came into the world to save sinners; that too is a very plain message; and that he offers this salvation to you just as you are, is no less so. If you were other than you are, you would not need this offer. Accept it now, receive this forgiveness, take this salvation, bear it away, rest upon it, hope in it, rejoice over it, and whatever else is necessary, not only to make you an heir of heaven, but perfectly ripe for heaven, he who sends out this grace will see that there is no deficiency. But we want every man to feel, that every moment he is out of Christ, he is living in awful guilt and awful danger. Every act is an act of sin; every thought, a thought of sin. Eating and drinking, ploughing and reaping, buying and selling, planting and building; yes, even in reading, and praying, and weeping, and inquiring, he is accursed. Every moment away from Christ, he is increasing the guilt and damnation of his unbelief. You may even labor and be heavy laden because of sin; you may be crying for mercy, and mourning in secret places that you are not forgiven, and yet in the sight of God not a whit the better therefor, nor do you gain a better right to salvation, than you had the first moment that you heard the gospel call. The right is not in yourself—it never can be in yourself, but in the free gift of God, in the infinite righteousness of Jesus Christ. Suppose that in the midst of all your praying, and reading, and hearing, and perhaps trouble of mind, you are called to appear before God, while still in the guilt of unbelief? The question will then be, Did you receive and rest on Christ? Salvation was freely offered, what did you do? You may say, "I prayed, and read, and wept." Yes, but did you receive it, as it was offered, a free gift to sinners? No matter what else you did. You cannot pray away sin, nor read it away, nor weep it away. You had only to look to Christ. Have you done this? If not, your very hearing, and reading, and praying, will rise up in judgment against you, for they prove that you know that you are a man and a sinner. Your Bibles will cry out against you-your pews will cry out against you; in the one you read of Christ, in the other you heard of Christ, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, but you would not be forgivenyou would not be delivered from the power and guilt of sin. Is there not reason for deep concern when we think of your condition? "for who may abide the day of his coming, or who shall stand when he appeareth?" He who once came as a meek and suffering Saviour, and who now sends out this message of grace, shall come again, as a righteous and almighty Judge. "BEHOLD HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS; AND EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM, AND THEY ALSO WHICH CHAPTER IX. Definitions of faith. As we have not only exhibited the foundation which is laid for our faith and hope in the sure word of God, but also, the Divine influence which we need, and on which we must rely, and still further, the encouragement which every man has to build confidently on this foundation, we seem now ready for the question, How am I to build, or, WHAT IS IT TO BELIEVE IN CHRIST? We do not expect to rid the word of God of mysteries while the world shall stand. There are subjects proposed in it to our faith, which no finite mind can grasp. They are high as heaven, deep as hell, and the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If it were not so, we would have good reason to doubt whether the Bible is indeed the word of God. But it is not all mystery. It contains, and in order to be useful to us, must contain many things which are so plain that any child can understand them. Especially when bidden to perform a duty on which our eternal well-being depends, we may expect, both that it will not be in its own nature impossible, or even difficult to comprehend, and that the language in which it is conveyed, will be the clearest possible. If in any mind there is a doubt of the meaning of a direction, we may well take some pains to explain and simplify, provided that in our anxiety for simplicity, we do not conceal a duty, nor sacrifice a truth. Is there no obscurity in our ordinary notions of the nature of faith, that has often perplexed, not only those who are beginning to be interested in the truth, but sometimes even their instructors? It has seemed as if the verb believe, and the corresponding substantive faith, were used in some peculiar and mysterious sense in the Bible, and in religious books and conversation, having scarcely any thing in common with the usual signification of these words. Now it can scarcely be that Jesus Christ and his apostles, in revealing truth or in defining duty, would take up a common word, and without explanation adopt it in an unusual sense. The effect of such a course could only be to perplex and to mislead. No! When they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they meant just what any plain man would understand by such language. It would seem that they were understood. They were called upon for no explanation, as of some strange word, or of one strangely introduced. Whatever modification or extension of the general use of the word was intended, it was only such as was required by the nature of the subject, and excited neither inquiry nor perplexity. Just as the Jew believed in his own righteousness, and the Greek in his own wisdom, for acceptance with God and eternal life, both Jew and Greek are now invited to believe in Christ. The unbelief of that day did not manifest itself in any questioning as to the nature of faith. But in our day, this simple expression seems in many minds to be involved in infinite bewilderment. A thick, dark cloud covers the very door of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Much of this is undoubtedly the direct result of the unwillingness of the sinful heart to submit itself to the righteousness of God. There is a pride in that heart which will not suffer those who are inquiring the way of salvation to understand that, when we direct them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we mean simply what we say. They think there is some hidden meaning in our words; they must do more than we tell them, and gladly would, if they could only understand what it is that they must do. Now, whatever dark |