To Mr. M——
Sincerity and earnestness not sufficient to insure salvation — An illustration of how faith is the gift of God — How to show fruit meet for repentance — An error in presenting petitions for awakened persons — Lad on the roof of a building; he is saved — The man near a cataract; not saved by doing nothing.
To MY Friend Mr. M.
“By faith I lay my hand
On that dear head of thine,
While like the penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.”
0 that you might thus see all your sins on Jesus laid! It does seem to me, that all you now need
Appropriating Faith. Illustration.
is the exercise of simple faith; that faith which appropriates the merits of your Saviour to your own case. If sincerity, earnestness, or a wilhngness to come out and confess Christ before men, were sufficient to bring you into the enjoyment of the favor of God, without appropriating faith, such had been your happiness now. Though, without these, your eflforts to exercise faith would be unavailing; yet these, though most fully developed, would utterly fail in securing the object without faith. But you ask, “Is not faith the gift of God? and can I have it, unless it be given me from above?” Ko! ‘’Every good and perfect gift Cometh down from the Father of lights.” But does not God give you the faith now required? He is not a hard Master. The command, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” would be unreasonable, unless the power to be obedient were given with the command.
Imagine that you were embarrassed with pecuniary liabilities, hopelessly beyond your resources. Now suppose you have a friend of unbounded reputation and wealth. His name commands universal confidence; his uniform bearing toward you has been that of benevolence and love; he hears of your distress, and writes you word,” I have taken your liabilities upon myself. I knew of your inabiUty to pay; I have therefore paid the debts contracted: and now I am not merely willing
Sinfulness of Unbelief.
that you should reckon yourself free, but it is my pleasure that you should do so noio. My name has already gone forth in promise to relieve all those alike distressed with yourself, who may apply to me, and the honor of my name requires that your acknowledgment of my faithfulness in fulfilling my word be at once made before the world.”
I need not make the application; you cannot dishonor your Saviour more, than by doubting whether he will fulfill his promises. His name is Faithful and True. 0 how sinful must a distrustfulness, whether he will now fulfill his promises, appear in his sight, when he hath said,” Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and amen, unto the glory of God.’* The Saviour is now looking upon you with an eye of infinite love, longing to fulfill his promises to you; but he cannot bless you in your unbelief. It is inconsistent with the principles upon which the government of his kingdom is established; unbelief is a sin, and you must renounce it; for the ,Saliour came to save you from yoiu- sins, not in your sins.
The best way to show fruits meet for repentance, is to pursue a course directly opposed to that which is now lamented. I have known persons to mourn over the sin of unbelief most piteously for months, and even years, and yet not renounce it.
Error in Prayer. A Fall.
Does this exhibit to the eye of God fruit meet for repentance? To the eye of man, this course may indicate repentance, and his petitions to God in behalf of the supphant may be drawn from conclusions thus begotten. Thus it is that we not unfrequently hear petitions, framed in words which imply that the delay is on the part of God, as though the sinner were all ready for the reception of the blessing, and only waiting for God to become willing to bestow it. Approaching God thus in behalf of the awakened sinner, I conceive to be an eiTor of great magnitude; its effect on the mind of that sinner is necessarily disastrous, inasmuch as it removes the cause of delay from himself, and casts it upon God: and how insulting is such a petition to that God who ever stands, with extended arms, calling upon the sinner, saying, “Come, for all tilings are now ready!”
I remember, my dear Mr. M, once to have
met an illustration of faith, which I think may be helpful to you. The relater gives it thus: —” I once saw a lad on the roof of a very high building, where several men were at work. He was gazing about with apparent unconcern, when suddenly his foot slipped, and he fell. In falling he caught by a rope, and hung suspended in mid air, where he could neither get up nor down, and where it was evident he could sustain himself but a short time. He perfectly knew his situation, and ex-The Rescue. Drop your Oars.
pected in a few minutes to be dashed on the rocks below. At this moment a kind and powerful man rushed out of the house, and, standing beneath him with extended arms, called out, ‘Let go of the rope; I will receive you. I can do it. Let go of the rope, and I promise you shall escape unharmed.’ The boy hesitated for a moment, and then, quitting his hold, dropped easily and safely into the arms of his deliverer.” Here is an illustration of faith; here is a simple act of faith. The poor boy knew his danger; he saw his deliverer, and heard his voice. He believed in him — trusted him — and, letting go every other dependence and hope, he dropped into his arms.
Do you feel that you have done all you can? Let me take the language of another, and say, Just stop doinff, and begin to trust Christ to do all for you, and you are safe. A man is rowing a boat on a river, just above a dreadful cataract; the current begins to bear him downward; the spectators give him up for lost. ‘He is gone,* they exclaim; but in another moment a rope is throAMi toward the wretched man — it strikes the water near the boat: now how does the case stand? Do all the -spectators call upon him to row? to try harder to reach the shore, when with every stroke of his arm the boat is evidently Hearing the falls? 0 no! the eager and united cry is, * Drop your oars! give up your desperate
Seize the Rope.
attempt! take hold of the roye F But lie chooses to row, and in a few moments lie disappears, and perishes. All his hope lay, not in rowing, but in laying hold of the rope; for while he was rowing he could not grasp the rope. So the sinner’s hope lies not in struggling to save himself, but in ceasing to struggle; for while he expects to accomphsh the work of salvation himself, he will not look to Christ to do it for him.”
But some abuse this doctrine of immerited grace, and say, “If all I have to do is to cease from attempting to save myself, and to be willing that Christ should do the work of my salvation, why urge me to become a Christian, or to do anythinff? why not let me sit still, and wait till Christ shall come and pardon me?”
And what if the man in the boat had dropped his oars, and then folded his hands, and waited for the rope to save him? He might as well have died rowing as sitting still; and would as certainly have died in the latter as in the former case. But he must grasp the rope. So the sinner must lay hold of the hope set before him; not by waiting till he is better, but by first concluding that he never shall be any better in the way he is going on, and then looking to Christ. May I not believe that you are now tinisting your all in the hands of your Saviour? I do not say that I hope you were doing it a few moments since, but that you are now doing
40 PAITH AND ITS EPrECTS.
Why did 1 not believe before ’
it. 0 that this may be the work of every succeeding moment, until I hear from you.
“Venture on him, ventvire freely.
Let no other trust intrude;
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”
Your much interested friend.