had in it the solemnity of Heaven, and a transparent simplicity of
life and heart, which knew nothing of by-ends and shabby, personal
motives or distracting duplicity of purpose--do you not think that
the Lord would add to you daily such as should be saved? Or, to put
it into other words, wherever there is a little knot of men obviously
held together by a living Christ, and obviously manifesting in their
lives and characters the likeness of that Christ transforming and
glorifying them, there will be drawn to them--by natural gravitation,
I was going to say, but we may more correctly say, by the gravitation
which is natural in the supernatural realm--souls that have been
touched by the grace of the Lord, and souls to whom that grace has
been brought the nearer by looking upon _them_. Wherever there is
inward vigour of life there will be outward growth; and the Church
which is pure, earnest, living will be a Church which spreads and
increases.

Historically, it has always been the case that in God's Church
seasons of expansion have followed upon seasons of deepened spiritual
life on the part of His people. And the only kind of growth which is
wholesome, and to be desired in a Christian community, is growth as a
consequence of the revived religiousness of the individuals who make
up the community.

And just in like manner as such a community will draw to it men who
are like-minded, so it will repel from it all the formalist people.
There are congregations that have the stamp of worldliness so deep
upon them that any persons who want to be burdened with as little
religion as may be respectable will find themselves at home there.
And I come to you Christian people here, for whose Christian
character I am in some sense and to some degree responsible, with