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God's Way of Peace: A Book for the Anxious:
Electronic Edition.

Bonar, Horatius, 1808-1889

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
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First edition, 2000
ca. 230K
Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2000.

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Source Description:
(title page) God's Way of Peace: A Book for the Anxious
(spine) God's Way of Peace
Horatius Bonar, D. D.
212 p.
Richmond
Presbyterian Committee of Publication.
[1861?]
4270.1 Conf.(Rare Book Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

        The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.
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GOD'S WAY OF PEACE:
A Book for the Anxious.

BY

HORATIUS BONAR, D. D.

"To him that worketh not, but believeth."--ROM. iv. 2.

RICHMOND:
PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION.

Page v

PREFACE.

        THERE seem to be many, in our day, who are seeking God. Yet they appear to be but "feeling after him in order to find him," as if he were either a distant or an "unknown God." They forget that "he is NOT FAR from every one of us," (Acts xvii. 27); for "in him we live, and move, and have our being."

        To know that He is not far; that he has come down; that he has come nigh; this is the "beginning of the gospel." It gives direct denial to the vain thoughts of those who think that they must bring Him nigh they by their prayers and devout performances. He has shewn himself to us, that we may

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know him, and in knowing him find the life of our souls.

        With some, who name the name of Christ, religion is a very unfinished thing. It is by no means satisfactory either to the man himself, or to the onlookers. There is much awanting. The man is anxious and earnest, but if he has not "peace with God," he has not what God calls "religion."

        Acceptance with God lies at the foundation of all religion; for there must be an accepted worshipper, before there can be acceptable worship. Religion is with many merely the means of averting God's displeasure, and securing his favor. It is often irksome, but they do not feel easy in neglecting it; and they hope that by it they will obtain forgiveness before they die.

        This, however, is the inversion of God's order, and is in reality the worship of an

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unknown God. It terminates in forgiveness; whereas as God's religion begins with it. All false religions, though outwardly differing very widely, are made up of earnest efforts to secure for the religionist the divine favour now, and eternal life at last. The one true religion is seen in the holy life of those who, having found for themselves forgiveness and favour, in believing the the record which God has given of his Son, are walking with him from day to day, in the calm but sure consciousness of being entirely accepted, and working for him with the happy earnestness of those whose reward is his constant smile of love; who having been much forgiven, love much, and shew forth, by daily sacrifice and service, how much they feel themselves debtors to a redeeming God, debtors to his Church, and debtors to the world in which they live. (Rom. i. 14.)

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        But if this be true religion, how much is there of the false?

        It is not good that men should be all their life seeking God, and never finding him; that they should be ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. It is not good to be always doubting; and, when challenged, to make the untrue excuse that they are only doubting themselves, not God; that they are only dissatisfied with their own faith, but not with its glorious object. It is not good to believe in our own faith, still less in our own doubts, which some seem to do, making the best doubter to be the best believer; as if it were the gold of the cup, not the living water which it contains, that was to quench our thirst; and as if it were unlawful to take that precious water from a poor earthen vessel, such as our imperfect faith must ever be. Ah, in this momentous

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thing, surely it is with the water and not with the vessel that the thirsty soul has to do? What matters it though the vessel be one of skin, or earthenware,--nay, though it be but "a skerd to take up water from the pit," (Isa. xxx. 14). It is not the quality of the vessel, but the quality of the water, that the thirsty soul thinks of; and he, whose pride will not allow him to drink out of a soiled and broken pitcher, must die of thirst. So he who puts away the sure reconciliation of the cross, because--of an imperfect faith, must die the death. He who says, "I believe the right thing, but I don't believe it in the right way, and therefore I can't have peace;" is the man whose pride is such, that he is determined not to quench his thirst save out of a cup of gold.

        Some have tried to give directions to sinners "how to get converted," multiplying words without wisdom, leading the sinner

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away from the cross by setting him upon doing, not upon believing. Our business is not to give any such directions, but, as the apostles did, to preach Christ crucified, a present Saviour and a present salvation. Then it is that sinners are converted, as the Lord himself said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me," (John xii. 32).

        In the following chapters there are some things which may appear repetitions. But this could not easily be avoided, as there were certain truths as well as certain errors that necessarily came up at different points and under different aspects. I need not apologise for these, as they were, in a great measure, unavoidable. They take up very little space, and I do not think they will seem at all superfluous to anyone who reads for profit and not for criticism.

KELSO, December 1861.

Page xi

CONTENTS.

Page 1

GOD'S WAY OF PEACE.

CHAPTER I.

GOD'S TESTIMONY CONCERNING MAN.

        GOD knows us. He knows what we are; he knows also what he meant us to be; and upon the difference between these two, states he founds his testimony concerning us.

        He is too loving to say anything needlessly severe; too true to say anything untrue; nor can he have any motive to misrepresent

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us; for he loves to tell of the good, not of the evil, that may be found in any of the works of his hands. He declared them "good," "very good," at first; and if he does not do so now, it is not because he would not, but because cannot; for "all flesh has corrupted its way upon the earth," (Gen. vi. 12).

        God's testimony concerning man is, that he is a sinner. He bears witness against him, not for him, and testifies that "there is none righteous, no, not one;" that there is "none that doeth good;" none "that understandeth;" none that even seeketh after God, and still more none that loveth him. (Psa. xiv. 1-3; Rom. iii. 10-12.) God speaks of man kindly, but severely; as one yearning over a lost child, yet a one who will make no terms with sin, and will "by no means clear the guilty." He declares man to be a lost one, a stray one, a rebel, nay a "HATER OF GOD," (Rom. i. 30); not a sinner occasionally, but a sinner

Page 3

always; not a sinner in part, with many good things about him; but wholly a sinner, with no compensating goodness; evil in heart as well as life, "dead in trespasses and sins," (Eph. ii. 1); an evil doer, and therefore under condemnation; an enemy of God, and therefore "under wrath," a breaker of the righteous law, and therefore under "the curse of the law," (Gal. iii. 10).

        Man has fallen! Not this man or that man, but the whole race. In Adam all have sinned; in Adam all have died. It is not that a few leaves have faded or been shaken down, but the tree has become corrupt, root and branch. The "flesh," or "old man"--that is, each man as he is born into the world, a son of man, a fragment of humanity, a unit in Adam's fallen body,--"corrupt" He not merely brings forth sin, but he carries it about with him, as his second self; nay, he is a "body" or mass of sin (Rom. vi. 6), a "body of death" (Rom. vii. 24), subject not to the law of God, but

Page 4

to "the law of sin," (Rom. vii. 23). The Jew, educated under the most perfect of laws, and in the most favourable circumstances, was the best type of humanity,--civilised, polished, educated humanity; the best specimen of the first Adam's sons; yet God's testimony concerning him is that he is "under sin," that he has gone astray, and that he has "come short of the glory of God."

        The outer life of a man is not the man, just as the paint on a piece of timber is not the timber, and as the green moss upon the hard rock is not the rock itself. The picture of a man is not the man; it is but a skilful arrangement of colours which look like the man. So it is the bearing of the soul toward God that is the true state of the man. The man that loves God with all his heart is in a right state; the man that does not love him thus is in a wrong one. He is a sinner; because his heart is not right with God. He may think his life

Page 5

a good one, and others may think the same; but God counts him guilty, worthy of death and hell. The outward good cannot make up for the inward evil. The good deeds done to his fellow-men cannot be set off against his bad thoughts of God. And he must be full of these bad thoughts so long as he does not love this infinitely loveable and infinitely glorious Being with all his strength.

        God's testimony then concerning man is, that he does not love God with all his heart; nay, that he does not love him at all. Not to love our neigbour is sin; not to love a parent is greater sin; but not to love God, our divine parent, is greater sin still.

        Man need not try to say a good word for himself, or to plead "not guilty," unless he can shew that he loves, and has always loved God with his whole heart and soul. If he can truly say this, he is all right, he is not a sinner, and does not need pardon.

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He will find his way to the kingdom without the cross and without a Savior. But, if he cannot say this, "his mouth is stopped," he is "guilty before God." However favourably a good outward life may dispose himself and others to look upon his case just now, the verdict will go against him hereafter. This is man's day, when man's judgments prevail; but God's day is coming when the case shall be strictly tried upon its real merits. Then the Judge of all the earth shall do right, and the sinner be put to shame.

        There is another and yet worse charge against him. He does not believe on the name of the Son of God, nor love the Christ of God. This is his sin of sins. That his heart is not right with God is the first charge against him. That his heart is not right with the Son of God is the second. And, it is this second that is the crowning, crushing sin, carrying with it more terrible damnation than all other sins together

"He that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God," (John iii. 18). "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record which God gave of his Son," (1 John v. 10). "He that believeth not shall be damned," (Mark xvi. 16). Hence it was that the apostles preached "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," (Acts xx. 21). And hence it is that the first sin which the Holy Spirit brings home to a man is unbelief; "when he is come he will reprove the world of sin, because they believe not on me," (John xvi. 8, 9).

        Such is God's condemnation of man. Of this the whole Bible is full. That great love of God which his word reveals is based on this condemnation. It is love to the condemned. God's testimony to his own grace has no meaning, save as resting on or taking for granted his testimony to man's

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guilt and ruin. Nor is it against man as merely a being morally diseased or sadly unfortunate that he testifies; but as guilty of death, under wrath, sentenced to the eternal curse; for that crime of crimes, a heart not right with God, and not true to his Incarnate Son.

        This is a divine verdict, not a human one. It is God, not man, who condemns, and God is not a man that he should lie. This is God's testimony concerning man, we know that this witness is true.

Page 9

CHAPTER II.

MAN'S OWN CHARACTER NO GROUND OF PEACE.

        IF God testify against us, who can testify for us? If God's opinion of man's sinfulness, his judgment of man's guilt, and his declaration of sin's evil be so very decided, there can be no hope of acquittal for us on the ground of personal character or goodness, either of heart or life. That which God sees in us furnishes only matter for condemnation, not for pardon.

        It is vain to struggle or murmur against God's judgment[.] He is the Judge of all

Page 10

the earth; and he is right as well as sovereign in his judgment. He must be obeyed; his law is inexorable; it cannot be broken without making the breaker of it (even in one jot or tittle) worthy of death.

        When the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the soul it sees this. Conviction of sin is just the sinner seeing himself as he is, and as God has all along seen him. Then every fond idea of self-goodness, either in whole or in part, vanishes away. The things in him that once seemed good appear so bad, and the bad things so very bad, that every self-prop falls from beneath him, and all hope of being saved, in consequence of something in his own character, is then taken away. He sees that he cannot save himself; nor help God to save him. He is lost, and he is helpless. Doings, feelings, strivings, prayings, givings, abstainings, and the like, are found to be no relief from a sense of guilt, and, therefore, no resting-place for a troubled heart. If sin were but

Page 11

11 a disease or a misfortune, these apparent good things might relieve him, as being favourable symptoms of returning health; but when sin is guilt even more than disease; and when the sinner is not merely sick, but condemned by the righteous judge; then none of these goodnesses in himself can reach his case, for they cannot assure him of a complete and righteous pardon, and, therefore, cannot pacify his roused and wounded conscience.

        He sees God's unchangeable hatred of sin, and the coming revelation of his wrath against the sinner; and he cannot but tremble. An old writer thus describes his own case, "I had a deep impression of the things of God; a natural condition and sin appeared worse than hell itself; the world and vanities thereof terrible and exceeding dangerous; it was fearful to have ado with it, or to be rich; I saw its day coming; Scripture expressions were weighty; a Saviour was a big thing in mine eyes;

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Christ's agonies were earnest with me; I thought that all in days I was in a dream till now, or like a child in jest; and I thought the world was sleeping."

        The question, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?" is not one which can be decided by an appeal to personal character, or goodness of life, or prayers, or performances of religion. The way of approach is not for us to settle. God has settled it; and it only remains for as to avail ourselves of it. He has fixed it on grounds altogether irrespective of our character; or rather on grounds which take for granted simply that we are sinners, and that therefore the element of goodness in us, as a title, or warrant, or recommendation, is altogether inadmissible, either in whole or in part.

        To say, as some inquiring ones do at the outset of their anxiety, I will set myself to pray, and after I have prayed a sufficient length of time, and with tolerable earnestness,

I may approach and count upon acceptance, is not only to build upon the quality and quantity of our prayers, but it is to overlook the real question before the sinner, "How am I to approach God in order to pray?" All prayers are approaches to God, and the sinner's anxious question is, "How may I approach God?" God's explicit testimony to man is, "You are unfit to approach me;" and it is a denial of the testimony to say, "I will pray myself out of this unfitness into fitness; I will work myself into a right state of mind and character for drawing near to God." Anxious spirit! Were you from this moment to cease from sin, and do nothing but good all the rest of your life, it would not do. Were you to begin praying now, and do nothing else but pray all your days, it would not do! Your own character cannot be your way of approach, nor your ground of confidence toward God. No amount of praying, or working, or feeling, can satisfy
Page 14

the righteous law, or pacify a guilty conscience or quench the flaming sword that guards the access into the presence of the infinitely Holy One.

        That which makes it safe, for you to draw near to God, and, right for God to receive you, must be something altogether away from and independent of yourself; for yourself and everything pertaining to yourself has already condemned; and no condemned thing can give you any warrant for going to him, or hoping for acceptance. Your liberty of entrance must come from something which he has accepted; not from something which he has condemned.

        I knew an awakened soul who, in the bitterness of his spirit, thus set himself to work and pray in order to get peace. He doubled the amount of his devotions, saying to himself, Surely God will give me peace. But the peace did not come. He set up family worship, saying, Surely God will give me peace. But the peace came not.

Page 15

At last he bethought himself of having a prayer-meeting in his house as a certain remedy. He fixed the night; called his neighbours; and prepared himself for conducting the meeting, by writing a prayer and learning it by heart. As he finished the operation of learning it, preparatory to the meeting, he threw it down on the table, saying, "Surely that will do, God will give me peace now." In that moment, a still small voice seemed to speak in his ear, saying, "No, that will not do; but Christ will do." Straightway the scales fell from his eyes, and the burden from his shoulders. Peace poured in like a river. "Christ will do," was his watchword for life.

        Very clear is God's testimony against man, and man's doings, in this great matter of approach and acceptance. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done" says Paul in one place (Titus iii. 5), and, "to him that worketh not," says he in a second (Rom. iv. 4); "not justified by

Page 16

the works of the law", says he in a third (Gal, ii. 16).

        The sinner's peace with God is not to come from his own character. No grounds of peace or elements of reconciliation can be extracted from himself, either directly or indirectly. His one qualification for peace is, that he needs it. It is not what he has, but what he lacks of good that draws him to God; and it is the consciousness of this lack that bids him look elsewhere, for something both to invite and embolden him to approach. It is our sickness, not our health, fits us for the physician, and casts us upon his skill.

        No guilty conscience can be pacified with anything short of that which will make pardon a present, a sure, and a righteous thing. Can our best doings, our best feelings, our best prayers, our best sacrifices, bring this about? Nay; having accumulated these to the utmost, does not the sinner feel that pardon is just as far off

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and uncertain as before ? and that all his earnestness cannot persuade God to admit him to favour, or bribe his own conscience into true quiet even for an hour?

        In all false religion, the worshipper rests his hope of divine favour upon something in his own character, or life, or religious duties. The Pharisee did this when he came into the temple, "thanking God that he was not as other men," (Luke xviii. 11). So do those in our day who think to get peace by doing, feeling, and praying more than others, or than they themselves have done in time past; and who refuse to take the peace of the free gospel till they have amassed such an amount of this doing and feeling as will ease their consciences, and make them conclude that it would not be fair in God to reject the application of men so earnest and devout as they. The Galatians did this also when they insisted on adding the law of Moses to the gospel of Christ as the ground of confidence toward

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God. Thus do many act among ourselves. They will not take confidence from God's character or Christ's work, but from their own character and work; though in reference to all this it is written, "The Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them," (Jer. ii. 37). They object to a present confidence, for that assumes that a sinner's resting-place is wholly out of himself,--ready-made, as it were, by God. They would have this confidence to be a very gradual thing, in order that they may gain time, and, by a little diligence in religious observances, may so add to their stock of duties, prayers, experiences, devotions, that they may, with some humble hope, as they call it, claim acceptance from God. By this course of devout living they think they have made themselves more acceptable to God than they were before they began this religious process, and much more entitled to expect the divine favour than those who have not so qualified themselves.

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In all this the attempted resting-place is self,--that self which God has condemned. They would not rest upon unpraying, or unworking, or undevout self; but they think it right and safe to rest upon praying, and working, and devout self, and they call this humility! The happy confidence of the simple believer who takes God's word at once, and rests on it, they call presumption or fanaticism; their own miserable uncertainty, extracted from the doings of self, they speak of as a humble hope.

        The sinner's own character, in any form, and under any process of improvement, cannot furnish reasons for trusting God. However amended, it cannot speak peace to his conscience, nor afford him any warrant for reckoning on God's favour; nor can it help to heal the breach between him and God. For God can accept nothing but perfection in such a case, and the sinner has nothing but imperfection to present.

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Imperfect duties and devotions cannot persuade God to forgive. Besides, be it remembered that the person of the worshipper must be accepted before his services can be acceptable; so that nothing can be of any use to the sinner save that which provides for personal acceptance completely, and at the outset. The sinner must go to God as he is, or not at all. To try to pray himself into something better than a condemned sinner, in order to win God's favour, is to make prayer an instrument of self-righteousness; so that, instead of its being the act of an accepted man, it is the purchase of acceptance,--the price which we pay to God for favouring us, and the bribe with which we persuade conscience no longer to trouble us with its terrors. No knowledge of self, nor consciousness of improvement of self, can soothe the alarms of an awakened conscience, or be any ground for expecting the friendship of God. To take comfort from our good doings, or good feelings, or

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good plans, or good prayers, or good experiences, is to delude ourselves, and to say peace when there is no peace. No man can quench his thirst with sand, or with water from the Dead Sea; so no man can find rest from his own character however good, or from his own acts however religious. Even were he perfect, what enjoyment could there be in thinking about his own perfection? What profit, then, can there be in thinking about his own imperfection?

        Even were there many good things about him, they could not speak peace; for the good things which might speak peace, could not make up for the evil things which speak trouble; and what a poor, self-made peace would that be which arose from his thinking as much good and as little evil of himself as possible. And what a temptation, besides, would this furnish, to extenuate the evil and exaggerate the good about ourselves,--in other words, to deceive our own hearts. Self-deception must always, more

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or less, be the result of such estimates of our own experiences. Laid open, as we are, in such a case, to all manner of self-blinding influences, it is impossible that we can be impartial judges, or that we can be "without guile" (Psa. xxxii. 2), as in the case of those who are freely and at once forgiven.

        One man might say, My sins are not very great or many; surely I may take peace. Another might say, I have made up for my sins by my good deeds, I may have peace. Another might say, I have a very deep sense of sin, I may have peace. Another might say, I have repented of my sin, I may have peace. Another might say, I pray much, I work much, I love much, I give much, I may have peace. What temptation in all this to take the most favourable view of self and its doings! But, after all, it would be vain. There could be no real peace; for its foundation would be sand, not rock. The peace or confidence

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which come from summing up the good points of our character, and thinking of our good feelings and doings, or about our faith, and love, and repentance, must be made up of pride. Its basis is self-righteousness, or at least self-approbation.

        It does not mend the matter to say that we look at these good feelings in us, as the Spirit's work, not our own. In one aspect this takes away boasting, but in another it does not. It still makes our peace to turn upon what is in ourselves, and not on what is in God. Nay, it makes use of the Holy Spirit for purposes of self-righteousness. It says that the Spirit works the change in us, in order that he may thereby furnish us with a ground of peace within ourselves.

        No doubt the Spirit's work in us must be accompanied with peace; but not because he has given us something in ourselves to draw our peace from. It is that kind of peace which arises unconsciously from the

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restoration of spiritual health; but not that which Scripture calls "peace with God." It does not arise from thinking about the change wrought in us, but unconsciously and involuntarily from the change itself. If a broken limb be made whole, we get relief straight way; not by thinking about the healed member, but simply in the bodily ease and comfort which the cure has given. So there is a peace arising, out of the change of nature and character wrought by the Spirit; but this is not reconciliation with God. This is not the peace which the knowledge of forgiveness brings. It accompanies it, and flows from it, but the two kinds of peace are quite distinct from each other. Nor does even the peace which attends the restoration of spiritual health come at second hand, from thinking about our change; but directly from the change itself. That change is the soul's new health, and this health is in itself a continual gladness.

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        Still it remains true, that in ourselves we have no resting-place. "No confidence in the flesh" must be our motto, as it is the foundation of God's gospel.

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CHAPTER III.

GOD'S CHARACTER OUR RESTING-PLACE.

        WE have seen that a sinner's peace cannot come from himself, nor from the knowledge of himself nor from thinking about his own acts and feelings, nor from the consciousness of any amendment of his old self.

        Whence, then, is it to come? How does he get it?

        It can only come from God; and it is in knowing God that he gets it. God has written a volume for the purpose of making

Page 27

himself known; and it is in this revelation of his character that the sinner is to find the rest that he is seeking. God himself is the fountain-head of our peace; his revealed truth is the channel through which this peace finds its way into us; and his Holy Spirit is the great interpreter of that truth to us. "Acquaint thyself now with God, and be at peace," (Job xxii. 21). Yes; acquaintanceship with God is peace!

        Had God told us that he was not gracious, that he took no interest in our welfare, and that he had no intention of pardoning us, we could have no peace and no hope. In that case our knowing God would only make us miserable. Our situation would be like that of the devils, who "believe and tremble" (James ii. 19); and the more that we knew of such a God, we should tremble the more. For how fearful a thing must it be to have the great God that made us, the

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great Father of Spirits, against us, not for us!

        Strange to say, this is the very state of disquietude in which we find many who profess to believe in a God "merciful and gracious!" With the Bible in their hands, and the cross before their eyes, they wander on in a state of darkness and fear, such as would have arisen had God revealed himself in hatred, not in love. They seem to believe the very opposite of what the Bible teaches us concerning God; and to attach a meaning to the Cross, the very opposite of what the gospel declares it really bears. Had God been all frowns, and the Bible all terrors, and Christ all sternness, these men could not have been in a more troubled and uncertain state than that in which they are.

        How is this? Have they not misunderstood the Bible? Have they not mistaken the character of God, looking on him as an "austere man" and a "hard master"?

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Are they not labouring to supplement the grace of God by something on their part, as if they believed that this grace was not sufficient to meet their case, until they had attracted it to themselves by some earnest performances, or spiritual exercises, of their own?

        God has declared himself to be gracious "God is love." He has embodied this grace in the person and work of his beloved Son. He has told us that this grace is for the ungodly, the unholy, the unfit, the stouthearted, the dead in sin. The more, then, that we know of this God and of his grace, the more will his peace fill us. Nor will the greatness of our sins, and the hardness of our hearts, or the changeableness of our feelings, discourage or disquiet, however much they may humble, us, and make us dissatisfied with ourselves.

        Let us study the character of God:--holy, yet loving; the love not interfering with the holiness, nor the holiness with

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the love; absolutely sovereign, yet infinitely gracious; the sovereignty not straitening the grace, nor the grace the sovereignty; drawing the unwilling yet not hindering the willing, if any such there be; quickening whom he will, yet having no pleasure in the death of the wicked; compelling some to come in, yet freely inviting all! Let us look at him in the face of Jesus Christ, for He is the express image of his person, and he that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. The knowledge of that gracious character, as interpreted by the cross of Christ, is the true remedy for our disquietudes. Insufficient acquaintanceship with God lies at the root of our fears and gloom. I know that flesh and blood cannot reveal God to you, and that the Holy Spirit alone can enable you to know either the Father or the Son. But I would not have you for a moment suppose that this Spirit is reluctant to do his work in you; nor

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would I encourage you in the awful thought, that you are willing while he is unwilling; or that the sovereignty of God is a hindrance to the sinner, and a restraint of the Spirit. The whole Bible takes for granted that all this is absolutely impossible. Never can the great truths of divine sovereignty and the Spirit's work land us, as some seem to think they may do, in such a conflict between a willing sinner and an unwilling God. The whole Bible is so written by the Spirit, and the gospel was so preached by the apostles, as never to raise the question of God's willingness, nor to lead to the remotest suspicion of his readiness to furnish the sinner with all needful aid. Hence the great truths of God's eternal election, and Christ's redemption of his Church, as we read them in the Bible, are helps and encouragements to the soul. But, interpreted as they are by many, they seem barrier-walls, not ladders for scaling the

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great barrier-wall of man's unwillingness; and anxious souls become land-locked in metaphysical questions, out of which there can be no way of extrication save that of taking God at his word.

        In the Bible God has revealed himself. In Christ he has done so most expressively. He has done so that there might be no mistake as to it on the part of man.

        Christ's person is a revelation of God. Christ's work is a revelation of God. Christ's words are a revelation of God. He is in the Father, and the Father in him. His words and works are the words and works of the Father. In the manger he shewed us God. In the synagogue of Nazareth he shewed us God. At Jacob's well he shewed us God. At the tomb of Lazarus he shewed us God. On Olivet, as he wept over Jerusalem, he shewed us God. On the cross he shewed us God. In the tomb he shewed us God. In his resurrection he shewed us God. If we say with Philip, "Shew us the Father,

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and it sufficeth us;" he answers, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," (John xiv. 8,9). This God whom Christ reveals as the God of righteous grace and gracious righteousness, is the God with whom we have to do.

        To know his character as thus interpreted to us by Jesus and his cross, is to have peace. It is into this knowledge of the Father that the Holy Spirit leads the soul whom he is conducting, by his almighty power, from darkness to light. For everything that we know of God we owe to this divine Teacher, this Interpreter, this "One among a thousand," (Job xxxiii. 23). But never let the sinner imagine that he is more willing to learn than the Spirit is to teach. Never let him say to himself, "I would fain know God, but I cannot of myself, and the Spirit will not teach me."

        It is not enough for us to say to some dispirited one, It is your unbelief that is

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keeping you wretched; only believe and all is well. This is true; but it is only general truth; which, in many cases, is of no use, because it does not shew him how it applies to him. On this point he is often at fault; thinking that faith is some great work to be done, which he is to labour at with all his might, praying all the while to God to help him in doing this great work; and that unbelief is some evil principle, requiring to be uprooted before the gospel will be of any use to him.

        But what is the real meaning of this faith and this unbelief?

        In all unbelief there are these two things,--a good opinion of one's self, and a bad opinion of God. So long as these two things exist, it is impossible for an inquirer to find rest. His good opinion of himself makes him think it quite possible to win God's favour by his own religious performances; and his bad opinion of makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case

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wholly into his hands. The object of the Holy Spirit's work, in convincing of sin, is to alter the sinner's opinion of himself, and so to reduce his estimate of his own character, that he shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by any excellency of his own. Having altered the sinner's good opinion of himself, the Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that the God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace.

        But the inquirer denies that he has a good opinion of himself, and owns himself a sinner. Now a man may say this; but really to know it is something more than saying. Besides, he may be willing to take the name of sinner to himself, in common with his fellow-men, and yet not at all own himself such a sinner as God says he is,--such a sinner as needs a whole Saviour to himself,--such a sinner as needs the cross, and blood, and righteousness of the Son of

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God. He may not have quite such a bad opinion of himself as to make him sensible that he can expect nothing from God on the score of personal goodness, or amendment of life, or devout observance of duty, or superiority to others. It takes a great deal to destroy a man's good opinion of himself; and even after he has lost his good opinion of his works, he retains his good opinion of his heart; and even after he has lost that, he holds fast his good opinion of his own religious duties, by means of which he hopes to make up for evil works and a bad heart. Nay, he hopes to be able so to act, and feel, and pray, as to lead God to entertain a good opinion of him, and receive him into favour.

        All such efforts spring from thinking well of himself in some measure; and also from his thinking evil of God, as if he would not receive him as he is. If he knew himself as God does, he would no more resort to such efforts than he would

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think of walking up an Alpine precipice. How difficult it is to make a man think of himself as God does! What but the almightiness of the Divine Spirit can accomplish this?

        But the inquirer says that he has not a bad opinion of God. But has he such an opinion of him as the Bible gives or the cross reveals? Has he such an opinion of him as makes him feel quite safe in putting his soul into his gracious hands, and trusting him with its eternal keeping? If not, what is the extent or nature of his good opinion of God? The knowledge of God, which the cross supplies, ought to set all doubt aside, and make distrust appear in the most odious of aspects, as a wretched misrepresentation of God's character and a slander upon his gracious name. Unbelief, then, is the belief of a lie and the rejection of the truth. It obliterates from the cross the gracious name of God, and inscribes another name, the name of an

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unknown god, in which there is no peace for the sinner and no rest for the weary.

        Accept, then, the character of God as given in the gospel; read aright his blessed name as it is written upon the cross; take the simple interpretation given of his mind toward the ungodly, as you have it at length in the glad tidings of peace. Is not that enough? If that which God has made known of himself be not enough to allay your fears, nothing else will. The Holy Spirit will not give you peace irrespective of your views of God's character. That would be countenancing the worship of a false god instead of the true God revealed in the Bible. It is in connection with the truth concerning the true God, "the God of all grace," that the Spirit gives peace. It is the love of the true God that he sheds abroad in the heart.

        The object of the Spirit's work is to make us acquainted with the true Jehovah; that in him we may rest; not to produce

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in us certain feelings, the consciousness of which will make us think better of ourselves, and give us confidence toward God. That, which he shews us of ourselves is only evil; that which he shews us of God is only good. He does not enable us to feel or to believe, in order that we may be comforted by our feeling or our faith. Even when working in us most powerfully he turns our eye away from his own work in us, to fix it on God, and his love in Christ Jesus our Lord. The substance of the gospel is the NAME of the great Jehovah, unfolded in and by Jesus Christ; the character of him in whom we "live and move and have our being," as the "just God, yet the Saviour," (Is. xlv. 21), the Justifier of the ungodly.

        Inquiring spirit, turn your eye to the cross and see these two things,--the Crucifiers and the Crucified. See the Crucifiers, the haters of God and of his Son. They are yourself. Read in them your

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own character, and cease to think of making that a ground of peace. See the Crucified. It is God himself; incarnate love. It is the God who made you, suffering, dying for the ungodly. Can you suspect his grace? Can you cherish evil thoughts of him? Can you ask anything farther to awaken in you the fullest and most unreserved confidence? Will you misinterpret that agony and death by saying either that they do not mean grace, or that the grace which they mean is not for you? Call to mind that which is written,--"Hereby perceive we the love of God, that he laid down his life for us," (1 John iii. 16). "Herein is LOVE, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins." (I John iv. 10.)

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CHAPTER IV.

RIGHTEOUS GRACE.

        WE have spoken of God's character as "the God of all grace" (1 Pet. v. 10). We have seen that it is in "tasting that the Lord is gracious" that the sinner has peace (1 Pet. ii. 3).

        But let us keep in mind that this grace is the grace of a righteous God; it is the grace of one who is Judge as well as Father. Unless we see this we shall mistake the gospel, and fail in appreciating both the pardon we are seeking, and the great sacrifice through which it comes to

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us. No vague forgiveness, arising out of mere paternal love, will do. We need to know what kind of pardon it is; and whether it proceeds from the full recognition of our absolute guiltiness by him who is to "judge the world in righteousness." The right kind of pardon comes not from love alone, but from law; not from good nature, but from righteousness; not from indifference to sin, but from holiness.

        The inquirer who is only half in earnest overlooks this. His feelings are moved, but his conscience is not roused. Hence he is content with very vague ideas of God's mere compassion for the sinner's unhappiness. To him human guilt seems but human misfortune, and God's acquittal of the sinner little more than the overlooking of his sin. He does not trouble himself with asking how the forgiveness comes, or what is the real nature of the love which he professes to have received. He is easily soothed to sleep,

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because be has never been fully awake. He is, at the best, a stony-ground hearer; soon losing the poor measure of joy that he may have got; becoming a formalist; or perhaps a trifler with sin; or, it may be, a religious sentimentalist.

        But he whose conscience has been pierced, is not so easily satisfied. He sees that the God, whose favour he is seeking, is holy as well as loving; and that he has to do with righteousness as well as grace. Hence the first inquiry that he makes is as to the righteousness of the pardon which the grace of God holds out. He must be satisfied on this point, and see that the grace is righteous grace, ere he can enjoy it at all. The more alive that he is to his own unrighteousness, the more does be feel the need of ascertaining the righteousness of the grace which we make known to him.

        It does not satisfy him to say, that, since it comes from a righteous God, it

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must be righteous grace. His conscience wants to see the righteousness of the way by which it comes. Without this it cannot be pacified or "purged;" and the man is not made "Perfect as pertaining to the conscience" (Heb. ix. 9-14); but must always have an uneasy feeling that all is not right; that his sins may one day rise up against him.

        That which soothes the heart will not always pacify the conscience. The sight of the grace will do the former; but only the sight of the righteousness of the grace will do the latter. Till the latter is done, there cannot be real peace. The hurt is healed slightly, and peace is spoken where there is no peace (Jer. vi. 14). The "healing of the hurt" can only be brought about by speaking peace where there is peace.

        Here the work of Christ comes in; and the cross of the Sin-bearer answers the question which conscience had raised,--"Is it righteous grace?" It is this great work

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of propitiation that exhibits God as "the just God, yet the Saviour" (Is. xlv. 21); not only righteous in spite of his justifying the ungodly, but righteous in doing so. It shews salvation as an act of righteousness; nay, one of the highest acts of righteousness that a righteous God can do. It shews pardon not only as the deed of a righteous God, but as the thing which shews how righteous he is, and how he hates and condemns the very sin that he is pardoning.

        Hear the word of the Lord concerning this "finished" work. "Christ died for our sins," (1 Cor. xv. 3). "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities," (Is. liii. 3). "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many," (Heb. ix. 28). "He gave himself for us," (Tit. ii. 14). "He was delivered for our offences," (Rom. iv. 25). " He gave himself for our sins," (Gal. i. 4). "Christ died for the ungodly," (Rom. v. 6). "He hath appeared,

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to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," (Heb. ix. 26). "Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh," (1 Pet. iv. 1). "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust," (1 Pet. iii, 18). "His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Pet. ii. 24).

        These expressions speak of something more than love. Love is in each of them; the deep, true, real love of God; but also justice and holiness; inflexible and inexorable adherence to law. They have no meaning apart from law; law as the foundation, pillar, keystone of the universe.

        But their connection with law is also their connection with love. For as t was law, in its unchangeable perfection, that constituted the necessity for the Surety's death, so it was this necessity that drew out the Surety's love, and gave also glorious proof of the love of him who made him to be sin for us (2 Cor. v. 21). For if a man were to die for another, when there was no

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necessity for his doing so, we should hardly call his death a proof of love. At best, such would be foolish love, or, at least, a fond and idle way of shewing it. But to die for one, when there is really need of dying, is the true test of genuine love. To die for a friend when nothing less will save him; this is the proof of love! When either he or we must die; and when he, to save us from dying, dies himself; this is love. There was need of a death, if we were to be saved from dying. Righteousness made the necessity. And, to meet this terrible necessity, the Son of God took flesh and died! He died, because it was written, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," (Ezek. xviii. 4). Love led him down to the cradle; love led him up to the cross! He died as the sinner's substitute. He died to make it a righteous thing in God to cancel the sinner's guilt and annul the penalty of his everlasting death.

        Had it not been for this dying, grace

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and guilt could not have looked each other in the face; God and the sinner could not have come nigh; righteousness would have forbidden reconciliation; and righteousness, we know, is as divine and real a thing as love. Without this expiation, it would not have been right for God to receive the sinner, nor safe for the sinner to come.

        But now, mercy and truth have met together (Psa. lxxxv. 10); now grace is righteousness, and righteousness is grace. This satisfies the sinner's conscience, by shewing him righteous love, for the unrighteous and unloveable. It tells him, too, that the reconciliation brought about in this way shall never be disturbed, either in this life or that which is to come. It is righteous reconciliation, and will stand every test, as well as last throughout eternity. The peace of conscience thus secured will be trial-proof, sickness-proof, deathbed-proof, judgment-proof. Realising this, the chief of

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sinners can say, "Who is he that condemneth?"

        What peace for the stricken conscience is there in the truth that Christ died for the ungodly; and that it is of the ungodly that the righteous God is the Justifier! The righteous grace thus coming to us through the sin-bearing work of the "Word made flesh," tells the soul, at once and for ever, that there can be no condemnation for any sinner upon earth, who will only consent to be indebted to this free love of God, which, like a fountain of living water, is bursting freely forth from the foot of the Cross.

        Just, yet the Justifier of the ungodly! What glad tidings are here! Here is GRACE; God's free love to the sinner; divine bounty and goodwill, altogether irrespective of human worth or merit. For this is the scriptural meaning of that often misunderstood word "grace."

        This righteous free love has its origin in

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the bosom of the Father, where the only begotten has his dwelling (John i. 18). It is not produced by anything out of God himself. It was man's evil, not his good, that called it forth. It was not the like drawing to the like, but to the unlike; it was light attracted by darkness, and life by death. It does not wait for our seeking, it comes unasked as well as undeserved. It is not our faith that creates it or calls it up; our faith realises it as already existing in its divine and manifold fulness. Whether we believe it or not, this righteous grace exists, and exists for us. Unbelief refuses it; but faith takes it, rejoices in it, and lives upon it. Yes, faith takes this righteous grace of God, and, with it, a righteous pardon, a righteous salvation, and a righteous heirship of the everlasting glory.

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CHAPTER V.

THE BLOOD OF SPRINKLING.

        BUT an inquirer asks, What is the special meaning of the BLOOD, of which we read so much? How does it speak peace? How does it "purge the conscience from dead works" (Heb. ix. 14)? What can blood have to do with the peace, the grace, and the righteousness of which we have been speaking?

        God has given the reason for the stress which he lays upon the blood; and, in understanding this, we get to the very bottom of the grounds of a sinner's peace.

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        The sacrifices of old, from the days of Abel downward, furnish us with the key to the meaning of the blood, and explain the necessity for its being "shed for the remission of sins." "Not without blood" (Heb. ix. 7) was the great truth taught by God from the beginning; the inscription which may be said to have been written on the gates of tabernacle and temple. For more than two thousand years, during the ages of the patriarchs, there was but one great sacrifice,--THE BURNT-OFFERING. This, under the Mosaic service, was split into parts,--the peace-offering, trespass-offering, sin-offering, &c. In all of these, however, the essence of the original burnt-offering was preserved,--by the blood and the fire, which were common to them all. The blood, as the emblem of substitution, and the fire, as the symbol of God's wrath upon the substitute, were seen in all the parts of Israel's service; but specially in the daily burnt-offering, the morning and

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evening lamb, which was the true continuation and representative of the old patriarchal burnt-offering. It was to this that John referred when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world," (John i. 29). Israel's daily lamb was the kernel and core of all the Old Testament sacrifices; and it was its blood that carried them back to the primitive sacrifices, and forward to the blood of sprinkling that was to speak better things than that of Abel, (Heb. xii. 26).

        In all these sacrifices the shedding of the blood was the infliction of death. The "blood was the life," (Lev. xvii. 11, 14; Deut. xii. 23); and the pouring out of the blood was "the pouring out of the soul," (Isa. liii. 12). This blood-shedding or life-taking was the payment of the penalty for sin; for it was threatened from the beginning, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," (Gen. ii. 17); and it is

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written, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. xviii. 3); and again, "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. vi. 23).

        But the blood-shedding of Israel's sacrifices could not take sin away. It shewed the way in which this was to be done, but it was in fact more a "remembrance of sins" (Heb. x. 3), than an expiation (Heb. x. 11). It said life must be given for life, ere sin can be pardoned; but then the continual repetition of the sacrifices shewed that there was needed "richer blood" than Moriah's altar was ever sprinkled with, and a more precious life than man could give.

        The great blood-shedding has been accomplished; the better life has been presented; and the one death of the Son of God has done what all the deaths of old could never do. His one life was enough; his one dying paid the penalty; and God does not ask two lives, or two deaths, or two payments. "Christ was once offered

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to bear the sins of many, "(Heb. ix. 28). "In that he died, he died unto sin once " (Rom. vi. 10). He "offered one sacrifice for sin is for ever," (Heb. x. 12).

        The "sprinkling of the blood" (Ex. xxiv. 8), was the making use of the death, by putting it upon certain persons or things, so that these persons or things were counted to be dead, and, therefore, to have paid the law's penalty. So long as they had not paid that penalty, they were counted unclean and unfit for God to look upon; but as soon as they had paid it, they were counted clean and fit for the service of God. Usually when we read of cleansing, we think merely of our common process of removing stains by water and soap. But this is not the figure meant in the application of the sacrifice. The blood cleanses, not like the prophet's "nitre and much soap" (Jer. ii. 22), but by making us partakers of the death of the Substitute. For what is it that makes us filthy before God?

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It is our guilt, our breach of law, and our being under sentence of death in consequence of our disobedience. We have not only done what God dislikes, but what his righteous law declares to be worthy of death. It is this sentence of death that separates us so completely from God, making it wrong for him to bless us, and perilous for us to go to him.

        When thus covered all over with that guilt whose penalty is death, the blood is brought in by the great High Priest. That blood represents death; it is God's expression for death. It is then sprinkled on us, and thus death, which is the law's penalty, passes on us. We die. We undergo the sentence; and thus the guilt passes away. We are cleansed! The sin which was like scarlet becomes as snow; and that which was like crimson becomes as wool. It is thus that we make use of the blood of Christ in believing; for faith is just the sinner's employing the blood. Believing,

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what God has testified concerning this blood, we become one with Jesus in his death; and thus we are counted in law, and treated by God, as men who have paid the whole penalty, and so been "washed from their sins in his blood " (Rev., i. 5).*
* It is interesting to notice, in connection with this point, that the old Scotch terms in law for acquitting and condemning were "cleanse" and "fyle" (that is, defile). In the assize held upon the faithful ministers of the Church of Scotland in 1606, it was put to the court whether these said ministers should be "clenzed" or "fyled," and the chancellor "declared that they were fyled by maniest votes" (See CALDERWOOD, vol. vi. p. 388).

        Such are the glad tidings of life, through him who died. They are tidings which tell us, not what we are to do, in order to be saved, but what He has done. This only can lay to rest the sinner's fears; can "purge his conscience;" can make him feel as a thoroughly pardoned man. The right knowledge of God's meaning in this sprinkling of the blood, is the only effectual way

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of removing the anxieties of the troubled soul, and introducing him into perfect peace.

        The gospel is not the mere revelation of the heart of God in Christ Jesus. In it the righteousness of God is specially manifested (Rom. i. 17); and it is this revelation of the righteousness that makes it so truly "the power of God unto salvation," (Rom. i. 16). The bloodshedding is God's declaration of the righteousness of the love which he is pouring down upon the sons of men; it is the reconciliation of law and love the condemnation of the sin and the acquittal of the sinner. As "without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. ix. 22); so the gospel announces that the blood has been shed by which remission flows; and now we know that "the Son of God is come" (1 John v. 20), and that "the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin." (1 John i. 7). The conscience is satisfied. It feels that God's grace is righteous

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grace, that his love is holy love. There it rests.

        It is not by incarnation but by bloodshedding that we are saved. The Christ of God is no mere expounder of wisdom; no mere deliverer or gracious benefactor; and they who think that they have told the whole gospel, when they have spoken of Jesus revealing the love of God, do greatly err. If Christ be not the Substitute, he is nothing to the sinner. If he did not die as the Sinbearer, he has died in vain. Let us not be deceived on this point, nor misled by those who, when they announce Christ as the Deliverer, think they have preached the gospel. If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? If I cast myself into the sea, and risk my life to save another, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more? Did he but risk his life? The very essence of Christ's deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us, his life for

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ours. He did not come to risk his life; he came to die! He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labour, a little suffering, "He redeemed us to God by his blood," (Rev. v. 9); "the precious blood of Christ," (1 Pet. i. 18). He gave all he had, even his life, for us. This is the kind of deliverance that awakens the happy song, "To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."

        The tendency of the world's religion just now is, to reject the blood; and to glory in a gospel which needs no sacrifice, no "Lamb slain." Thus, they go "in the way of Cain," (Jude 11). Cain refused the blood, and came to God without it. He would not own himself a sinner, condemned to die, and needing the death of another to save him. This was man's open rejection of God's own way of life. Foremost in this rejection of, what is profanely called by some scoffers, "be religion of the shambles," we

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see the first murderer; and he who would, not defile his altar with the blood of a lamb, pollutes the earth with his brother's blood.

        The heathen altars have been red with blood; and to this day they are the same. But these worshippers know not what they mean, in bringing that blood. It is associated only with vengeance in their minds; and they shed it, to appease the vengeance of their gods. But this is no recognition, either of the love or the righteousness of God. "Fury is not in him;" whereas their altars speak only of fury. The blood which they bring is a denial both of righteousness and grace.

        But look at Israel's altars. There is blood; and they who bring it know the God to whom they come. They bring it in acknowledgment of their own guilt, but also of his pardoning love. They say, "I deserve death; but let this death stand for mine; and let the love which otherwise

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could not reach me, by reason of guilt, now pour itself out on me."

        Inquiring soul! Beware of Cain's error on the one hand, in coming to God without blood; and beware of the heathen error on the other, in mistaking the meaning of the blood. Understand God's mind and meaning, in "the precious blood" of his Son. Believe his testimony concerning it; so shall thy conscience be pacified, and thy soul find rest.

        It is into Christ's death that we are baptized (Rom. vi. 3), and hence the cross, which was the instrument of that death, is that in which we "glory," (Gal. vi. 4). The cross is to us the payment of the sinner's penalty, the extinction of the debt, and the tearing up of the bond or hand-writing which was against us. And as the cross is the payment, so the resurrection is. God's receipt in full, for the whole sum, signed with his own hand. Our faith is not the completion of the payment, but the simple

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recognition on our part of the payment made by the Son of God. By this recognition, we become so one with Him who died and rose, that we are henceforth reckoned to be the parties who have paid the penalty, and treated as if it were we ourselves who had died. Thus are we "justified from the sin"*
* Rom. vi. 7. Our translation is, "He that is dead is freed from sin." But the word "freed" is literally "justified." The passage should run thus, "He that dies (and so exhausts the law's penalty and claim) is justified (or has been justified) from the sin." In the terms of old Scottish jurisprudence, "justify" means to suffer the penalty of the law, so that a justified man would mean, one who had completed his term of punishment, and so was free.
and then made partakers of the righteousness of him, who was not only delivered for our offences, but who rose again for our justification.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE SUBSTITUTE.

        LIFE comes to us through death; and thus grace abounds towards us in righteousness. This we have seen in a general way. But we have something more to learn concerning him who lived and died as the sinner's substitute. The more that we know of his person and his work, the more shall we be satisfied, in heart and conscience, with the provision which God has made for our great need[.]

        Our sin-bearer is the Son of God, the

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eternal Son of the Father. Of him it is written, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," (John i. 1). He is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," (Heb. i. 3). He is "in the Father, and the Father in him" (John xiv. 11); "the Father dwelleth in him" (John xiv. 9, 10); "he that hath seen him hath seen the Father;" and"he that heareth him, heareth him that sent him." He is "the Word made flesh" (John i. 14); "God manifest in flesh" (1 Tim. iii. 16); "Jesus the Christ, who has come in the flesh" (1 John iv. 2, 3). His name is "Immanuel," God with us (Isa. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23); Jesus, the "Saviour" (Matt. i. 21); "Christ," the anointed One, filled with the Spirit without measure (John iii. 34); "the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John i. 14).

        He came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, that is, the good news about the

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kingdom (Mark i. 14); teaching the multitudes that gathered round him (Mark iv. 1); healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, and raising the dead (Matt. iv. 23, 24); "receiving sinners, and eating with them" (Luke xv. 2). "He came to seek and save that which was lost" (Luke xix. 10); he went about speaking words of grace such as never man spake, saying,"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John xiv. 6). He went out and in as THE SAVIOUR; and in his whole life we see him as the Shepherd seeking his lost sheep, as the woman her lost piece of silver, and as the father looking out for his lost son. He is "mighty to save" (Isa. lxiii. 1); he is "able to save to the uttermost" (Heb. vii. 25); he came to be "the Saviour of the world" (1 John iv. 14).

        In all these things thus written concerning Jesus, there are good news for the sinner; such as should draw him, in simple

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confidence, to God; making him feel that his case has really been taken up in earnest by God; and that God's thoughts toward him are thoughts, not of anger, but of peace and grace. Heaven has come down to earth! There is goodwill toward man. He is not to be handed over to his great enemy. God has taken his side, and stepped in between him and Satan. This world is not to be burned up, nor its dwellers made eternal exiles from God! The darkness is passing away, and the true light is shining!

        Yet it is not the person of Christ, nor his birth, nor his life, that can suffice. That the Son of God took a true but sinless humanity of the very substance of the virgin; becoming bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; being in very deed the woman's seed; that he dwelt among us for a lifetime, is but the beginning of the good news; the Alpha, but not the Omega. This was shewn to Israel, and to

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us also, in the temple veil. That veil was the type of his flesh (Heb. x. 20); and, so long as that curtain remained whole, there was no entrance into the near presence of God. The worshipper was not indeed frowned upon; but he had to stand afar off. The veil said to the sinner, Godhead is within; but it also said, You cannot enter till something more has been done. The Holy Ghost, by it, signified that the way into the Holiest was not yet open. The rending of the veil; that is, the crucifixion of "the Word made flesh," opened the way completely.

        Hence it is that the Holy Spirit sums up the good news in one or two special points. They are these: Christ was crucified. Christ died. Christ was buried. Christ rose again from the dead. Christ went up on high. Christ sits at God's right hand, our "Advocate with the Father" (1 John ii. 1), "ever living to make intercession for us" (Rom. viii. 24, Heb. vii. 25).

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        These are the great facts which contain the good news. They are few and they are plain; so that a child may remember and understand them. They are the caskets which contain the heavenly gems. They are the cups which hold the living water for the thirsty soul; the golden baskets in which God has placed the bread of life, the true bread which came down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall never die. They are the volumes in whose brief but blessed pages are written the records of God's mighty mercy; records so simple that, even the "fool" may read and comprehend them; so true and sure that all the wisdom of the world, and all the wiles of hell, cannot shake their certainty.

        The knowledge of these is salvation. On them we rest our confidence; for they are the revelation of the NAME of God; and it is written, "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee" (Ps. ix. 10).

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        Let us listen to apostolic preaching, and see how these facts form the heads of primitive sermons; sermons such as Peter's at Jerusalem, or Paul's at Corinth and Antioch. Peter's sermon at Jerusalem (Acts ii. 29-36) was that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, had been raised from the dead and exalted to the throne of God, being made both Lord and Christ. This the apostle declared to be "good news." Paul's sermon at Antioch was, in substance the same,--a statement of the facts regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus; and the application of that sermon was in these words, "Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified," (Acts xiii. 38, 39). His sermon at Corinth was very similar. He gives us the following sketch of it: "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also ye

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have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you. For delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures," (1 Cor. xv. 1-4.) Then he adds "So WE PREACH, AND SO YE BELIEVED," (verse 11.)

        Such was apostolic preaching. Such was Paul's gospel. It narrated a few facts respecting Christ; adding the evidence of their truth and certainty, that all who heard might believe and be saved. In these facts the free love of God to sinners is announced; and the great salvation is revealed. It is this gospel which is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith," (Rom. i. 16, 17). Its burden was

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not, "Do this or do that; labour and pray, and use the means;"--that is law, not gospel:--but Christ has done all! He did it all when he was "delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification," (Rom. iv. 25.)[.] He did it all when he "made peace by the blood of his cross," (Col. i. 20). "It is finished," (John xix. 30). His doing is so complete that it has left nothing for us to do. We have but to enter into the joy of knowing that all is done! "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son," (1 John v. 11).

        But let us gather together some of the "true sayings of God" concerning Christ and his work. In these we shall find the divine interpretation of the facts above referred to. We shall see the meaning which the Holy Spirit attaches to these, and so our faith shall not "stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God," (1 Cor. ii. 5). It was in this way that the

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Lord himself, ere he left the earth, removed the unbelief of the doubters around him. He reminded them of the written word, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved (the) Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," (Luke xxiv. 46).

        Hear, then, the word of the Lord! For heaven and earth shall pass away, but these words shall not pass away. "Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification," (Rom. iv. 25). "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him," (1 Thess. v. 9, 10). "By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all," (Heb. x. 10). "In due time Christ died for the ungodly," (Rom. v. 6). "It is

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Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," (Rom viii. 34). "Who gave himself for our sins," (Gal. i. 4). "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," (Gal. iii. 13). "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace," (Eph. i. 7). "He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," (Phil. ii. 8). "Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead, according to my gospel," (2 Tim. ii. 8). "Who gave himself for us," (Titus ii. 14). "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many," (Heb. ix. 28). "Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate," (Heb. xiii. 12). "Christ also suffered for us," (1 Pet. ii. 21). "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree," (1 Pet. ii. 24). " Christ

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also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust," (1 Pet. iii. 18). "Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh," (1 Pet. iv. 1). "He is the propitiation for our sins," (1 John ii. 2). "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," (Rev. i. 5). "I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore," (Rev. i. 18). "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood," (Rev. v. 9).

        These are all divine truths written in divine words. These sayings are faithful and true; they come from Him that cannot lie; and they are as true, in these last days, as they were eighteen hundred years ago; for "the word of our God shall stand for ever," (Isa. xl. 8; 1 Pet. i. 25). In them we find the authentic exposition of the facts which the apostles preached; and in that we learn the glad tidings concerning the way in which salvation from a righteous God has come to unrighteous man. JESUS

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DIED! That is the paying of the debt, the endurance of the penalty; the death for death! HE WAS BURIED. That is the proof that his death was a true death, needing a tomb as we do. HE ROSE AGAIN. This is God's declaration that he, the righteous Judge, is satisfied with the payment, no less than with him who made it.

        Could there be better, gladder news to the sinner than these? What more can he ask to satisfy him, than that which has so fully satisfied the holy Lord God of earth and heaven? If this will not avail, then he can expect no more. If this is not enough, then Christ has died in vain.

        God has thus "brought near his righteousness," (Isa xlvi. 13). We do not need to go up to heaven for it; that would imply that Christ had never come down. Nor do we need to go down to the depths of the earth for it; that would say that Christ had never been buried and never risen. IT IS NEAR. It is as near as is the

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word concerning it, which enters into our ears (Rom. x. 10). We do not need to exert ourselves to bring it near; nor to do any thing to attract it towards us. It is already so near, so very near, that we cannot bring it closer. If we try to get up warm feelings and good dispositions in order to remove some fancied remainder of distance, we shall fail; not simply because these actings of ours cannot do what we are trying to do, but because there is no need of any such effort. The thing is done already. God has brought his righteousness nigh to the sinner. The office of faith is not to work, but to cease working; not to do any thing, but to own that all is done; not to bring near the righteousness, but to rejoice in it as already near. This is "the word of THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL," (Col. i. 5).

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CHAPTER VII.

THE WORD OF THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.

        How shall I come before God, and stand in his presence, with happy confidence on my part, and gracious acceptance on his?

        This is the sinner's question; and he asks it because he knows that there is guilt between him and God. No doubt this was Adam's question when he stitched his fig-leaves together for a covering. But he was soon made to feel that the fig-leaves would not do. He must be wholly covered, not in part only; and that by something which even God's eye cannot see through. As God

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comes near, the uselessness of his fig-leaves is felt, and he rushes into the thick foliage of Paradise to hide from the Divine eye. The Lord approaches the trembling man, and makes him feel that this hiding-place will not do. Then he begins to tell him what will do. He announces a better covering and a better hiding-place. He reveals himself as the God of grace, the God who hates sin, yet who takes the sinner's side against the sinner's enemy,--the old serpent. And all this through the seed of the woman--"the man" who is the true "hiding-place," (Isa. xxxii. 2). Adam can now leave his thicket safely; and feel that, in this revealed grace, he can "stand" (Rom. v. 2) before God without fear or shame. He has heard the good news; and brief as they are, they have restored his confidence and removed his alarm.

        Let us hear the good news, and let us hear them as Adam did,--from the lips of God himself. For that which is revealed

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for our belief is set before us on God's authority, not on man's. We are not only to believe the truth, but we are to believe it because God has spoken it. Faith must have a divine foundation.

        We gather together a few of these divine announcements; asking the anxious soul to study them as divine. Nor let him say that he knows them already; but let him accept our invitation, to traverse along with us, the field of gospel statement. It is of God himself that we must learn; and it is only by listening to the very words of God that we shall arrive at the true knowledge of what the gospel is. His own words are the truest, the simplest, and the best. They are not only the likeliest to meet our case; but they are the words which he has promised to honour and to bless.

        Let us hear, then, the words of God as to his own "grace," or " free-love," or "mercy." "The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord

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God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin," (Exod xxxiv. 6, 7). "The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy," (Num. xiv. 18). "His mercies are great," (2 Sam. xxiv. 14). "The Lord your God is gracious and merciful," (2 Chron. xxx. 9). "Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful," (Neh.. ix. 17). "His mercy endureth for ever," (1 Chron. xvi. 34). "Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee," (Psa. lxxxvi. 5) "thou art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth," (Psa. lxxxvi. 15); "thy mercy is great unto the heavens," (Psa. lvii. 10); "thy mercy is great above the heavens," (Psa. cviii. 4); "his tender mercies are over all his works," (Psa. cxlv. 9); "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth

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iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage; he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy," (Mic. vii. 18); "I will love them freely,"(Hos. xiv. 4); "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, (John iii. 16); "God commendeth his love towards us," (Rom. v. 8); "God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he hath loved us, even when we were dead in sins," (Eph. ii. 4); "the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man," (Titus iii. 4); "according to his mercy he saved us," (Titus iii. 5); " in this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him; herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins," (1 John iv. 9, 10); "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," (John i. 14); "grace and truth came by Jesus

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Christ," (John i. 17); "the word of his grace," (Acts xiv. 3); the gospel of the grace of God," (Acts xx. 24.).

        Such are a few of the words of Him who cannot lie, concerning his own free love. These sayings are faithful and true; and though perhaps we may but little have owned them as such, or given heed to the blessed news which they embody, yet they are all fitted to speak peace to the soul even of the most troubled and heavy laden. Each of these words of grace is like a star sparkling in the round, blue sky above us; or like a well of water pouring out its freshness amid desert rocks and sands. Blessed are they who know these joyful sounds, (Psa. lxxxix. 15).

        Let no one say,--"We know all these passages; of what use is it to read and reread words so familiar?" Much every way. Chiefly because it is in such declarations regarding the riches of God's free love that the gospel is wrapped up; and it is out of

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these that the Holy Spirit ministers light and peace to us. Such are the words which he delights to honour as his messengers of joy to the soul. Hear then, in these, the voice of the Spirit's love, as well as the love of the Father and the Son! If you find no peace coming out of them to you, as you read them the first time, read them again. If you find nothing the second time, read them once more. If you find nothing the hundredth or the thousandth time, study them yet again. "The word of God is quick and powerful," (Heb. iv. 12); his sayings are the "lively oracles," (Acts vii. 38); his word "liveth and abideth for ever," (1 Peter i. 23); it is "like a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces," (Jer. xxiii. 29). The gospel is "the power of God," (Rom. i. 16); and it is by "manifestation of the truth," that we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, (2 Cor. iv. 2).

        There are no words like those of God, in

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heaven or in earth. Hence it is that we are to study that "which is written;" for HE HIMSELF wrote it; and he wrote it for you. Do not think it needless to read these passages again and again. They will blaze up at last; and light up that dark soul of yours with the very joy of heaven.

        You have sometimes looked up to the sky at twilight, searching for a star which you expected to find in its wonted place. You did not see it at first, but you knew it was there, and that its light was undiminished. So, instead of closing your eye or turning away to some other object, you continued to gaze more and more intently on the spot where you knew it was. Slowly and faintly the star seemed to come out in the sky, as you gazed; and your persevering search ended in the discovery of the long-sought gem.

        Just so is it with those passages which speak to you of the free love of God. You say, I have looked into them, but they

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contain nothing for me. Do not turn away from them, as if you knew them too well already, yet could find nothing in them. You have not seen them yet. There are wonders beyond all price hidden in each. Take them up again. Search and study them. The Holy Spirit is most willing to reveal to you the glory which they contain. It is his office, it is his delight, to be the sinner's teacher. He will not be behind you in willingness. It is of the utmost moment that you should remember this; lest you should grieve and repel him by your distrust. Never lose sight of this great truth, that the evil thing in you, which is the root of bitterness to the soul, is distrust of God; distrust of the Father, who so loved the world as to give his Son; distrust of the Son, who came to seek and save that which was lost; distrust of the Holy Ghost, whose tender mercies are over you, and whose work of love is to reveal the Christ

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of God to your souls. Besides, keep this in mind, that in teaching you he is honouring his own word and glorifying Christ. You need not then suspect him of indifference toward you, or doubt his willingness to "enlighten the eyes of your understanding." While you are firmly persuaded that it is only his teaching that can be of any real use to you, do not grieve him by separating his love, in writing the Bible for you, from his willingness to make you understand it. He who gave you the word will interpret it for you. He does not stand aloof from you or from his own word, as if he needed to be persuaded, or bribed by your deeds and prayers, to unfold the heavenly truth to you. Trust him for teaching. Taste and see that he is good. Avail yourself at once of his love and power.

        Do not say I am not entitled to trust him till I am converted. You are to trust him as a sinner, not as a converted man;

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You are to trust him as you are, not as you hope to be made ere long. Your conversion is not your warrant for trusting him. The great sin of an unconverted man is his not trusting the God that made him; Father, Son, and Spirit; and how can any one be so foolish, not to say wicked, as to ask for a warrant for forsaking sin? What would you say to a thief who should say, I have no warrant to forsake stealing; I must wait till I am made an honest man, then I shall give it up? And what shall I say to a distruster of God, who tells me that he has no warrant for giving up his distrust, for he is not entitled to trust God till he is converted? One of the greatest things in conversion is turning from distrust to trust. If you are not entitled to turn at once from distrust to trust, then your distrust is no sin. If, however, your distrust of the Holy Spirit be one of your worst sins; how absurd it is to say, I am not entitled to trust him till I am

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converted! For is not that just saying, I am not entitled to trust him till I trust him?

        You say that you know God to be gracious, yet, by your acting, you shew that you do not believe him to be so; or, at least, to be so gracious as to be willing to shew you the meaning of his own word. You believe him to be so gracious as to give his only begotten Son; yet the way in which you treat him, as to his word shews that you do not believe him to be willing to give his Spirit to make known his truth. Nay, you think yourself much more willing to be taught than he is to teach; more willing to be blest than he is to bless.

        You say, I must wait till God enlightens my mind. If God had told you that waiting is the way to light, you would be right. But he has nowhere told you to wait; and your idea of waiting is a mere excuse for not trusting him immediately. If your way of proceeding be correct, God must have

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said both, "Come" and "wait," "Come now, but do not come now," which is a contradiction. When a kind rich man sends a message to a poor cripple to come at once to him and be provided for, he sends his carriage to convey him. He does not say, "Come; but then, as you are lame, and have besides no means of conveyance, you must make all the interest you can, and use all the means in your power, to induce me to send my carriage for you." The invitation and the carriage go together. Much more is this true of God and his messages. His word and his Spirit go together. Not that the Spirit is in the word, or the power in the message, as some foolishly tell you. They are distinct things; but they go together. And your mistake lies in supposing, that He who sent the one may not be willing to send the other. You think that it is He, not yourself, who creates the interval which you call "waiting;" although this waiting is, in reality, a deliberate refusal to

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comply with a command of God, and a determination to do something else, which he has not commanded, instead; a determination to make the doing of that something else an excuse for not doing the very thing commanded! Thus it is that you rid yourself of blame by pleading inability; nay more, you throw the blame on God, for not being willing to do immediately that which he is most willing to do.

        God demands immediate acceptance of his Son, and immediate belief of his gospel. You evade this duty on the plea, that as you cannot accept Christ of yourself, you must go and ask him to enable you to do so. By this pretext you try to relieve yourself from the overwhelming sense of the necessity for immediate obedience. You soothe your conscience with the idea that you are doing what you can, in the mean time, and that so you are not guilty of unbelief, as before, seeing you desire to believe, and are doing your part in this great business!

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        It will not do. The command is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." Nothing less than this is pleasing to God. And though it is every man's duty to pray, just as it is every man's duty to love God and to keep his statutes, yet you must not delude yourself with the idea that you are doing the right thing, when you only pray to believe, instead of believing. The thief is still a thief; though he may desire to give up stealing, and pray to be enabled to give it up; until he actually give it up.

        The question is not as to whether prayer is a duty; but whether it is a right and acceptable thing to pray in unbelief. Unbelieving prayer is prayer to an unknown God, and it cannot be your duty to pray to an unknown God.

        You must go to your knees, believing either that God is willing, or that he is not willing, to bless you. In the latter case, you cannot expect any answer or blessing. In the former case, you are really believing;

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as it is written, "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of all those that diligently seek him," (Heb. xi. 6). In maintaining the duty of praying before believing, you cannot surely be asserting that it is your duty to go to God in unbelief? You cannot mean to say that you ought to go to God, believing that he is not willing to bless you, in order that by so praying you may persuade him to make you believe that he is willing. Are you to persist in unbelief till in some miraculous way faith drops into you, and God compels you to believe? Must you go to God with unacceptable prayer, in order to induce him to give you the power of acceptable prayer? Is this what you mean by the duty of praying in order to believe? If so, it is a delusion and a sin.

        Understanding prayer in the scriptural sense, I would tell every man to pray, just as I would tell every man to believe. For

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prayer includes and presupposes faith. It assumes that the man knows something of the God he is going to; and that is faith. "WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED," (Rom. x. 13). But then the Apostle adds, "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" (Rom. x. 14.) Does not this last verse go to the very root of the matter before us? It is every man's duty to "call upon the name of the Lord," (Joel ii. 32; Acts ii. 21); nay, it is the great sin of the ungodly that they do not do so, (Psa. xiv. 4; Jer. x. 25). Yet says the Apostle, "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?"

        But I do not enter further on this point here. It may come up again. Meanwhile, I would just remind you of the tiding concerning God's free love, in the free gift of his Son. Listen to what He himself has told you regarding this, and know the God who is asking you to call upon his name; for if

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thou but knewest this God and his great gift of love, thou wouldest ask of him and he would give thee living water, (John iv. 10). Remember that the gospel is not a list of duties to be performed, or feelings to be produced, or frames which we are to pray ourselves into, in order to make God think well of us, and in order to fit us for receiving pardon. The gospel is the good news of the great work done upon the cross. The knowledge of that finished work is immediate peace.

        Read again and again the wondrous words which I have quoted at length from His own book. The Bible is a living book, not a dead one; a divine one, not a human one; a perfect one, not an imperfect one.*
*"We must make a great difference between God's word and the word of man. A man's word is a little sound which flieth into the air and soon vanisheth; but the word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yea, it is greater than death and hell, for it is the power of God, and remaineth everlastingly. Therefore we ought diligently to learn God's word, and we must know certainly and believe that God himself speaketh with us."--LUTHER.
SEARCH it, study it, dig into it. "My son," says God,

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our Father, receive my words; hide my commandments with thee; incline thine ear unto wisdom; take fast hold of instruction; attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding; keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee." Do not say these messages are only for the children of God; for, as if to prevent this, God thus speaks to the "simple," the "scorners," the fools, "Turn ye at my reproof;" shewing us that it is in listening to His words that the simple, the scorner, and the fool cease to be such and become sons. Do not revert to the old difficulty about your need of the Holy Spirit; for, as if to meet this, God, in the above passage, adds, "Behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you," (Prov. i. 23). Not for one moment would

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God allow you to suspect his willingness to accompany his word with his Spirit.

        Honour the words of God; and honour him who wrote them, by trusting him for interpretation and light. Do not disparage them by calling them "a dead letter." They are not dead. If you will use the figure of "death" in this case, use it rightly. They are "the savour of death unto death in them that perish;" but this only shews their awful vitality. As the blood of Christ either cleanses or condemns, so the words of the Spirit either kill or make alive. "The words that I speak unto you, they are SPIRIT, and they are LIFE," (John vi. 63).

        Again I say to you, honour the words of God. Make much of them. Them that honour me I will honour, is as true of Scripture as it is of the God of Scripture. Peace, light, comfort, life, salvation, holiness, are wrapt up in them. "Thy word hath quickened me," (Psa. cxix. 50). "I will never forget thy precepts: for with

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them thou hast quickened me," (Psalm cxix. 93[).]

        It is through "BELIEF OF THE TRUTH that God hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation," (2 Thess. ii. 13). It is "with the word of TRUTH" that he begets us, (Jas. i. 18); and all this is in perfect harmony with the great truth of man's total helplessness and his need of the Almighty Spirit.

        "So then FAITH COMETH BY HEARING, AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD," (Rom. x. 17). "Hear, and your soul shall live," (Isa. lv. 3).

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CHAPTER VIII.

BELIEVE AND BE SAVED.

        IT is the Holy Spirit alone that can draw us to the cross and fasten us to the Saviour. He who thinks he can do without the Spirit, has yet to learn his own sinfulness and helplessness. The gospel would be no good news to the dead in sin, if it did not tell of the love and power of the divine Spirit, as explicitly as it announces the love and power of the divine Substitute.

        But, while keeping this in mind, we may try to learn from Scripture what is written concerning the bond which connects us

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individually with the cross of Christ; making us thereby partakers of the pardon and the life which that cross reveals.

        Thus then it is written, "By grace are ye saved, THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God," (Eph. ii. 8).

        Faith then is the link, the one link, between the sinner and the Sinbearer. It is not faith, as a work or exercise of our minds, which must be properly performed in order to qualify or fit us for pardon. It is not faith, as a religious duty, which must be gone through according to certain rules, in order to induce Christ to give us the benefits of his work. It is faith, simply as a receiver of the divine record concerning the Son of God. It is not faith considered as the source of holiness, as containing in itself the seed of all spiritual excellence and good works; it is faith alone, recognising simply the completeness of the great sacrifice for sin, and the trueness of the

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Father's testimony to that completeness; as Paul writes to the Thessalonians, "our testimony among you was believed," (2 Thess. i. 10). It is not faith as a piece of money or a thing of merit; but faith taking God at his word, and giving him credit for speaking the honest truth, when he declares that "Christ died for the ungodly," (Rom. v. 6), and that the life which that death contains for sinners, is to be had "without money, and without price," (Isa. lv. 1).

        But let us learn the things concerning this faith, from the lips of God himself, I lay great stress on this in dealing with inquirers. For the more that we can fix the sinner's eye and conscience upon God's own words, the more likely shall we be to lead him aright, and to secure the quickening presence of that Almighty Spirit who alone can give sight to the blind. One great difficulty which the inquirer finds in such cases, is that of unlearning much of his

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past experience and teaching. Hence the importance of studying the divine words themselves, by which the sinner is made wise unto salvation. For they both unteach the false and imperfect, and teach the true and the perfect.

        Let us mark how frequently and strongly God has spoken respecting "faith" and "believing." "Without faith it is impossible to please God," (Heb. xi. 6). "Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith," (Rom. i. 17). "The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe," (Rom. iii. 22). "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood . . . . to declare his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," (Rom, iii. 23-26). "He that believeth shall be saved," (Mark xvi. 16). "As many as received him, to them gave

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he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name," (John i. 12). "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life; for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God," (John iii. 14-18). "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life," (John iii. 36). "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life," (John v. 24). "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent," (John vi. 29). "He that believeth on me shall never thirst," (John vi. 3 5). "This is the

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will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life," (John vi. 40). ["]He that believeth on me, though, he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die," (John xi. 25, 26). "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness," (John xii. 46). "These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through his name," (John xx. 31). "By him all that believe are justified from all things," (Acts xiii. 39). "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," (Acts xvi. 31). "To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins," (Acts x. 43). "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," (Rom. iv. 5). "Christ is

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the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth," (Rom. x. 4). "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved," (Rom. x. 9). "It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe," (1 Cor. i. 21). "This is his commandment, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent," (1 John iii. 23). "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us," (1 John iv. 16). "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God," (I John v. 1). "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son," (1 John v. 10). "He that believeth not shall be damned," (Mark xvi. 16).

        These are some of the many texts which teach us what the link is between the sinner and the great salvation. They shew

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that it is our belief of God's testimony, concerning his own free love, and the work of his Son, that makes us partakers of the blessings which that testimony reveals. They do not indeed ascribe any meritorious or saving virtue to our act of faith. They shew us that it is the object of faith,--the person, or thing, or truth of which faith lays hold,--that is the soul's peace and consolation. But still they announce most solemnly the necessity of believing, and the greatness of the sin of unbelief. In them God demands the immediate faith of all who hear his testimony. Yet he gives no countenance to the self-righteousness of those who are trying to perform the act of faith, in order to qualify themselves, for the favour of God; whose religion consists in performing acts of faith of a certain kind; whose comfort arises from thinking of these well-performed acts; and whose assurance comes from the summing up of these at certain seasons, and dwelling

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upon the superior quality of many of them.

        In some places the word trust occurs where perhaps we might have expected faith. But the reason of this is plain; the testimony which faith receives, is testimony to a person and his good will, in which case, belief of the testimony and confidence in the person are things inseparable. Our reception of God's testimony is confidence in God himself, and in Jesus Christ his Son. Hence it is that Scripture speaks of "trust" or "confidence" as that which saves us,*
*See very many of the Psalms;--ii. 12; xiii. 5; xl. 4; lii. 8; also, Prov. xxix. 25; Isa. xii. 2; 1 Tim. iv, 10; Eph. i. 12.
as if it would say to the sinner, "Such is the gracious character of God, that you have only to put your case into his hands, however bad it be, and entrust your soul to his keeping, and you shall be saved."

        In some places we are said to be saved by the knowledge of God or of Christ; that

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is by simply knowing God as he has made himself known to us in Jesus Christ. (Isa. liii. 11; 1 Tim. ii. 4; 2 Pet. ii. 20.) Thus Jesus spoke, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only wise God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," (John xvii. 3). And as if to make simplicity more simple, the Apostle, in speaking of the facts of Christ's death, and burial, and resurrection, says, "By which ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you," (1 Cor. xv. 1, 2).*
*As a good memory means the correct remembrance of the very things that have occurred; so the essence of a right faith is a belief of the right thing. And as bad memory is refreshed or corrected by presenting again and again the objects to be remembered, so a wrong faith (or unbelief) requires to have the full testimony of God to be presented to the soul.

        Thus God connects salvation with "believing," "trusting," "knowing," "remembering." Yet the salvation is not in our act of believing, trusting, knowing, or

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remembering; it is in the thing or person believed on, trusted, known, remembered. Nor is salvation given as a reward for believing and knowing. The things believed and known are our salvation. Nor are we saved or comforted by thinking about our act of believing and ascertaining that it possesses all the proper ingredients and qualities which would induce God to approve of it, and of us because of it. This would be making faith a meritorious, or, at least, a qualifying work; and then