. And then it dawned on what I meant. In a cloud Timorese, I stood beside him and I prayed. and then he said do you think that he would help me? oh I felt now I'm getting there do you think that he will help me? yes I said he will on one condition and on one condition only that you repent of your sin and accept him as your saviour listen Just like a flash! He said, Mr. Campbell, my parents have been praying for me. I'll do that now. And he did it! And today he's in employment and doing well. Oh, thank God! It may not be the spirit of the world, but blessed be God, That's how Jesus acts. He comes and He meets me at the very point of my need and He organises victory for me on the very ground of my defeat. And there, oh blessed God, there I can register a new beginning, O the inspiration pot. I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten, and ye shall know I am in the midst of Israel. I believe, dear people, that listening to me this morning, there are those to whom God is speaking. You know where you have tailed him. Young man, you know. Young woman, you know. And if you listen to me, There is within your heart all such a longing to be real, to be real. My appeal these days is for reality, for reality in godliness, in holiness, in vital Christian living. Oh, how desperate it is to read people today talk about the need of a new technique. I'm tired listening. A new approach in the field of evangelism. So in Edinburgh they've introduced the dance on Sunday evening in one of our churches reputed to be evangelical. Oh God help us. This is the new approach. That is why I say I'm tired of listening. It's not a new approach or a new technique. But a new dissertation of God. Through consecrated Godly living. That's what we need today. Oh give us that in our churches. Give us men and women possessed by God. Let me tell you a story illustrating what I mean. During the revival I had a letter from an atheist. He was headmaster of one of our schools, an atheist. Would you call? I'm anxious to have a talk with you. People with whom I stayed were amazed, surprised, that I should receive a letter from this desperate man. So I called. In course of conversation he said this, would you prove to me or could you prove to me logically that there is a God. Prove to you logically. I wouldn't attend to it. I wouldn't attend to it. No, I I wouldn't attempt to prove to you logically that there is a God. Because finite minds can never grasp the infinite. The world by wisdom knew not God. But if you wish to be introduced to the God that I believe in, to the God that saved me and to the God that is real to me now spend half a day in the village of Arnox and I can still see that proud atheist bow his head I can see the tears streaming from his eyes Half he said, did you say half a day? Half an hour did he. I was in that village yesterday and I met little Donald McHale. Who was little Donald McHale? A lad of sixteen years of age. who was gloriously saved the night the revival swept through that community. A fortnight after that, Donald, young Donald, was out on the hills, sending some cattle. He is praying as he lay among the heather. And suddenly, God, the Holy Ghost, fell upon him. He was baptized into Christ, kneeling by a peat sack the night that God visited the village. On the hillside, explaining to us, you will hear it any time you like, he was baptized by the Holy Ghost, by Christ! and fall that height that he couldn't rise from the ground his parents found him there his mother said Donald we've been looking for you for hours oh mother leave me I'm having an audience with the king think of that a boy of 16 years of age I may say that he is today a minister and a missionary in Southern Arabia and seeing a wonderful work done among the Arabs. Yes. That was the last that met the proud schoolman. And when he met him, he met God! He met God! God expressing himself through holy personality. That's it. That's the impact. May I tell you another story about that young lad. It was the following week. He is again leading the cattle out of the village to the moor. as he is passing through the village gate. A coach, a bus from the town, stops and a young man alights. He is carrying two cases. He is just home from Australia. He is a sailor. No, he knew nothing about the revival. He was on the sea when Revival's west. His district. He is home for a short holiday. He's carrying two heavy kids. Young Donald goes over to him. Norman, we're glad to see you home. Especially at such a time. Now that was all he said. That was all that he said. Passed on with the cattle. By the time Norman got to his home, he was in the grip of deep conviction. Something laid hold of him that he never experienced before and kept repeating to himself, I'm quoting him now, I'm quoting him He kept repeating, Oh my God, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner. Won't you see me? Now he hadn't heard about the revival. He hadn't heard that God had swept into the village some weeks before. But he's now in an environment where the supreme reality is God. That's revival. He went to the home. His mother met him at the door and embraced him. We're glad to see you home, Norman. You see, he had been away for two years. Oh, mother, won't you pray for me? Won't you pray for me? Norman, we have need to pray for ourselves. But yet God hadn't visited that home. I believe God ordained that what I'm now going to tell you was to happen. My mother said, Norman, no, we have much need to pray for ourselves but your old companion was saved last night and I'll ask him in to pray for you. And she asked this young man, the neighbour, to come in. And that young lad, young man, thus born again on the previous evening, poured out his heart that God might save Norman. And God saved Norman! And God saved Norman's father, Norman's mother, Norman's two brothers and two sisters within an hour! That's God! Oh, that God! Because the Holy Ghost, the power of the city shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you! And the Holy Ghost came upon that young lad. We frequently speak of him as the Evan Roberts of Louis. I believe more souls were saved through his prayer than through the preaching and the prayers of every minister in Louisville, among them. God came, empowered him, set him free, and he could say, Leave me, Mother, I'm having an audience with the King. You see, he was living in high places with God. And it's in the high place, my brother, that the miracle happens. It doesn't happen down here. Oh, to get to high altitude, at this convention, to get to high places with God, then the miracle happens. And a tabernacle is built in the wilderness and the community sees a new beginning and God marching gloriously as hell is made to swing back before the presence of the Lord of Light. Oh, may God grant it. May God grant it. Amen.