Gospel, or that we have thought it a glorious Gospel, and wondered at its beauties and its mighty power. The very design for which God requires our faith is, that it may make us holy, that it may produce good works; and unless it does this, it cannot save us. We shall learn at the last day, if we have not learned before, that faith without works is dead-dead, because it fails of answering its design-dead, because it does nothing-because it is useless because it gives no signs of life.

3. Faith without works is dead, because the practice of the precepts of the Gospel is necessary, to keep alive our faith in it.

Truth disregarded, soon vanishes from the mind: principles not carried out, motives not acted upon, are as though they were not. The mind is not so made that it will hold fast to truths that produce no effect upon it, that do not influence a man's conduct, nor become incorporated with his life. There is nothing to keep such truths in the mind; there is no reason why they should remain : and they will pass away-our faith in them will die of indolence and neglect. If, therefore, we would have these truths vividly present before us; if we would keep alive our faith in them; we must act them out; our conduct must be consistent with our faith; we must live as though we really believed them.

Faith is not self-existent. It does not follow, because it once existed, that it still is. A man has no real, living belief in truths that have long since vanished from the mind, which have left no apparent trace, and which memory never recalls. He may have had a faith-but it is no more-it is dead, It is so with the Gospel. Whatsoever faith we have in it must be kept alive by exercise: its objects must be kept before the mind by obeying the precepts which the Gospel gives. The theory and the practice must go together, or both will cease to exist.

Besides, the truths of the Gospel are of a spiritual nature; they relate to spiritual things; they cannot be fully understood until they become a part of our own experience. Who can understand what is meant by the law of God dwelling in the heart-the peace of God that passeth all understanding-the fellowship with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ-the witness of the Spirit-the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory? They are unmeaning sounds to the world-who can understand them, till he knows them from his own experience? And how shall a man have faith in that which he does not know? And how shall he know the things of the Gospel, unless he obeys its commands? "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." It is not enough that we have once assented to the truths of the Gospel-unless we have acted upon them, that faith was dead long ago. These truths cannot be to us living realities unless they regulate our lives. Faith without works is an absurdity. Faith in the Gospel is faith in something that requires holiness; that denounces woe upon trans

gressors; that declares there is no peace to the wicked; that tells us, without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Now, if a man lives without regarding these declarations, if he neglects the works of holiness, has he faith? does he believe these things? Is it possible for what he calls his faith to live, while it is thus contradicted by all his conduct? is it not properly declared to be dead? It is dead because it has none of the power and the activity of life; because without exercise it cannot live; nor without practical obedience to those precepts which it pretends to hold.

4. Faith without works is dead, because it is the faith of a dead heart.

The heart which is unmoved by the objects of Christian faith, is properly called dead. There are no objects in the universe that have so much moral power; that are so well suited to kindle the soul with enthusiasm, and awaken every energy of the mind. They appeal to every high principle, to every noble sentiment, to every generous feeling, to all the susceptibilities of the heart. They place before us the brightest visions of hope: they unveil the scenes of heaven, and invite us to dwell in light and glory there. They tell of the dark regions of despair, and the fierceness of the wrath of God-and they call upon us to escape. They surround us, they press upon us, with motives to holiness of infinite value-motives beyond those which angels feel. Angels have seen the excellence of God; they have known his goodness, and they can feel its power: but they have never known his compassion towards them as sinners; they have never tasted his pardoning grace; the scene on Calvary was not for their personal advantage; precious blood has not been shed for them; the appeals of a dying Saviour were not addressed to them; the motives that cluster around the cross were not placed before them. These mighty influences are brought to bear only upon the lost of the human race--and is not that man's heart dead which does not feel their constraining power? is not all spiritual life absent? is not all cold, lifeless, repulsive as the dead?

The eyes of the dead may be fixed in ghastly stare upon the glories of creation; the ears of the dead may be surrounded with all the exciting sounds of life-but no life is aroused, no action is called forth. So it is with that heart and that faith which can behold unmoved the objects which the Gospel reveals: the eyes may be open, but the glorious truths that pass before them kindle no emotions of hope, excite no pulsations of love in the heart, call forth no signs of spiritual activity-because it is the gaze of death. What claims to life has the heart that can behold the cross of Christ, and not be melted into tears, and penitence, and love? What claims to life has the faith which can look upon the unfathomed depths of God's mercy, which can estimate the sufferings of Christ, and count the value of his precious blood-and then produce no

works of gratitude and holiness? How much better is it than the faith of him who sleeps in the tomb? Is not that heart which beholds the Gospel and the way of life unmoved-is not the faith which views them with cool indifference, properly called dead?

We learn from this subject,

1. The real nature of the faith required in the Gospel. It is not a mere speculation; not a mere intellectual perception of the truth; not a mere admiration for the harmonies, the glories, and the beautiful relations of truth; not an inefficient, a cold, a lifeless belief— but a faith that works by love; a faith that shall be a living, active principle in the soul-helping it to burst the bonds of sin-cleansing it of all that is unholy-urging it on to deeds of righteousness. God asks for no other faith-no other will save the soul. He values no faith that is consistent with an unholy life, or which produces no sanctifying effects upon the heart. It is a mockery, and an insult to his grace.

2. We may learn the nature of the connection between faith and works. There is a real connection. Neither can exist alone. Their life is one; and if one dies, the other cannot live. Good works are the fruit and the legitimate effect of faith; and any such faith as God requires-any faith which is not worthless, which is not dead-must produce them of necessity, and in its own nature. They are the only evidence of the existence of faith. What proof is there of life, if there be none of the movements, the breathings, the actions of life? If the question be, whether a body is living, we ask: Does it breathe? Does it move? Does the lifeblood hasten through its channels? If not, where is the evidence of its life? So, if the inquiry concerns the existence of faith, we ask: Does it move? Has it the warm pulsations of life? Does it produce any of the actions of life? If not, it is dead. There can be no proofs of its existence, if there be no works of holiness.

3. We learn that there is a great amount of dead faith in the church. There is much that is fruitless-much that is without works-much that has no good influence upon its possessors or upon the world-much that is worthless-much that will not endure the tests of the judgment-day--much that will perish when "the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is."

Is it not then wise in us, my Christian friends, to anticipate the searching inquiries of the last day-to ask ourselves now concerning the reality of our faith? Does it work by love? Does it lead us to be active in serving God? Does it make us love and imitate Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith? Let us put these questions now to our own hearts-lest we learn too late that our faith has no saving power, and read our doom in the declaration, "Faith without works is dead."

XIII.

THE TERMS OF SALVATION.

BY REV. PHARCELLUS CHURCH, D.D.,

PASTOR OF THE BOWDOIN SQUARE BAPTIST CHURCH, BOSTON.

"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."-Roм. x. 9.

VARIED and complicated as God's revelation may appear, extended as are the periods over which its records are spread, minute and bare of thought as its genealogical details may seem, and uninteresting and unintelligible as many parts of the book may be in matter and style; yet all that is essential to salvation is compressed within limits astonishingly narrow, and expressed in terms surprisingly clear. There is a focal point to which all its rays converge, which the blindest eye might see, and the darkest mind confess the intensity of its illumination.

This was true even of the law of Moses-the epitome of the whole was contained in ten short precepts, and the sum and substance of these were so fully included in the one exercise of love to God and man, that the whole law is said to be fulfilled by love. Hence, Moses said to his nation, "The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Thus, they could not plead ignorance in justification of their disobedience.

The Apostle accommodates the same words to the gospel terms of salvation. God does not require impossibilities of you, my unconverted friends. He is not a hard master, to mock your inability and insult your woes. He hath not complicated and mystified the conditions of your salvation, that you should find it difficult to comprehend and know them. The righteousness of faith does not encourage you in inquiring, "Who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down? nor, who shall descend into the deep, to bring him up again from the dead?" nor does it suggest anything impracticable or impossible; but it comes to tell you that the word, or the specific thing by which you may obtain salvation, is nigh you, in your mouth and in your heart, being the word of faith, the doctrine and duty of faith, preached in the gospel," that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Here it is, my friends-believe, confess, and the infinite blessing of God's favor here, and life everlasting hereafter, will pour their full effulgence upon your souls. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."

The availableness of the gospel remedy to the most debilitated and hopeless, is its crowning excellence. In this respect it is like God's remedy for the dying Israelites in the wilderness, who had only to look to the brazen serpent and live. We have only to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we shall be saved; to behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and then to follow up our faith with its appropriate modes of declaration or confession. If ordinances, and forms, and creeds, and a long course of outward amendments, were essential to salvation, what could the dying thief have done amid the agony and distraction of crucifixion, whose first prayer appears to have been reserved for the last hour of life? Who would dare to preach a gospel thus encumbered by conditions, thus unavailing in the extremest moments of agony and woe?

Glad should I be, my friends, to make the idea of believing clear to your minds. I am aware of the difficulty of doing it, partly on account of the much that has been said and written to confuse and darken your thinking on the subject, and partly from your liability to regard faith as simply the passive effect of evidence upon your reason, which you can no more make otherwise than you can alter the impression of light upon your eyes. How shall I disabuse your minds of this fatal deception, so as to make you feel, that believing in Jesus is simply yielding yourselves to all the legitimate tendencies of that pure and holy ideal and influence with which his name and truth are associated? Dark as your mind is, depraved and guilty as are your hearts and lives, the word is still within you, in the form of all those remonstrances against your sins, and all that solemn pleading with your reason and conscience in behalf of God and holiness, and all those fearful anticipations of a judgment to come, with which the truth of Christ is connected in your spiritual nature and history. I solemnly warn you against such an interpretation or use of the doctrine of depravity, as to assume or suppose that the word of Christ can have no response in your fallen nature. Even devils feel it and tremble; and how much may you who are under the mediatorial reign be supposed to

"Feel how awful goodness is!"

Forget not the affirmation of Paul in the connection of my text, that "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach." Its powerful responses are within every human bosom who seriously attends to it, and you have only to repress what is contrary, and give yourselves up to its leading without reserve, to realize the blessed result of believing with the heart unto righteousness."