Stumbling Blocks Removed.

1. “I do not Feel that I am a Sinner”

2. “I do not Feel that I am Saved”

3. “I have not Repented Enough”

4. “I fear that my Faith is not the Right Kind”

5. “I fear I have not Come in the Right Way”

6. “I fear I cannot Hold Out”

7. “I cannot Pray as I ought”

8. “I cannot Believe, though Willing to be Saved”

9. “I cannot Keep the Commandments”

10. “I do not Love Christ as I ought”

11. “I do not know that He will Save me personally”

12. “Well, I will keep on Trying”

13. “But must I not Strive to enter into Heaven?”

14. “Must I not Work Out my Salvation with Fear and Trembling?”

15. “Does not the Bible tell of some who Turn Back?”

16. “May I not be among those who Fall Away?”

17. “Does not James teach that we are Justified by Works?”

18. “Must I not Engage in Good Works?”

19. “I do not know what Church to Join”

20. “How shall I Live a Christian?”

21. “What is to be my Aim in Life?”

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1.—“I do not Feel that I am a Sinner.”

WELL, you are a sinner, whether you feel it or not, and you are called to deal, not with a question of feeling, but of fact. Many a man has been fatally ill, without feeling his danger, but his lack of feeling did not arrest for one moment the progress of disease and death. It is the most terrible count in the indictment brought against those who were alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness [or hardness] of their heart,” that they were past feeling.”¹ Your insensibility, therefore, is no excuse for continued indifference to the peril of your soul, but an aggravation of your guilt.

Sin is the transgression of the law,”² or, as Rotherham, Young, and Darby properly render it in their new translations, “sin is lawlessness.” It is the spirit of in subordination to the law of God, as that law is summed up in the words of our Saviour, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”³ Judged by this law, you have sinned every second of your existence, so that if you have lived thirty years, you are already charged with more than nine hundred millions of sins. But as shown in the preceding pages, your very nature is sinful, and if you could see yourself in the light of God's presence, you would exclaim as Job did, “Behold, I am vile;”⁴ you would cry out as Isaiah did, “Woe is me! for I am un done.”⁵. In addition to the unnumbered sins committed against God's law, and flowing from a corrupt source, you are justly answerable for the crowning and damning sin of unbelief. The Lord Jesus Christ says, “He that be lieveth not is condemned (or judged] already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God;”⁶ and again He says, the Holy Spirit will re prove of sin, because they believe not on Me.”⁷ While, therefore, you continue in unbelief, you are guilty of the sin of sins.

2.—“I do not feel that I am Saved.”

Here again, it is not a question of feeling, but of fact. Of course if you know upon the sure testimony of God's word that you are saved, you will feel glad and grateful; but you are not saved on account of your feeling, nor by feeling, nor as the result of feeling. The word feeling occurs but twice in the entire Bible, and in neither place is it used in the sense in which it is now constantly employed. Once it is said of the Lord Jesus, “We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;”⁸ and the other passage, “past feeling,” has just been quoted. Those who are troubled about feeling do not perceive that they have fallen into two very serious mistakes.

The first is, that they are unconsciously seeking to find a Saviour in their feelings, instead of finding Him in Christ; and the second is, that they are exactly reversing the process and order of salvation and feeling, as laid down in the Bible. To use a common expression, they are putting the cart before the horse. You do not first feel good, and then believe; you first believe, and then feel good. If you receive sorrowful tidings by letter, or by telegram, or by word of mouth, the first act of the mind is to believe the announcement, and the second act of the mind and the heart is grief. If you bear good news, you do not first feel joyful, or wait to scrutinize and analyse your emotions; you first believe, without thinking of your feeling, and let feeling take care of itself. So when you hear the gospel, do not think of feeling; think only of Christ, and if you accept as true the testimony that He has put away your sin by the sacrifice of Himself, the feeling will follow.

Suppose the Lord Jesus should appear to you personally and visibly, while you are reading this page, and say in gentle tones, “Thy sins are forgiven thee”⁹ — would this satisfy you? Would you believe Him, without waiting for feeling? But if you want to be saved, He is saying it as truly and sincerely as if you could hear His voice; and why not believe Him? To the sinful woman at His feet, who did not even pray, He said, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace;”¹⁰ and she knew that she was saved, not by her feeling, but by the word of the Saviour. He did not say, thy faith and thy feeling, thy faith and thy tears, but thy faith alone HATH saved thee; and believing what He said, she went away comforted and glad.

3.—“I have not Repented Enough.”

If you mean by this that you must repent in order to incline God to be merciful to you, the sooner you give over such repentance the better. God is already merciful, as fully shown at the cross of Calvary, and it is a grievous dishonour to His heart of love if you think that your tears and anguish will move Him, “not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”¹¹ It is not your badness, therefore, but His goodness, that leads to repentance; and hence the true way to repent is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, " who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”¹² Calvin well says: “It must be reckoned a settled point that repentance not only immediately follows upon faith, but springs out of it. . . . They who think that repentance goes before faith, instead of flowing from or being produced by it, as fruit from a tree, have never understood its nature.”

The word repent or repentance does not once occur in the gospel of John, where the way of salvation is so clearly set forth by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, nor once, with the exception just mentioned, in the epistle to the Romans, nor once in the epistle to the Galatians, nor once in the epistle to the Philippians, nor once in the epistle to the Colossians, nor once in the epistles to the Thessalonians, nor once in the epistle of James, nor once in the epistles of John, and but once in the epistles of Peter. Repentance, strictly speaking, means " a change of mind or purpose," and consequently it is the judgment which the sinner pronounces upon himself in view of the love of God displayed in the death of Christ, connected with the abandonment of all confidence in himself, and with trust in the only Saviour of sinners. Saving repentance and saving faith always go together, and you need not be worried about repentance, if you will believe.

If a person, acquainted only with the Greek language, should read the words translated repent and repentance, he would not infer that it necessarily implies emotion of any kind, or at most that the emotion follows the change which has taken place in the views and convictions. Hence when you are told by those who are ignorant of the gospel that you must “exercise a true and genuine repentance” before you can be saved, you may know that they are “blind leaders of the blind.” They might as well tell you to take a true and genuine dose of medicine, without prescribing the kind or the quantity.

4.— “I fear that my Faith is not the Right Kind.”

Here, too, it is obvious that there is an unconscious attempt to make a Saviour out of faith, in place of seeing a loving Saviour in Christ. A minister of the gospel was once introduced to a dear old saint, whose beautiful life was living evidence of the reality and power and blessed ness of God's grace. “Are you the woman of strong faith, of whom I have heard so much?” he asked. “No," she quietly replied, “I am the woman of weak faith in a strong Saviour.” It is not faith that saves, except as the empty hand stretched forth to receive the gift of eternal life, but it is Christ; and there is no wisdom in chafing the mind and heart by wondering whether the hand has been stretched out just in the right way, or not.

The faith of the leper was most imperfect in his thought of the Saviour's kindness when he said to Jesus, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean,”¹³ but Jesus immediately healed him. The faith of the sick woman was most imperfect in knowledge when she said, “If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole;”¹⁴ yet Jesus immediately responded in love and power to the feeble touch of her wasted and trembling finger. The faith of the distressed father was most imperfect in his conception of the Saviour's omnipotence, when he exclaimed, “If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us;”¹⁵ but Jesus immediately granted his request. The Lord does not say, he that heareth My word, and believeth with the right kind of faith, but, he that heareth and believeth hath everlasting life; and out of the hundreds of texts in the Bible that mention faith, there is not one which speaks of the right kind of faith, except that it must be of the heart, that is, not hypocritical. Oh, He is so good and gracious, He will accept the very weakest faith.

A little girl was once locked up in a room by an insane mother, and for three days of intensely hot weather she did not taste a morsel of bread, nor a drop of water.
When she was found by a servant of the Lord, her first cry was for water; and when it was brought to her, she raised it to her lips with a very weak and trembling hand, but it refreshed her as much as though she had grasped it with the hand of a giant. It is not the strength of our faith, but the strength of Christ, that saves. It is not the intelligence with which we believe, but the person in whom we believe, the Holy Ghost sets before us in the Gospel.

5.— “I fear I have not come in the Right Way.”

Where do you find a word in the four Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, or in the inspired Epistles, about coming in the right way? Do you not see that you are suffering your attention to be diverted from the source of eternal life to the stream, from the cause to the consequences, from the origin to the effects and results, manifested in Christian experience and service? Do you not perceive that with a persistent effort to find some reason for your salvation in your own heart and life, with a strange and ungenerous unbelief, you are looking away from Christ to self? If this were not so, surely you would not be anxious about the way of your coming, but you would be quite content to come, to believe, to trust, in any way.

The blind beggar did not come in a very graceful and dignified way, when, in answer to the call of Christ, “he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.”¹⁶ He looked odd enough without his outer robe, and he may have stumbled and fallen as he hurried forward in the blackness of a night that had no star; but “Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole,” or, as the Greek is, “hath saved thee.” Zacchæus, the chief of publicans and therefore the chief of sinners in popular estimation, did not come in a very graceful and dignified way, when he clambered down the sycamore tree in obedience to the summons of Christ; but he was straightway saved, for the Lord of life and of glory said to him, “This day is salvation come to this house.”¹⁷ The question is not concerning the manner, but the fact, of your coming; and One who is both able and willing to make good every promise of His word is still saying, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”¹⁸

The word translated come in this sweet invitation really means Hither! Here! This way!” as if our Lord anticipated the difficulty of so many about the manner of coming, and would say, you do not need to come at all; only look and live, only believe and be saved.
Turn your thoughts to Jesus, not to your coming, for it is not the latter, no matter how you come, that saves you,
but Christ. If you can't come, look; if you can't look,
believe; if you can't believe, trust; if you can't trust, quit thinking about yourself, and let your mind be occupied with the death and resurrection, the invitations and promises of the Son of God, until the knowledge of His love steals into your heart.

6.— “I fear I cannot Hold Out.”

Well you may fear it, and not only fear, but know it. If your final salvation depends on your holding out or holding on, you will most certainly be lost. Two ministers were conducting a meeting together, and at its close one of them said, I picked up a Dublin tract on a railroad train the other day, and read it with great interest and profit, although it teaches a doctrine I don't believe.” What is the doctrine?” asked his friend. “The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints,” he answered. “Neither do I believe it,” was the reply. “Is it possible?” exclaimed the first; “I thought you were decided in your belief of it.” “No, I am not. I once believed it, but since I have come to know more about the saints, and especially about myself, I believe all of us would go to the devil, if left to ourselves; but I believe very firmly in the perseverance of the Lord;” and they shook hands to show their fellowship in this truth.

A servant of Christ was walking down the aisle of a crowded meeting-house, and said to a pleasant-looking man, sitting at the end of a pew, “Are you a Christian?” “Yes,” he answered, “thank God, I have a hold on Christ.” “Thank God, I have something better than that,” was the reply. “What have you better than that?” inquired the gentleman. Thank God, Christ has a hold on me,” was the response. “All that the Father giveth Me,” He says, shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”¹⁹ This does not merely mean that He will not repel the sinner who comes to Him, but once in Him, that sinner can never be cast out.

We “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.”²⁰ We do not keep ourselves, but we are kept, and kept by the power of God. Is that power sufficient to keep us? My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand.”²¹ It is a poor witticism to say that we may slip through His fingers. If no one on earth or in hell can pluck us out of His hand, is He so careless that He will suffer us to slip through His fingers? We are graven upon the palms of His hands, we are in the hand, and the hand itself, “members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.”²² If the feeblest believer could be lost, there would be a mutilated Christ for ever in heaven, and a dissatisfied Christ.

7.— “I cannot Pray as I ought.”

There again you show that you are trying to frame a Saviour out of your prayers, and that you are not trusting in Christ as the only Saviour. Is not your inability to pray one of your sins, and does not the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse from all sin, that sin among the rest? If you could pray with the fixedness of mind, the adoration, the reverence, the gratitude, the submission you ought to feel, you would conclude that your excellent prayers had saved you; and hence an intelligent Christian likes to hear a troubled sinner say, “I can't pray, as I ought.” Neither the Lord Jesus, nor the Holy Ghost by the inspired Apostles, ever told those who were dead in trespasses and sins to pray in order to be saved, but every where the word is, Believe, and live, and then “pray without ceasing.”²³

Prayer, if it means anything, or amounts to anything, is the utterance of a living soul, the breathing of a child's desires to our heavenly Father; but we are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” not by faith and prayer, by faith alone. Even the children say, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered;”²⁴ and it is sweet to learn that, although some times the burdened heart of a child can only groan, yet the groan is prayer when dictated by the Holy Spirit. Not only so, but in answering these groans God is but answering the desires of His own heart, for “He that searcheth the hearts (that is, the Lord Jesus Christ] knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God.”²⁵

A lady complained bitterly to a servant of the Lord that she could not pray. Without telling her his purpose, he gradually led her mind away from herself to the infinite grace and finished work of Christ in behalf of prayerless sinners. Her thoughts were at last fixed upon Him to the exclusion of every other object, and suddenly she cried out, while her face beamed with joy, “Oh! I can't pray, but I know that Jesus loves me. “She had been trying for twenty years to be saved by praying; and she found at last that Christ saves and not prayer. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him;”²⁶ and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”²⁷ No one who tells you that you must pray to make God merciful, can tell you how long you must pray.

8.—“I cannot Believe, though willing to be Saved.”

This is not only to deny flatly every assurance and promise of God's word, and the whole work of Christ, but it is a flat contradiction of yourself. What is it to be saved, except to be willing to be saved in God's way? “Whosoever will [is willing], let him take the water of life freely.”²⁸ What was the reason men were not saved, when they heard the sweet invitations and urgent beseechings of His love? The Saviour Himself tells us, “Ye will not [ ye are not willing to ] come to Me, that ye might have life.”²⁹ You are mistaken, dear friend. You are not willing to be saved just now, and just as you are, or you are trusting in your supposed willingness, and not in Christ.

There is a solemn truth brought out in His discourses, which is not expressed in our English Bibles. The Greek language has two classes of negatives. According to Winer, the acknowledged authority, “the former is the objective, the latter the subjective negation.” In other words, the former merely announces a fact, but the latter exhibits a certain state of mind. For example, Jesus says, “He that believeth on Him is not (hou) condemned: but he that believeth not (mee), is condemned already, because he hath not (mee) believed in the name of the only begot ten Son of God.”³⁰ The first not is a simple negative, but the last two nots express refusal. So it is all through the Bible, and the two little particles are never interchanged, one of ten thousand proofs, by the way, of the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures.

“If any man hear My words, and believe not (mee), I judge him not (hou); for I came not (hou) to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not (mee) My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”³¹ That word which shall judge you, dear sinner, will expose the deceitfulness of your heart, when you say that you are willing to be saved, but cannot believe. You are probably willing to be saved, but you are not willing to be saved in God's way, who says all the doing is DONE. The Lord Jesus who declares “I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts,”³² also declares that your cannot is a will not; and so you must confess sooner or later. If you cannot believe in the right way, then go to Him just as you are, and He will give you faith. “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”³³

9.—“I cannot Keep the Commandments.”

Of course you cannot, for if you could, you would not need Christ to save you. You mean, no doubt, the ten commandments, and have you ever noticed that there are ten nots in these ten commandments: Thou shalt not do this, that, and the other? If, therefore, you could keep them, you would still fail to attain a positive righteous ness, and at best have only a negative goodness. A young ruler came to our Lord with the question, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” As he proposed to do something, Jesus met him on the ground of his own choosing, and told him to keep the commandments, mentioning six out of the ten. All these,” said the young man, have I observed from my youth,” but still he was not saved nor satisfied, for if he had been, he would not have come to Christ to know what else he must do.³⁴

But take the first two commandments here mentioned, and look at the deceitfulness of human nature, when men talk about keeping them. “Do not commit adultery.” Follow up the command with the comment of Jesus, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”³⁵ The next is, “Do not kill.” Follow up the command with the comment of the Holy Ghost, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”³⁶ Multitudes are glibly repeating the ten commandments every Lord's-day, who would be appalled if the light of their far-reaching demand were flashed into the conscience. “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”³⁷ He knows your vileness and helplessness, “and this is His commandment,” uttered, not amid the thunders of Sinai, but from the cross of Calvary, “That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.”³⁸

The old commandment under the law was, “Love God;” the new commandment under grace is, “Believe in God's love for you;” and surely we may add with the inspired Apostle, “His commandments are not grievous.”³⁹ You are not only invited and entreated and authorized to believe on Christ, but you are commanded to believe. “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent;”⁴⁰ and until this work is done, it is folly to talk about keeping the commandments.

10.— “I do not Love Christ as I ought.”

No, and you never will. If you receive Him as your Saviour, you will love Him more and more, and He will become more and more the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, in your experience. You will care less for hell than the fear of grieving Him, and less for heaven than the hope of being with Him. Personal love for a personal Saviour will become the governing principle of your conduct, and according to the measure of your faith and faithfulness, you will enter into the significance of the Apostle's language, “To me to live is Christ.”⁴¹ You will desire no joy apart from Him, you will feel no sorrow into which He cannot enter, and if Christ were blotted out, you would have no use for life; it would come to an abrupt and cheerless end.

But at every advance you make in likeness to His character, in conformity with His will, or in consecration to His person, you will have an increasing conviction that you do not love Him as you ought. Nay, in heaven itself, when you have been there millions of ages, as you may be walking the shining streets hand in hand with some dear saint, you will doubtless gaze upon the Saviour, and ex claim, not in humiliation and grief, but with an ever expanding heart, and with an ever-enlarging capacity for devotion, “Oh, I ought to love Him more!” You certainly cannot love Him by trying to love Him, but by dwelling upon His love for you. “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love”⁴²—not in your love, but in My love! “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.”⁴³

As Christ is to-day up in heaven, in all the acceptable ness of His beloved person, and in all the value of His precious blood, so is the weakest believer, though still in this world. The measure of His nearness to the Father's heart is the measure of our nearness, and it is not a question of our love to Him that ought to engage our attention, but of His love for us. If we would have our love increase, we must have much to do with Him, and if we would have delightful seasons in prayer, let us, instead of begging all the time, tell the Father everything we know about Jesus. This is communion.

11.—“I do not know that He will save Me personally.”

He says, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”⁴⁴ Does not this whosoever” include you, and is it not far better than the mention of your name? There may be some other person in the world who has precisely the same name, and therefore if your name had been uttered by the Lord Jesus, you could not have been certain that you were the one in view. But whosoever certainly embraces you within the limits of its generous and gracious offer. Sup pose that in the recent frightful famine in China, a great store-house had been filled with provisions, and over the entrance the words had been written, “Whosoever will may be freely supplied;”—would it not have been mad

ness, if the starving wretches had refused to apply for relief, because their names were not publicly announced? Suppose you were in the State's prison for crime with a thousand other convicts, and the proclamation were issued, “Whosoever will confess his guilt” shall be pardoned; would you argue that forgiveness could not be intended for you?

Come, dear, dying sinner, this is a very simple thing. The Lord Jesus offers to save you, even if you are the chief of sinners; and why not believe Him, why not trust Him, why not take Him at His word, without waiting to turn over a new leaf in the same old book of your life, without waiting to turn over another leaf of this book, without waiting one moment? “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name WHOSOEVER believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins;”⁴⁵ and then comes the next promise, “WHATSOEVER ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.”⁴⁶ Whosoever is on the outside of the door; whatsoever on the inside. “Whosoever” shows that salvation is free;” whatsoever” that it is full.

If you are afraid that you are not one of the elect, just remember that you have nothing whatever to do with election, until you are saved. It is the children's bread.
Over the door of the entrance into life is written for the sinner, “WHOSOEVER will, let him take the water of life freely;”⁴⁷ but once the entrance is made by faith, you find written above the wall over the table for the saint, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.”⁴⁸

12.—“Well, I will keep on Trying.”

Keep on trying to do what? To make God merciful? The believer can say, “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us ( not for our great love where with we loved Him), even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved).”⁴⁹ To make yourself better, and thus com mend yourself to His favour? Of the Jews who were very zealous it is said, that “they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”⁵⁰ Suppose you were in urgent need of moneyto save your property, or your reputation, or your very life, and some one should tell you to go to the bank, and keep on trying, and that you would get it, if you were earnest enough, could all your trying obtain relief? The more you tried, and the more earnest you were, the more certainly the president or cashier would have the police remove you from the bank, until you brought a cheque signed with the name of a person entitled to receive the money.

Suppose such a person should come to you with the cheque, and offer it to you without money and without price, and press it upon your acceptance, would you still stay in distress, wringing your hands, and exclaiming, I am trying to get it? You would just take it, and that would be the end of your anxiety, unless indeed you did not believe that your friend had any money in the bank. The Lord Jesus is offering you a free salvation this very moment, and it will not do you a bit of good to keep on trying, until you go to God in His name, believing that He is both able and willing to save you, according to the promise of His word. “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be SURE to all the seed.”⁵¹ Do not keep on trying any more, but keep on trusting for ever.

There is a vast amount of ignorance in those who tell inquiring sinners to keep on trying, and there is a vast amount of self-righteousness in inquiring sinners who propose to keep on trying until they get forgiveness. The first thing the dead soul needs is life, and it has already been shown in the foregoing pages that “He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life.” All trying, therefore, before believing, is like the spasmodic action of a corpse under a galvanic battery.

13.— “But must I not Strive to enter into Heaven?”

Jesus says, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”⁵² But why is it called a strait gate? Simply be cause there is not room enough for Christ and your own righteousness too. Hence He adds, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.”⁵³ The Greek is, “that forsaketh not the things of himself;” and Dr. Young properly translates it, “Everyone of you who doth not take leave of all that he himself hath, is not able to be My disciple.” In another place the Saviour says, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself [abjure, renounce, disown, set aside self], and take up his cross, and follow Me.”⁵⁴ It is easy enough to get through the strait gate, if you will let the good Shepherd lay you on His shoulders, and carry you home, rejoicing as atrophy of His redeeming love.

Observe, He does not say that many will seek to enter in at the strait gate, and shall not be able; but many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able, because they do not enter at the strait gate; and the time they will not be able to enter in is when the Master is risen up, and shut to the door. “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved;”⁵⁵ but the fact that Christ is the door implies the forsaking or leaving of self, in order to trust Him alone for salvation. “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” What is there about a little child that makes it a proper symbol of those who enter the kingdom of heaven?⁵⁶ It does not think of self; it just rests upon the bosom that shelters it, without doubt or fear or questioning.

A girl of fourteen years of age was dying with consumption. One day an officer of the church which she had attended was trying to comfort her, and said, “You will be an angel soon. “No,” she replied, “I shall never be an angel. I used to sing the Sunday-school hymn, ʻI want to be an angel,ʼ but I will never sing it again, for the Holy Spirit has taught me better. I shall be far, far above the angels, seated with Christ on His throne.” The Christian, surprised, asked, “When did you come to Jesus, Katie?” “I did not come at all,” she answered; “He came all the way to me, and took me up in His loving arms.” Deeply affected, he said, “Well, I am sure He will save you.” “No, no," she instantly responded, “He has saved me.”

14.— “Must I not Work Out my salvation with fear and trembling?”

You certainly must, but you cannot work it out, until God has worked it in you; and this is the very reason given for working it out: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”⁵⁷ To whom was this Epistle sent? “To all the saints in Christ Jesus [the saved and separated ones in Him] which are at Philippi.”⁵⁸ Among these was the Philippian jailer, who was convicted at midnight, and the same hour of the night was baptized, he and all his, straightway, “and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”⁵⁹ “To all of them it was said, “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;”⁶⁰. “My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus;”⁶¹ and some of them, at least, knew positively that their names were “in the book of life.”⁶²

The working out of their salvation, therefore, was not inconsistent with the knowledge of their certain salvation, nor was the working it out with fear and trembling inconsistent with the enjoyment of that knowledge. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again, I say, Rejoice.” “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all under standing, shall keep [garrison) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Such is the tenor of the whole Epistle, which may be called the epistle of joy. Again and again for nearly a score of times do the words joy and rejoice ring through it, while it does not contain the word sin once.

Salvation in this Epistle is looked at as not yet completed, until the redemption of the body at the coming of the Lord; and it was the joy arising from the certainty of the promised and full salvation, that stimulated them to work it out with filial fear and earnest solicitude, remembering that they were still on the battle- field, and still on their pilgrim journey. But they also knew that their citizenship was in heaven, from whence they looked with eager anticipation for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Your own salvation” is in contrast, not with God's working in them, but with the Apostle's absence, more than supplied by God's abiding presence, which according to His promise and oath would be with them alway.

15.—“Does not the Bible tell of some who Turn Back?”

The Bible tells of some professed Christians of whom it is said, “It is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again;
and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”⁶³ But you will observe that the dog was never anything but a dog, and the sow had never ceased to be a sow. You may wash a sow, but the washing does not any more impart a new nature, than baptism imparts a new nature to a sinner; and if a sow is only washed, of course she will go back to her wallowing in the mire at the first opportunity. Nay, the temporary cleanness does not sit gracefully on her, and she is restive until she can return to her wallowing, because she loves the mire.

But if you could communicate a lamb nature, just so long as the new nature is in the ascendency, it is certain she will not return to her wallowing. A lamb may fall into the mire, but it will bleat piteously and struggle earnestly until it gets out, and move more cautiously lest it slip again into the place of its humiliation and suffering. It is nowhere asserted in the Bible that the real children of God may or can finally fall away, and be lost; but they are faithfully warned against a careless and worldly walk, which will prove to them that they have never been made partakers of the divine nature. Even the warnings are uniformly prefaced with an if; but there are no ifs in the clear and explicit assurances of a present and a certain salvation to the sincere believer. No passage that presents in the form of an admonition the possibility of his. relapse can be set over against the numerous and un equivocal declarations of his eternal safety in the hand of the living Christ.

Yet you must not forget the truth already stated in these pages concerning the “old man” and the “new man,” the “flesh” and the “spirit” in the believer. If you indulge the flesh, you will get very far away from God, and, like the prodigal, may fain fill your belly with the husks that the swine do eat; but your safety is found in heeding the injunction of the Holy Ghost, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”⁶⁴ There will be no danger of turning back so long as you keep your eye upon Him in the exercise of the same faith that led you to look to Him for pardon, and so long as you do not minister to the gratification of your fleshly nature.

16.—“May I not be among those who Fall Away?”

Yes, if you are only a professing Christian; no, if you are a possessing Christian, that is, possessing Christ by real faith in Him as your Saviour. Study carefully the chapter which contains the startling words, “if they shall fall away.”⁶⁵ There is not space to quote it here, but you will notice that it was addressed to Hebrews claiming to be Christians, who had made no progress in the divine life. They remained babes, and had need that one should teach them again the first principles of the oracles of God. The Holy Ghost, therefore, urges them to leave the elementary principles, with which they were familiar as Jews, and press on unto perfection. He then enumerates certain experiences which stop short of regeneration, for he does not describe those of whom he speaks as born again, or as having believed in Christ. “It is impossible, . . . If they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance.” They relapse into Judaism by a deliberate and wilful rejection of Christ, whom they crucify to themselves afresh, and put to an open shame.

“But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.” This is followed by one of the plainest statements of the safety of the believer, found in all the Scriptures. “That by two immutable things [the promise and the oath of Jehovah), in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whit her the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,” going before as a herald to announce our coming. The chapter does not teach that true Christians may fall away; it does teach that if those mentioned fall away, it is impossible to re store them.

Christians are described as those “who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.”⁶⁶ They do not keep themselves, but they are kept, and kept by the power of God through faith. All the resources that are at God's command are pledged to their preservation, and “He that keepeth thee will not slumber.”⁶⁷ But they are kept by thinking of Him. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee.”⁶⁸

17.—“Does not James teach that we are Justified by Works?”

James writes, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”⁶⁹ Upon these two little words, say and see, the meaning of the whole passage turns. Paul and James teach precisely the same doctrine, only one shows how we are justified before God, and the other tells how we are justified before men. Paul over and over declares that we are justified before God by faith alone, without works; James asks, what doth it profit, though a man say he hath faith? Paul shows that God sees we are justified only by faith, James adds, YE see, or men see, that we are justified by works, and not by faith only. Of course men see that we are justified by works, for there is no other way by which it can be seen by men.

Paul and James, or to speak correctly, the Holy Ghost by Paul and James, must bear the same testimony. Abraham and Rahab are cited as illustrations of the way we are justified, in the inspired writings of both Apostles, but the former is declared to have been justified by faith before God, long previous to the birth of Isaac.⁷⁰ Many years afterward he is said to have been justified before men, when Isaac was offered upon the altar.⁷¹ So it was with Rahab. In the epistle to the Hebrews, only her faith is mentioned, when, believing the testimony of the spies, she received them with peace.⁷² But in Jaines her works are mentioned, when she sent them out another way, from the pursuit of the king of Jericho. So there is not the slightest contradiction or conflict between these two witnesses for the gospel, “as the truth is in Jesus.” God alone can see the principle of faith, lodged by the Holy Spirit in the human breast, but men see its outward manifestations in its working by love.

The place which works occupy in the redemption of God's people is plainly set forth where the Holy Ghost says, “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.”⁷³ He does not say that these things are good and profitable unto God, but unto men; and they which have believed, and there fore are justified by grace, as in the preceding verse, must be careful to maintain good works.

18.—“Must I not engage in Good Works?”

Undoubtedly. Not, however, that you may be saved, but because you are saved; not that you may obtain life but as the manifestation of the life received by faith alone. There are three kinds of works mentioned in the Bible: wicked works, that need no description; dead works, that however amiable and attractive in themselves, do not spring from the living principle of faith; and good works, that are acceptable to God, because the person has already been accepted through the offered and accepted sacrifice of the Son of God. Hence in the gracious acceptance of any little service for His name, God is giving proof of His acceptance of Christ, who says, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”⁷⁴

Elsewhere He says, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life;”⁷⁵ and therefore we are just to let Christ shine in our life. He does not tell us to see our good works, but to keep our eye singly fixed on Him, so that we may reflect His likeness, and show to the praise of His grace that we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained [margin, prepared) that we should walk in them.”⁷⁶ He “gave Him self for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”⁷⁷

It is said that just before the civil war in this country, a wealthy gentleman, who was walking the streets of a southern city, had his attention called to a group of negro slaves about to be sold. One of them was weeping bitterly, and when he asked her why she was crying, she replied that she did not know what kind of master was going to buy her, nor where she was going. He said nothing more, but when she was placed upon the block for sale, he bid a higher price for her than any one in the crowd, and she was knocked down to him, as his property. She was still weeping, because she did not know him, nor where she was going, until he gently said: “I have not bought you to make a slave of you; I have bought you to set you free; go where you please.” Sheinstantly turned to him with the glad cry, “Let me go with you; I will serve you all my life.” But she served him, not to be re deemed; she served him with a free and happy heart because she was redeemed.

19.— “I do not know what Church to Join.”

It is to be regretted that any such phrase has been in vented as " joining the Church,” or “members of the Church.” We are members of Christ, when we believe on Him as our Saviour, and “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body;”⁷⁸ and therefore as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, “so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”⁷⁹ This is a relation ship established by the great Head of the Church, and we are bound to exhibit it in practical fellowship with all Christians of every name and sect. We do not make, nor can we destroy, the unity He has formed, but we are responsible “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”⁸⁰

Unite then with that Church which most faithfully adheres to His word, which most loyally maintains the honour of His person, which most clearly presents His grace as the only source of salvation, which most highly exalts the merits of His precious blood, which most generously treats His believing people of all denominations. Avoid as you would a plague-spot the bigotry and sectarianism and Phariseeism of those who claim that they constitute the only true church, and esteem it your privilege to recognise as brethren in the Lord all who have obtained like precious faith with yourself in our common Saviour. Do not permit family and social considerations to determine your choice in the selection of your place of public worship and service, but go where your soul can be fed “with the finest of the wheat,”⁸¹ I where you can best work for the Master who has redeemed you, and where the conditions are most favourable for your growth “in grace, and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”⁸²

One of the saddest signs of the times is the tenacity with which men and women, claiming to be Christians, cling to their denominations and names, even when their pastors are dishonouring the Lord Jesus Christ, preaching clap-trap sermons, aiming at popularity, receiving unconverted people into the church, and never giving their hearers a morsel of pure gospel. Sectarian or ecclesiastical names are very little things, and are all to be dropped at the grave, and at the coming of Christ; but there is one name which is above every name, and you will deeply grieve the Holy Spirit of God, unless you go where Jesus alone is exalted “Lord of all.”

20.—“How shall I Live as a Christian?”

“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world.”⁸³ Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that He placed in us jealously desireth us?”⁸⁴ “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”⁸⁵ “What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”⁸⁶

These passages settle at once and for ever a thousand questions that arise in the mind of a conscientious Christian concerning his unavoidable relations to the world. Shall I do this, that, and the other thing? May I go here and there? Is there any harm in certain books, amusements, business associations? Be answered in the words of the Holy Ghost, “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”⁸⁷ “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”⁸⁸ “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.”⁸⁹ “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not Himself.”⁹⁰ “If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”⁹¹ “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”⁹² Let this be your daily cry.

If you can go to the theatre solely to please the Lord Jesus Christ, go. If you can dance solely to honour the Lord Jesus Christ, dance your heels off. If you can spend your time in reading novels solely to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, read them. Take Him with you, whatever you do, wherever you go, and let Him so enter into every joy and every sorrow, every purpose and every plan, you can always say in unswerving loyalty to His person, “To me to live is Christ.”⁹³

21.—“What is to be my Aim in Life?”

“Wherefore, also, we are ambitious, whether at home or away from home, to be well-pleasing to Him.”⁹⁴ “Не died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”⁹⁵ “No man that warreth entangleth him self with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”⁹⁶ “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”⁹⁷ “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”⁹⁸

It is the ambition of one who knows something at least of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for him, and something of what the Lord Jesus Christ is for him, so to live that he may please such a Saviour. It is not a question of escaping hell, it is not a question of entering heaven at last, but he aims to think and speak and act in a manner that will receive the approval of his Master at the second advent. He is looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and he would rather in that day see the smile of the Lord flashing glory upon him, and hear the plaudit of the Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant,”⁹⁹ than to own all the riches and kingdoms of the world.

Hence the Apostle could say, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway,”¹⁰⁰ or disapproved, as Rotherham and Young properly translate it. Paul never expressed a doubt of his salvation after his eventful journey to Damascus, but he wanted to be approved at the coming of the Lord; and this should be the aim of every believer.

“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”¹⁰¹

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Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

1) Eph. iv. 18, 19.

2) 1 John iii. 4.

3) Matt. xxii. 37-39.

4) Job xl. 4.

5) Isa. vi. 5.

6) John iii. 18.

7) John xvi. 9.

8) Heb. iv. 15.

9) Luke v. 20.

10) Luke vii. 50.

11) Rom. ii. 4.

12) Rom, iv. 25.

13) Mark i. 40.

14) Mark v. 28.

15) Mark ix. 22.

16) Mark x. 50.

17) Luke xix. 9.

18) Matt. xi. 28.

19) John vi. 37.

20) 1 Pet. i. 5.

21) John x. 27, 28.

22) Eph. v. 30.

23) 1 Thess. v. 17.

24) Rom. viii, 26.

25) Rom. viii. 27.

26) Heb. xi. 6.

27) Rom. xiv. 23.

28) Rev. xxii. 17.

29) John v. 40.

30) John iii. 18.

31) John xii. 47, 48.

32) Rev. ii. 23.

33) Mark ix. 24.

34) Mark x. 17-22.

35) Matt. v. 28.

36) 1 John iii. 15.

37) 1 Sam. xvi. 7.

38) 1 John iii. 23.

39) 1 John v. 3.

40) John vi. 29.

41) Phil. i. 21.

42) 1 John xv. 9.)

43) 1 John iv. 16, 17.

44) John iii. 26.

45) Acts x. 43.

46) John xiv. 13.

47) Rev. xxii. 17.

48) Jer. xxxi. 3.

49) Eph. ii.

50) Rom. X. 3.

51) Rom. iv. 16.

52) Luke xiii. 24.

53) Luke xiv. 33.

54) Matt. xvi. 24.

55) John X. 9.

56) Matt. xviii. 3.

57) Phil. ii. 12, 13.

58) Phil. i. 1.

59) Acts xvi. 25-33.

60) Phil. i. 6.

61) Phil. iv, 19.

62) Phil. iv. 3.

63) 2 Pet. ii. 22.

64) Rom. xiii. 14.

65) Heb. vi.

66) 1 Pet. i. 5.

67) Ps. cxxi. 3.

68) Isa. xxvi. 3.

69) Jas. ii. 14-26.

70) Gen. xv. 1-6; Rom. iv. 1-5.

71) Gen. xxii.; Jas. ii. 21.

72) Heb. xi, 31.

73) Tit. iii. 8.

74) Matt. v. 16.

75) John viii. 12.

76) Eph. ii. 10.

77) Tit. ii. 14.

78) 1 Cor. xii. 13.

79) Rom. xii. 4, 5.

80) Eph. iv. 3.

81) Ps. lxxxi. 16.

82) 2 Pet. iii. 18.

83) Rom. xii. 1, 2.

84) Jas. iv. 4, 5, Alford's translation.

85) 1 John ii. 15.

86) 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.

87) 1 Cor. x. 31.

88) Col. iii. 17.

89) Rom. xiv. 8.

90) Rom. xv. 1-3.

91) Gal. i. 10.

92) Acts ix. 6.

93) Phil. i. 21.

94) 2 Cor. v. 9, Rotherham's translation.

95) 2 Cor. v. 15.

96) 2 Tim. ii. 4.

97) 1 Pet. ii. 9.

98) 2 John 8.

99) Matt. xxv. 23.

100) 1Cor. ix. 27-27

101) Jude 24, 25.