3.77/62. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 ^^.»^-i -■■'%^,, 
 
 (^^^^^^/^^^TVo^^vaX ^i<AY^^V\K.e,^:I) 
 
 BV 4637 .S4 1871 
 See, Isaac M. 
 The rest of faith 
 
 . ^■ '. W^JLlJ'-.i. ^' J^ - 
 
firr^ 
 
THE 
 
 Rest of Faith. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. ISAAC M. SEE, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 W. C. PALMER, Jr., 14 BIBLE HOUSE. 
 
 1871. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 
 
 W. C. PALMER, Jr.,' 
 In the OflBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Stereotyped at the 
 
 WOMEN'S PRINTING HOTJ^B, 
 
 Corner Arenue A and Eighth Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 How Have Vou Begun ? 9 
 
 Half-way to Christ ? 12 
 
 Is The C/mrch an Hospital ? . . , • • • • 14 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Consecration 17 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Question Answered — CAN I BE HOLY ? 28 
 
 Answer I. God desig7ied for His Churchy in this Dis- 
 
 pensatioiiy a Perpetual Passover Feast, 29 
 
 " //. Jestcs Able and Willing 43 
 
 The Great Physician'' s Cure 49 
 
 God is Willing 52 
 
 «' ///. What is Holiness ? 53 
 
 Salvation from Sin 5^ 
 
 The Terms we use 61 
 
 A Transparent Grace . 72 
 
 " IV. How Can I be Holy ? 75 
 
 Are you determijtcd to be Holy ? . . . • 75 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Simple Faith and Holiness 82 
 
 We will Remember the Believer's Foun- 
 tain 92 
 
 The Divine Method in Two Things . . 95 
 
 An ObjectioJi Answered 99 
 
 Looking unto Jesus — The Present Cure of Sin . . 106 
 
 Looking unto Jesus Still — Jesus All in All . . . 109 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Stones in the way -^ to be gathered out . .123 
 
 /. Hymns that Hurt 123 
 
 //. The Time of Destroying the Works of the Devil y 134 
 ///. Questions to which questioners expect Daring 
 
 Answers 140 
 
 1. Are we not to grow in grace ? .... 140 
 
 2. Are we not to confess sin ? 146 
 
 3. Am I Holy? IS© 
 
 4. Impossible to live so 156 
 
 IV. Hindrances in the Hearts of Christians . . .165 
 
 1. Disposition to Materialize 165 
 
 2. Chiefly, Unbelief 173 
 
 3. Legality — A Seventh-of -Romans Difficulty. 1 79 
 
 Its Cure in the Heavenly Husband . .185 
 This gives the principle on which all objec- 
 tions may be answered^ and all difficulties 
 met — ONLY JESUS 191 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Conclusions 193 
 
 To the Reader : 
 
 1. Do yoti live as you can? 193 
 
 Way of Holiness Easy 201 
 
 2. Abide in Christ 206 
 
 3. Be Still 210 
 
 4. Let Faith be Assured 2l6 
 
 5. The Love Power 219 
 
 6. We are Leading a Hidden Life 227 
 
 Further Illustrations of this Subject in the Case of 
 
 the Nobleman and his Son 237 
 
 Faith before Works 243 
 
 Our Ministry to Testify . . ,' 257 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " The Rest of Faith." Yes, let the book be 
 called by that name. For that is the blessed con- 
 dition of the "little ones" of the Lord Jesus. 
 They have found the rest which is "/^/" "to the 
 people of God." So resting by faith, both injunc- 
 tion and promise are fulfilled in them — " Be care- 
 ful 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 understanding, shall keep your 
 hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 
 
 If the Lord Jesus will use these pages for His 
 own glory, and by them draw souls unto Himself 
 in full salvation, I can only be filled with Halle- 
 lujahs. 
 
 Let the reader ask the dear Lord to save him 
 from reading as a critic, and to enable him to read 
 with the inquiry, " How much of Jesus and His 
 work may I have ? " If the reader be already in the 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 rest of faith, I know him well. He may see in- 
 completeness in style or mere" expression, but he 
 will love the doctrine. Such an one will pray that 
 the book may be used by The King and Head 
 over all things to the Church for the furtherance of 
 His work. It is my comfort, that God can use 
 these pages for that glorious work. " For ye see 
 your calling, brethren, how that not many wise 
 men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many 
 noble, are called. But God hath chosen the fool- 
 ish- things of the world to confound the wise ; and 
 God hath chosen the weak things of the world to 
 confound the things which are mighty ; and base 
 things of the world, and things which are despised, 
 hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, 
 to bring to naught things that are: that no flesh 
 should glory in His presence." 
 
 Glory be to The Father, and to The Son, and to 
 The Holy Ghost. Amen. 
 
 I. M. S. 
 
 Feb. 23, 1871. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 HOW HAVE YOU BEGUN? 
 
 Many failures of Christians come from a wrong 
 commencement of their reHgious life. Their neefl 
 is not only a general consecration, but one that is 
 particular and specific. Everything for God. All 
 they have, to be marked '■'■for Jesus. '^ Their whole 
 selves to be stamped " The Lord's alone^ And 
 they should live in the continual consciousness that 
 what they have done stands fast. On God's altar, 
 they are to remain upon it — their hands must not 
 again touch the gift they have placed there. 
 
 Were this the case, how little trouble they would 
 have. Their little all would be God's to keep ; 
 His, to preserve according to infinite wisdom ; 
 His, to increase or diminish ; and they themselves 
 as little children in His hands — Httle children 
 never to grow out of His hands, but to grow more 
 into them. For this is a mark of spiritual manhood. 
 It does but get more childlike and simple, more 
 content with God's ways, more desirous to be led 
 
 (9) 
 
lO INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 by Him, and that all our concerns may be nothing 
 to us, save as they may be used for His glory. 
 
 No need then for Christians to become angry at 
 injuries — they would be sweetly conscious that 
 their blood is precious in His sight. No need to 
 stand up for their reputation against malicious 
 offenders. No need then to be putting self forward. 
 Oh ! what a- hidden monster is little self! It is 
 only little indeed, and herein is seen its greatness as 
 an enemy to the soul. It is a little thing to be 
 seeking to advance, a mean thing to set forward, 
 but when set forward a devil to destroy and tear 
 down, and annihilate everything noble, and pure, 
 and holy. No, in a true and complete consecra- 
 tion, self would be given to God and left on His 
 altar to be consumed in His service. May we 
 not safely say that all difficulties arising in churches 
 or in communities come from an undue attention to 
 self. But God sees this, and has distinctly ordered 
 that self shall be laid down at His feet. It is this 
 which marks the new creature. Old things were 
 full of self. The "new things," therefore, are 
 rightly supposed to be free from self. Where in 
 reality they are not so, there must either be fearful 
 deception or fearful ignorance. 
 
 And there is danger of both these in the Church. 
 Many church-members may be deceived. It is 
 not at all improbable, in the judgment of charity, 
 that some are. While professing to be on the way 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 1 1 
 
 to heaven, they are sooner or later to awake in the 
 awful condition of the lost. For they are building 
 up self when they ought alone to serve and honor 
 the Lord Jesus ; harboring anger, making their 
 reputation more than their Christianity ; loving the 
 creature more than the Creator; parleying with 
 sin every day, and holding familiar converse with 
 sinners and rejecters of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Reader, is this your condition? Do not, then, 
 complain that you find it hard to believe. While 
 rolling sin under the tongue, and living in oneness 
 with a gay world, it is impossible to believe. 
 
 We say therefore to all, let the foundations of 
 religious life be well laid. Christ the rock on 
 which we build, and the whole for Christ. Life, 
 property, body, soul, spirit, time, circumstances, 
 built upon Christ and for his glory. And Christ 
 not as a holder of us merely, but Possessor, Author 
 and Finisher of our faith, and supreme Authority 
 of our lives. Beloved youth in the service of the 
 Lord, new-born new creatures, be this the rule of 
 your life, the safeguard for the future, the exceed- 
 ing joy of your service, of your giving, — " Nothing 
 WITHOUT Jesus." No pleasure without Jesus ! 
 No money without Jesus ! No companions with- 
 out Jesus ! " Seeing that ye have put off the old 
 man with his deeds, and have put on the new 
 man which is renewed in knowledge after the 
 image of Him that created him; where there is 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircum- 
 cision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free ; but 
 Christ is all, and in all." 
 
 half-way to christ. 
 
 This sentence has been staring me in the face 
 from a paper which lies on the table before me — 
 " Half-way to Christ is a Dangerous Place." And 
 it is so because those who occupy such a position 
 must fail of having the benefit of His death. There 
 is but one mode of receiving the full result of His 
 work and His mediation. " All things are possible 
 to him that believeth." It is by simple faith. In 
 the Fulton-street prayer-meeting, a petition some- 
 what like this was read : " Please pray for one who 
 prays for himself, but he cannot find the way to 
 Christ." It was proposed that they should sing, 
 and that any in the room in the condition of that 
 young man should join in singing, and come to 
 Christ while singing the following verse : 
 
 " Just as I am thou wilt receive, 
 Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. 
 Because thy promise I believe ; 
 
 O Lamb of God, I come, I come ! " 
 
 When anxious souls stop short of this work of 
 full belief in the power and willingness of Jesus to 
 receive them and purify their hearts, they leave 
 themselves just inside the pale of the world. 
 Some have entered the Church only half-way be- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 1 3 
 
 lieving Christ. They were taught that no man 
 could cease from sin, and so they have believed 
 and confessed themselves " sinners," and the world 
 has charmed them more and more as such, until 
 outsiders say of them, that these church-members 
 are no better than themselves. It may well be 
 thought that such are in a very fearful state ; for if 
 outsiders go to perdition, those in the Church 
 must have their suifering enhanced from the fact 
 that they were so near Christ without ever discov- 
 ering the virtue of His blood. 
 
 " Half-way to Christ ! " It is the condition of 
 sorrow, of doubt, of distress. 
 
 It is just the position in which Satan loves to 
 have and to keep the Church, for it robs God of 
 His rightful service ; it garnishes the wickedness of 
 the world and makes it respectable ; it helps to 
 induct young professors of religion into a life of 
 practical unbelief; it fosters those bad habits from 
 which professors say there is no possibility of a 
 cessation, because the habit has grown upon them 
 so long. Oh ! the shamelessness of unbelief ! As 
 if Jesus had no power to cure bad habits and make 
 a cleanly Church ! As if His saints must be 
 bound in chains of slavery to that which makes 
 them unpleasant and unprofitable servants ! 
 
 Beloved Christians, there is a cure for such only 
 in the wounds of Christ. Let such as have been 
 living " half-way to Christ," strip themselves of all 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 their conceit, and false hope, and carnal security, 
 and worldly ambition, of all their friends and pos- 
 sessions, and lay these all down at Jesus' feet, that 
 they may be clothed alone with His robe, and 
 show forth alone His glory, and live entirely for 
 Him. All the way to Christ is full salvation^ and 
 at the greatest distance fr 0771 the world. '^I am 
 crucified to the world, and the world is crucified 
 unto me." This latter condition is most happy. 
 It does not depend upon the husks of the world 
 for comfort, but lives on the luxuries of the king's 
 palace, the " things which are freely given to us of 
 God," the things of God's marvellous light, the 
 things of Christ, the "things which eye had not 
 seen nor ear heard, nor had entered into the heart 
 of man." 
 
 IS THE CHURCH AN HOSPITAL? 
 
 We have heard that a certain divine once said 
 that the Church is an hospital where the inmates 
 are all sick. When they get well they are taken 
 to heaven. The person speaking may have be- 
 lieved it, but we believe that the sentiment is of 
 the devil. That is just what Satan wants the 
 Church to believe concerning herself, so that she 
 will keep her bed, and do nothing to save a lost 
 world. If so, the pastors of the Church are her 
 chief nurses, sick themselves, and her theological 
 seminaries are composed of sick nurses teaching 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 
 
 some of the sick to nurse their brethren. Then, 
 too, the churches that are scattered here and there 
 through the land are only infirmaries where people 
 come to be treated by the Great Physician, who 
 proceeds to cure the people by a slow process, in 
 the meantime leaving them to the oversight of 
 these sick ministering nurses. 
 
 The Church is not an hospital. It is "the saved 
 community of the King's children ; it is the pecu- 
 liar people of a great High Priest ; peculiar in 
 strength of endurance, in dependence on God, in 
 holy boldness before Him, in attendance at the 
 throne of grace, and in carrying the message of 
 Jesus to lost sinners, and that with a power to 
 which the world is a stranger. It is the place of 
 the blessed and omnipotent Comforter and Guide, 
 and Commander of our souls, who leads the peo- 
 ple forth to conquest and a crown. 
 
 The work of Christ, and the whole economy of 
 redemption, was conceived in infinite wisdom, exe- 
 cuted in unsearchable love, and resulted in strength 
 to the lost and heavenly cure of all their maladies. 
 It may be that many church-members are not de- 
 livered from the ritualism of social life, from the 
 common forms of commercial dishonesty, from 
 covetousness which is idolatry, from evil habits of 
 anger, and unholy worldliness. Such, surely, are 
 either spiritually sick or spiritually dead, but their 
 
1 6 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 condition does not meet the design of God in the 
 redemption of man, nor are they to be counted as 
 true members of Him who said, '' By their fruits ye 
 shall know them." 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Let the inquirer after holiness begin free from 
 these errors. His greatest need is to be hid in 
 Christ, and therefore at the outset he is to let all 
 go for Jesus. Suffer me to repeat, T.et all go 
 FOR Jesus. Tliis is 
 
 CONSECRATION, 
 
 — a complete, final yielding up of all we have to 
 God, to be succeeded by a continual remembrance 
 that we possess nothing henceforth in our own 
 name. The reader will see at once the difference 
 between everything being at God's disposal, and 
 our holding it so. He is the Sovereign, and 
 doeth what He will with His own, but men do not 
 always acknowledge Him as such. Professing 
 Christians have often confessed that they could not 
 say without reserve, "Thy will be done." But 
 anything short of an entire surrender to God is 
 fatal to our life in Christ. He must have all, be- 
 cause He cannot do anything with you while you 
 2 (17) 
 
1 8 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 desire to keep back a part of yourself or of your 
 goods. 
 
 For anything you set your heart upon is an idol, 
 and it cultivates " covetousness, which is idolatry," 
 thus keeping you most effectually in such a state 
 that He can do no mighty work within you. This 
 demand for a consecration to the full measure of 
 your light is not an arbitrary rule of tyranny, but 
 the necessary outgoing of pure love. God desires 
 to bless you, and you can only enjoy a delightful 
 sense of His presence when you know that He is 
 your supreme good. Will you see to it then that 
 you have made an unreserved surrender to him ? 
 
 One difficulty to be encountered is a certain 
 very plausible argumentation on the self side. 
 "■ How can I be sure that I have given up my 
 darlings to God?" " How can I now place my- 
 self in the position of one who ha^ lost them, and 
 thus know that I am willing that they should be 
 taken from me ?" In these and the like questions 
 Satan gets advantage, and makes souls think they 
 cannot consecrate, or that it is useless. But we 
 can know that we are willing God should have His 
 way. We can be fully assured that we earnestly 
 desire His control of all the circumstances of our 
 lot, and that we do depend on His grace for all 
 contingencies that may arise. 
 
 Having this knowledge, Jacob continued with 
 the Lord. " Let me go," said He. " 1 will not 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. ig 
 
 let Thee go except Thou bless me," answered the 
 determined patriarch. Now Jacob well knew Who 
 was dealing with him. He knew that he might 
 come off disjointed from the vigorous grasp of this 
 mighty " Angel of the Covenant," But what cared 
 he ? He gave his whole body into His hands. 
 Had the Lord .(for He was none other) asked, 
 ** Shall I maim you ? " we can easily imagine Jacob 
 answering, " Yes, Lord ; do anything to me that 
 will bring me into closer union with Thee, and 
 make me more like Thee, and which will help me 
 to be ready for the full communication of Thy 
 power to save." 
 
 If we would have such full salvation, our whole 
 being must be given into the Lord's hands, with a 
 holy (not reckless) carelessness as to what disposal 
 He shall make of us, or of any of our darlings, or 
 of our treasures. 
 
 Beloved, to speak with deepest reverence, God 
 must be the Chief Object of our love. " Whom 
 have I in Heaven but Thee, and there is none 
 upon earth whom I desire besides Thee?" The 
 true love of God transcends all other loves. It is 
 such as finds the Chief Love left when all others 
 are buried. Strange that any should usurp its 
 place ! Our allowance of such an anomaly should 
 make us afraid that we have never tasted the love 
 of God at all. For if He be our " One altogether 
 lovely," His utmost wish will be cheerfully com- 
 
20 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 plied with. Such a full compliance is the true 
 meaning of consecration. This view may cause 
 you to say, "Then I have no religion." Beloved 
 reader, let us entreat you to pursue the subject un- 
 til you are sure that you have " pure religion and 
 undefiled before God." Be deeply humbled if you 
 are not thus consecrated, and do not rest until 
 your doubts are entirely gone. An uncertainty in 
 religion is infinitely worse than a bad title to 
 earthly property. 
 
 True consecration, by a thorough yielding to 
 God of all we have, and are, and expect to be ; of 
 our time, past, present, and future (we say past 
 time, for there are many who secretly wish for a 
 return of past surroundings), settles all questions in 
 favor of the full control of God in all the concerns 
 of our life ; and in favor of His regulation, as to 
 time, place, and manner, of all the circumstances 
 connected with them. We thus become as little 
 children, whose all is in their parents, and from 
 thence also their confident expectation of supply, 
 of protection, and hearty love. 
 
 Just here is rest, and only here. It is the rest 
 that remaineth for the people of God. Such rest 
 from all anxiety, fear, and woe follows, because we 
 have nothing to care for but the love of God in 
 Christ, which is the sweet anxiety of the heavenly 
 Church. 
 
 We are full well aware that many smile at this 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 21 
 
 unearthly simplicity, and that many are ready to 
 question us upon the probable condition of the 
 world if every one should take the same course. 
 Where would the great men, where the rich, be 
 found ; and who would rule the world ? These 
 questions would be triumphantly met by a genera- 
 tion of Christrans like Mary, sitting at the feet of 
 The Great Redeemer and Sovereign of the world. 
 It would be like Adam in Eden, for all he had 
 was God's; but full salvation from sin through the 
 Blood of the Lamb, though it may want some of 
 the peculiarities of Adam's condition, is yet better 
 than Eden. Praise ye the Lord. 
 
 Ye souls that are burdened, careworn, and 
 *' wondering where the scene will end," here is 
 rest, at Jesus' feet. When you are not your own 
 but His, when you let Him in to cast each worth- 
 less idol out, and to cast out all that offends Him, 
 He will take care of His own ; He will do what 
 you desire of Him. He will give you rest from 
 those severe inward struggles in which too long you 
 have sought to be your own deliverer, or partially 
 such. God shall cause you always to " triumph in 
 Christ," both over foes \vithin and without. 
 
 This is a rest in His will. You desire nothing 
 outside of that ; you are conscious of its precious- 
 ness to your soul ; you are grounded in the love of 
 it as the measure of all things affecting your whole 
 being. 
 
22 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 It is a rest in His providence. There is no 
 leaping over that gracious superintendence, nor is 
 there any desire to do it. The soul learns, in what- 
 soever state it is, therewith to be content. A crust 
 with Christ is better than the feasts of kings, and 
 prisons prove palaces. "December's as pleasant 
 as May," and there are no '' miserable days." His 
 especial guidance is as real to your consciousness 
 as the hand of a parent leading his child. 
 
 It is a rest in the authority of His word. " To 
 the law and to the testimony," saith the soul. This 
 decides questions at once, without any reasoning 
 from personal, or public, or social considerations. 
 
 It is a rest in the prevaiHng power of His in- 
 dwelling Spirit. We know that He can and that 
 He does turn out His enemies and ours. With 
 confidence we look to Him for the continual 
 energy which shall lift us above the vain world and 
 all it holds. We are assured that our desires to be 
 God-like are granted in the measure of our capa- 
 city, nor do we believe that He will rest in His 
 work. It shall go on " perfecting holiness." 
 
 Here is rest in praises, in activities for God, for 
 which under the old life we found no time or in- 
 clination. Life itself becomes a " doxology of 
 praise." The difficulty with most is that they are 
 not willing to give over everything into the hands 
 of God. They say it cannot be done ; but this is 
 because they do not want to do it. They want to 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 23 
 
 keep their business, they desire to command their 
 own supplies, they would choose their earthly en- 
 joyments, they cannot put their riches under the 
 control of God, they crave even just a little honor. 
 Therefore they cannot enter into rest. This is 
 the standing and stubborn objection to the higher 
 Christian life of which I write. They cannot "look 
 unto Jesus with a single eye," and keep their 
 earthly all, for self. 
 
 Consecration is not only a passive acknowledg- 
 ment of the right of the Lord to all we have. It is, 
 as we have already seen, an active casting of all our 
 energies into the work of God. "I beseech you, 
 therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 
 present your bodies a living sacrifice^ holy, accepta- 
 ble unto God, which is your reasonable service." 
 Our all to God, our all with Jesus, our life to be 
 with Him in the precious Yoke of His service. 
 
 Jesus said, " Take my yoke upon you, and learn 
 of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye 
 shall find rest unto your souls ; for my yoke is easy 
 and my burden is light." But you ask Him, "Who 
 shall be in this yoke with me ? I cannot work with 
 every one, even though I might love every one." 
 Be still, soul ! Do not be too quick to commit 
 yourself to error. Can you not be in the yoke with 
 Jesus Christ ? He bore the yoke for you, when you 
 could not even have stood near. " His disciples 
 forsook Him and fled." But the Eternal Spirit was 
 
24 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 with Him then, and in that glorious Paraclete He 
 obtained a comforter for His disciples of all ages, to 
 the end of the world. The Yokefellow who strength- 
 ened Jesus to bear the cross, now is the continual 
 attendant of Jesus in the fulfilment of the promise, 
 " I will be with you always." And now Jesus says, 
 *' Take my yoke upon you." He puts us in with 
 no other, other than Himself. He is the meek and 
 lowly One with whom we are to work, and by 
 whom we are to pattern. 
 
 If in the yoke with Jesus, our work shall look like 
 His work, and, amazing thought. He will own our 
 work as fully acceptable to Himself Is it possible 
 that any are desirous to get out of the yoke of Jesus, 
 or that any who profess to be His are doubtful 
 about the easiness of His yoke? Jesus says, 
 " Come unto me." He means, " Believe in me, trust 
 in me ; by believing fasten yourself to me, that you 
 may be with me and I with you forever." Does 
 your heart say, " O Jesus ! why art Thou so distant 
 from me ? " Stop a moment and listen to Him. 
 You are in too great haste to charge Him foolishly. 
 He is not distant from you, but you keep at a dis- 
 tance from Him. He asks you to take His yoke. 
 You profess to be very willing to take it, and you 
 think you have it on you, but it galls and frets you, 
 and you are wondering what can be the reason. 
 We can easily tell you, for he says His yoke is easy ; 
 and He does not lie. His words are the essence 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 2$ 
 
 of tmth. Your difficulty is, that you are not fully 
 under the yoke. It is the end of the yoke that galls 
 your neck and frets your soul. He continues ask- 
 ing you to come, and you just come far enough to 
 get the name of the yoke upon you, but not far 
 enough to be fastened in with Jesus. You desire 
 Jesus, but you desire a little of your own way. You 
 look to Jesus, and you look a little to the world 
 also. You love Jesus, but you have not entirely 
 put off the love of self, and ease, and worldly com- 
 panions, and dress, and show. No wonder the yoke 
 of Jesus is hard to you, and it will be harder still. 
 And more than that, Jesus condemns all such unbe- 
 lief. " He that is not with me is against me, and 
 he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." 
 "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." 
 
 Now it may look well to the world that you are 
 come so near to Jesus as to feel His yoke upon 
 your neck, but imagine what Jesus must say while 
 you only stand with the end of the yoke fretting 
 you. He tells you that does not help the work at 
 all. There He stands, meek and lowly, and so 
 patient with you too. Do not stand off so. Fall 
 at once under the yoke and learn of Him. He is 
 meek and lowly, and will show you in His yoke^ 
 not out of it, His own blessedness. " Come in with 
 me," He says, " and ye shall find rest unto your 
 souls." The moment that your neck falls into 
 the right place of the yoke of Jesus, you will find 
 
26 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 complete rest, fretting will cease, and joy shall 
 abound in your once doubting, halting soul. For 
 you shall be yoked in with Jesus, in a sweet, abid- 
 ing, soul-enrapturing union. Sweet shall be His 
 words unto you — yea, sweeter than honey to your 
 mouth. Your fellowship shall be with the Father, 
 and with His Son Jesus Christ. Truly, "great is 
 the mystery of godliness." The Holy " Word was 
 made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His 
 glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, 
 full of grace and truth." And now "He dwelleth 
 with us and shall be in us," by His Holy Spirit. 
 Now, ye that are yoked with Christ may well rejoice, 
 ** For God, who commanded the light to shine out 
 of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the 
 light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
 face of Jesus Christ." 
 
 In this pleasing yoke of union and of fellowship 
 with Christ Jesus we may fully lean up against Him. 
 In this case, yoking means resting — resting in labor 
 and in care. Let your feet walk only, and, resting 
 on Him, leaning up against Him, as a tender hus- 
 band, He shall cherish you, so that the labor shall 
 only do you good and comfort you, and you shall 
 wish to continue in the precious walk of faith. 
 Your clothes shall not wax old upon you, and your 
 shoe shall not wax old upon your foot, and your 
 feet shall not swell. Blessed union ! Precious 
 Jesus, Companion of the way ! What freedom is like 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 27 
 
 this ? In peace like a river, in joy unspeakable and 
 full of glory, in glowing courage, in glorious inde- 
 pendence, we may gladly take our place under the 
 yoke of Christ, for He shall make us free with His 
 own liberty. We shall go where He goes, whose 
 track is in all the universe, and whose grace reveals 
 the glory of eternal triumph. If we are truly in- 
 yoked with Jesus, His cause and ours one, our life 
 hid with His, how shall the voice of Jesus be heard 
 in His truth, how shall His strength be perfected in 
 our weakness. His virtues cover all our natural de- 
 formities, and His life appear in all our acts ? What 
 language shall express our sacred pleasures? The 
 very yoke will be delightful, and the burden shall 
 be pleasing. Lonely fellowship with Jesus shall 
 show to us, and cause the truth to be seen by others 
 in our life, even the truth spoken by His own sweet 
 lips — "I am come that they might have life, and 
 that they might have it more abundantly." 
 
 Are you, precious soul, under the yoke of Christ ? 
 Tender and surpassing is the full consciousness of 
 that position. 
 
28 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 CAN I B E HOLY ? 
 
 " My soul longs to have power over sin, and to 
 be free from it. Tell me, all ye that fear God, Can 
 I be holy f' 
 
 Yes, beloved, surely you can. Otherwise the 
 glorious God of our salvation would not have com- 
 manded you to be holy. He commands what He 
 has made full provision for you to perform. There 
 is not, there cannot be, a felt want of your renewed 
 nature which lacks supply, for He " is able to do 
 exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think." 
 And that He is willing^ His ability, so declared, is 
 full proof. But besides, He has said, " Ask what 
 ye will, and it shall be done unto you." '■'■How 
 much more shall your Father give The Holy Spirit 
 to them that ask Him." Now the Holy Spirit was 
 given " without measure " to Christ. For what is 
 this especial mention made, when Jesus already 
 possessed Him in inseparable relationship, but that 
 His body, the Church, "the fulness of Him that 
 filleth all in all," might " out of His fulness receive 
 grace for grace," might " be filled with all the ful- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 29 
 
 ness of God," and thus be possessed of this change- 
 less demand of the regenerate soul, entire holiness ? 
 
 Oh, the wiliness of the devil ! He has succeeded 
 in making the ways of Zion desolate ; bringing in 
 unbelief like a flood, by proving falsely to God's 
 people that the habit of sinning must be an essen- 
 tial accompaniment of their humanity, even after 
 Christ redeems them. 
 
 I. We invite the reader, in answer to the above 
 question, to the fact that God designed for His 
 Church, in this Gospel dispensation, a 
 
 PERPETUAL PASSOVER FEAST. 
 
 " Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye 
 may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For 
 even Christ our Passover is crucified for us ; there- 
 fore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nei- 
 ther with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but 
 with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 
 — I Cor. V. 7, 8. 
 
 The Corinthian Church seems to have been very 
 corrupt, even at the early date of Paul's writing. He 
 was careful to warn them, and to exercise toward 
 them his apostolic authority. For some reason, 
 ])ossibly the prominent position or wealth of the 
 offender, they had not mourned over a very grave 
 sin committed ; they had not brought the offender 
 to discipline, but they had permitted him to retain 
 his place in the Church, and had even taken pleas- 
 
3© THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 ure in his company. The Apostle exhorts them in 
 the fact which he presents, that a '' Httle leaven 
 leaveneth the whole lump." 
 
 This thought takes him back to the Jewish Pass- 
 over, and he urges them to act in consistency with 
 the Passover character which they now sustain. For 
 he here gives them an extensive hint, that though 
 they are not Jews, they yet have come to a Pass- 
 over feast, which provides greater inducements to 
 holy living than the Jews ever knew. 
 
 These hints are contained in the passage above 
 cited. The Jews put away all leaven from their 
 houses during the celebration of the Passover. 
 Here is the command of God upon this subject : 
 " Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread ; even 
 the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your 
 houses : for whosoever eateth leavened bread from 
 the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be 
 cut off from Israel." — Ex. xii. 15. "Unleavened 
 bread shall be eaten seven days ; and there shall 
 no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall 
 there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters." 
 — Ex. xiii. 7. 
 
 Our Saviour used the word leaven as indicative of 
 the wrong doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 
 (Matt. xvi. 6, 12). " Jesus said unto them, ' Take 
 heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees 
 and Sadducees.' " And after His explanations, 
 " Then understood they how that He bade them 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 3 1 
 
 not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doc- 
 trine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." 
 
 The Lord Jesus by this word leaven also alluded 
 to the hypocritical practices of the Pharisees : " He 
 began to say unto His disciples first of all, ' Beware 
 of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.' " 
 — Luke xii. i. 
 
 Now the Apostle Paul, having referred to a spe- 
 cific case of flagrant crime in the Church, as a 
 leaven of wickedness which would soon leaven the 
 whole lump, exhorts the Church, by the practice of 
 casting out leaven from the houses of the Jews at 
 the Passover feast, to " purge out the old leaven," 
 in the person of the offender, that they may be a 
 new lump, and unleavened with sin, " Therefore 
 put away from yourselves that wicked person." — 
 Ver. 13. 
 
 The Gospel Churchy composed of those who pro- 
 fess faith in Christ, is supposed to be the 7iew lump, 
 free from that old leaven of sin, and, like the bread 
 at the Passover, without leaven, ready to be scruti- 
 nized by Him who had forbidden any leaven at His 
 solemn feast. " Therefore let us keep the feast, not 
 with old leaven [such as they had among the Jewish 
 Pharisees and Sadducees], Jteither with the leaven 
 of malice and wickedness [with which the world 
 abounds], but with the unleavened (bread) of sin- 
 cerity and truth." 
 
 The word translated sincerity has reference to its 
 
32 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 inspection. Its strict meaning is — "judged of in 
 the sunlight," and signifies " such a purity and 
 whiteness as will bear the closest examination, like 
 that of an article inspected in the full light of the 
 sun." — (Bloomfield.) As if the Apostle had said, 
 " The old leaven of sin, insincerity, want of upright- 
 ness, belonged to the old dispensation, before Christ 
 came, when they lived in spiritual twilight, and did 
 not have freest access to the holiest by the blood 
 of the Antitype Paschal Lamb." 
 
 But we have come to a new passover, a perpet- 
 ual FEAST OF FULL REDEMPTION. Christ, our Sac- 
 rificed Passover, is now to be eaten by a living 
 faith, and you are to be in Him, free from those 
 things for which they had any shadow of excuse in 
 the old Jewish and imperfect dispensation of types 
 and shadows. Let us keep this life-long feast, there- 
 fore, in shining characters, in clean garments, in 
 Gospel righteousness. 
 
 Beloved reader, how are you partaking this New 
 Testament Passover? Christ is the last Paschal 
 Lamb, and as they were required to eat the whole 
 lamb at the Passover feast, so are we to feast on 
 Christ. As they ate the whole lamb, let us derive 
 our life from all the offices of Christ, and every 
 be7iefit of his death. Nothing of what Christ has 
 done is to be passed by. He died to save us from 
 all leaven of sin, that it might be rooted out and 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 33 
 
 cast away, and that our lives might shine with His 
 holiness. 
 
 Any other view deprives the Church of the full 
 benefit of His death ; destroys the Passover char- 
 acter of the present dispensation, and cultivates a 
 fearful form of unbelief, which must inevitably end 
 in the amalgamation of the Church with the world. 
 Let us eat the slain Lamb, by living faith in His 
 merits and finished work, and so enjoy heaven upon 
 earth. For such is this feast. 
 
 THE GOSPEL CHURCH HAS COME TO A PERPETUAL 
 PASSOVER FEAST. 
 
 This is the position in which we stand to-day. 
 We are not of the Jewish race, bound down to cer- 
 emonies, and looking forward to an unseen Christ. 
 " For ye are not come unto the mount that might be 
 touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto black- 
 ness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of 
 a trumpet, and the voice of words ; which voice 
 they that heard entreated that the word should not 
 be spoken to them any more (for they could not en- 
 dure that which was commanded. And so terrible 
 was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear 
 and quake) ; but ye are come unto Mount Zion, 
 and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of 
 angels, to the general assembly and Church of the 
 first-bom, which are written in heaven, and to God 
 8 
 
34 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new cov- 
 enant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh 
 better things than that of Abel." 
 
 Yes, the holy Passover of the Gospel dispensa- 
 tion long since commenced. Proclaim it on every 
 house-top that the Paschal Lamb has been slain, 
 that He has been slain for us. At the feast of the 
 Passover they killed a lamb in each family (or if 
 any could not get a lamb, they killed a kid). If a 
 lamb was too much for one family to eat, two fami-* 
 lies could associate together. With the blood of 
 this lamb the door-posts were sprinkled, that the 
 destroying angel might pass over the place — it 
 being understood that in every house where the 
 door-post was not so sprinkled the destroying angel 
 would take the first-born. These lambs were many. 
 Jesus is the last Paschal Lamb. Once, and once 
 for all, He suffered that He might bring us to God. 
 He set up a memorial feast, which was to endure 
 for all time, in remembrance of Himself; and now 
 it stands a constant witness to the world, saying in 
 language which cannot be mistaken, " Behold the 
 Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
 world." The promise, and the invitation of the 
 Passover feast, to come and be saved from the 
 general destruction, are placed everywhere through- 
 out the whole world, so that he who runs may read. 
 
 To this Passover feast every believer in Jesus has 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 35 
 
 been freely invited, and has come, that he may join 
 in the solemnities of the great redemption. " Let 
 us keep the feast," says the Apostle. " Let us keep 
 the feast," said Luther and they of the Reforma- 
 tion. And so it comes through the ages, until we 
 have taken up the strain, and we now say to each 
 other in holy fellowship of love, " Let us keep the 
 feast." What feast ? This life-feast of the Gospel 
 Church, this amazing life of feeding upon Jesus. Is 
 not that ^ feast "i 
 
 We should well understand the nature of this 
 ordination of God for our life. Let us remark that 
 this perpetual Passover — 
 
 I. Is a feast of abounding love. ^' Herein is 
 love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, 
 and gave His Son to die for us." Here we stop a 
 moment and ask, " What can we know of this love ? 
 What more than the mighty fact ? God has written 
 it ; we have experienced it ; it has been welling up 
 in our souls a living stream these years, and we 
 know it as the most prominent fact of our lives, that 
 the love of God towards us passes all description. 
 It has been written many times that God loved us, 
 but His highest exhibition was written in the blood 
 of His Son. Christ is the loving Lamb. You can- 
 not see Him as He was with His Father ere time 
 began. You cannot see Him taking human flesh 
 in deep humiliations, even down to the fierce as- 
 saults of the arch-adversary. You cannot see Him 
 
36 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 in the awful trials of Gethsemane, nor in the deser- 
 tion of His Father's face. But these are living facts 
 in His life. He chose the suffering which should 
 make you free, and give your ransomed spirit rest on 
 earth and in heaven. Lo\se made the choice, love 
 took the steps in the mighty sacrifice, love refused 
 to be free from the dreadful load, love uttered the 
 cry, " It is finished," and filled heaven with its own 
 results, as lasting as eternity, and more glorious than 
 Eden. These are things of every-day rejoicing now ! 
 The common faith enjoys a common love, called 
 common from its free extension, and its extensive 
 reach, but unheard of, unthought of, unconceived, 
 except in the place of its holy origin, the mind of 
 the eternal God ; impossible in any place of all 
 His universe beside. Glory ! hallelujah ! Let love 
 reurn its free doxologies, and the believer's life pro- 
 claim them in holy devotion to the Lord, the Lamb. 
 2. Our perpetual Passover, in which the elect of 
 God are now engaged, is a feast of security. This 
 was the peculiarity of the ceremonial observance of 
 the Passover by the Jews. While all the surround- 
 ing Egyptians were filled with grief over the death 
 of their choice treasures in children, the people 
 of Israel and of God were rejoicing with peculiar 
 gladness, not only in the freedom, but in the miracle 
 by which it came to pass. It was a season of pecu- 
 liar security. Great must have been their gratitude 
 as they looked upon their first-born. We may im- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 37 
 
 agine the pious father fondly eying his boy, who 
 had been spared to him by the special interposition 
 of the Divine Hand, his heart and his eyes filling 
 with emotions which choked his utterance. " My 
 saved boy ! " he cries ; " but for the mercy of God 
 specially interposed, this house would to-day be 
 filled with grief almost beyond endurance. Listen 
 to the wails of the poor afflicted families of the 
 land, and think, my son," he says, " of thyself, lest 
 thou shouldst presumptuously sin against the Lord, 
 and bring upon thyself swift vengeance." 
 
 Beloved brethren, it is a fact which must not be 
 forgotten, that the destroying angel has passed over 
 us — yea, that he has no power over us who believe 
 in Jesus, unless we turn away from Him in wicked- 
 ness. " Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity 
 of God : on them which fell, severity ; but toward 
 thee, goodness if thou continue in His goodness : 
 otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" They are se- 
 cure who believe in Jesus, who are touched with 
 His blood, who eat the Paschal Lamb. For, as we 
 have before seen from the Scriptures, they ate the 
 lamb which they killed and whose blood was on 
 the door-posts. They were forbidden to leave it 
 untouched ; they were to eat it all up, and leave 
 none. We are to eat Jesus. We are to leave none 
 of His offices, or of the benefits of His covenant, 
 unappropriated. He cannot be received in part, 
 nor will it do simply to appropriate His blood as 
 
38 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 our redemption, and then forget our living union 
 with Himself, and leave uncultivated that heavenly- 
 relationship which binds us by faith to the eternal 
 God. In other words, our faith is to accept Jesus 
 Christ for everything ; to hold on to Him for every- 
 thing in the present and in the future. And he who 
 thus appropriates Jesus in his daily living ; to whom 
 Jesus is a constant, and everlasting, and soul-ab- 
 sorbing portion ; to whom Jesus is the external price 
 for salvation, and the inworking power of it in his 
 soul — this man, who looks unto Jesus to do every- 
 thing for him, even to the moulding of his daily 
 thoughts — this man, to whom communion with 
 Jesus is heaven — this one, to whom life with Jesus 
 is a deep-flowing river of peace and joy beyond all 
 earthly comforts, and compared with which every 
 amusement of the vain and giddy throng sinks into 
 indescribable littleness and vanity — this man is as 
 secure as though he had passed the portals of bliss. 
 His life is hid with Christ in God. He has com- 
 menced the joy of heaven. He shall n^t be disap- 
 pointed. The word of the Lord has passed upon 
 him, that he shall belong to Him in the day when 
 He maketh up His jewels. Ye little pilgrims, who 
 are called foolish by the world because ye have 
 chosen the way of childlike trust, because ye are 
 walking so softly lest ye might fail to hear some of 
 the whisperings of the still small voice of the prec- 
 ious Holy Ghost ! ye Marys, who have chosen less 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 39 
 
 of show and more of Christ, who will not be dis- 
 engaged from His charms for all the extra prepar- 
 ations of a happy worldly life ! ye who choose the 
 cross of holy denial for Jesus' sake ! ye who pant 
 for more of Him, ye who cry from real hungering 
 after Jesus, — 
 
 " Give me Thyself! From every boast, 
 From every wish set free, 
 Let all I am in Thee be lost, 
 But give Thyself to me ! " 
 
 Happy, happy band ! How shall I speak of your 
 heavenly security ! How shall we make mention 
 of the faithfulness of God, which shall assuredly 
 bring us in "through the gates into the city," never- 
 more to go out ! Already hath He given to us 
 everlasting life, nor shall we ever perish, nor shall 
 any be able to pluck us out of our Saviour's or 
 His Father's hand. Men may hate ; devils may 
 madly rage ; but the vengeance they swear shall 
 be as the morning cloud and as the early dew — 
 ■for ere' tlfeir hand can raise itself against us, they 
 shall cry in pain and in the confusion of vanquished 
 and tortured prisoners, " What have we to do with 
 thee, thou Son of God ? art thou come to torment 
 us before the time?" And this because His blood 
 is upon the door-posts of our heart. He has made 
 entrance into our hearts as His own palace, because 
 His blood was there. And will He, keeper and 
 Lord of the same, who once turned out the money- 
 
40 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 changers from our souls, that we might be clean 
 for His own abode, — will He deliver them over to 
 Satan ? Are not our hearts His heaven ? and will 
 He let Satan do anything in heaven ? 
 
 " Rejoice, believer in the Lord, 
 
 Who makes your cause His own ; 
 The hope that's built upon His word 
 Can ne'er be overthrown." 
 
 Christ, our Passover, is slain that we might feast on 
 His abounding love, and be secure in the posses- 
 sion of that heavenly inheritance of which we have 
 had so many and so sweet foretastes, by the bap- 
 tisms of the heavenly Paraclete, the Holy Ghost. 
 
 3. It is a feast of the New Lump. The old leaven 
 was put out of the houses of the Jews far away from 
 sight and sense of it. It was a feast of unleavened 
 bread. The old leaven of sin is now gone. We are 
 called sinners no longer, but now are called by that 
 memorial name, memorial of our ruin and of our 
 rescue, " Sinners Saved." Sinners in memory and 
 in confessions from the past, saved in present real- 
 izations of His grace, by whose power " we may 
 live in holiness and righteousness before Him all the 
 days of our life." We were once unrighteous, and 
 among those who shall not inherit the kingdom of 
 God. "But we are washed, but we are sanctified, 
 but we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 and by the Spirit of our God." Heavy is the guilt 
 of him who, having received this grace of Christ, 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 4I 
 
 goes back to the beggarly elements of a worldly 
 life, or who knowingly and wilfully sins in the 
 transgression of the law of God. We belong to the 
 new lump, as we are unleavened. " Old things have 
 passed away, behold all things have become new." 
 " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 
 Because Christ could not dwell with the old crea- 
 ture of sin and of damnable doings. 
 
 And what is this new lump ? It is the people free 
 from old sins, which acted as leaven, now with the 
 old leaven cast out to keep the feast (which is per- 
 petual), with sincerity and truth, or in such a way 
 that they can be scrutinized. The unleavened bread 
 used at the Passover was a symbol of the condition 
 and actions of the people, and hence the ancient 
 passover was a feast of entire separation from the 
 surrounding world. They were free as the bread 
 they ate, from all relationship to the citizens of other 
 states. They were peculiarly set apart, and did 
 peculiarly set themselves apart as the people of 
 God. When they left Egypt they partook of the 
 Passover with their sandals fastened to their feet, 
 and their clothing already adjusted for their journey 
 to the promised land. 
 
 They were in haste to get away, and had no time 
 for leavening their bread. Is it not so with the no- 
 bler race of the children of Abraham by faith ? Is 
 not a soul for glory really bound, free from any re- 
 lationship with the ungodly world ? Free from its 
 
42 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 lightness and vanity ? Free to study the holy oracles 
 of God, in deep solemnity^ away from the mirthful 
 rounds of those who seek and find their portion here 
 below ? Is not such a soul in haste to get away from 
 the ungodly and from the charms that chain to earth 
 and sense ? Have such as are truly born of God 
 time to stop for a little leavening of the world which 
 they may mix with the holy charms of their Christ 
 life ? No, no. The oil of heavenly grace and the 
 water from earthly streams will not mingle. Christ, 
 and His Word, and His ordinances. His Blood, and 
 His Holy Spirit, and His living intercessions. His 
 death, and His hidden life for the Church, and His 
 awfully solemn eternity, as established in a spiritual 
 and holy life, will not agree with the petit questions 
 of a butterfly life. 
 
 Beloved, we who do trust the Lord Jesus with the 
 simplest faith are living a Passover life. We are 
 having a holy feast of entire separation, sojourners 
 in a strange land, as all our fathers were. We are 
 of the new lump. They tell us that Christians can- 
 not be scrutinized. Well, then, they cannot belong 
 to the new lump. They are not the proper par- 
 takers of the Paschal Lamb. For none such could 
 partake as were in any way disqualified. Our holy 
 profession is an invitation to men to see if we for- 
 sake the Lord. And they are most miserably de- 
 ceived who profess to belong to the new lump 
 when they cherish the old leaven. Not so, friends ! 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 43 
 
 You are most miserably deceived. " The God of 
 this world hath blinded the minds of them which 
 believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of 
 Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto 
 them." — 2 Cor. iv. 4. 
 
 " Cast out therefore the old leaven, that ye may 
 be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even 
 Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore 
 let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither 
 with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with 
 the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth ?" 
 
 *' Let your light so shine before men that they 
 may see your good works, and glorify your Father 
 which is in heaven." 
 
 II. In answer to the question, " Can I be holy." 
 There are distinct instructions in the Word of God 
 upon the ability and willingness of our Redeemer 
 and the Eternal Father, with the Holy Ghost, to 
 produce such a result in our hearts and lives. For 
 it must be conceded by those who have tried every 
 way to become holy and have failed that the work 
 of our sanctification is only thfe Lord's. Our part 
 in the gracious plan is — '' only believe." 
 
 JESUS IS ABLE TO SAVE. 
 
 Surely there is enough for our faith to rest upon. 
 Jesus the Living Word and the written Word agree. 
 Christ the Living Word will make the written word 
 true in our hearts. And so the lowest state of 
 
44 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 grace is called glory — and it is truly glorious. 
 " We, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, 
 are changed into the same image from glory to 
 glory. The youngest saint has had heaven intro- 
 duced into his soul, and lives in glory — the glory 
 of a risen Lord — "that like as Christ was raised 
 up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
 so we also should walk in newness of life." 
 
 You may know the written word with precision, 
 you may be able to speak and pray in scriptural 
 phrase with elegance, you may take front rank 
 among the masters of Biblical criticism, you may 
 even write sermons that charm the multitude — 
 and yet you may be living only in the vestibule of 
 God's temple of grace ; you may be unsaved ! But 
 if Christ be ejtthroned " withoid a rival,'' you will 
 have the meajiing of the Holy Word written upon 
 your soul. Beloved, what may we not expect the 
 Living Word, the Living Lord, our Living Christ 
 to do when He has the control of our hearts and 
 lives, and when from the inner springs of our being, 
 He, with our full consent (He will not do it with- 
 out), brings every power into harmony with His 
 own life. As the Living Word, He will make pos- 
 sible to us. He will bring out into living realities, 
 all the prophecies and promises of the written word, 
 so that we may become living epistles, known and 
 read of men. 
 
 We do not degrade our royal High Priest. His 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 45 
 
 glory is that ^^He is able to save unto the uttermost 
 all that come unto God by Him." Now that word 
 ** uttermost" is sweetly descriptive of the greatness 
 of His work, and its far-reaching compass. The 
 salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ extends not only 
 to the coming eternity as to duration, but it covers 
 every possible longing, the outmost reach of the 
 desires of a soul which God has touched — it covers 
 not only the "whosoever will," as to the number 
 of partakers, but the "whatsoever" they will ask — 
 not only the promises in general, but every "exceed- 
 ing great and precious promise," in every phase 
 and application with which it may be taken to the 
 throne by those in whom the Spirit prays "with 
 groanings which cannot be uttered." The cups 
 may differ in size, but whatever the capacity, we 
 may all cry " my cup runneth over." 
 
 Now, then, beloved Christians, who long to live 
 above the clouds that hide your Sun, see your 
 holy privilege. Firsts you have the word — that 
 is written before your eyes, and it is all true. You 
 may live in the enclosure of that word, fully saved, 
 fully at rest (even though by external circum- 
 stances tossed about), your heart day by day, year 
 by year, enjoying what the Scripture says (other) 
 "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of [other] man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 
 And then — to assure you, to show you how this 
 
46 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 may be, to exalt your soul, you have Jesus — the 
 Indwelling Word. 
 
 We that have felt His power are no unbelievers 
 in the supreme divinity of our Lord. We know 
 Him to be Almighty — for we know that He is 
 able to save from the lowest hell to the highest 
 heaven, and to make a heaven on earth which 
 devils and men have tried to turn into a hell. We 
 know Him to be 07nnipresent — for our praises in 
 the matter of our present salvation are this moment 
 going up from every quarter of the world — where 
 it is midnight, where it is sunrise, in arctic and 
 antarctic seas. He is everywhere present to do 
 the work, and to hear the songs of His saved host. 
 Of His divine infallibility, and His infallible pres- 
 ence in power, we are all well assured. Why, then, 
 should our weakness present any barrier or make 
 us to doubt ? We may well doubt ourselves — that 
 we ought to do — we ought to be, we will be, if 
 true Christians, filled to our utmost of doubts in 
 ourselves. But, beloved, he that is always crying 
 "my weakness, my weakness," will be often crying 
 "my leanness^ my leanness y Looking at ourselves 
 will not save us ; it always has and always will make 
 us miserable. And the more wicked we have been^ 
 the more unbelieving will a look within make us. 
 We shall be saying, " How can it be that I should 
 be raised to such blessedness ? " instead of taking it 
 to ourselves. Many think they must look within 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 47 
 
 to make them humble. But that is a mistaken view 
 of humility. For many who look within, and con- 
 fess themselves to be full of all uncleanness, sup- 
 posing this to be humility, would be among the last 
 persons to follow Jesus wherever He goes. We 
 may be humiliated without being humble — full of 
 shame for sin, but just as full of pride in action. 
 
 True humility is an active grace. It "follows 
 the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." It does not 
 ask, "Is that agreeable to my position?" "VViU'it 
 do for me to take such an humble place ? " " Shall 
 I throw away my education, and advantages, and 
 position thus ? " When Jesus calls anywhere, the 
 truly humble soul will go with Him. Its only ques- 
 tion is, "Is this assuredly the call of Jesus?" 
 
 " The cross for Christ I'll cherish, 
 Its crucifixion bear ; 
 All hail reproach or sorrow, 
 If Jesus leads me there." 
 
 Beloved, let it be beheved, receive it Into your 
 heart as a gracious fact, that the sight of our 
 " uttermost " Saviour will make us thus humble — 
 and this is the only thing that will produce the gra- 
 cious result. For our looking to Him is the open- 
 ing of the door into which He assuredly enters, that 
 He may sup with us, and we with Him. 
 
 Therefore, let us not be crying "my weakness, 
 my weakness." But let us be confessing, " My 
 Lord, and my God;" not^ "I can do nothing," 
 
48 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 but "unto Him that is able to do exceeding abun- 
 dantly above all that we ask or think ;" not "where 
 will this scene of sorrow and trial end ? " but^ " He 
 is able to succor me," " to make me stand," " to 
 keep that which I have committed unto Him." 
 O ye children of a covenant-keeping God ! why 
 should your weakness make you to doubt ? The 
 gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto 
 salvation^ and Jesus is the living Gospel. All 
 therefore that seems impossible in the written word 
 is made possible by his ability to save unto the ut- 
 termost. 
 
 But observe, that though the Lord Jesus is so 
 " able to save unto the uttermost," yet He will not 
 do our part of the work. He will raise dead Laz- 
 arus, but He will have men to take the stone from 
 the door of the sepulchre, and to loose him and let 
 him go. You need not ask Him if you will con- 
 secrate all to Him. Do it at once. Do not ask 
 Him if you may wash in the " opened fountain." 
 Do it at once and be clean. For as the Holy 
 Ghost descended upon Jesus when He was bap- 
 tized, so shall He come upon you washing in that 
 sacred Blood. Do your part, cast everything away 
 and look unto Jesus, and He will do His part in 
 the fulfilment of promises that make a heaven be- 
 low. 
 
 "The dying thief rejoiced to see 
 That fountain in his day ; 
 And there do I, as vile as he. 
 Wash all my sins away." ^ 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 49 
 
 THE GREAT PHYSICIAN'S CURE. 
 
 Many Christians, by their confessions, seem only 
 half cured of sin. They say that they are living in 
 known sin, that they greatly feel the plague of their 
 hearts, that they feel indifferent to the things of 
 Christ, that they never feel any burden for souls, 
 that they know they are unfaithful to the Lord who 
 bought them. Ministers, too, confess that they 
 continually go astray, that they are very far from 
 right, that they do not love Jesus as much as they 
 ought, that they often fall into grievous faults, and 
 that they must call themselves sinners, yea, even 
 the very chief of sinners. 
 
 . This confession is quite universal. But it is also 
 commended. They insist on the constant necessity 
 of such confession, and some go so far as to say, 
 that if a man do not feel himself to be the " chief 
 of sinners," he does not know his own heart. As 
 for ourselves, we used to be the chief of sinners, 
 but now we are the chief of sirfners saved. That 
 was what Paul meant. He says that Jesus saved 
 him, the chief of sinners. Then he was the chief 
 of sinners no longer. The chief of sinners saved 
 by himself would be a worse than chief afterwards, 
 but the chief of sinners saved by Jesus Christ be- 
 came a saint. Paul was a saint when he wrote 
 those memorable words. The same Omnipotent 
 Physician lives to-day, to cure and save from sin. 
 4 
 
5© THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Jesus truly saves. He performs no half cure. He 
 turns the soul from sin completely over to holiness. 
 He does not tell us that He will leave us in a little 
 darkness, but He does say to all who come to Him 
 for a cure, " If thine eye be single thy whole body 
 shall be full of light." 
 
 Nor has He when He cured our souls left us 
 under a fatal necessity of sinning, for it is his work 
 '■'■to save us from our sins,'' that we "might serve 
 Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness be- 
 fore Him all the days of our life." In the most ex- 
 plicit terms He has promised in these gospel days, 
 "Ye shall be clean." "And I will put my Spirit 
 within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." 
 This is the promise of that better covenant which 
 God brought into the Church by the dispensation 
 of the Spirit. The Apostles and early Church 
 entered into the enjoyment of that promise, and 
 we are to be " built upon the foundation of the 
 Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being 
 the chief corner-stone. 
 
 Now of the ministers and Christians above no- 
 ticed, we must ask, Who cured them of the old 
 disease ? Who cured them so as to leave the 
 disease remaining with some of its worst sores? 
 Surely that is not the way in which Jesus cures. 
 It. must have been Jesus and themselves. AVe 
 should not think much of a physician who invariably 
 left the patient with the remains of the complaint 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 5 1 
 
 which he was expected to be the instrument in 
 eradicating. And the reliable physician who should 
 see a return of the disease upon his patient would 
 say, that the patient had taken his case in his own 
 hands. We fear the great Physician might say the 
 same of these. After He has cured them, blotted 
 out the old record, received the profession of their 
 entire homage, they go into the world, they give 
 themselves to forgetfulness, they make money and 
 reputation sometimes at the cost of true and un- 
 defiled religion. How, then, can the cure of the 
 great Physician appear ? 
 
 We advise that they let Jesus work alone, that 
 they be all absorbed in Him and in His work, and 
 that they study the undoubted meaning of His 
 word, that they be slow to move when a lower na- 
 ture hastens them on, and quick to move when the 
 earthly keeps them back ; always fulfilling the con- 
 ditions of that spiritual nature which sinks name 
 and reputation and possession, and living itself in 
 the will of God in Christ. Most positive are we, 
 that if they will let Jesus work, they shall know the 
 joy of a perfect cure after the manner of a God, and 
 not of man. Cease from man, cease from yourself, 
 hide yourself so effectually that it can never be 
 said that you are seeking your own honor, your 
 own ends, or that you are even appearing to build 
 up your business at the cost of any other man. 
 This is unearthly, it is true. But it is heavenly. 
 
52 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 It is what we might expect Jesus to do for us, so 
 that we may shine before men in the hght of His 
 own righteousness, thus to glorify our Father who 
 is in heaven. 
 
 How can you liye, Christian, without this perfect 
 cure of Christ ? How can you endure to dishonor 
 Christ and his workmanship by confessing that His 
 work is so incomplete ? How can you have it that 
 in your heart Christ and Satan should be so at strife, 
 and Satan often and often getting great advan- 
 tages? Has not Jesus proclaimed and exhibited 
 His most complete sovereignty over Satan and all 
 his works. End this strife by letting Jesus rule 
 alone. JVo longer let the name of the temple of 
 your soul be Jesus and I — but let it be Jesus. But 
 you say that you are such a very hard-hearted soul. 
 What hinders that ? Is there any rock Jesus can- 
 not break? Were not the disciples first called 
 Christians in Antioch, " a centre of moral putrefac- 
 tion " ? The great Physician invades the worst of 
 places, and of the hardest souls He makes lamb-like 
 and Christ-like spirits. May this great Physician 
 "sanctify you wholly." "Faithful is He that call- 
 eth you, who also will do it." 
 
 GOD IS WILLING. 
 
 God is fully willing. 
 
 I. That we should believe, and tell abroad, the 
 fact that we do undoubtedly enjoy the washing of 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 53 
 
 regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; and 
 that we have sweetly partaken of his baptisms, when 
 we are conscious of these facts. 
 
 2. That we should believe that we are kept as 
 the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. 
 
 3. That we should believe that we can be, and 
 are, "dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God 
 through Jesus Christ." 
 
 4. To have us think that we may be filled with 
 righteousness. 
 
 5. And that, by the blood and Spirit of Christ, 
 we can be " pure in heart." 
 
 6. And that he has power and willingness to meet 
 the full extent of our desire to be like him. 
 
 But we believe not only that God is willing in 
 these things. He has constituted us His "wit- 
 nesses " of them, and of all that Jesus Christ came 
 to accomplish for believers. We are, then, com- 
 ing very far short of His glory, if we remain unwill- 
 ing; or, if we remain unable (since we may get all 
 ability from Him by faith) to testify to His full work 
 in us. Who could be content to testify that the 
 work of the Lord does not meet the demands of 
 our renewed nature, in every high and Godward 
 aspiration of our souls ? It cannot be that Jesus 
 never designed to have a full testimony from men 
 of what His word says He came to do. 
 
 in. What is Holiness? We desire to make the 
 answer ta this question very plain, that we may not 
 
54 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 be numbered among that class of men known 
 as Perfectionists. Their distinguishing feature as 
 judged by an outsider (who desires always to re- 
 main an outsider to damning error) is, that Jesus 
 is so formed in them' as to make it impossible for 
 them to fall into sin. It would appear that they 
 believe in infallibility. We have no such doctrine. ' 
 "To the law and to the testimony : if they speak 
 not according to this Word, it is because there is 
 no light in them." 
 
 Christian perfection is not perfectionism. It is 
 no pet scheme of a sect or community. It is the 
 Lord's gift to His people of every name, His work 
 in their hearts, and is to be the characteristic of His 
 Church above all the denominational names by 
 which she may, in various sections, be called. It 
 is the fine linen which is the righteousness of the 
 saints of all ages, and whoever, being fully the 
 Lord's, has walked in conscious fellowship with 
 Christ, has had this precious grace, for the longer 
 or shorter period, of such conscious fellowship. 
 That it was not a continuance in many cases, may 
 have been owing to ignorance of the possibility of 
 such a continuance, or to a fall into sin, or to that 
 fearful unbelief which has often turned heaven on 
 earth into despair. 
 
 Holiness is not Adamic, but it is better than 
 anything Adamic ; it is connected indeed with be- 
 ings who have fallen far below the standard of 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 55 
 
 Adam's integrity, as to powers and capacities ; yet 
 when we consider the imputation of Christ's right- 
 eousness upon our fallen natures, thus restoring us 
 to all the favor which Adam had, and besides this^ 
 His divine indwelling, we have a security infin- 
 itely beyond Adam's strength, to keep the law. We 
 say it with hearts, and mouths, and lives full of 
 praise. Our imperfections so un-Adamic would 
 send us to hell, but Jesus' blood covers them all. 
 This is imputation, of which we shall have more to 
 say further on. Jesus has more than restored the 
 ruins of the fall, so that though we confess our per- 
 fection cannot be Adamic, being conformable to 
 our present imperfect capacities, yet we boast in 
 that which Adam and angels have not, though we 
 also confess that our present graces are not angelic. 
 
 In either sense we join with Paul, and say, " Not 
 as though I had already attained, either were al- 
 ready perfect, but I follow after if that I may ap- 
 prehend that for which also I am apprehended of 
 Christ Jesus." And yet let it be understood, that 
 we join with Paul in the same chapter (Philippians 
 iv.) in his other sense of the word perfect, as adapt- 
 ed to our present fallen capacities. "Let as many 
 as be perfect be thus minded." 
 
 Holiness is salvation from sin, and is known un- 
 der several terms which are drawn from the word of 
 the Lord. 
 
56 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 SALVATION FROM SIN. 
 
 Salvation from sin is the essence of Christ's ben- 
 efits. If we have this, we have all other things which 
 "accompany salvation." If any man do not have 
 salvation from sin by the Blood of Christ, in some 
 measure, he is none of His. In proportion as the 
 Christian enjoys this is he a happy Christian, and 
 powerful in his life as a true exponent of the word 
 of Him who came " to save His people from their 
 sins." 
 
 All His work in our souls begins with this. For 
 " God hath from the beginning chosen us to salva- 
 tion through sanctification of the Spirit and belief 
 of the truth." So when Jesus comes to a soul. He 
 comes in this way, and the soul finds no way into 
 His kingdom but through the cleansing Blood. He 
 comes in as he is cleansed. As he comes in he loses 
 the burden of sin, and he need never have another 
 burden if he simply trust Him who came " in the 
 likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin," "that the right- 
 eousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk 
 not after the flesh but after the Spirit." How shall 
 we walk "not after the flesh but after the Spirit " ? 
 Evidently by hiding where alone all the contrari- 
 eties of our nature find their cure, where alone all 
 our powers can be attuned to worship, and to holy 
 living. 
 
 This can never be done by our struggling, or by 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 57 
 
 our doing. We must '^ cease from our own works as 
 God did from His." He rested in Himself. We 
 cannot rest in ourselves, but we may completely rest 
 in Him. Now if He had not willed it so, we could 
 not rest in Him ; but that He has willed it, we fully 
 see in the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," 
 which " hath made us free from the law of sin and 
 death." 
 
 It would indeed be very strange if God had not 
 willed our salvation from sin, the very purpose for 
 which Christ died. This would hinder our world 
 from any benefit of His death. But a serious ques- 
 tion with the peopje of God is concerning the extent 
 of this benefit. Perhaps the great majority of those 
 to whom I write expect remaining depravity to 
 haunt them to their dying day. My only desire is 
 for practical results. It is a fact that remaining sin 
 does distress multitudes — that is surely a result of 
 total depravity. 
 
 But now for the result of the work of Christ. If 
 sin dwell within me, I can get Christ to dwell with- 
 in. Which overcomes ? If sin is a " root," Christ 
 is the beginning of all things, and the root cannot 
 grow, cannot leaf out, if His sovereign power be 
 placed upon it. He certainly will keep it down 
 as a dead root, if this be what I ask of Him and be- 
 lieve Him for. If sin be a body, corrupt and cor- 
 rupting, to which I am chained, Jesus designs that 
 my joy shall be full. As long as He reigns with- 
 
58 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 out a rival, surely that body is held at His arnHs 
 lengthy which is to me as far as the ends of the uni- 
 verse. It need not trouble me if my eyes are upon 
 Him. If sin be a fountain, then as long as Christ 
 is in me the fountain must be healed of all its sting 
 and bitterness. I am utterly unable to see how sin 
 can have any dominion or power, or active pres- 
 ence, if Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, 
 dwell within. His presence is sin's expulsion. 
 
 It is urged by many that " sin is any want of con- 
 formity to the law of God," and as we are imperfect 
 creatures, we therefore, as such, are sinful. It is 
 freely admitted that we are very imperfect. But 
 Jesus came, that He might also keep this imperfec- 
 tion under, and use it according to its capacity for 
 His own service, delivering it from all that can be 
 of any service to the kingdom of Satan. And thus 
 it is recorded that " He of God is made unto us " 
 (imperfect as we are) "wisdom, and righteousness, 
 and sanctification, and redemption." I may, there- 
 fore, confidently expect Jesus, "my Life," to make 
 use of my judgment, and understanding, and will, 
 in His own wisdom, yea, to make me wise in the 
 use of these for the purposes of His kingdom in 
 my own sphere. And that, therefore, which is so 
 weak in itself, by Him has saintly power. I need 
 not, therefore, be anxious about the amount of sin 
 which is left, when by His reigning grace, yea, by 
 His sure presence, I am not conscious of a single 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 59 
 
 desire.^tside of His will, nor of a departure from 
 Him in my ways. 
 
 Beloved, behold the complete redemption ! Re- 
 member it is " Jesus all the day long." Without 
 Him the heart is a cage of unclean birds. With 
 Him it is " aU glorious within." Our very imper- 
 fection is complete in Him. He will make all our 
 powers produce their best results for our sphere, 
 making complete the work of our hands, our limbs ; 
 opening our eyes to see, our minds to understand 
 and to discern the place, the time, the manner of 
 every engagement. 
 
 Oh, how glad I am that Jesus can take me, who 
 have made so many failures in the past, and make 
 the most of me now ; that I can put myself in His 
 hands with this faith, and trust Him so to guide me 
 with His eye, and so to " cleanse me from all un- 
 righteousness," that my present life (full salvation is 
 present salvation) shall not be a blot in His king- 
 dom, as my past has been ! Yes, Jesus will make 
 the most of me that can be made. Ah ! that makes 
 me glad indeed ! How willing will I be to give 
 Him all the glory, and to confess myself at best a 
 very unprofitable servant ! 
 
 " Take my poor heart, and let it be 
 Forever closed to all but Thee." 
 
 Surely, beloved, salvation from sin by the ador- 
 able Holy Ghost, through the Blood of Jesus, can- 
 not be a very alarming error. It is of the marrow 
 
6o THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 of truth. Does not some reader feel that this is 
 just what he needs ? Have you not hungered and 
 thirsted for righteousness ? Then, beHeving, you 
 shall be filled, for " as sin hath reigned unto death, 
 even so may grace reign through righteousness^ unto 
 eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." It is His 
 will " even your sanctification." That is not pub- 
 bhshed as His will for one or two Thessalonians, 
 but for all the Church of God; for the greatest 
 variety of statement is given to the same truth in 
 all the inspired messages to His scattered Church. 
 Your sanctification — yes, my dear brother, yours. 
 Do not argue upon its attainabihty ; do not say 
 some of your neighbors in the house of God need 
 the grace — this message is for you. 
 
 You, beloved, may walk and live in all holy con- 
 versation and godliness, " in holiness and righteous- 
 ness before Him all the days of your life." " Is this 
 precious experience so near to me, then," do you 
 ask ? Yes, beloved, because the God of the saints 
 is so near — because Jesus and the Holy Ghost 
 have come from God the Father to "seal you unto 
 the day of redemption." Your will, it may be, is 
 the only hindrance. Your will is the door into 
 your heart. If that is closed, or not widely open to 
 welcome the Heavenly Guest, then you may long 
 and vainly wait for the gracious shower. Let your 
 will be yielded in everything for His own sake, and 
 then believing is very easy. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 6l 
 
 The self-willed lose the blessing, from the diffi- 
 culty of faith — the contrite get their empty hearts 
 full. Do not weep, dear child of God. Let God 
 have all at once ; raise the knife to the Isaac which 
 conscience tells you is to be yielded up, which 
 hinders the Almighty Worker from shining within 
 and through you in '^newness of life." Come and 
 let Him whose name is Jesus save you from your 
 sins. " The very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; 
 and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body- 
 be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who 
 also will do it." 
 
 THE TERMS WE USE. 
 
 It is to be borne in mind, that our terms are the 
 very words of Scripture. God himself has sup- 
 plied us with the name of His blessings, and we 
 have simply taken Him at His word, and taken His 
 own chosen language. Nor do we undertake to 
 explain any of our terms by any abstruse meaning, 
 or by twisting words in any way whatever. We 
 take the terms in their most obvious meaning ; we 
 use them in their proper connections, in the tenses 
 which belong to them, and with the most sensible 
 view of the scope of the passages in which they 
 stand. 
 
 We desire to take God's words and God's 
 thoughts — that is, the words of Scripture — in 
 
62 THE REST NF FAITH. 
 
 their apparent relations. For these are by His 
 own inspiration. Let the reader then examine well 
 the terms we have used, or those which are used 
 by the upholders of Scriptural holiness. *' If any 
 speak not according to this Word, it is because 
 there is no light in them." 
 
 I. Sanctification. It is God's word, and refers both 
 to His own work and ours. In His work, no one 
 will doubt its perfection, and as regards our own 
 sanctification, or the setting apart of ourselves, no 
 one doubts that if in the consecration anything be 
 reserved to ourselves, it is as if nothing at all were 
 set apart, for God claims all, and must have all in 
 order to make good His own word that " if any 
 man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 
 
 This word, then, denotes a radical change of the 
 whole being, from sin to holiness, from darkness to 
 light, from the service of self and Satan to the ser- 
 vice of God, and from any dependence on man to 
 an entire dependence on God the Holy Ghost, to 
 work within the soul, what God the Son has already 
 wrought for us on the cross. 
 
 The word translated in our English Bible, " holi- 
 ness" — "sanctification" — is not found in Greek 
 writers, but belongs to the Bible, and to saintly lan- 
 guage. It expresses the work of God in the heart 
 of the believer. Its first reference is to the cleans- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit. As man is cleansed in every 
 part of his nature by the Holy Spirit, and every 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 63 
 
 part of his being is set at work for God by the 
 cleansing blood, it is most appropriate to translate 
 the word " holiness " or "wholeness." 
 
 A beautiful description of its action is found in 
 Rom. vi. 22 : " Now being made free from sin, and 
 become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto 
 holiness, and the end everlasting life." The whole 
 sixth chapter of Romans is indeed a proper illustra- 
 tion of the meaning of this word. The same word 
 is connected with that work of the Holy Ghost 
 which is called " sanctification of the Spirit." God 
 hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation 
 through sa7ictification of the Spirit and belief of the 
 truth." (2 Thess. ii. 13.) ''Elect according to 
 the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the 
 sanctification of the Spirit^ unto obedience, and 
 sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." (i Peter 
 
 Sanctification is, therefore, inseparably connected 
 with belief of the truth. Not a mere mental belief, 
 but a belief down deep in the heart, an internal re- 
 ception of the truth of God as the very life of our 
 souls. It is the very beginning of glory, because we 
 spiritually see things to which we were before blind. 
 This internal reception of God's truth is a positive 
 consciousness that everything He has said is true 
 though the wisest of mortals may laugh at it as an 
 utter impossibility. It is a great thing for man to 
 believe God ! The difficulty in the fall of our first 
 
64 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 parents was that they permitted a parley on the 
 truth of 'God. The redemption of Christ restores 
 the abihty to take Him at His word, and to act ac- 
 cordingly. And that action which is based upon 
 the truth of God is saintly action, and is rightly 
 called after the name of the Restorer, " sanctifica- 
 tion of the Spirit." 
 
 The word is also inseparably connected with the 
 sprinkling of the blood of Jesus and obedience, as 
 in the text already quoted from i Peter i. 2. " But 
 ye are come . . .to Jesus, the Mediator of the 
 new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that 
 speaketh better things than that of Abel." (Heb. 
 xii. 24.) In fact, the blood of Jesus is the price of 
 the whole salvation, including the purchase of the 
 Holy Ghost, and it is the cleansing power which the 
 Holy Ghost uses in freeing the soul from the guilt, 
 power, and pollution of sin. " He shall glorify me : 
 for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto 
 you." (John xvi. 14.) " Now the God of peace, 
 that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, 
 that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood 
 of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in 
 every good work, to do His will, working in you 
 that which is well pleasing in His sight, through 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 Here, it is seen, that obedience is wrought in the 
 soul by the Lord's own inworking. We are obedi- 
 ent as the Lord works in us that which he loves to 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 6$ 
 
 see. And this, even His own, is the power by 
 which we are " kept through faith unto salvation." 
 
 Our High Priest has ascended into the holiest 
 place, with absolute holiness of His own, and com- 
 municable holiness for us. He is infinitely full of 
 holiness. And as He has purchased our redemp- 
 tion with His precious blood. He now sends His 
 Spirit, that His own holiness may be communicated 
 to us. Now the Holy Spirit of God must be hon- 
 ored. He is the efficient agent in all our walk and 
 life of faith. By Him God works in us, and He it 
 is that helpeth our infirmities, and prays within us 
 with unutterable groanings, and controls the living 
 energies of soul and body, that we may be moved 
 Godward. 
 
 If He do the work, and our part is simply to be- 
 lieve, being purified by faith, then we must suppose 
 that sanctification is a complete work. This is the 
 doctrine of Holy Scripture. " Complete in Him." 
 (Col. ii. lo.) Practically complete in him as well 
 as judicially. "Where sin abounded, grace did 
 much more abound ; that as sin hath reigned unto 
 death, evefi so might grace reign through right- 
 eousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." 
 
 We do well, therefore, when by faith i7i the Holy 
 Spirifs inworking power we " reckon ourselves to 
 be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." Thus by the Holy 
 
 5 
 
66 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Spirit we have power over sin so that we are able, 
 IN HIM, to mind and keep the demand, *' Let not 
 sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye 
 should obey it in the lusts thereof." We are utterly 
 unable to see upon what gospel basis Christians can 
 either harbor sin, or teach that indwelling sin is a 
 necessary attendant of the Christian even unto the 
 end of his life. Surely, Jesus died to save from sin, 
 and the Holy Spirit is fully able to carry on His 
 redeeming work. 
 
 The word righteousness is very comprehensive, as 
 in Jeremiah xxxiii .16. It includes both justifica- 
 tion and sanctification. In both senses do we trust 
 "the Lord our righteousness." In Christ we have 
 justification, or perfect acquittal before God. In 
 Him we have sanctification of the man, of ourselves. 
 This goes under the term " the Lord our righteous- 
 ness." '* He shall be called " (Jeremiah xxiii. 6), 
 "She shall be called" (Jeremiah xxxiii. 16), by the 
 same gracious name. He as the hiddeti source^ we 
 as the gushing life^ seen and known of men. Oh ! 
 the sweetness of this living union of Christ in us 
 and we in Him. Hallelujah ! Reign in us, thou 
 mighty King of Zion, that as Thou art so may we 
 be in this world, and so may we be called. Glory 
 be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy 
 Ghost, world without end. 
 
 The word sanctification is enough, therefore, to 
 express the most comprehensive work of the Di- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 67 
 
 vine spirit, in our likeness to our adorable Master. 
 But the Word of God uses another term, giving, 
 fulness to the meaning of this word, and confirming 
 the doctrine of the saints' resurrection with Christ 
 into a complete newness of life, and restoration of 
 the lost image of Eden. It is that from which 
 comes our term. 
 
 2. Entire Sanctification — ^' The very God of 
 peace satictify you wholly : and I pray God your 
 whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- 
 less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 Many object to this term, but here is the Scripture 
 for it. It is neither an advance nor a retrogres- 
 sion upon the doctrine of the Scripture here quot- 
 ed. Entirely sanctified and wholly sanctified are 
 the same. But the words of Scripture are stronger 
 than our own term, inasmuch as they comprehend 
 a statement of the extent of this great work of the 
 Holy Spirit and of the blood of Christ — " Your 
 whole spirit and soul arid body preserved blameless^ 
 What is the obvious meaning of the passage ? 
 What but a saint can such an one be proclaimed ? 
 
 When God hath done such a work for one, when ^ 
 the Apostle's prayer is answered, and the man 
 stands before the Church as having had such a 
 work done within and without him, who shall cally 
 him a sinner ? Who shall demand of him that he 
 stop his praises to the Lamb ''who hath washed 
 him from his sins in His own blood," and who shall 
 
68 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 demand that He confess to God or to men that it 
 is not so, that the work is not done after all ? But 
 the sceptic says, " No man has ever seen such a 
 soul." Then we answer. If it' be so, the Apostles 
 prayer was never answered. God put a desire into 
 his soul, awakened a living want of his being, which 
 was never to be satisfied. But Paul knew that his 
 praying breath was not spent in vain, and he prayed 
 with assurance that it was the good-will and pleas- 
 ure of God that His people should " be blameless 
 and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke." 
 
 Another will tell us that this text " has reference 
 to our condition at the coming of Jesus Christ." 
 Why, then, is the word used which denotes a con- 
 tinuance of the condition ? They are to be ^'■pre- 
 served blameless^' to be placed in this condition, 
 and then preserved in it unto a set time, when 
 Jesus shall "be admired in all them that believe." 
 This word is very strong. If it were' man's work 
 to do it, then there might be some doubt as to the 
 result. But the Apostle prays God to do the work, 
 and at the end of the prayer assures the saints that 
 HE will be faithful to do it, to "preserve them 
 blameless in spirit and soul and body." 
 
 If we, then, have not Scriptural grounds for the 
 term, ^^ Entire sanctijication,'' theologians, and all 
 Bible students, may as well yield every point which 
 they have held as directly drawn from the Word of 
 God. It is the exact parallel of the term of this 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 69 
 
 text in Thessalonians. And by it we mean no 
 more than any reader can see to be the plain sig- 
 nification of the words, in their proper connections, 
 and in their Scriptural relations. We are fully per- 
 suaded that God loves this term. Oh ! that the 
 Church would cherish it, and find its praises extend- 
 ing to the great work which our God is willing to 
 do. 
 
 3. Another term is Perfect Love, But it stands 
 to declare what God is willing to do for His people 
 in this their earthly state — yes, what He has al- 
 ready done for many whose simple faith took Him 
 at His word. Those who are perfect in love must 
 be viewed in two aspects, as having relation to the 
 two tables of the law. For it is said that " love is 
 the fulfilling of the law." The grace of love, as 
 "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, 
 which is given unto us," meets the demand of both 
 tables. Love of God in all the strength and pow- 
 ers of our being, and love of man as ourselves. 
 And there are not wanting the ''few that be 
 saved " both to tell and to exemplify what this shin- 
 ing grace is. 
 
 You say that a recipient of perfect love, and 
 whose character is its exponent, will really love 
 God better than his dearest earthly friends, with 
 pantings after his presence, with thoughts necessarily 
 absorbed, with a clear, positive, unflinching zeal in 
 his service, which nothing can weary out in sum- 
 
70 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 mer or winter, and an unceasing devotion to his 
 kingdom and glory. Yes, we mean all this — a 
 man wrapped up in God — God his all and in all, 
 and nothing without God. 
 
 You say, further, that such a person would be 
 very exemplary before men, and that to man he is, 
 in respect to honesty, honor, sympathy, desire for 
 their welfare, disinterestedness in actions toward 
 them, free from selfishness, and full of real, hearty, 
 and abounding love, a model after the Scripture 
 standard of the Golden Rule, and a living subject 
 of the charity laid down in the thirteenth chapter 
 of first Corinthians. This is a high standard in- 
 deed. But God erected it and not man, and God 
 has commanded men to attain unto it. If the 
 Almighty Lord had stopped here we should be lost 
 inevitably. But the grace to keep the commands 
 is given, and the Holy Spirit takes up His abode 
 in the hearts of the people to transform them into 
 children of light, to spring up within them, and to 
 raise the standard within them to the saintly pro- 
 portions of its description in Holy Writ. 
 
 God the Holy Ghost is love. Wlmi He fills the 
 soul and eftergizes within us, the old Adam fnust die, 
 the Christ must reign and our souls must be filled 
 with perfect love which casts out all torme?itifig fear. 
 To say less would be to say that the Holy Spirit's 
 work is necessarily incomplete, and that He can 
 dwell in a heart where lust and sin reign — a doc- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 7I 
 
 trine contrary to every view of the reigning grace 
 of God, and of '' the power that worketh in us," the 
 power of the Holy Ghost, which may be found in 
 the holy word of Divine truth. " Perfect love," 
 therefore, is a necessary term to express, what we 
 may have by the grace of God, what God has pro- 
 vided for us, what Jesus died to secure, and what 
 will make the Church of Jesus Christ-like in her 
 earthly state. The denial of the privilege of being'^^ 
 made perfect in love on this earthy were it 07i the 
 side of the truths would make impossible the promised 
 millennial day. 
 
 It may be, as we have hinted, that few such can ) 
 be found. But we have seen a few of these. ' 
 They do not shine with kings in earthly palaces ; 
 they may be very little and unknown among men ; 
 the world does not choose their company. The 
 world hates the things by which they take their 
 stand as the friends of God. They can be well 
 content to wait God's time, to live God's way, to 
 come through much tribulation, and to be called 
 foolish, for their costly devotion to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, in all meekness and simplicity of character. 
 They may well be called little children. They are 
 so little as to care very little about their esteem 
 among men, so they can have His smile which kin- 
 dles joy among the angels. 
 
 If you want to be made perfect in love, dear 
 reader, you must be willing to be little and un- 
 
72 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 known, so that you may realize that God who is 
 for us is more than all who can be against us. 
 Oh ! holy joy, when such love has cast out fear ! 
 
 4. We merely say of another term, which is 
 Christian Perfection^ that if the candid reader will 
 refer to the Epistle to the Philippians, third chapter, 
 he will find the word perfect in two senses : the one 
 referring to our resurrection perfection (verse 12), 
 and the other (verse 15) referring to the Christian 
 perfection which we must conclude was preached, 
 professed, and lived in apostolic times. " Let us 
 therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.' 
 
 As we a little while ago said, this is not Adamic 
 nor angelic perfection, but our own in Christ ; not 
 our own in ourselves, or in any way disconnected 
 with Christ, but only in Him 
 
 HOLINESS TRANSPARENT. 
 
 It must appear to all that holiness is a trans- 
 parent grace. Not that it betrays any secret of 
 domestic life. Not that it cultivates an intimacy 
 with the marvellous, and is compelled on certain 
 impulses to reveal the thoughts of the mind. Far 
 from it. Holiness does not take away common 
 sense, but cultivates and cherishes it. It cherishes 
 every faculty of the mind, and saves the will from 
 mere flashes of duty-life. But in its character, ex- 
 hibiting the symmetry of the Christian graces, a rea- 
 son can be seen for all its acts. It needs no cur- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 73 
 
 tain to hide its morality from the public, nor any 
 vain excuse. Its reasons are always good. 
 
 Holiness is never a cloak. When you find that 
 any has used it as such, to cover up any deformities 
 of his character, it is a sufficient trial of his spirit. 
 Linger no longer to view his life. Christ is not in 
 such a man, and your utmost scrutiny will not mend 
 your broken confidence. For holiness is not a pro- 
 fession. It is a life, deeply fixed, and rooted in the 
 love of God, and the hatred of evil in every shape 
 and form. You may look for these in the holy per- 
 son, and you will not be disappointed. 
 
 There are those (perfectionists) who hold that 
 they have Christ so formed in them that they can- 
 not sin. But in their life we see them sin, doing 
 what we should always call sin. They say it is ftot, 
 in them, for Christ is in them. Thus they cloak 
 over sin with the name of Christ. We have seen 
 them act more like the devil than like Christ, and 
 yet they say it is not sin. They aver that ere you 
 get into the blissful state which they have attained, 
 you must give up everything to God, even your con- 
 science. So these have given up their conscience. 
 
 But our experience tells us that the man who 
 gives up his conscience, as well as the man who 
 gives up his life in suicide, has fallen a prey to the 
 arch-deceiver. God does not want the conscience 
 out of us. He wants it in us, that it may be made, 
 by His Spirit, very tender to the least form of sin. 
 
74 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 This is very evident from the words of Holy 
 Writ. "If our heart [/>., conscience] condemn 
 us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all 
 things. Beloved, if our heart [conscience] condemn 
 us not, then we have confidence toward God." 
 God wants our conscience, as an inward monitor, 
 to declare to us our condition in His sight. And 
 besides. He has made the consciences of His peo- 
 ple answer to one another. One man's conscience 
 is the detector of another's ; so that we become, 
 not for selfish motives, nor from any low motive at 
 all, but for the good of each other and for the glory 
 of God, " our brother's keeper." 
 
 It is thus that the holy man, the holy minister, 
 the saintly character, poor or rich, is enabled by 
 manifestation of the truth to commend himself or 
 herself to every man's conscience, in the sight of 
 God. And thus, by the tender consciences of the 
 people of God we have a moral cement, which binds 
 them together at the cross of Christ ; each one of 
 them realizing the necessity of continually " looking 
 unto Jesus," that he may be free from sin. 
 
 Sanctified persons cultivate a tenderness of con- 
 science which makes every sin, and every action 
 which in any other person would be sin, very, yea, 
 infinitely distasteful to us. Then if a holy person 
 should for the time fall into any sin, it would at 
 once rise to his face in blushes. That is what we 
 desire. We do not want even the possibility of hid- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 75 
 
 ing the sin which we commit. We desire earnestly 
 to have it so that if we should slide from the law of 
 God it would be detected, by others or ourselves, so 
 that we might fly to the fountain at the first appear- 
 ance of the stain. 
 
 So shall our saintly character be transparent. 
 Men shall see our determination to be the Lord's. 
 There shall be no possibility of being mistaken for 
 hypocrites. Lord give us this transparent life, for 
 Thy praise. 
 
 Since it has been answered that I can be holy, 
 that God designed it, that He is able and willing, 
 and since we have clear definition of holiness before 
 us, let us answer the question. 
 
 IV. How can I be holy ? 
 
 And first of all, that the simple-hearted reader 
 may begin with the true spirit, let us ask him, 
 
 ARE YOU DETERMINED TO BE HOLY? 
 
 " If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the 
 good of the land." This appears to express a 
 principle by which the people of God may expect 
 the blessings of His covenant. If they are " will- 
 ing and obedient," they shall enjoy the promises. 
 It is 7iot " those who are willing to eat the good of 
 the land shall eat it." Imprisoned criminals, in this 
 sense, might be willing to enjoy liberty once more, 
 but the danger is that they would not enjoy it in 
 the way of honesty and honor. They would have 
 
76 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 a false liberty ; they are not willing to enjoy the 
 liberty of the honest and the true. Many think 
 themselves willing to enjoy the liberty wherewith 
 Christ makes free, but they are not willing to fulfil 
 the conditions of faith. 
 
 Determination belongs to the idea of wiUingness 
 in this connection. If ye be willing, if you are 
 suitably disposed, if your mind is set, if you are 
 determined to be a faithful servant, you may have 
 what you seek. " Then shall we know, if we fol- 
 low on to know, the Lord." In every case the crea- 
 ture is active. God designed that we should use 
 our powers ; that we should will, and be responsible 
 for the use of our will. It is the glory of His plan 
 that our will is to be exercised. While we are 
 stoutly opposed to the doctrine of self-will, we must 
 be as stoutly set in favor of the doctrine of free- 
 will in all gracious souls. God willing in them, 
 they may will to do all that can enter into their en- 
 joyment of His promises. They do this constantly. 
 It is a part of the liberty with which the Son makes 
 free. "Awake, thou that sleepest." 
 
 When God has done the part that man cannot do, 
 then man is to arise, is to determinately exercise the 
 new life. This applies to every step of our experi- 
 ence. Jesus is always " the resurrection and the 
 life." We must arise from the dead, we must use 
 the grace. Natures that are slow to act, and those 
 who have misconceptions concerning their activity 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 77 
 
 in the reception of promised grace, need the deter- 
 mination to obedience. " If ye be willing and obedi- 
 ent," then, becomes, " if ye are determined to obey '^ 
 In our consecration of everything to God we must 
 not forget to yield up all i7iactio7t, all improper 
 trust — e.g., we have no right to trust God for be- 
 lieving for us. We must believe for ourselves. 
 Some doubt the doctrine of the higher Christian 
 life from their own failures in it. Their failure has 
 arisen from their own inaction and unbelief. The 
 use of 7nea7is must 7iever be laid aside. 
 
 A soul seeking this precious "grace wherein we 
 stand," may suspect that his weakness will be in 
 speaking to sinners of their souls. Now, then, hav- 
 ing come to the very point of entrance upon the 
 happy life, he meets a sinner. The blessed, gentle, 
 Holy Ghost gives him a word to say, or whispers, 
 saying, '* Go and serve me by speaking to this 
 man." It is evident that if he fail at that point, it 
 is simply in his own withholding to speak promptly. 
 The first thing he must now seek, and determine to 
 find, and find, is the exercise of his own will. Don't 
 delay — delays are dangerous. Go at once, speak 
 at once — whatever you have to do, do it at once. 
 " If any man will do His will he shall know of the 
 doctrine." Consecration must determine all the 
 powers for God, or it is defective. When we are 
 leaning on promised grace, " / will'' is gospel 
 language. But it is in the heart more than in the 
 
78 THE REST OF FAITH. , 
 
 lips. In the divine life, when God is working in 
 us " to will and to do," the utmost decision against 
 sin is to be expected. 
 
 Sanctification, therefore, is a setting of our na- 
 tures in severe opposition to that which has before 
 acted within us to hinder the work of the Lord, 
 whether it be precipitancy or sloth. If our fault 
 has been precipitancy^ then the determination of 
 our being in the act of consecration will be to "be 
 still" before God. If, on the other hand, the soul 
 has been slow to move at the point of duty, the de- 
 cision of our whole being will be to seize the first 
 opportunity to check the first rising of the sluggish 
 spirit, to " ARISE AND BE DOING." That is ours to 
 do. 
 
 Two powers move in the saints with mighty in- 
 fluence — the will-power and the love-power. They 
 are sweetly blended when everything works har- 
 moniously. In legality the will-power gets the as- 
 cendancy, and the consequence is that the error of 
 the foolish Galatians is not far off. But in gospel 
 simplicity the love-power, unrivalled, reigns in sweet 
 harmony with the will. Love says, '' Do this," and 
 the will does it upon the well-known prompting. If 
 the love-power thus assert itself, engagements to 
 our God which would otherwise be hard work, 
 (legalist's work), become easy, and exceedingly 
 pleasant. 
 
 There is great sweetness in the leading of the 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 79 
 
 Holy Ghost. Where it was once difficult to stand 
 up in the face of strong opposition, or to the per- 
 formance of severe labor or the carrying out of 
 strict discipline, it becomes, for Jesu^ sake, a prec- 
 ious work. Not easy to the flesh indeed ! Morti- 
 fication of the flesh may be painful, but most cheer- 
 fully done, notwithstanding, for Him. The love of 
 Jesus rules. Is any course of conduct seen to be 
 needful for the declaration of His glory ? That 
 love will sweetly determine the will ; and, not the 
 mouth (words are useless here, resolutions are 
 vanity), but the whole being acts out the inward 
 will. And so we "always triumph in Christ" by the 
 power of God. Our action says, " I will." Thus 
 it is that saints become known, and know themselves 
 as persons who will do the will of God at any 
 cost. 
 
 Yes, at any cost ! All our powers and property 
 belong to God. All His things (so far as they apper- 
 tain to us) belong to us. We can now easily say 
 ** at any cost." Having laid our all upon His altar, 
 and bound the gift there, our hands entirely taken 
 off from what we once esteemed our own, He has 
 all with our full consent : 
 
 " My all to Christ I've given, 
 My talents, time, and voice, 
 My self, my reputation ; 
 The lone way is my choice." 
 
 Does the duty of the hour call for a face of 
 
8o THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 flint ? I^et the face of flint be set. He that is for 
 us is more than all that can be against us. Our 
 whole being cries out for God in the emergency, 
 and we stand ready to oppose the works of dark- 
 ness, to rebuke sin, and to do it in the spirit and 
 temper of Christ. Does the engagement (I am not 
 partial to the word duty, as it has often been a sort 
 of Galatian snare) stand at the post of danger ? 
 There our being goes for Jesus' sake. Is it only a 
 little thing ? To a soul thus determined for Jesus 
 there are no little sins or little engagements. 
 What some would think little sins, are fearful in- 
 roads upon the authority of our God, and upon his 
 holiness; what some would name lesser duties 
 stand as parts of our covenant life. We may not 
 with impunity despise the day of small things, nor 
 call the things little by which our God is served or 
 dishonored : 
 
 "Think nought a trifle, though it small appear ; 
 
 Small sands the mountain, moments make the year. 
 And trifles, life. Your care to trifles give. 
 
 Else you may die ere you have learned to live." 
 
 There is an object which will be very often found 
 to set these powers upon their delightful work : 
 '' For Jesus' sake." He is the " One Altogether 
 lovely." There is no glow of aflection so enkind- 
 ling, so enrapturing, so exalting into holy action, 
 as His love. There is no charm so great by far 
 in any other name. It carries with it into every 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 8 1 
 
 Christian heart holy triumph over everything that 
 could be adverse to spiritual action, that could 
 daunt the zeal of a saint. This only name is 
 betier than husband or wife, than brother or sister, 
 than dearest and nearest friend. Let me say to 
 any professor of religion to whom this may not be 
 so, stop at once and have this matter settled. 
 You may, you probably will, be called upon to 
 stand up in behalf of his name, against the feel- 
 ings and insinuations of your very best friends. 
 The question may occur in ways you do not now 
 expect, which would even astonish you (being un- 
 surrounded by persecuting Jews), "Wilt thou lay 
 down thy life for my sake ? " 
 
 Jesus uttered words which now call out the ques- 
 tion, " Lovest thou me more than these ?" "I am 
 come to set a man at variance against his father, 
 and the daughter against her mother, and the 
 daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a 
 man's foes shall be they of his own household." 
 And again, the Master spake to every age of Chris- 
 tians hitherto, " He that findeth his life shall lose 
 it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall 
 fmd it." How inexpressibly precious must Jesus be 
 when he is to be chosen before all, in emergencies 
 which try the heart-strings. This heavenly Bride- 
 groom, this good Shepherd, this Almighty Friend, 
 this Divine Elder Brother, has and shall have the 
 unrivalled place within us. " For Jesus' sake." 
 6 
 
82 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Do you ask its significancy ? It means that our 
 highest powers are engaged to do or to suffer. It 
 calls forth the most complete subjection of our 
 will. It thoroughly and eternally engages us to 
 leave all, to oppose all, to favor all, to do all things, 
 whenever, and under what circumstances soever, 
 these actions are called for. For Jesus' sake ! It 
 is my last promotion — the sum of all my former 
 ambition — the goal of my intense desires. "I 
 have found it." To do, to live, to suffer, to be 
 nothing ^'■for Jesus' sake'' — this is perpetual bHss 
 — this is eternal youth. When this is at the 
 bottom of the principle, the will will carry out the 
 " mind that is in Christ." 
 
 If my reader is determined to be a sanctified 
 person, having his all on the altar, to be the Lord's 
 alone, let him see the only way of Holiness, in 
 this: 
 
 SIMPLE FAITH AND HOLINESS. 
 
 Let us understand the way of simple faith. It 
 is exceedingly simple. Its motto, its life, the life 
 which flows from it, is only jesus. Without Him 
 it can do nothing, though the strength of years 
 should be laid out ; with him it " can do all things," 
 though not a hand be put forth upon the task, often 
 found an impossibility. Simple faith — that is, 
 faith without any admixture of looking to means — 
 is fastened to Christ as its " all in all." 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 83 
 
 It is a very common failure of Christian life to 
 put a large share of trust in the means used. They 
 say they do not trust in the means, but a little ex- 
 amination proves that they expect the means to 
 work out certain results. For example, to be holy, 
 they need to be very regular in all their devotions, 
 constant students of the Word of God, very sub- 
 missive to his providence ; they must have deep 
 thoughts upon the cross of Christ ; they must be 
 regularly engaged in his service ; they must be full 
 of words and works for the Lord. So they expect 
 to become holier, and so to attain the stature of 
 the fulness of Christ. 
 
 It is very true that this is a mention of engage- 
 ments which every Christian loves, but it is, after 
 all, not God's way of holiness. That is, God has 
 not made any or all of these a help to His own 
 work in the soul, or a substitute for the way of 
 faith. Those who calculate upon the sanctifying 
 nature of these things will find a way which in- 
 volves far less disappointment and trial, which is 
 full of pleasures, and turns life into a psalm. That 
 way is Christ, and these things are rather the marks 
 of sanctification than its helps — they are the fruits 
 of Christ's work, and not His servants in doing it. 
 
 Simple faith, instead of looking to these, looks at 
 once and only to Jesus. It trusts Him alone to 
 accomplish the sanctification of the soul. It be- 
 lieves Him for this, as it believed Him for the re- 
 
84 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 mission of sins at first. Nothing but His blood 
 could stand for their sins, nothing but his blood 
 could cleanse the record of past sins. None but 
 His Holy Spirit can impart the energy of holiness 
 to the soul ; and that He will give His Holy Spirit 
 to those who ask Him, none need to doubt for a 
 single instant. Simple faith does not doubt it. It 
 takes Jesus at his word, and it presents every word 
 at His throne with entire confidence. It is its 
 province to believe at once that what Jesus 
 promised is done the very moment it rests upon his 
 word. Else it would not be simple faith. 
 
 A beautiful representation of it is given in the 
 case of the man with a withered arm. Jesus told 
 him to stretch it forth. He did not at all question. 
 He did not say, ^' Lord, it is withered. I have 
 not done that for years." But He took the Lord 
 at His word, and stretched it forth. Now, when 
 Jesus tells us to be holy (it cannot be denied that 
 He came to make us holy), He surely should not 
 have the answer, " Lord, I am unholy. I have 
 always been unholy. I never expect to be holy. 
 Though the word enjoins it many times, yet in this 
 life it is out of the question — it is against all my 
 experience and observation." No, do not give 
 that answer to Jesus. Oh ! do not grieve him so ! 
 But go at once and praise Him for the accomp- 
 lished work. That is simple faith. How else can 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 85 
 
 we conceive of simple faith ? Jesus has said, " Be 
 holy." 
 
 How can we be holy ? We are just as helpless 
 to be holy as the man with the withered arm was 
 to stretch it out. All our works can never make 
 us holy or holier. They themselves need the blood 
 of atonement. And so with all our thoughts. We 
 need not stop to prove it. Blessed be the name of 
 Jesus Christ, simple faith praises Him for the com- 
 mand, and believes the work accomplished. It is 
 done by the all-powerful Jesus, who reigns in the 
 hearts of His people, and who delivers them from 
 all things "according to their faith." Simple faith 
 believes the word, that " the very God of peace 
 sanctifies us wholly," and " that our whole spirit 
 and soul and body is preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And why does 
 faith take such amazing comforts for such poor, 
 helpless souls ? Because it rests on the word of 
 the Holy Spirit, " Faithful is He that calleth you, 
 'VVho also will do it." 
 
 This simple faith is in momentary exercise. It 
 does not believe that hoHness which it receives 
 from Christ is infallibility, for this has never been, 
 promised ; but it does believe, that, as it momenta- 
 rily looks luito Jesus, it gets the work of the Holy 
 Spirit done within, it keeps the cleansing which it 
 enjoyed at first, and that it is enabled to please 
 God. Enabled. For all the energy of living to 
 
86 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 God, and like unto Jesus Christ, comes alone by 
 His own Holy Spirit. Hence, faith trusts his pres- 
 ence, has a sure word of promise to lean upon, 
 and can doubt nothing as to the result. 
 
 Christian reader, have you yet entered into this 
 precious rest of simple faith, in which you take 
 Jesus at His word, and trust Him to do in your 
 soul what you have always found impossible ? Rest 
 assured that the only way of holiness is Christ. 
 Not means, not exertions, not growth, but Christ 
 and Christ alone. If you have been beset by doubts 
 of your acceptance, by fears of coming evil, by 
 anxieties concerning the future, by burdens of vari- 
 ous names, by habitual sins, and yieldings to sin, 
 Christ can help you. Christ can drive out your 
 enemies and His. Let Him do it. Give your all 
 and yourself into His hands. Hold nothing back, 
 but trust Him by simple faith to do with you and 
 all you have according to His own will. 
 
 The way of simple faith is a way of rest. It puts 
 all our business on Him, and it is fixed on His 
 promises, which He is able and willing, and even 
 waiting to perform ; only waiting for you to believe. 
 He cannot do mighty works for you unless you be- 
 lieve. When you simply rest on Him to do all for 
 you, it will be a rest such as you have never known. 
 Your " peace will be like a river." 
 
 We do not disparage means, but we put them in 
 their proper place. Nothing comes before Christ. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 87 
 
 Christ first and last ; and true means are simply the 
 result of Christ in you. A man eats because he is 
 alive, because he is in health, and this may be a 
 means of life and health, but he scarcely thinks of 
 using food as a means — it is a consequence of 
 life and health. Let Christ reign triumphant in the 
 soul, and rather than our cultivating the fruits of 
 the Spirit, they shall spring up in a gracious neces- 
 sity of life, the sign of life, the evidence of life. 
 
 "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch 
 cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
 vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me." 
 ^'■Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead in- 
 deed unto si?i, but alive unto God through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord.'* 
 
 Y or Jesus saves His people from their sins. Not 
 in them. It is therefore the believer's privilege to 
 be free from sin. Not without Jesus, but by His 
 grace. He every moment needs the merit of His 
 death. His presence. His Spirit, and we rejoice that 
 these are secured to him by the promise of Him 
 who " cannot lie." 
 
 Now, every moment having these, is he not 
 cleansed from all unrighteousness? Is he not 
 "meet for the Master's use," by "this grace 
 wherein he stands"? God says so. "For He 
 hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin ; 
 that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
 Him." Surely none of us believe that He is our 
 
S8 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 righteousness only in a judicial sense, for then we 
 could not at all be prepared for heaven, the enjoy- 
 ments of which we can never share without holi- 
 ness. 
 
 We all believe that Jesus Christ is our right- 
 eousness also in a practical sense. In the judicial 
 sense, He is our justification; in the practical 
 sense. He is our sanctification. These are insepa- 
 rable. No man can be sanctified without a previ- 
 ous justification through the merits of Jesus Christ, 
 and no man is ever justified without being also 
 sanctified. Thus it is our common privilege " to be 
 filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom 
 and spiritual understanding ; that we might walk 
 worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful 
 in every good work." And hence, we are reminded 
 of " giving thanks unto the Father, which /laf/i made 
 us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the 
 saints in light." 
 
 But there are some of the Lord's dear people 
 who do not believe this. They believe that they 
 
 ( will be made meet when the time comes for them 
 to die. Then according to their faith it must be 
 unto them. If they do not believe it, they cannot 
 be so, because the whole of our salvation is by 
 faith. "We walk by faith, not by sight." They 
 
 I believe they are sanctified, but not wholly ; and so 
 it is in their case : they are not wholly sanctified, 
 nor can they be, without faith in Him who " work- 
 
 / 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 89 
 
 eth in us to will and to do." But what is sanctifi- 
 cation to them ? It is, with respect to actual sin, 
 a being " enabled more and more to die unto " the 
 habit of sinning. 
 
 That is the doctrine of men, but with deep affec- 
 tion we must say that it is not the doctrine of the 
 ^^'ord of God. According to that precious Book, 
 the new creature is already '■^ dead to sm,'^ "that 
 like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the 
 glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in 
 newness of life." The " newness of life " here re- 
 ferred to is doubtless the restored image of God 
 in " knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness." 
 This new creature views all old things as passed 
 away, and gets its daily, hourly, momentary nour- 
 ishment from its vital union with its Root, its living 
 Head, Christ. Now it is by faith that this union 
 gives its blessed effects to the children of God. To 
 speak very plainly, they believe in God to do it for 
 them, and he honors their faith. They receive just 
 what they believe they will receive, for such is the 
 promise. 
 
 The proclamation to saints that they are sini^rs, 
 and the embracing of the word " sinner" as express- 
 ive of our own condition, "is, therefore, a systematic 
 cultivation of unbelief We are not sinners in the 
 sense of active transgression of the law, if we are 
 receiving out of the fulness of Christ Jesus *' grace 
 
9© THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 for grace." By no means. He is just then saving 
 us FROM SIN. And we should give Him the glory. 
 
 If the person sin in deed, and know it, then he 
 is not receiving the grace of Christ. You ask me, 
 " How can I beHeve that Christ saves me from sin, 
 when I see the sin ? " Well, reader, suppose that 
 the impotent man had said, " How can I rise and 
 walk, when I am so utterly helpless ? Do you not 
 see. Lord, that I am unable ? " The fact was, 
 when Jesus wrought his miracles, that men believed 
 they were cured. And so does the convicted sin- 
 ner rest in Christ out of the most doleful confusion 
 of his past sins. He says at first, " How can I be- 
 lieve my sins are forgiven, when the Lord is making 
 me feel the misery of them ? How can I believe 
 until He makes me feel that they are forgiven ? " 
 The poor soul finding this to be no way for comfort, 
 at last simply believes God's Word, that they are 
 forgiven, against former appearances, and then 
 comes the joy of his salvation. 
 
 It must be so in the way of sanctification by 
 faith. God says, " Ye are complete in Him." 
 M%n says, "Yes, I am judicially complete, Lord, 
 but I am practically very incomplete." The be- 
 liever there takes upon himself a very great incon- 
 sistency. For in the way of the Lord there is no 
 such inconsistency. He has not told us that it 
 must inevitably be so. He has not acquitted us at 
 His judgment seat, with the previous contemplation. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH 9 1 
 
 of having us condemned by our practice. Our 
 justification and sanctification are placed together 
 by the divine hand, and when man undertakes to 
 separate them, he plunges himself and others into 
 union with a wretched body of death. In other 
 words, while he is married to Christ, he becomes 
 united to the law and works, and hence feels the 
 sorrow of legalism, the sorrow of leaving the true 
 spouse, Christ. (Rom. vii.) He was alive without 
 the law in Christ ; he is now reduced again to 
 \\Tetchedness when the commandment comes, and 
 sin revives, and he dies to this holy life. 
 
 The divine union of justification with sanctifica- 
 tion is seen in Rom. v. 1-5. Here is justification 
 and peace with God in the first verse, a practical 
 standing in grace and joy of hope in the second 
 verse, followed in the third, fourth, and fifth verses 
 by the most prominent marks of a deeply sanctified 
 experience, and all as a result of His abounding 
 grace, "Who was delivered for our offences, and 
 was raised again for our justification." 
 
 All this, the restoration of the image of God, 
 beautiful in His sight among the ruins of the fall ; 
 is the work of Jesus, the privilege of every believer, 
 and the preaching of less than this is the preaching 
 of a partial gospel. 
 
 My soul melts within me, my heart boils up, as 
 I write this truth of God, a heaven begun below. 
 Beloved, infinite weakness ourselves, His strength 
 
92 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 in us shall be great ; ignorance ourselves, his wis- 
 dom brings to us the enjoyment of the very powers 
 of the world to come. It is Jesus, only Jesus, 
 praise his dear name ! 
 
 " Jesus all the day long 
 Is our joy and our song." 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. WE WILL THEREFORE REMEMBER 
 THE believer's FOUNTAIN. 
 
 Every house is provided with water — water for 
 drinking, water for cleansing. What would the 
 house be without its fountain ? And the house is 
 most to be chosen, all other things being equal, 
 which has the best fountain accommodations. In 
 that house you expect to find none that are 
 thirsty, and no want of cleanliness. 
 
 So every believer has a fountain. He has a 
 fountain in God, and one in himself. All this is of 
 grace, since we love Him because " He first loved 
 us." Let no man think and act as though his re- 
 sources* were in himself For they are not. He 
 can have no good in himself whatever, since all his 
 strength is weakness, his wisdom foolishness, and 
 his beauty like the passing cloud. This the most 
 godly continually confess, and those nearest to God, 
 and most active in his Churth, cry out, " All my 
 springs are in Thee." Not by his own works then, 
 but by grace, the believer has this twofold fountain. 
 
 I. He has a fountain in God. " God is my hab- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 93 
 
 itation, whereunto I continually resort." The re- 
 sources of the Christian, as stored up in God, are 
 infinite. In God he knows no want. *' In the 
 WORLD ye shall have tribulation." " These things 
 have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have 
 peace." The secret spring of that peace, which 
 betokens atonement, supply, and the command of 
 all needful things, is alone in God. Everything 
 in God. 
 
 As we by nature are utterly unclean, our cleans- 
 ing is in Him. Hence, we know God as He is re- 
 vealed to us in the glorious plan of salvation. The 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. In God 
 the Father we have pardon and acceptance ; be- 
 cause in Jesus Christ the Son we have the cleansing 
 blood, without which " there is no remission ; " and 
 in the Holy Ghost we have divine application of the 
 blood of Christ, and of the divine power for all 
 needful things, besides that by Him we are made 
 *' partakers of the divine nature." Why do any 
 stay away from God because they are not clean 
 enough ? Oh, come and get purity in God ! It 
 dwells nowhere b|it in Him, and you cannot get it 
 away from Him. 
 
 " Is he a fountain ? There I bathe 
 And heal the plagues of sin and death ; 
 These waters all my soul renew, 
 And cleanse my spotted garments too." 
 
 If we have cleansing in Him, of what can we 
 
94 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 be denied? O believers! is God our fountain? 
 Yea, God himself! How mean to be delighted 
 from any other sources of comfort ! As mean in 
 us as they are perishing. " Be astonished, O ye 
 heavens ! at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very 
 desolate," saith the Lord. " For my people have 
 committed two evils : they have forsaken me, the 
 fountain of living waters, and hewed them out 
 cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 
 
 2. The believer has also a fountain in himself 
 For the great God has also proclaimed that " He 
 will dwell in them and walk in them." " I live," 
 said Paul, " yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 
 God the Holy Ghost, the divine representative of 
 the Lord Jesus, and one with Him, dwelleth in us, 
 and so Jesus now graciously performeth His word 
 unto us in these Gospel days. And He always ap- 
 plies within us the works of Jesus. As Jesus on 
 the cross cried out, " It is finished," so the Holy 
 Ghost saith to them, when they believe, that the 
 work is finished in them. " He that believeth on 
 me," as the Scripture hath said, " out of his belly 
 shall flow rivers of living water." This spake He 
 of the Spirit, which they that "believe on Him 
 should receive." 
 
 Believer, are you conscious of this fountain with- 
 in your soul, " springing up unto everlasting life " ? 
 And are you conscious of the ever-present cleans- 
 ing by a Saviour's blood ? Then is your soul free 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 95 
 
 from " the world, the flesh, and the devil." If not, 
 are you in your right mind ? 
 
 THE DIVINE METHOD OF MAKING US HOLY IS SEEN 
 IN TWO THINGS. 
 
 God's words are not ambiguous. Nothing can en- 
 ter heaven which " worketh abomination or maketh 
 a lie," nor any "fearful," or ''unbelieving." Is it 
 possible that we are left without hope ? No, it is 
 not possible. God says we must be holy on earth, 
 and has made full provision for it. In this great 
 salvation the Lord Jesus has done two things for 
 us. These two things are the purchase of His 
 precious blood ; they are inseparable. 
 
 The first of these goes under the name of impu- 
 tation. Imputation of His righteousness is the 
 reckoning of His blood upon the books of judg- 
 ment. It cancels all the sins recorded against us. 
 It is a perfect work, so that not one of the old sins 
 can stand. However dreadful the crime, it is re- 
 membered no more. The blood which Jesus 
 spilled is upon the books, and this is God's way of 
 putting our sins behind His back. So we are free 
 from the old sins, and they can never rise against 
 us any more, unless indeed we depart from God. 
 The reckoning of imputation covers not only past 
 sins but the natural infirmities of our fallen human- 
 ity — our weakness, our incompleteness, and every- 
 thing in our natural constitution, which unfits us 
 
g6 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 from that most perfect conformity to the law, which 
 we may suppose belongs to angelic or Adamic 
 character. This must be so, else we could never 
 be made the " righteousness of God in Him," nor 
 could it be once said that we are " complete in 
 Him." And so, by imputation, the records of the 
 past and the constitutional incompleteness of the 
 past and of the future, in other words, our weak- 
 ened powers, all find completeness. 
 
 This imputation is the first thought in our salva- 
 tion, and a very important part of it, dut not the 
 whole of it. If this were all, we should perish, for 
 it puts in us no righteousness. It is a work out- 
 side of us. It is a work on the past record and 
 for our passive humanity. It has no reference to 
 future and active transgression. God has provided 
 otherwise for that. For our salvation is not for- 
 ensic, but a real, and present, and full salvation. 
 It is not a work done only in heaven, but done 
 both in heaven and in us. In heaven we are justi- 
 fied from past sins and from fallen powers ; on earth 
 we are sanctified from future sins, according to the 
 promise, " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, 
 and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and 
 from all your idols will I cleanse you." 
 
 The second thing is the impartation of Himself^ 
 by His divine Agent, the Holy Ghost. Without 
 this, imputation would be only half a salvation. 
 With this, it is full. These, then, are the two words 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 97 
 
 that express what Jesus has done for us, Imputa- 
 tion and Impartation. The latter expresses His 
 own indweUing. And if Christ dwell within us, 
 who shall describe the glorious results ? What can 
 He not do, what has he not promised to do in the 
 way of filling us with righteousness ? If we try to 
 cleanse ourselves we shall be unfit for His dwelling, 
 but if we believe He will cleanse us, and if we give 
 up the work to Him He will see it well done. He 
 will make our souls fit for God to dwell in. He 
 will complete the work in sovereign power. This 
 is the only way. Do not try to cleanse your own 
 hearts. You cannot even see how much evil there 
 is in them. Do not try it yourself 
 
 " Cast your deadly doing down, 
 Down at Jesus' feet ; 
 Stand in Him, in Him alone, 
 Glonously complete " — 
 
 complete in all the will of God, His blood com- 
 l^letely imputed, His spirit completely imparted, 
 your soul completely at rest from sin, and God 
 complacent with you for the righteousness of the 
 law fulfilled in you through an indwelling Christ. 
 So the inward struggle with sin is ended. God 
 meant it should be. He meant we should be free 
 with the glorious liberty w^herewith the Son makes 
 free. Free indeed. Free from sin and from every 
 burden. And thus the inner ma?i beifig free from 
 7 
 
98 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 struggles^ we can easily go out and fight the powers 
 of darkness. 
 
 There is much of this to be done. The Apos- 
 tles had it to do. We may well suppose that they 
 would have sunk under their load, if they had had 
 both inward and outward foes to contend with. 
 But the inward were all conquered by Christ's divine 
 inworking. He shone within their souls with heav- 
 enly light, and entirely scattered the darkness 
 which sin had made, and this light was their joy. 
 Christ within ! Oh, what can He not accomplish 
 for one who simply trusts Him ? " Thou wilt keep 
 him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, 
 because he trusted in Thee." " In whom, though 
 now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with 
 joy unspeakable and full of glory." Yes, glory 
 within, and victory without, the work of an all- 
 conquering Saviour, by whom our enemies " shall 
 not be able to resist the wisdom and the spirit " 
 with which we shall speak. 
 
 Believers, on whom do you trust ? On Jesus 
 only ? Then you will be wonderful persons. For 
 He is wonderful in working, strong in power ; not 
 one faileth of all that He undertaketh. Now do 
 not act as if it were Jesus and you. You have 
 nothing to do in the matter of cleansing your soul 
 but to trust to Him. "■ This is the work of God, 
 that you believe on Him whom He hath sent J* No, 
 it is Jesus only. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. . 99 
 
 This view of the impartation of the Holy Spirit 
 explains what has hitherto been the cause of much 
 objection. Christians tell us we grow into this 
 state of holiness, and that we must be wrong in 
 holding that any can, by one act, ascend the 
 mount which has cost others years of toilsome 
 struggling. But here it is seen that we lay down 
 everything and all effort of our own, that the 
 Almighty Workman may work His miracle of grace. 
 A miracle is always wonderful — and this transition 
 into holiness is always a miracle. Those very 
 souls who had spent years of toilsome stniggling 
 were at last made holy by a miracle — the very 
 same as in our own case. All their previous strug- 
 gling was not faith ; it was unbelief 
 
 They ought to have had that inward struggle 
 ended long before, that they might have gone out 
 as good and strong soldiers to " endure hardness " 
 with a foe whom no living man, save the God-man, 
 has ever yet conquered alone. This inward work 
 is done immediately, because God does it. Away, 
 then, with the trash, the vanity, the pomp, the 
 glitter of this world ; consecrate all to Him, and let 
 Him at once make you a free man, holy, and 
 WHOLLY His own. 
 
 AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 In a conversation with some brethren, the writer 
 made the remark that he did not call a " saint " a 
 
lOO THE REST CF FAITH. 
 
 " sinner." One of the brethren asked me whether 
 I did not count myself a sinner ? I answered thus : 
 "My precious Saviour keeps me from actual sins," 
 I beUeved then, nor is my faith changed, that that 
 answer was of the Lord. 
 
 Some time after the utterance of that answer, I 
 received, from one who only sought my welfare in 
 writing it, the following communication, headed by 
 the above answer, and let me state that my reason 
 for presenting this communication as well as my 
 answer, is, that it contains the most natural objec- 
 tions to the position which I hold, so that the two 
 together may assist in illustrating the precious ex- 
 perience of which I write : 
 
 " ' My precious Saviour keeps me from actual 
 sins.' 
 
 "On what Scriptural grounds does any believer 
 now rank his experience above or in a ' higher life ' 
 than that recorded of God's saints of all ages, 'of 
 whom the world was not worthy,' and whose lives 
 are unerringly recorded for our ensamples ? e.g.., 
 Noah — Did he not ' walk with God perfect in his 
 generation ' ? Is there not actual sin written of 
 him after this testimony of God Himself? Abraham 
 — did he not believe God so that it * was counted 
 to him for righteousness,' etc., etc. ? Is there not 
 the same record, and afterwards ? Sarah, Isaac, 
 Jacob ? Is it not the same ? 
 
 "Moses? Did he talk with God as friend to 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. lOI 
 
 friend ? "What kept him from the promised land ? 
 Sampson, Jephtha, what of them? David, 'after 
 God's own heart'? Peter? 'I have prayed for 
 thee that thy faith fail not.' Paul, 'chief of sin- 
 ners.' ' When I would do good,' etc., etc. Daniel, 
 ' confessing my sin,' and others everywhere. 
 
 "Query. Did the spirit of inspiration rightly 
 apprehend and portray lives of men greatly beloved, 
 ' looking unto Jesus,' yet actually committing such 
 sins ? Does my brother rightly apprehend his own 
 life in dreaming it higher than that of these memor- 
 able men of God, written by God Himself, in His 
 own Word ? 
 
 " We shall be like Him (our precious Jesus) when 
 we shall see Him as He is. Meantime, much better 
 with beloved Daniel confess our sins, with Peter 
 weep bitterly over our shortcomings. We have 
 not a High Priest which cannot be touched with 
 the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points 
 tempted like as we are, yet without sin, i.e.^ he 
 had not and has not sin. We had and have sin. 
 
 " Does your view agree with the standards of 
 the Church?" 
 
 My answer to the above was as follows : 
 
 New York, Sept. 21, 1866. 
 "My precious Saviour keeps me from actual 
 sins." 
 
 I am not prepared to say that He does not so 
 
I02 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 keep me, for that would be gainsaying my most 
 positive, conscientious convictions. If he cannot 
 do it, or will not do it, or never does it, then we 
 are preaching in vain that the help of the inebriate 
 backslider is only in his Saviour, and the help also 
 of every Christian in keeping himself " unspotted 
 from the world" is solely and alone as he looks to 
 Jesus. 
 
 I have not for a moment engaged in " dreaming 
 my own life higher than that of those memorable 
 men of God, written by God Himself in His own 
 Word." I have never said I could not fall. On 
 the contrary, God is my witness that my lips could 
 never say as fully as they do at this precise point 
 of time : "I keep my body under, and bring it 
 into subjection; lest that by any means when I 
 have preached to others I myself would be a cast- 
 away." If you have met any true believer who 
 '^ ranked his experience above or in a ' higher life ' 
 than that recorded of God's saints," I certainly 
 cannot be that one, for I have never met you upon 
 this subject without disclaiming that position. 
 
 My "higher life" experience is, that it is higher 
 than any I ever enjoyed before. And as for four- 
 teen years I have occupied a post of observation 
 in the pastoral • office, in my measure (which, in 
 deep humility be it said, both for the people and 
 for myself, was probably somewhat above them in 
 spiritual things) — in my measure "discerning all 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I03 
 
 things " — I conclude that the people might and 
 are privileged to live a much higher life also. 
 
 How might they live a higher life — how might 
 any live a higher life than they do ? There is only 
 one way. " Looking unto Jesus." " Let us lay 
 aside every weight, and the sin which doth so 
 easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 
 race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the 
 Author and Finisher of our faith." How shall he 
 lay aside every weight but by " looking unto Jesus " ? 
 How shall he lay down the sin which doth so easily 
 beset him, but by "looking unto Jesus"? How 
 shall he run with patience, but by an intent and 
 constant "looking unto Jesus"? If he does not 
 look unto Jesus, will he not fall like Peter? 
 
 Was David "looking unto Jesus" when he put 
 an evil eye upon Bathsheba? Was Noah "look- 
 ing unto Jesus" when he closed his eyes with 
 strong drink? Was Moses "looking unto Jesus" 
 when in anger he smote the rock and gave not 
 God the glory ? And would there not have been 
 power and willingness in Jesus, by His blood and 
 Spirit, to have kept them from these awful failures ? 
 
 Faith may have existed in these as the children 
 of God, in its principle, but surely it was not in 
 exercise. Peter was not exercising faith when he 
 denied his Lord. I call his denial of Christ, for 
 which he wept bitterly, more than a " shortcom- 
 
I04 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 ing," for it was in itself, and was connected with 
 the most loathsome sins of the profane. 
 
 As before, so now let me repeat, that I believe it 
 is not impossible for one living in the higher grades 
 of Christian experience, which is the " higher life," 
 to fall into sin. His sin will be in proportion to 
 his want of that gracious habit of " looking unto 
 Jesus." It surely cannot be said tjiat David was 
 acting "after God's own heart" in his sins, or that 
 God or man approved them. But it is said that 
 this man, "after God's own heart," did fall into 
 condemnation. But " there is no condemnation 
 to those who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
 Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
 death." 
 
 As to the confession of sin in Daniel, and in 
 Paul when he called himself the chief of sinners, I 
 know of no Christian experience which casts out 
 confession. Vain man, to throw it out, when the 
 very heavens in which He dwells are not clean 
 enough for God? But it certainly is not believed 
 that when Paul wrote these words he meant to 
 say that he was the chief of actual sinners, that 
 while he was writing those words he was chief of 
 the sinning ones who are " led captive by Satan at 
 his will." Impossible. If so he surely never could 
 have written those words. That he gratefully ac- 
 knowledged the mercy of Jesus in saving such a 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I05 
 
 sinner, and thus desired to encourage all sinners 
 to come to Jesus, I believe. But I must further 
 believe that Paul counted himself, and desired to 
 have it so understood in that passage, " The chief 
 of sinners saved." Saved from what ? From the 
 awful sins, and their terrible guilt and pollution. 
 
 That Jesus can and does keep those who intently 
 look to Him from sinning, from breaking out into 
 actual, known, and therefore wilful, acts of sinning, 
 I most fully believe. If not, then there is no 
 power by which we may " cleanse ourselves from 
 all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holi- 
 ness in the fear of the Lord." If Jesus does not 
 do it for us, then there is no such thing as keeping 
 "unspotted from the world," and then there is no 
 such thing as being "blameless and harmless, the 
 sons of God, without rebuke." 
 
 Then how shall we "reckon ourselves to be 
 dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord? Surely not by looking 
 into our hearts ; for every look into our own hearts 
 warns us that there is no good in them, — that by 
 looking within we have no power to cleanse. No, 
 but by " looking unto Jesus." Let a bold faith in 
 the power of Christ who commands it (as he com- 
 manded the man with a withered arm), so " reckon 
 yourself dead indeed unto sin," and "alive to God," 
 that sin shall be no more. It was not a reckon- 
 ing from appearances, when the man's arm was 
 
Io6 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 made whole, else it had remained as helpless as 
 ever ; but it was a reckoning of a bold faith in the 
 Redeemer's almighty power to save it. So my 
 soul "reckons" herself "dead" by the power of 
 Christ and my "life hid with Christ in God." Oh, 
 then, my soul, by " looking unto Jesus," " let not 
 sin, therefore, reign in my mortal body that I 
 should obey it in the lusts thereof." 
 
 I have examined the articles of doctrine, and 
 though I do not wish to take my creed from any 
 man, I yet can truly say, as I at present read them, 
 I believe them in accordance with the Word of God. 
 " To the law, and to the testimony," my soul flies 
 with exceeding great delight. " His words are 
 found and I do eat them, and they are the joy and 
 rejoicing of my heart." God bless you, and bring 
 us near together, by bringing us nearer and nearer 
 to Christ. 
 
 " 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." 
 Yours in the precious Jesus. 
 
 LOOKING UNTO JESUS — THE PRESENT CURE OF SIN. 
 
 " Looking unto Jesus " is the whole of our salva- 
 tion. Why, then, for comfort, for policy, for peace, 
 for satisfaction, or for the profit of our souls, should 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I07 
 
 we look to any other? Jesus is the unfailing 
 Sender of our comfort by the promised Holy Spirit ; 
 Jesus is the Captain of our salvation as well as the 
 Head of the Church, to start, carry out, guide us 
 in the true plan of Church order. He is our 
 peace, having made peace between God and us, 
 and having filled us — or promised to our faith the 
 filling — with a peace which passeth knowledge'. 
 Jesus is the only satisfying portion of the soul, 
 which He does indeed satisfy as with marrow and 
 fatness — a satisfaction as real as that enjoyed in 
 heaven, of which we here have an earnest in His 
 presence. It is, therefore, to our exceeding great 
 joy that we be continually " looking unto Jesus." 
 
 A minister once wrote a sermon upon the text, 
 " He that is slow to anger is better than the 
 mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that 
 taketh a city." He long considered it his best 
 sermon, preached it in many places, and he thought 
 the best part of the sermon was under the question 
 " how slowness to anger and the ruling of the spirit 
 may be attained ; " yet all the time, though he told 
 the people how to attain it, he had been unsuccess- 
 ful himself. And well he might, for it was a system 
 of works after all. The sermon answered the 
 question in four lessons. Firsts the hearer was to 
 obtain a knowledge of himself. Second, he must 
 examine himself to the above end. Third, he 
 
Io8 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 must practise self-denial. Fourth^ he must depend 
 on divine grace. 
 
 Thus was the believer to subject himself to a long 
 and tedious course of culture, by which, in some 
 coming time, he might hope to have the mastery- 
 over his spirit. No comfort was given to the poor 
 strugglers in case of death before they accomplished 
 the victory. They must die in defeat, with the sor- 
 rowful fact before them that they could not be 
 cured of slavery to their passions in their lifetime. 
 The same minister has learned a better way, a pres- 
 ent cure for the sin-sick, or sin-weakened soul. In 
 place of all the four lessons, which have been many 
 times applauded as well put together and calculated 
 to do good, he has made one lesson alone — only 
 one — and that the simplest one of all that could be 
 found, adapted to give victory to the child in Christ, 
 as well as to dispel the sorrows of older disciples 
 whose trials to rule their own spirits have so long 
 and so signally failed. 
 
 What is that one lesson, reader, so potent when 
 all the self-mortifications and legal strivings of ac- 
 cumulated years have only increased the difficulty, 
 or created another disease ? Simply and alone 
 " Looking unto Jesus." Beloved, He who has all 
 power in heaven and earth is formed in us the 
 hope of glory. He is the power by whom we shall 
 conquer, without whom we can do nothing. It is 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I09 
 
 even Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, who con- 
 quers within us. 
 
 Why, then, wait for victory over sin until we die. 
 Have it in Jesus now. Let the Holy Spirit cleanse 
 His own temple, and dwell in it with power. It 
 shall be heaven begun below. " This is the victory 
 that overcometh the world, even our faith." 
 
 LOOKING UNTO JESUS STILL. JESUS ALL IN ALL. 
 
 "Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." — Heb. 
 xii. 2. 
 
 There is a race to be run. A cloud of witnesses 
 are viewing. The racers are to cast weights and 
 besetting sins aside, else they will lose the race. A 
 goal is in full view. A crown is at the goal, waiting 
 to be put upon the winner. The goal is Jesus Christ. 
 The crown is glory with Him for ever. If we would 
 not be moved into any digression, we must look unto 
 Jesus, as the racer in former times looked straight 
 forward to the end of his course, where was the 
 goal and the crown, and the rest, and the glory. 
 If, therefore, there is any statement of this race to 
 be made in few words, which will express at the 
 same time the continuous habit of the racer, the 
 bent of his mind, the desire of his soul, the deter- 
 mined purpose to which he is devoted with unfal- 
 tering perseverance, and his energy, it is in these 
 words : " Looking unto Jesus." 
 
 But now in this Christian race, where the run- 
 
no THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 fling of the soul and the looking of the soul are ex- 
 pressed ; where the soul is so weak by sin that it 
 cannot of itself lay aside weights and sins, and can- 
 not of itself run a race, we must see a peculiar 
 meaning to the term, " looking unto Jesus." For 
 nothing has been more plainly revealed, or more 
 fully experienced by a saintly soul, than our natur- 
 ally prostrate, helpless, and dead condition. We 
 cannot do anything ; we cannot even look to the 
 blessed Lamb of ourselves. There must be some- 
 thing more than the mere stimulus of future reward 
 to enable us for the prosecution of this race. 
 Scripture authority for this position is not needed, 
 for it is admitted on every hand that without Him 
 we can do nothing. There was a deep meaning, 
 therefore, in the insertion of this Christian formula, 
 in his exhortation to run the race. The apostle 
 would not only have us look to Him as the One 
 altogether lovely, or the one at the end of the race 
 with whom we are to rest in glory at last, or the 
 chief object of our desire alone. All these, and 
 more! 
 
 Two questions here demand the serious attention 
 of all who would perceive the meaning of this great 
 Christian formula : 
 
 I. Who and what is Jesus to the Christian racer ? 
 
 II. What is meant by ^^ Looking unto Jesus'' in 
 this spiritual sense ? 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. til 
 
 I. Who and what is the Lord Jesus to the Chris- 
 tian racer ? 
 
 Let it be carefully observed that He is, in con- 
 nection with this race, called " The Author and 
 Finisher of our faiths This may mean that He is 
 the Originator of our doctrine of salvation, and of 
 the appliances of that great system by which we are 
 brought into heaven. But it must necessarily mean 
 more, since in that case we should be left without 
 strength to use the things which had been freely be- 
 stowed. It must mean that He bears a personal 
 relation to each racer as such ; that he who has 
 entered this Christian race has entered into a sys- 
 tem of operations which are the offspring of the Re- 
 deemer's mind. Jesus is at the goal to encourage 
 us on, and feels a personal interest in those who 
 have started in the holy way. 
 
 The Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, has inclined us to 
 enter this path. He made the way by His own sut- 
 fering, so that we might run to glory. He kindly 
 invited us in — yea, sweetly forced us in — and said 
 to us as we entered, " I am the way." Over the 
 gate we entered, and along every step of the way 
 we see His name. The name of the way itself, as 
 it has been pronounced by the thousands who have 
 already reached the glorious end, and thousands 
 more now on the road, is, " Only Jesus." His 
 ministers cry aloud, and spare not to say to every 
 discouraged soul, " Only Jesus ^' and to warn every 
 
112 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 legalist who hopes to enter heaven by his own 
 merits, that the only way there is Jesus Christ. 
 Each racer, therefore, in this heavenly course is to 
 look unto Him as his faithful and efficient Saviour. 
 
 Now, we all know that Jesus means Saviour, 
 He saves you. If you had been rescued from 
 drowning by one who had brought your almost life- 
 less form to land and to life, you would not say that 
 he merely helped you. Jesus has done more. In 
 this salvation He has done all. You have accepted 
 Him to save you, yourself helpless and undone. 
 And if He has done everything thus far. He must 
 continue to do everything to the last. He has 
 promised to raise up the souls that trust Him at the 
 last day, in the completion of His glorious work by 
 which we are and shall be made forever to drink 
 the river of His pleasures. 
 
 The Lord Jesus, then, is everything to the Chris- 
 tian racer. And the racer, having no strength of 
 his own, being nothing of himself, does not only look 
 to Jesus for one things but for everything. For 
 merit to enter, for provisions on the route, for all 
 things within him, and all things without him — yes, 
 for all things within him and all things without him ! 
 
 I. We look to Jesus as our Pattern. We shall 
 be like Him when we shall see Him as He is, and 
 now are " with Him,'' that men may say, as they 
 see our present measure of likeness to Him, that 
 we have been with Jesus. The highest ambition 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 113 
 
 of the saint is to be like Him, to possess His mind, 
 and show the marks of that mind by all consistent 
 holy living, and all Christ-like features. 
 
 That He is presented to us as an example, we 
 have many passages of the Word of God to show. 
 He left us an " example, that ye should follow in 
 His steps." (i Pet. ii. 21.) ''A new commandment 
 I give unto you, that ye love one another ; as I 
 have loved you, that ye also love one another." 
 (Jno. xiii. 34.) " If I, then, your Lord and Mas- 
 ter, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash 
 one another's feet." (Jno. xiii. 14.) "Take my 
 yoke upon you and learn of mer (Matt. xi. 29.) 
 Christians love to look at Him as their model. 
 They long after a life of conformity to His life in 
 all holy things. It is their unceasing prayer that 
 they may be correct imitators of Jesus Christ, be- 
 cause He has left us as His representatives to go 
 and tell others concerning Him, and by His grace 
 to show them patterns of holy life in the name of 
 their exalted Head. 
 
 " Go follow your Master, then," says the careless 
 world. Ah ! if this were all, we die. For it is 
 freely admitted that no one can copy the pattern ; 
 that none have the strength to put forth such ac- 
 tions, and live such a life as Jesus lived. We freely 
 confess that we are feebleness itself If God had 
 left us here, and still assured us, as He has, that 
 only the holy can see His face, we should have sunk 
 8 
 
114 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 down to black despair. But while it is true that 
 none can copy the perfect pattern of Jesus by any 
 efforts which mortal man can possibly put forth, 
 is also true that He himself^ indwelling with His 
 saints^ can reproduce His own life in them, and make 
 them meet far His service, and fneetto be partakers 
 of the inheritance of the saints in light. And here 
 is the only, but it is the grand, encouragement of our 
 Christia?i life. It is the only way by which we can 
 work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for 
 He workefh i?z us to will and to do. If He did not 
 thus, we could not live holy lives at all. Hence 
 we observe, as a necessary complement of the 
 thought that Jesus is our pattern, that — 
 
 2. We look to Jesus also as our Power — our 
 power, or the power which our faith appropriates 
 for the reproduction of His own life ; so that in 
 life and in conversation we may be His witnesses 
 — "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, 
 that He may be glorified." By our faith appropri- 
 ating the power, we mean simply that we believe 
 Jesus does in our souls as He said He would. And 
 when we so believe, Jesus does the work by send- 
 ing His Spirit to show us Himself, and to work 
 within us all Christ-like dispositions. It is then 
 that we keep His commandments, and dwell in Him 
 and He in us ; and " we know that He abideth in 
 us, by the Spirit [or disposition of mind] which He 
 hath given us." 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. II5 
 
 The term "Author and Finisher," taken in its 
 connection with our salvation, and with our faith, 
 it must be seen, has deep meaning ; and that not 
 only in regard to the decree of God that we should 
 be holy, but in relation to our own consciousness 
 of a glorious fact in our present experience. He 
 is the Finisher of our faith in power. So it is not 
 a dead faith, it is not an unfruitful faith ; it is an 
 internally productive faith by its constant appre- 
 hension of an indwelling Christ, its energizing Au- 
 thor and Finisher. And thus, beloved, we carry 
 about with us (to speak with deepest reverence) a 
 Divine Workman. ^^ And we are His workman- 
 ships 
 
 All this — that we have believed, that we do be- 
 lieve, that we hate sin, that we are saints appearing 
 in the garments of His righteousness (which means 
 that we bear a character for righteousness which 
 the world acknowledges), all this — that we are full 
 of " perfect peace," of " perfect love which casteth 
 out fear," of "joy unspeakable and full of glory," 
 of the rest of faith, that we glory in tribulations, 
 that we are become as simple as children, with all 
 the sharp corners of a patronizing, worldly, unholy, 
 ambitious spirit taken off; in holy unity with all 
 who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity, high or low, 
 rich or poor, black or white ; sitting lamb-like, to 
 hear each what the other has to say ; telling about 
 Jesus, comforted, the poorest of us feeling rich in 
 
Il6 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Him ; oh, how rich ! — all this is the direct result 
 of His workmanship. 
 
 When, with deep simpHcity, by a thorough con- 
 secration to Him, you rest on Him to do His work 
 within you, you shall find that He works like a God. 
 
 I. He teaches an infallible knowledge, showing 
 us things deep and high, altogether out of the sight- 
 range of careless, worldly, unbelieving, fossilized 
 souls, who act as though He stood responsible for 
 them in their carelessness. It is the creed of some 
 that the imputation of the righteousness of Christ 
 makes them judicially fit for heaven though they 
 remain practically very far from God. But God's 
 salvation is nothing so incomplete, and hence we 
 are living in an age which bears for its name the 
 thought of our millennial completeness in Christ. 
 It is the age of the Holy Spirit's work. It is 
 the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. It is now 
 the time of fulfilment of that wonderful word of 
 Jesus : "I will pray the Father, and He shall give 
 you another Comforter, that He may abide with 
 you forever : even the Spirit of Truth, whom the 
 world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, 
 neither knoweth Him ; but ye know Him, for He 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." This is 
 that which Jesus said when, in that great day of the 
 feast, "Jesus stood and cried, saying \and won- 
 drous words are these !\ If any man thirst, let him 
 come unto me and drink. He that believeth in 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. II7 
 
 me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall 
 flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of 
 the Spirit, which they that believe on him should 
 receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, be- 
 cause that Jesus was not yet glorified." (Jno. xiv. i6, 
 etc., and vii. 37-39.) 
 
 What is there in all the range of human thought 
 like this knowledge ? The Word of God was not 
 designed for statements of science ; they pale be- 
 fore its own infinitely mysterious subjects, which are 
 hidden from a man so far as he is carnally minded. 
 The princes of this world know not such knowledge 
 as Jesus reveals to the simple souls that lean not to 
 their own understanding. 
 
 But Jesus as a power within us is not only a 
 teacher of great things. 
 
 2. He is a priest and a king within us, as 
 well as outside of us. The casting out of the 
 traders from the temple was a symbolic action. He 
 was and is Lord of His house. But f/iat house is 
 long since decayed. Where is now His house ? In 
 the souls of His people ! "Ye are 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." 
 
 How glorify God in our body and our spirit ? By 
 letting Jesus be exalted in our hearts a prince and 
 a Saviour, to do His priestly and His kingly work 
 
IlS THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 with US in bringing e\'ery thought in captivity to His 
 own obedience : that He '* may ii;\nctity you wholly " 
 and preserve your whole spirit, and soul, ;md body 
 blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; that He may ** make you i>erfect in ever>' 
 good work to do His will, working in you that which 
 is well pleasing in His sight." so that we may •• serve 
 Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness 
 before Him, all the da)*s of our lite." 
 
 All this is Jesus to do within us that our light 
 may shine. All this is J<rsus to us, as '* th^ Autkcr 
 an J Finish<rr of our faith " And He is :dl this to 
 us — 
 
 B\- His Blood and Spirit. These go together. 
 The blood of Christ and the Spirit of Christ ;ire in- 
 separable in the economy of redemption. He that 
 hath the blood hath the Spirit, and he that has the 
 Spirit has the bkxxl. and he that has not the Holy 
 Ghost has not the blood of Christ at all. An J th^se 
 are the tzvo compleme-ntcil parts of our sahation. 
 It was expetlient that Jesus should go away that the 
 Spirit might come. It \ras expedient and necess;iry 
 that He should go and die for the coming of the 
 Holy Ghost — the thenceforth purchased Holy 
 Ghost ! — that through the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant the Spirit might do His otlice work in 
 making us perfect. And so we have the comple- 
 mental parts of our Svilvation, in the specific work 
 of both the blood and the Spirit. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. II9 
 
 By the one we have imputation, and by the other 
 active irnpartation of Himself, The blood without 
 the Spirit would only cleanse the record, and so the 
 Spirit complements the work by carrying out the 
 design of Christ to work within us all righteousness. 
 Understand me. Imputation is a reckoning. God 
 reckons our past sins as cancelled by the blood of 
 Jesus; and God the Father with God the Son sends 
 the Divine Spirit, Ood the Holy Ghost, to live within 
 us, that we by faith may be enabled to mind the 
 precious precept, " Be ye holy, for 1 arn holy." 
 It is therefore understood by us, as His called and 
 chosen saints, that He, the precious Jesus, **the 
 Sender and the sent," is the efficient Cause, Oper- 
 ator in. Educator, and final Preserver of our souls. 
 
 Therefore we consider the formula "looking unto 
 Jesus," both as used here and elsewhere, to express 
 — first, all power to run the race ; second, the habit 
 of the racer. Let us look at t/ie habit of the Chris- 
 tian racer in the second general question which we 
 proposed in the outset. 
 
 n. What is meant by ^'- looking'' ("unto Jesus") 
 in this spiritual sense ? We take a few of the plain 
 invitations which direct the sinner and the sinner 
 saved to the reception of heavenly gifts. 
 
 I. Isaiah xlv. 22 : " Look unto me, and be ye 
 saved, all the ends of the earth : for I arn God, and 
 there is none else." The Lord would have the at- 
 tention of all people diverted from idols to Himself 
 
12d THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 as the only source of salvation, yea, as the only 
 Saviour. He wants men to understand that they are 
 helpless, and that all their trusts are misplaced, which 
 are not placed in Himself alone, and that all the 
 imaginations of men about their salvation, outside 
 the fact that it is His own work, are vain and worse. 
 O ye sinners ! know that salvation is the Lord's 
 work, and not yours. Look, therefore, unto Him, 
 and let Him save you. Trust Him to save you, 
 without trying to have idols or services to save you. 
 
 2. John i. 29 : " Behold the Lamb of God, which 
 taketh away the sin of the world." Here is the 
 direct presentation of the cleansing blood. All other 
 offerings are vain. Should you offer the fruit of 
 your body for the sin of your soul, or pour your 
 own life's blood out because you feel yourself un- 
 done, it would be of no avail. Away with all 
 thought of your own merit before God. Behold 
 God's Lamb ! That is the merit which He will 
 accept, and that alone. See His willingness to be 
 presented as your substituted merit. Go, therefore, 
 to God, and present to Him for your acceptance at 
 His throne the name of the Lamb of God. Oh, 
 how quickly shall God speak your peace and your 
 everlasting life ! 
 
 3. Isaiah xv. 10 : "Who is among you that fear- 
 eth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, 
 that walketh in darkness and hath no light ? Let 
 him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 121 
 
 his God." The Lord does not want His people to 
 be in darkness. He would have them enjoy His 
 light. Let them trust Him. Let them take Him at 
 His word, and enter by Jesus the door i7ito Himself^ 
 their house of habitation. Jesus is the door into our 
 Father's house, which is all light, all love, all spirit- 
 ual luxury, all holy company. " God is my habita- 
 tion, whereunto I continually resort." What dark- 
 ness can blind me in my holy house, in God my 
 Fortress, my High Tower, my Deliverer? Wliat 
 devil can take me, when I am in my Father's 
 palace, where devils can never reach ? 
 
 Now looking to God through Jesus Christ is be- 
 lieving all His word says of Him, and trusting Him 
 as such. Looking is "coming." It is "drawing 
 near." " Let us draw near with a true heart in full 
 assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from 
 an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure 
 water." (Heb. x. 22). Looking is taking Christ 
 for what He is offered for in His word. 
 
 Again. Since we take God at His word, and 
 believe that is do7ie which He says is done when we 
 believe, we must be convinced, that " looking unto 
 Jesus" is the same as washing in the Gospel foun- 
 tain, and being cleansed thereby. Zech. xiii. i : 
 " In that day there shall be a fountain opened to 
 the house of David, and to the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." The foun- 
 tain is opened. Jesus' blood shed for sinners is the 
 
122 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 fountain. Come, and by faith plunge into the purple 
 flood, and rise in all the life of God. One look to 
 Jesus is the washing of your sins away. For one 
 look to Jesus brings Him at once into your heart. 
 He is there the Author and Finisher of your faith. 
 He will own you, and the cloud of witnesses will 
 see you as His bright representative, however the 
 world and a careless Church may despise you. O 
 beloved ! this simple believing, looking to Jesus, by 
 the contrite heart, is everything we have to do. The 
 word is not look, and then try to make something 
 out of yourself; but it is look, and let Jesus do every- 
 thing with you and for you. Look and live. Look 
 and be all, look and have all, look and Jesus is your 
 all and in all. 
 
 Beloved, looking to Jesus is the running of the 
 race. We run the faster and the surer as we the 
 more intently look unto Jesus. We cease to run 
 the race if we cease to look. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 STONES IN THE WAY TO BE GATHERED OUT. 
 
 " Go through, go through the gates ; prepare ye 
 the way of the people ; cast up, cast up the high- 
 way ; GATHER OUT THE STONES ; Hft Up a Standard 
 for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed 
 unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter 
 of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh ; behold. His 
 reward is with Him, and His work before Him. 
 And they shall call them, the holy people, the 
 redeemed of the Lord : and thou shalt be called, 
 sought out, a city not forsaken." Isaiah Ixii. 10-12. 
 
 And now let us take up some of these stones in 
 the way of believers, and in the way of objectors, 
 and by the Word of God fling them out of sight. 
 They have hindered many a traveller, and kept the 
 bread and water of life from many a hungering and 
 thirsting soul. 
 
 I. There are some hymns that have taken hold of 
 the hearts of God's people, as though by inspira- 
 tion, which cultivate unbelief alarmingly, and are 
 quoted in place of Scripture to disprove the doc- 
 trine of a higher Christian life. They are hurtful, 
 
124 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 and should be left unsung and unused ; for if 
 some of them do apply to a portion of the Lord's 
 people, the whole Church should not be asked to 
 help that small portion sing itself into the condition 
 of sorrow and fear ; or, if the majority of the 
 Church sing them, they certainly will bear to be re- 
 minded of the fearful tendency of their songs. 
 Dearly beloved of the Lord, if these do utter what 
 ought not to be the condition of the Lord's chosen, 
 help us, in the Spirit of Christ, to cast out this great 
 stone from the way of the Lord to the people, and 
 from the way of the people to the Lord. This, you 
 know, is our part of the work, not the Lord's. He 
 waits that His people may remove this obstruction 
 to their faith. Let us look at only a few of these 
 hurtful hymns, in the hope that the Lord's dear 
 people maybe moved to " gather out the stones" in 
 their way. 
 
 HYMNS THAT HURT. 
 
 In all ages, the hymns sung in the Church have 
 had much to do with moulding the thought of the 
 people. In times of war, or when great issues are 
 to be presented, much is calculated upon the songs 
 of the people, and songs are gotten up to educate 
 the mind, and turn the views of men in the proper 
 direction. Without a doubt, hymns make doctrines 
 and produce thought. How needful, therefore, to 
 have the hymns right, that the sentiment sung may 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 125 
 
 have proper embodiment in " forms of sound words." 
 But many hymns teach nothing ; others teach error ; 
 while some, under cover of the pathetic and sym- 
 pathetic, protect the worst form of error, which is 
 unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 As our hymn-books are given out by authority, 
 and therefore supposed to be carefully guarded from 
 all error, this defect is the more serious, because 
 many private members incline to receive them at 
 the hands of their spiritual leaders, with almost ab- 
 solute confidence ' And why should they not ? say 
 they, for the sentiments expressed have a true type 
 in the common experiences of Christians. But if 
 the common experiences of Christians are wrong by 
 reason of positive unbelief or early training, then 
 the hymns which cultivate their error should, by 
 all means, be either expunged or they should be 
 changed to express the " truth as it is in Jesus." 
 For God wants the instruments of His temple wor- 
 ship to be of pure gold. Many of these hymns 
 express what no Christian ought to feel — coldness, 
 deadness, and almost hypocrisy — under the view 
 that it is a needful confession of sin. The hymn 
 commencing, 
 
 "Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove," 
 
 has just two stanzas fit to be sung, the first and the 
 last. The other three in the book before us, com- 
 mencing respectively, 
 
126 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 1 
 
 ' Look how we grovel here below ; " 
 ' In vain we tune our formal songs ; " 
 ' Dear Lord, and shall we ever live," 
 
 should never be put into the mouths of God's peo- 
 ple by any Christian minister. If private Christians 
 are compelled to complain of their condition, their 
 sinful wanderings, their short-lived graces, and their 
 dying rates, let them do it alone to God ; or let 
 them discriminate, and get together all the sick 
 and halt, as such, and then reform. "Dear Lord, 
 and shall we ever live," seems to present the case 
 to God as though He were the cause of this. And 
 can it be that the Church has reason to complain 
 of God that He is not faithful to his covenant 
 promises? No, never. But an unfaithful people 
 must lay aside their works of darkness. Do not 
 ask a soul burning up with the love of Jesus, of 
 whom we believe there are many, to join the throng 
 whose unbelief compels them to say, 
 
 "Hosannahs languish on our tongues. 
 And our devotion dies," 
 
 and, that we live at this poor dying rate ; for we do 
 not believe it. We should dishonor the grace of 
 Christ, we should plunge ourselves into unbelief 
 with the rest. We are receiving tlie grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and we do love Him with all 
 our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. That 
 is not a languishing and dying rate. It is salvation. 
 We adore the grace of Christ who has made us rich 
 
 T'^)\ a i^Jj i 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 127 
 
 through His poverty. We feel rich, and " dead in- 
 deed unto sin, and aUve unto God." We therefore 
 cannot sing the stanzas which have obtained such 
 use in the Church of Christ. Let the dear children 
 of God discriminate in their songs, and cast away 
 those stanzas which cultivate and nourish the prin- 
 ciple of unbelief For it is, it must be, unbelief 
 which ignores the work of Christ in cleansing us 
 from sin. As for instance, 
 
 " By Him my prayers acceptance gain, 
 Although with sin defiled." 
 
 Impossible. " If I regard iniquity in my heart the 
 Lord will not hear me." If I am defiled with sin, 
 how can I approach God ? It is very true that 
 Jesus is our acceptance with God, but He is such 
 by cleansing blood. Our petitions need His blood 
 to be presented with them at the throne, because 
 they are the petitions of such imperfect creatures ; 
 but sin, the transgression of the law, must not ap- 
 pear in them. There must be a mind at peace 
 with God, and averse to sin. The prayer of the 
 sinner, i.e., prayer with sin defiled, cannot be heard. 
 He must go to the fountain, and his sin shall be 
 covered over. A prayer marked by imperfection 
 may be accepted, if presented in Jesus' blood, but 
 if defiled with sin, it can have no place before the 
 throne. 
 
 One stops to ask us, if imperfection is not sin. 
 We answer that there must be a very broad line be- 
 
128 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 tween imperfection and sin. "Sin is the transgres- 
 sion of the law," and can be helped, can be shunned, 
 can be triumphed over by the Blood and Spirit of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. We can do all this through 
 ' Christ strengthening us. But our imperfections are 
 7iot active sin. While they need the blood of Christ 
 because of their incompleteness, they yet have not 
 necessarily any of the filthiness of sin about them. 
 We should, therefore, make a broad distinction be- 
 tween them, as God has, in the definition of sin. 
 ' We are and shall be incomplete in this world, our 
 / powers being weakened by the fall ; but that the 
 \ infirmities of our constitution are actual sin, we can- 
 not believe. Jesus covers our incompleteness with 
 His perfect work, and thus enables us to approach 
 God with boldness. 
 
 Another hymn, which needs expurgation because 
 it puts unworthy words into the mouth of the whole 
 Church, and either compels all God's children to 
 use theni, or some, who cannot apply the sentiments 
 themselves, to be silent, is that hymn of Cowper, so 
 much sung, 
 
 " Oh, for a closer walk with God." 
 
 The stanzas commencing respectively, 
 
 " Where is the blessedness I knew," 
 " What peaceful hours I then enjoyed," 
 
 should never be given out to a whole congregation. 
 There are some who cannot conscientiously sing 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 29 
 
 them. Nor will it do to throw off the subject by 
 saying that those who cannot sing them had better 
 look within their hearts and examine their mistaken 
 condition. Tfiat is easily said. They have looked 
 within their hearts, and they have, adoring, seen the 
 Lamb of God enthroned there. Their peace in 
 Jesus is like a river. They have joy, and knowl- 
 edge, and purposes in the service of Jesus, to which 
 their "first" experience is only as the light of a ta- 
 per compared with the clear shining of the sun. 
 Why, therefore, should they sing these stanzas ? Is 
 not their experience Scriptural, the path of the just, 
 as the shining light, shining more and more unto 
 the perfect day ? Is the condition of those who 
 honestly can sing those verses a Scriptural condi- 
 tion ? Is it honoring to the grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ? Is it right for any single Christian 
 to sing that more than once ? Much less for the 
 whole Church to bring young Christians up to 
 expect such things in their experience, and thus 
 strengthen unbelief on the breasts of the Church? 
 
 It is true that we help the unconverted and the 
 convicted sinner to sing hymns that lead them to 
 Christ ; must we therefore help believers sing hymns 
 that lead them into legality and away from Christ? 
 
 We mention another hymn, the one commencing, 
 
 " Come, thou Fount of every blessing." 
 
 Two lines in that hymn, though they have, by rea- 
 9 
 
130 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 son of cultivated unbelief, had a foundation in fact, 
 have not any foundation in right, nor are they true 
 in the heart of a sturdy saint. We think, indeed, 
 referring to the normal condition of the child of 
 God, that they are entirely unscriptural. 
 
 " Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
 " Prone to leave the God I love." 
 
 The sentiment is foreign to the declaration of 
 Holy Writ that we are " new creatures in Christ 
 Jesus." "Old things have passed away, all things 
 have become new." We were such once, prone to 
 leave God, and to wander from Him, but we are 
 washed, we are sanctified, we are justified in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
 God." Our proneness by the new nature is cer 
 tainly to love God, or else it is a very queer regen- 
 eration into a new state of things, It may be said 
 that these lines agree with the state of things among 
 God's people. That is not what we want. We do 
 not want to copy after earthly things, but after heav- 
 enly. It has been the former difficulty of the 
 Church, that she has copied after things below ; 
 and has interpreted creed, and Bible too, after a low 
 grade of experience. 
 
 What is now needed is to fix the eye on Christ, 
 find out the glories of His work, " which eye had not 
 seen, nor ear heard," and then go on in the shining 
 way, expunging everything repugnant to progress 
 therein. We are fighting a ready enemy. We do 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I3I 
 
 not want any remnants of unbelief about us. We 
 might as well send soldiers into battle with old ar- 
 tillery wagons, against a foe on well-trained chargers, 
 or permit the soldiers on the march to battle to sing 
 some stanzas on the fear of death, as to oppose 
 Satan's hosts with these whinings of unbelief. It 
 has already helped him to shut up our "dying 
 rates " by scores and hundreds. 
 
 These are the words of deepest affection, and 
 tenderness of spirit in the writer, for the Church of 
 our Lord Jesus. 
 
 The hymn commencing 
 
 " Thus far my God has led me on," 
 
 has many objectionable features, from the fact that 
 it seems to take for granted that a true Christian 
 experience necessarily must sing, and hence, that 
 every Christian in any given congregation must be 
 in a state to sing such lines as these, which we cull 
 from all the verses : 
 
 "My hopes and fears alternate rise." 
 
 "Oft an absent God I mourn." 
 
 "'Tis thus our pride and self must fall." 
 
 The whole hymn is mournful, and a sort of com- 
 plaint of present straits into which the soul has 
 been cast by " the faithful love " of our God. e.g. : 
 
 " Temptations everywhere annoy, j 
 
 And sins and snares my peace destroy ; " / 
 
 and this is the thorny road in which God leads His 
 
132 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 dear people to try their graces. In other words, 
 God makes the graces of His people (for they are 
 the fruits of His Holy Spirit), and then He proves 
 them by intermissions, and this is inevitable in the 
 case of every Christian ! Impossible. The senti- 
 ment does . not agree with the Word of God. 
 " Great peace have they which love Thy law ; and 
 nothing shall offend them" — margin — " They 
 shall have no stumbling-block." Does not God 
 answer His people's cry, " Lead us not into temp- 
 tation " ? Is there no place on earth ; is there no 
 man on earth who has had a supreme confidence in 
 Christ, and is "kept by His power through faith 
 unto salvation " ? Does not God vouchsafe for 
 any of His children to " deliver them from evil," or 
 is His deliverance so short-lived that they are often 
 deserted by Him ? Not so. There is a fearful 
 incongruity in this hymn. Interruption of peace 
 comes from disobedience and unbelief. God does 
 not bring these about, but has made the way clear, 
 so that every thought shall be " brought into cap- 
 tivity to the obedience of Christ." " O that thou 
 hadst hearkened to my commandments ! then had 
 thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as 
 the waves of the sea." 
 
 As to the trial of our graces, God does not try to 
 make us temporarily fall, but to strengthen. When 
 He tries He sustains. We come out better and 
 brighter, not from a process of sinning, but from a 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 33 
 
 trial where we were led to trust Him. In no case 
 does God deliver His child over to Satan. The 
 believer leaves God, goes into folly, worldliness and 
 sin, and what can he expect but desertion ? He is 
 never compelled to sin, nor would his own weak- 
 ness be dominant if he would keep hold on God ; 
 nor has God ordained that any should be unable to 
 get the full measure of His help in leaving their sins. 
 Just the opposite. It may be objected that facts 
 are that God's people do universally fall into a con- 
 dition of unbelief. There are blessed exceptions ; 
 these must increase as Christians find how much 
 they have in Christ. If the objection had been 
 granted, it would not prove that Christ had not pro- 
 mised to keep His people in " perfect peace " — 
 but simply that men following their own ways had 
 not availed themselves of His grace. It cannot 
 be denied that God has brought His people into a 
 most gracious possibility of constant faith, and 
 dwelling with Himself, and of His own constant in- 
 dwelling in them by their simple faith in Jesus. 
 That line, therefore, is not true which urges : 
 
 '"Tis thus our pride and self must fall." 
 
 God has another way of delivering His children from 
 pride and self, if they will be delivered in His way. 
 Their difficulty is, that they seek in their own way, 
 and they keep their own will. Then, of course, they 
 must sufifer. But, for a moment, what is His way 
 
134 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 of subduing all evil in us ? Simply Christ. Christ 
 will vanquish all the powers of hell in the soul, and 
 He will do it at once, and by His own miraculous 
 power. " God forbid that I should glory, save in 
 the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom I am 
 crucified to the world and the world is crucified unto 
 me." There is the cure. Give up your will to 
 Jesus Christ. " Go whithersoever He goeth," or 
 bids you to go, and we say not we will warrant you ; 
 He has warranted you that you should be kept " in 
 perfect peace." This world will be very little to 
 you, and only as a present laboring place, not at all 
 for amusements, or physical or material rest. In 
 Christ you shall be " crucified to the world." Now 
 then, it is a truth that 
 
 "Thus far my God hath led me on," 
 
 and that God has been very gracious to His people. 
 But let them not turn again to the folly of unbelief, 
 and selfish pride, and taking up the world again 
 after they had cast it behind their backs. There is 
 abundant grace in Christ to " keep us every day 
 from falling, and to present us faultless before the 
 throne of God with exceeding joy." Let us drop 
 the hymns, by whomsoever composed^ which teach 
 the opposing sentiment, and which plunge the 
 Church into weakness and sin. 
 
 II. Some have questioned as to God's time of 
 destroying the works of the devil. They will have 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I35 
 
 // that it is not His desigfi to destroy them during 
 this life. 
 
 Such objections, however, must have nothing to 
 do with the natural and necessary connection of 
 the words in the context. Verse 8th of the 3d 
 chapter of i John tells us : " For this purpose the 
 Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy 
 the works of the deviL" Verse 5th says : *' He 
 was manifested to take away our sins ; " and verse 
 6th takes the consequence from this, that "who- 
 soever abideth in Him sinneth not." Verse 8th 
 commences with the declaration that *' He that 
 committeth sin is of the devil," and closes by the 
 utterance already presented, that Jesus was mani- 
 fested "to destroy the works of the devil." This, 
 then, makes positive the proof that the words do 
 necessarily refer to the present life-work of Christ 
 in the souls of believers. 
 
 There is no question concerning iht future down- 
 fall of Satan. The point which we now make is, \ 
 that Satan falls to-day, every day, and his works ' 
 are destroyed upon the exercise of simple faith by 
 the weakest saint. This Jesus has already done. 
 The prophetic word is now absolute fact : " Thou 
 hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity cap- 
 tive. Thou hast received gifts for men, .... 
 that the Lord might dwell among them." (Ps. 
 Ixviii. 18.) Jesus Christ now leads His people's 
 captivity captive. He binds Satan for them every 
 
136 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 day, having first "entered his house and spoiled 
 his goods." 
 
 The destruction of the works of the devil, and 
 the manifestation of it, are continually going on 
 wherever the faith of believers is taking hold of 
 His " exceeding great and precious promises." It 
 is seen, — 
 
 I. In those injunctions used by the Apostles, 
 who knew Satan's malice and power: ^^ Resist the 
 devil and he will flee from youP (James iv. 7.) 
 ("Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, 
 walketh about, seeking whom he may devour) ; 
 whom resist, steadfast in the faiths But how shall 
 a puny worm presume to resist such a fierce, uni- 
 versal, and apparently omnipotent foe ? Because 
 Jesus has already so destroyed the works of the 
 devil in the soul of the believer, that by a simple 
 faith the devil is frightened away. That simple 
 faith counteracts the devil's wiles, by bringing 
 against him, in the very instant, the force of the 
 eternal Lord which he dares not face. 
 
 Jesus Himself hath put the very expression into 
 our lips which brings dismay to Satan, and mani- 
 fests the destruction of his works. He tells us to 
 pray, " deliver us from evil." The greatest or the 
 least evil. The devil or any of his works deliver 
 us therefrom. When put up in faith, it brings an 
 immediate, sweet, full, infallible return. The devil's 
 evil is immediately broken in the heart, or we are 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I37 
 
 not delivered from it. But we are delivered from 
 it when the Holy Ghost takes His throne within, 
 and garnishes the temple of the heart with all 
 manner of holiness. If the Holy Ghost doth not 
 banish the works of the devil, how can He Himself 
 dwell ^vithin us ? But He doth dwell within us. 
 And by His omnipotent sway He hath banished the 
 false accuser from the heart, and hath made it " all- 
 glorious within." 
 
 The present destruction of the works of Satan is 
 seen, 
 
 2. In our daily and continuous deliverance from 
 bondage through fear of death, or any other fear. 
 We, being partakers of flesh and blood, " He also 
 Himself, likewise, took part of the same ; that 
 through death He might destroy him that had the 
 power of death, that is, the devil ; and deliver them 
 who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime 
 subject to bondage." (Heb. ii. 14, 15.) In con- 
 sequence of this gracious deliverance many are 
 now living in glorious liberty who were formerly 
 slaves to fear, and they have been in the daily and 
 uninterrupted enjoyment of th^ pleasing experience, 
 many of them for years, which have been like 
 heaven upon earth. 
 
 It may, indeed, be that the number appears 
 small. It appears small because they are scattered 
 among so many who live, according to their own 
 confessions, far below their privileges. Concern- 
 
138 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 ing this latter class it is to be remarked, that under 
 the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, it must be 
 criminal in the intelligent believer to live below his 
 privilege. The grace is so free, the Lord Jesus is 
 so ready, the word of promise so full, the Holy 
 Ghost so omnipotent, the faith required so simple, 
 it should not seem that any believer would walk in 
 chains of bondage. 
 
 The works of the devil are continually being 
 destroyed. 
 
 3. In the daily courage of many of the believers 
 of Jesus. It need not be said that many who have 
 been fearful of risking life for the Lord, or for 
 themselves, have, upon putting their trust in Him, 
 and setting out upon His service, become bold ad- 
 vocates of His doctrine and His ways. In times 
 of persecution, they have endured with the utmost 
 patience, resignation, fortitude, and even joyfulness, 
 the most grievous tortures, not accepting deliver- 
 ance. This is the destmction of the works of the 
 devil in their hearts so fa». And such have con- 
 fessed His power to do wondrous works in their 
 souls, bringing them. near unto Him, conquering 
 all backwardness of their nature to suffer for Him. 
 It is the old story living yet in power — " I can do 
 all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 
 It is present as well as historical illustration of the 
 gracious fact, that in the destruction of the works 
 of the devil in our hearts, " God hath not given us 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I39 
 
 the Spirit of fear ; but of power and of love and of 
 a sound mind." (2 Tim. i. 7.) 
 
 Because Jesus hath already destroyed the works 
 of the devil in many things, 
 
 4. The Church of Jesus has a precious song of 
 present rede?nption to sing ; and many are now sing- 
 ing it with rapture upon the earth : " O death ! 
 where is thy sting ? O grave ! where is thy vic- 
 tory ? " The believer is conscious, by the power of 
 an indwelling Christ, that for us Jesus " hath abol- 
 ished death, and hath brought life and immortality 
 to light through the gospel." So that we need not 
 shrink at "death's alarms." Nay, rather we sing 
 that death is abolished : " It is not death to die ! " 
 
 "Jesus, thou Prince of Life ! 
 Thy chosen cannot die ; 
 Like Thee they conquer in the strife, 
 To reign with Thee on high." 
 
 Sing the song, brother, sister ! Let not Satan 
 rob you of your joy, and send you back to slavery 
 in fear of death. Jesus has blessed the grave by 
 taking its precious dust in His own care, and He 
 will watch over the elements so that they shall not 
 irrevocably scatter it. " He will raise you up at the 
 last day." Let grief be far away. We that believe 
 in Jesus are in no land of captivity. It is not the 
 day of darkness and the dead, but of Jesus' power 
 to save from all darkness, and to give the light of 
 life. Praise Him ! Hell is vanquished. Satan is 
 
I40 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 defeated. Believers triumph, and they sing the 
 song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. They 
 sing the song of kingship and of priesthood, and 
 hell and Satan are powerless to vanquish them, or 
 to disturb the heavenly melody of their singing. 
 
 Now, it is not needed that the Church wait till 
 all the works of the devil are destroyed before she 
 sings. Jesus may not see fit at once to destroy 
 them all in the whole earth. That will be by and 
 by. But for and in His saints, as we have seen, it 
 is His glory to destroy them, in order that we may 
 ^^ live in holiness- afid righteousness before Him all 
 the days of our life." Let the generations of be- 
 lievers, as they come and go, by faith trust the slain 
 Lamb to accomplish His own gracious and match- 
 less results. "Faithful is He that calleth them, 
 who also will do it." 
 
 III. There are questions arising in the minds of 
 believers, the answers of which appear from their 
 present view, at least, daring, and such as (they 
 think) they never could utter. It may be that they 
 do not now look at these questions from the right 
 standpoint, and that they are mistaken in the an- 
 swers which they would justly give if in the enjoy- 
 ment of this precious experience. The questions 
 upon which we now treat are those most frequently 
 met with. 
 
 I. Are we not to grow in grace ? 
 
 We answer, yes, by all means. How could any 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I4I 
 
 Christian live without it? And yet, dear reader, 
 many of the notions of God's dear people must be 
 wrong upon this point. I can best illustrate by 
 alluding to a conversation between several Christian 
 brethren. One of the brethren had stated his 
 views of holiness by The Blood and Spirit of Christ, 
 and expressed his belief that it was the believer's 
 privilege in Christ to live a life of holiness. An- 
 other brother answered that he loved the Lord 
 Jesus, and tried to serve Him in a weak way, but 
 that he had sinned very much yesterday and to-day, 
 and he expected he should again to-morrow. This 
 was not said of the constitutional infirmities which 
 cling to us as the results of the fall, but it was 
 spoken in view of known, conscious sins. And 
 these brethren frequently utter their belief that 
 Christians necessarily commit known sins. 
 
 We ask them where they draw the line ? How 
 much known sin can we be conscious of in trans- 
 gression of the law, and yet enter heaven ? The 
 Word of God is very precise upon this point, and it 
 will not do for us to leave ourselves to the uncer- 
 tainties of a vague plan of our own. " Without j 
 holiness no man shall see the Lord." It is very 
 true that in a moment a true believer can have his 
 sins washed away, and " if any man sin we have an 
 advocate with the Father ; " but it is also true that 
 we are very uncertain of our life, and that we may 
 go at any moment. Now if we are to be taken 
 
142 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 into eternity very suddenly, and if it be true that 
 holiness is an essential requisite for heaven, then it 
 will not do for us to say that we know we are sin- 
 ning from day to day, and that we expect to keep 
 on sinning. In that case heaven is a very great 
 uncertainty, or rather it is certainly not ours. 
 
 The Word of God presents Jesus to us, not as 
 taking sinners into heaven, but as redeeming them 
 from iniquity, cleansing them, saving them from sin, 
 and thus preparing them. Holiness is presented 
 as a fact, a living reality, and the whole philosophy 
 is stated whereby His people may perfect their 
 holiness. Nor is the perfecting of holiness spoken 
 of as mingled with sin in the soul. No, the sin, the 
 "filthiness of the flesh," is first cast out, and then 
 holiness^ having taken its place, is perfected. 
 
 Holiness is not unholiness. Sinning from day to 
 day is not of the nature of holiness. Holiness is 
 cleansing — sin is corrupting. Sinning from day 
 to day makes holiness from day to day impossible. 
 Sin does not and cannot consist with holiness. We 
 are' told about David and Peter, but they do not 
 and cannot tell us that David and Peter were holy 
 when they committed their sins. Nor could they 
 have entered heaven (they were not fit for it) when 
 they were thus sinning. Nor was it the decree of 
 God that they should sin. Concerning us it is writ- 
 ten, that " He hath chosen us in Him before the 
 foundation of the world, that toe should be holy and 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 43 
 
 without blame before Him in love^ All the dec- "\ 
 larations of the Word of God about holiness pre- | 
 sent it as a being cleansed, as a state of separation 
 unto God ; with the motions of the divine life act- 
 ive in us, with a gracious and God-given and God- 
 inworking ability to cease from sin and self as / 
 "partakers of the divine nature." 
 
 Yes, after cleansing is done, holiness is to be 
 perfected, not by daily sinning and repenting and 
 daily repenting a little more so as to catch up to 
 our sins by the time we die ; but holiness is to be 
 perfected. The perfecting of holiness is its estab- 
 lishment as the habit of the life, the completion of 
 its degrees in our growth in the love and knowl- 
 edge of Christ, and in the sight and sense and ap- 
 preciation of new views of the divine glory and 
 work of redemption. Holiness in the saint is both 
 perfect and to be perfected. It is perfect in that it 
 cannot be imperfect. It is perfect in that it covers 
 the whole of our being. It does not appertain to 
 the half or a greater portion of our manhood, but 
 to every power of body, mind, and heart. // is 
 wholeness. It does not exist in a half-hearted state. 
 Holiness is perfect in its/supreme disgust of sin, its 
 complete separation from it, its complacency in 
 God and His divine complacency in it as His de- 
 light, honorable and precious. 
 
 The divine philosophy of this perfection of holi- 
 ness in the saint of God is, that it is the work of 
 
144 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit. If it were man's 
 work it would be very imperfect, and its name 
 would speedily perish. Holiness is the work of the 
 Holy Spirit on the believer's heart in answer to his 
 faith. It is a continuous work on the heart of the 
 man abiding in Christ. If he abide in Christ he 
 sinneth not, but if he leave his abiding-place an 
 hour or a day he sins — in the one case he is whole, 
 cured of all his plague, filled with the riches of the 
 king's palace ; in the other he is sick, sick in every 
 part of him, and ready to perish. We must repeat 
 our view of this matter as one of vital importance, 
 because it has been strongly objected to. 
 
 Objectors have said, "Why, then, you hold that 
 / a man is either perfectly sinful or perfectly holy." 
 We answer. One look to Christ brings Him into 
 our hearts, awakening all our powers into active 
 sympathy with Him. And " he that offendeth in 
 one point is guilty of all." He that is holy does 
 not sin. He that knowingly sins is certainly not 
 holy. Any other view raises the question with a 
 very dubious answer, "What, then, is meant by re- 
 demption in Christ, old things passed away and all 
 things become new ? " 
 
 As to the saving power of Christ, who can 
 doubt it ? Looking to Jesus brings Him into the 
 soul, enthrones Him there, and invites an authority 
 which, according to His promise, He is sure to ac- 
 cept and use. If touching the hem of His garment 
 
THE REST CF FAITH. I45 
 
 availed to drive away the woman's infirmity in an 
 instant, have we not reason to think that the eating 
 and drinking of Him by faith make the heart 
 whole, and renew the nature of a man ? It seems 
 strange to take any other view. The infinite com- 
 passion of Christ teaches us that He will not leave 
 us without His own power to save us. His divine 
 love pledges to us the powerful indwelling of His 
 Holy Spirit, for the supply of every want of our 
 renewed nature. How easy, therefore, is obedi- 
 ence to the Lord's command to be holy. It is but 
 to look and be so. True, it requires a giving up 
 of all refuges and all idols, but consider that there 
 is no looking at all without this. 
 
 Any person who thinks He is looking to Jesus, 
 and has not made an entire surrender according to 
 his light, is deceived : he is not looking to Jesus. 
 This point should be well understood, for it lays 
 great responsibility on the ministry, and is the 
 secret reason of all the worldliness and vanity that 
 has made its way into the visible Church. One ^ 
 look at Christ must make me whole, or I cannot 
 understand the types, the promises, the invitations, 
 nor understand how it is possible for me to enter 
 heaven. Now, then, it must be that the soul look- 
 ing to Jesus is, by Him, in answer to the faith 
 which receives Him as such, made holy — it is per- / 
 feet in Christ. 
 
 Let it be further observed that this holiness is 
 10 
 
146 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 to be perfected. Its degrees are to be made as the 
 growth of a perfect child from infancy, perfect in 
 all the parts of a living man, but to be developed 
 in strength, in capacity, in associations and influ- 
 ence with and over others. The principles of holi- 
 ness may be made stronger, the light of God may 
 shine more fully, the Word of God may be better 
 understood, the means of grace may be more and 
 more skilfully handled, the living sympathies of the 
 body of Christ (His people) may be more and more 
 cultivated. And so the will of God in our whole 
 nature shall give robustness to all our holy charac- 
 ter, that it may be rounded out into full proportions 
 and positive influence upon all with whom it comes 
 in contact. So our full-born souls go on unto the 
 perfection of resurrection glory, not ceasing to grow 
 even when we have reached heaven itself 
 
 2. If we are saved from sin, where comes in its 
 confession. Is it possible, then, that we are to con- 
 fess sin no longer ? 
 
 It is our desire here to answer the question (for 
 we think every difficulty in the mind of an inquirer 
 will be met by it), — 
 
 What is Evangelical confession of Sin ? 
 
 There are many whose religion is shown by a 
 
 sweeping declaration and confession of their sins. 
 
 They are sometimes even so free as to declare 
 
 themselves "the chief of sinners," and say that, if a 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 47 
 
 man do not really feel himself to be the chief of 
 sinners, he must be mistaken. They regard the 
 confession of sin as a necessary part of every 
 prayer — a suitable preparation for asking the mercy 
 of God in Christ. But their confession of sin, so 
 far as we have heard it, is one of the most unin- 
 telligible habits, to hear which one might suppose 
 they were about falling into hell. For certainly 
 people who do such things as they confess every 
 day, can have no interest in Christ, and do not cer- 
 tainly have the promised Holy Spirit. 
 
 It is not long since that we heard a confession 
 of this kind by a gospel minister. He was confess- 
 ing sin for the congregation assembled. He told 
 the Lord that we sinned with a ''high hand and 
 a stretched-out arm," that we had "forgotten our 
 God," "gone away from Him," that *'we had 
 lied unto Him," our lives being at variance with 
 our profession. Indeed, had any irreligious person 
 noticed the language of that confession, he might 
 justly have said that by their own words those peo- 
 ple had been a set of hypocrites ; and that the grace 
 of God, and the cross of Christ, and the work of 
 the Holy Spirit (for whom the same prayer uttered 
 thanks) had been quite ineffectual to produce that 
 hoHness which God requires in His saints. The 
 confession of sin is insisted on with pertinacity as a 
 necessary duty of every moment of our Christian 
 life, the presence of sin is insisted on as the con- 
 
148 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 tinual plague of every Christian heart, and they 
 speak as if every Christian must continue to have a 
 "plague in his heart," notwithstanding God's prom- 
 ise of cleansing by His Holy Spirit, the descriptions 
 of the blood of Christ as our Fountain, and the 
 statements of our renewed condition, as those that 
 are walking *' in the light, as God is in the light." 
 We verily believe that, in some quarters, the con- 
 fession of sin is the most unintelligent portion of 
 private and public worship. 
 
 When Jesus Christ washes us, after we have 
 yielded our all to Him that He may be the effect- 
 ual Worker in us, we are made clean, " without 
 spot and unrebukable in His sight." Our past sins 
 are then all put away from us — away from the 
 sight of God, away from the record against us; 
 the precious blood stands for all the infirmities of 
 fallen nature. The Holy Spirit is given to keep 
 us clean by drawing us to Christ, taking the things 
 of Christ and showing them to us, and applying to 
 our hearts the truth of the Holy Word. This is 
 the " sanctification of the Spirit " apprehended by 
 faith, the " washing of regeneration and renewing 
 of the Holy Ghost." In this way it is that we 
 become " new creatures," the plague is taken out 
 of our hearts, sin cured, " old things [sinning 
 among them] have passed away, and all things 
 have become new." 
 'v We surely are not now, in this gracious state of 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 49 
 
 oneness with the Lord Jesus, "rolling sin under 
 our tongues," and " sinning every moment in 
 thought, word, and deed." If we are wrong, then 
 we ask where is the cure wrought by our God ? 
 In what does it consist ? You answer, " In the 
 tendency of our being." But if we are sinning, the 
 tendency of our being is to sin. And if we are 
 living unto God, the tendency of our being is unto 
 God. So says the Word of God. " For when ye 
 were the servants of sin, ye were free from right- 
 eousness." " Being then made free from sin, ye 
 became the servants of righteousness." 
 
 After this work of the Holy Spirit, there must of 
 necessity be a very acute sense of the sinfulness of 
 sin. "That sin by the commandment might be- 
 come exceeding sinful." Its appearance to the 
 awakened child of God is hideous. It cannot be 
 otherwise, because we are partakers of the Divine 
 nature. If this be so, and we feel, from the very 
 necessities of our regeneration, 
 
 " A tender sensibility to sin, 
 A pain to feel it near," 
 
 even in its slightest forms, it would seem that the 
 weight of sin which we noticed above as being con- 
 fessed, must craze our sense. It does not produce 
 this result in those who habitually confess it, since 
 it is with them too often a simple dogmatic con- 
 fession, lest they should fall from true humility. 
 
150 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 But if it be true that we are thus sensible to the 
 presence of sin, then the confession of it will not 
 be a mere general statement of our sinfulness. It 
 will be specific. When we commit sin we shall 
 know it, feel it, and be deeply wounded by it, and 
 we can lay it specifically before God. It will be 
 no unintelligent confession of general sinfulness. 
 In fact, we think that the confession of general sin- 
 fulness when God has proclaimed our pardon, our 
 justification, our sanctification by faith in Jesus, 
 and our new creation, is dishonoring to the Great 
 Workman in our salvation, is a phraseology which 
 belongs to our old condition, and is an act of 
 unbeUef in not taking God at His word in His 
 statements about our purification. 
 
 It must therefore be very weakening to us, as it 
 takes our eyes off from Christ, and stops the flow 
 of that gracious life which comes from Him. In 
 old theological dogmas (God forbid that we should 
 cast them all aside) there has been too great a 
 confounding of the state of sinner and saint. It is 
 hard to see how a saint should be loaded down 
 with sins. To apply generalities, applicable to 
 unregenerate life, to saintly life, is very manifestly 
 an incongruity which must shut out the truth of 
 Jesus Christ, and produce misapprehensions of His 
 work in the soul. 
 
 We hold evangelical confession of sin by Chris- 
 tians to be, — 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 15! 
 
 T. Profound gratitude and thanksgiving to God 
 for his miracle of grace in healing our incurable 
 souls, and a constant testimony, in every way we 
 can give it, that we were what we are not, that we 
 are what we were not, by the grace of God. " By 
 the grace of God I am what I am." 
 
 2. If actual sin has been committed, the tender 
 heart of a saint (we are not speaking of doubtful 
 cases, but of undoubted Christians) wili always 
 know it, and will specifically confess those sins, in 
 no mere general terms, but as such. If not too 
 much tied up to the pseudo-dogma of necessarily 
 indwel/mg sin^ -prodncing unbelief in Christ's power 
 to save to the uttermost, he may sweetly find that 
 Jesus saves him from sin. Then he may confess 
 that. 
 
 3. The supposed answer to this question is a 
 stumbling-block to many : 
 
 AM I HOLY? 
 
 This question almost invariably gets a negative 
 answer. There is a fear of professing holiness, and 
 a dread of entering into companionship with error- 
 ists. Our position is at the cross of Jesus Christ. 
 And the question is not one of egotistical ostenta- 
 tion, or of Pharisaical pride, neither of any dog- 
 matic spirit, being simply a consideration of what 
 the Lord Jesus has done for us, of the present 
 extent of His remedy for the sins of His people. 
 
152 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Put the question in another form. Am I a saint? 
 It is the very same question. Now answer it. 
 You fear you are not a saint ? Then you fear that 
 you do not bear a character which was universally 
 applied and meant to be applied to the members 
 of the primitive Church. You are willing to admit 
 in general that you are a Christian, but you are 
 very anxious to say that you are a very poor one, 
 or a very unfaithful one, or a very imperfect one, 
 and that you have a great deal of remaining de- 
 pravity. 
 
 We think, beloved, that you are by these utter- 
 ances giving great encouragement to a kind of 
 religion which is ruining the spirituality of the 
 Church. For it places the Church with the world, 
 it emboldens indolent Christians to think they are 
 on the ground the Lord has chosen for them, and 
 it encourages false professors, and deceived persons 
 in their show of religion, which they are incited to 
 beheve, by your confessions can be legitimately 
 mingled with a little sin. And thus we get into 
 the Church many worldly people, who appear to 
 love pleasure more than God, and, in all proba- 
 bility they do. 
 
 But must this inevitably be so ? Is it possible 
 that Jesus Christ, in opening " the fountain for sin 
 and for uncleanness," designed that every soul of 
 His people, or majiy souls of His people, or any 
 souls of His people, should be tainted with sin ? 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 53 
 
 And that with the two most prominent utterances 
 of His word before us ? 
 
 1. That He is of "purer eyes than to behold 
 evil," and that He cannot look upon sin, etc. 
 
 2. That He will dwell in His people, and walk 
 in them. Can two walk together except they be 
 agreed ? Can two dwell together when they must 
 be in infinite and eternal disagreement ? Can God 
 dwell in our souls with sin, when it is written that 
 He cannot look upon it ? Does God walk in His 
 people while they are daily and hourly sinning 
 against Him ? There either must be some misun- 
 derstanding on the part of the Lord's people, or 
 else God must live with sin, which He says He 
 cannot look upon. Has God provided nothing to 
 meet this emergency? Does He not design to 
 purify His Church from all iniquity, and has He 
 not decreed, from all eternity, that we ^'■should be 
 holy and without blavie before Him in love''? He 
 has, beloved. The fault is not in God's work. 
 He has opened a Fountain for sin and uncleanness. 
 He has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, so that 
 sin might not have any place in us, so that the 
 righteousness of the " law might be fulfilled in us 
 who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
 What, then, is the difficulty? This: that the 
 people of God have the views and feelings of 
 the world reproduced in their religious exercises 
 through unbelief Unbelief is a want of full reli- 
 
154 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 ance on Christ to do all things for us, and a want 
 of separation unto Christ, in every engagement of 
 life. Faith binds us to Christ, unbelief separates 
 us from Him. Faith receives all that Christ has 
 done ; unbelief is afraid to appropriate all His 
 work^ as if it would be presumption. Faith gives 
 up entirely to Him, that He alone may work, 
 willing and doing within us ; unbelief wants to 
 help work, and to examine the flaws which nature 
 has left, and so stops Christ from working. It is 
 as if the man with the withered arm, after it was 
 healed, should have looked at it to examine and 
 see if it was really healed- But he doubtless went 
 forth in its use, to praise the Gracious Restorer. 
 And so shall we do when we understand the true 
 way of faith. 
 
 What has He done ? Has He not made a full 
 provision for His people to be saved from their 
 sins according to the meaning of His name Jesus ? 
 Yes, beloved. His work is perfect, *' that we, being 
 delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might 
 serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteous- 
 ness before Him, all the days of our life," that we 
 might, with a true faith, "reckon ourselves to be 
 dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." But it is not the part of 
 faith to reckon ourselves what we are not. No : 
 faith takes hold of the sacrifice of Christ, appro- 
 priates His precious blood and His purchased 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 55 
 
 Spirit, and believes we are holy by His inworkingy 
 by His indwelling. It commits the keeping and 
 the cleansing of the soul to Him, as to a faithful 
 Lord, who will do what He hath called us for, i.e., 
 " sanctify us wholly in body, and soul, and spirit, 
 and preserve us blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." This is the faith of every 
 returning prodigal. If our newly converted heard 
 more praise for the full cure of sin, their faith 
 might soon grasp the uttermost salvation ; but 
 they soon learn to believe that they cannot be 
 cured fully, and thus unbelief is fostered. 
 
 And so it is the present experience of the 
 Church after she has been cured of sin as the man 
 was cured of his palsied arm. She looks to see if 
 she is really cured, and Hke David numbering the 
 people in unbelief, falls into mourning and help- 
 lessness, and worse than all, into a condition of 
 unbelief According to her faith she is cured, 
 according to her unbelief the old sin palsy returns. 
 
 The conclusion of the whole matter is, that when 
 Jesus has done a work for us, we are not to fear 
 proclaimi7ig our new character to His praise. We 
 are to go home to our friends, or wherever His 
 sovereign pleasure has placed us, and tell them 
 what great things God has done for us. We were 
 blind, now we see — tell all that we do see the 
 great things of His law. We were unholy, but by 
 His grace we are holy, saved from sin, and filled 
 
156 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 with all the comforts of the Holy Ghost. Surely 
 it is no Pharisaism to proclaim what God has done 
 for us, and no vaunting of self when we proclaim 
 to the praise of Jesus, that He has " made us meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
 light." For it is never said by any enjoying this 
 sacred light, "I am holier than thou," or, "I am 
 holy of myself," or, "I can be holy if I choose." 
 By no means. The praise always is given to Jesus 
 with the same breath. This is the word of our 
 expression, " Jesus saves me ; " " My Lord has 
 been with me to-day, and has been for me the 
 double cure." " Praise the Lord that such a poor 
 sinner is made by heavenly grace a saint, a holy 
 person, through His blood and Spirit." Is that 
 Pharisaism ? Nay, it is the utterance of those who 
 enjoy the earnests of the heavenly inheritance. It 
 is the language of that heaven below in which, as in 
 a fiery chariot, they expect to go to heaven. It is 
 the " Glory begun below." 
 
 4. " Yes," say many who are convinced of the 
 truth, but do not know the living reality in their 
 own souls, "it must be a precious experience, but 
 it is impossible for me to live so. I might in the 
 millennium, but now I cannot. Beloved reader, 
 do we not have some earnests of summer, days 
 when everything has the appearance of the coming 
 months ? Do not the months in their peculiar man- 
 ifestations of weather lap over into one another ? 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 157 
 
 Does not the millennium grow out of this dispen- 
 sation of the Holy Spirit ? Have we not now all 
 promises and all appliances sufficient to bring about 
 that wonderful blessedness? Is not all that is 
 wanting the simple faith of believers? Do not 
 answer me, beloved, that the fulness of time has 
 not yet come for God to bring all His children into 
 a millennial experience. For God's time is known 
 only to Himself, and more than that. He works 
 upon individuals singly and alone ; and further yet, 
 if may be in His design that you shall be the very 
 next person to enter into this rest of faith^ and thus 
 antedate that glorious day. So far from being a 
 hard way, or impossible, we shall find our Re- 
 deemer's words to be true to the letter : " My yoke 
 is easy and my burden is light." Do not be 
 startled, beloved, by our view. We do not have 
 to live so. Christ has made Himself responsible 
 for our life. ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 CHRIST IS OUR LIFE. 
 Christ is our life. There is the whole matter. 
 Faith is the bond. " I live ; yet not I, but Christ 
 liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." " In 
 Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead." We 
 question no more, then, upon His riches of life. 
 But since He is our life, why question upon the 
 fulness of the life we are to lead ? It is very true 
 
158 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 that it is measured by our capacities in one sense, 
 but why should it be measured by infirmities when 
 it is designed to overcome them ; or by former sin- 
 ful habits which it is calculated to cure, and to re- 
 place by good and holy living ? Or why should it 
 be gauged at all by the wretchedness which marks 
 an absence of simple faith, from which Jesus most 
 distinctly promises to deliver us? "My peace I 
 leave with you." 
 
 But we are met by many, very many, who are 
 saying, "Yes, that is so, if we could always live so." 
 The answer to their objection is that Christ is our 
 LIFE. It is not we that live, but " Christ liveth 
 IN ME." No greater mistake can be made in regard 
 to holy living than that we do the living — in other 
 words, that we live ourselves. " Not I, but Christ 
 liveth in me." Faith does nothing in the matter, 
 but simply takes Him at His word. Christ says, 
 " I will dwell in them and walk in them." Faith 
 flings away the little all of self, and says, " So Thou 
 Shalt." 
 
 *' Victorious faith the promise sees. 
 And looks to that alone ; 
 Laughs at impossibilities. 
 And cries ' It shall be done.' " 
 
 The poor life of unbelief, which has become fear- 
 fully prevalent, looks on the wretchedness-side, on 
 the law-side. There is, indeed, an acknowledg- 
 ment of the Christ-side of the picture, but mistaken 
 humility often cries out for the " bitter-herbs." It 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 150 
 
 is the glory of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that He has taken the bitter-herbs out of the feast. 
 A\Tien the Jews killed the lamb they must mingle 
 the taste of it with bitter-herbs ; but now, when the 
 poor sinner has been eating the bitterness, he has 
 only to eat Jesus Christ — His body and blood. 
 God puts nothing in to spoil the taste, or to modify 
 the effect of this heavenly meat and drink. The 
 gospel-passover is a pleasant feast. True, it is a 
 feast of unleavened bread. But what was to the 
 Jews a figure of trial, is to us, in the substance, very 
 great blessedness. 
 
 The leaven of the world we very much dislike, 
 we fly with pleasure and supreme satisfaction to our 
 table of the "unleavened bread of sincerity and 
 truth." Yes, beloved, Jesus has made our present 
 perpetual passover a feast of abounding joy. He 
 has wiped away our tears of poverty, and given us 
 crowns of kings. It is unbelief which makes our 
 Christian life any other than a joyful one. For 
 Christ is our life. 
 
 I. He is our life as regards all external things. 
 He extracts for us sweets from poisons, health from 
 chilly winds, honors from enemies, stores from fam- 
 ine, and victory from overpowering hosts. We 
 find everything to work for good. And there is no 
 exception — not the very least. The apparent ex- 
 ceptions shall only prove the rule. On one day a 
 number of accidents may come together touching 
 
l6o THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 self, property, children, which men may call very 
 great evils; but "victorious faith" waits another 
 day in sweet repose, when the good old promise 
 shall stand out in monumental beauty — "All things 
 [shall] have worked together for good." 
 
 We have often wondered with great admiration 
 at the life and activity with which certain marked 
 men have appeared to inspire all under them, and 
 all the concerns of vast commercial arrangements. 
 Men say, "What they touch turns into gold." 
 What, then, shall we say of our Jesus ? It is by 
 Him that these very individuals live, myriads of 
 them, and He sees them all at a glance. Jesus 
 lives everywhere for us, and at His touch every- 
 thing turns into gold, and better than gold for us. 
 "When people go from one country to another their 
 money needs exchange, but when they take their 
 last journey, no broker can turn their gold into the 
 heavenly good. Our Jesus so works together in all 
 things, that they receive us into everlasting habita- 
 tions, and the most unlikely things turn to profit in 
 the great exchange. What seemed old rags to the 
 world, what unfitted us for the circles of worldly 
 society, enhance the glory of the heavenly rest. 
 
 Therefore, since Jesus has bidden us rest on 
 Him, we may be thoroughly convinced that nothing 
 can move outside of us to harm us. We will work 
 with our hands, we will be very diligent in business ; 
 beyond that we will " be careful for nothing." It 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. l6l 
 
 is not ours to make our own life in the external 
 world any more than in the internal. Jesus is our 
 life every\vhere, and by Him our being extracts its 
 supplies from earth and sea and air and the angelic 
 host. 
 
 Blessed Jesus, charm our souls into a subserv- 
 iency of all our commerce to Thy will. "It is 
 vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat 
 the bread of sorrows ; for so He giveth His beloved 
 sleep." (Psalm cxxvii. 2.) O Christian ! do you 
 understand this? Do you thus trust Jesus for all 
 outside concerns, as well as give all you have and 
 all you do to Him ? Then you are a happy soul, 
 relieved from cares which press very many into 
 grief, day by day. 
 
 "Thrice happy man, thy Maker's care 
 Shall keep thee from the fowler's snare." 
 
 Jesus is more than all this ! 
 
 2. He is our inner life. Faith is the bond. It 
 is the province of faith to take Him as such, and 
 rest upon Him impHcitly. We may take Him to 
 be our inner life, because He has said it. "I am 
 come that they might have life, and that they 
 might have it more abundantly." 
 
 There need be none saying, *' It would be pleas- 
 ant so to appropriate Christ, if we could always live 
 so." We need no more do this living in the soul 
 than we do the living in the world. He is the life 
 within. As such we must take Him for all — the 
 11 
 
1 62 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 all and in all of our contented souls, happy if we 
 can know that He is fully enthroned. " Christ in 
 you the hope of glory" is the tender aspiration 
 of multitudes who long for a joy to which they 
 are strangers, though they know there is a joy 
 promised which is unspeakable. We do not be- 
 lieve that any man ever, even by the grace of God, 
 becomes infallible, but the writer is free to confess 
 his full belief in salvation '■'■to the uttermost'^ by the 
 infallible Christ. And why not ? Let Him have 
 the supreme place, let Him have your soul to do 
 His will in it; what is His will? "Even your 
 sanctification." It shall be done. 
 
 I repeat, if He have your soul to do as He 
 please in it, neither Satan nor yourself can stop 
 His work. That is, you having yielded up all to 
 Him, will not wish to take anything out of His 
 hands ("he that belie veth shall not make haste"), 
 and Satan cannot enter. Satan flies if Jesus be 
 there. And if he flies he cannot do much inside 
 nor out. " I will dwell in them and walk in them." 
 
 Christ Jesus is our life as its supply. As He pro- 
 vides the breath for the body, so He inspires the 
 soul. When it is told us that we do not pray with- 
 out the Holy Ghost, why should it not be believed 
 that we do believe and live by Him ? We could 
 not love Him unless He had first loved us to come 
 in to us and sup with us. But He provides His 
 own feast — "we with Him." Precious Jesus, thus 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 63 
 
 to assure us of the pleasure He takes with us in 
 the feast of His own love ! Precious Jesus, thus 
 to supply the heart, to sit in it, to love what is gar- 
 nished by His grace. " By the grace of God I am 
 what I am." 
 
 He is our hfe as its controller and director. 
 " He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath 
 said, out of him shall flow rivers of living water." 
 ''This spake He of the Spirit, which they that 
 believe on Him should receive." His love is all- 
 absorbing, and so is His presence. It is irresistible. 
 Try it. Give Him the control of your heart and 
 all your powers, and see how He shall fill every 
 avenue with Himself. It is a favorite way of reply- 
 ing to this, that He has the control already. But, 
 beloved, it cannot be doubted that if your soul 
 fully rested on Him to control all your movements, 
 He would, " according to your faith," govern and 
 rectify and bless it with a joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory. 
 
 He does indeed control as King at all times, and 
 in infinite mercy keeps our feeble frames ; but in 
 His priestly royalty He waits our faith's request and 
 subjection. It shall be to you in this as you will. 
 He will not deny your will in this matter. If your 
 will opens to Him, His heavenly rays shall make 
 such a brightness in your heart as to convince you 
 of a heaven below. You shall find Him day and 
 night filling your mind with the choicest thoughts, 
 
164 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 leading you away from habits of doubtful propriety 
 and into those of true spiritual security, and shed- 
 ding abroad within you such comforts as to contin- 
 ually fill your mouth with a new song. All the way 
 along it shall be "Jesus." "To me to live is 
 Christ." You will be convinced of a life within 
 which shall often call out a heavenly surprise. 
 Though you will be very far from doing the living, 
 yet you will say, " I do live, yet not I, but Christ 
 liveth in me." The Christ within shall surprise you 
 in all the fruits of the Spirit, and you shall be a 
 wonder to yourself 
 
 Now it might appear strange to say, beloved, 
 '■'• Let your life control and direct you." And yet 
 it is strangely sad that sin has so affected our poor, 
 fallen humanity, and unbeHef has so seized upon 
 the Church of Christ, that very few permit the Uving 
 principle within to work out its legitimate results. 
 Men are dying from disease by neglect of their 
 vital functions, and Christians, through neglect of 
 their living Christ, and a departure from simple 
 trust and complete submission, are mourning over 
 their wretchedness and leanness. 
 
 But Christians may be a different race. "To 
 them the privilege is given." They have a happy 
 choice before them — a choice of Jesus Christ. 
 Their life ! to rule and absorb all their earthly life, 
 and constrain them to the full enjoyment of Him- 
 self as a present and " uttermost " Saviour ! In- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH: 1 65 
 
 deed, this is required that they may be proper 
 witnesses to His "exceeding great and precious 
 promises." 
 
 Believer in Jesus, it belongs to you to see that 
 He has supreme control in your heart. He is not 
 responsible for your failures. You need not ask 
 Him if you may, or to let you, consecrate all to 
 Him. Do it. Let Him, as your life, work in you 
 His unspeakable joy. 
 
 IV. But the greatest hindrances to afi entrance 
 upon this rest of faith are iii the hearts of Christians, 
 If it were not for these, perhaps their objections 
 would fade as the early dew. 
 
 I, There is a disposition to materialize, to make 
 everything out upon an earthly scale. Some would 
 sit and " sing themselves away to everlasting bliss," 
 in a vague and undefinable fervor, entirely satis- 
 fied with their earthly condition. 
 
 A young Christian professor, surrounded with 
 everything to please the mortal sense, once said, 
 " I do not see what need there is of Christians 
 going to heaven. Is not this world, as a work of 
 God, as perfect as it can be ? Why do we want 
 any better?" The difficulty was in the want of 
 spiritual vision. Such would seem blind to the higher 
 style of beauty which belongs to the spiritual world. 
 They are easily satisfied with earth, and have much 
 .hardship in thinking of God, and of heaven, and 
 of eternal Ufe. Their " heaven below " is at a vast 
 
1 66 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 remove from God's heaven above. And yet we do 
 often hear such speak of enjoyment during religious 
 services, or during some closet devotions. But 
 they complain that such happy experiences are 
 very brief, and are succeeded by painful seasons. 
 Their summers are short, their winters are long. 
 
 BELOVED, THERE IS A REAL HEAVEN BELOW. 
 
 The saints in heaven are not only happy, they 
 are intelligently so. They are singing a song, every 
 line of which, every word of which, is full of the 
 choicest thoughts that are possible to an intelligent 
 being. Our foretaste is something of the same 
 kind. It is by no means a continued repetition of 
 the name and work of Jesus in verse, and a solemn 
 frame while at the happy employment ; but it is 
 a sensible apprehension of Christ as made unto us 
 a most perfect, everlasting, present Redeemer. 
 
 Nor is it a mere temporary experience, for when 
 a person gets near heaven in reality, he does not 
 wish to leave it soon. Surely, God will not drive 
 him out ; neither will Satan hope to draw him out, 
 unless he sees encouragement in some looseness of 
 the mind. Emotions are short-lived, but the enjoy- 
 ments of the everlasting covenant are given from 
 eternity, and are designed to reach into eternity. 
 "A heaven below" is heaven begun below, and is 
 a present knowledge of the same facts in our re- 
 demption, that shall swell the heavenly chorus. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 167 
 
 Heaven's song is full of Christ and what He has 
 done. And so is the heart of one who enjoys the 
 foretaste. 
 
 It would appear, then, that all we have to do 
 that we may enjoy heaven here, is to go at once to 
 the blessed Jesus ; and if we know what He has 
 done for us, appropriate it by faith, and praise Him 
 for it ; or, if we do not know, ask Him, through 
 His Word, how fully we may be saved in this life, 
 and empty our hearts before Him for the reception 
 of His fulness. For Jesus surely will possess us 
 wholly, if we will only believe and not doubt ; 
 while, at the same time, we are standing on salva- 
 tion ground by a full consecration of our all to 
 Him. 
 
 Then, beloved, you shall know what it is to have 
 heaven on earth. The frame may not be excited, 
 but there will be inward knowledge of completeness 
 — perhaps never felt before. He will do His work 
 sweetly. He will save you to the uttermost. You 
 may even wonder what kind of a blessing He has 
 given you. You will know a precious riddance 
 from burdens, a delightful sense of oneness with 
 Jesus Himself; a full disposition to let Jesus have 
 the control of you in all things ; a most tender 
 sensibility to sin ; pain at the thought of sinning, 
 and a rising above it, with the sweet assurance of 
 always being able to triumph in Christ. If any 
 bad habit clung to you before, so that it was a grief 
 
1 68 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 to you, you shall now find yourself delightfully free 
 from it, with a realization of liberty and sweetness 
 in the service of God, such as perhaps you had 
 never known, or at least only in short glimpses. 
 The precious will of the heavenly Husband only 
 needs to be known to make any habit which is 
 unpleasant to Him exceedingly distasteful to us. 
 You shall commence the new song which belongs 
 this side the flood " unto Him that loved us, and 
 washed us from our sins in His own blood, and 
 hath made us kings and priests unto God and His 
 Father ; to Him be glory and dominion forever and 
 ever. Amen." 
 
 You may find yourself walking the floors of 
 your house, or your room, with raptures ; if you 
 are rich, you will feel divorced from your riches to 
 pour them out for Jesus and His cause and His 
 chosen ; if you are poor, you will be enjoying 
 greater riches than the treasures in Egypt or in Wall 
 Street. You shall have songs in the night, and will 
 feel the rising of a hearty " Amen " to the praise 
 of Jesus wherever you hear it spoken. 
 
 This, beloved, is heaven commenced. How can 
 it be a mere temporary emotion when all things 
 have forever passed out of your hands, and Jesus is 
 received as the living Christ, the triumphant keep- 
 er, Controller, Life, indwelling Redeemer of your 
 soul. 
 
 The truth is, beloved, that this is the salvation 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 69 
 
 from all sin, which is the privilege of every believer. 
 And yours. This is the joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory, the unutterable blessedness of those who 
 will have Jesus to possess them wholly, and would 
 be content with no amount of good outside of 
 Him. 
 
 "Thy gifts, alas ! will not sufi&ce. 
 Unless Thyself be given ; 
 Thy presence makes my Paradise, 
 For where Thou art is heaven." 
 
 The great need of the members of the 
 Church is {and they need 7iot study many volumes 
 to know the seer et of true blessedness) lonely fel- 
 lowship with Christ. 
 
 To be with Jesus is satisfying. And we can be 
 with Him now. Some took knowledge of the 
 early saints " that they had been with Jesus." Nor 
 can any help marking the persons who commune 
 with the Lord. For they come from His presence 
 with faces that show love, and satisfaction, and en- 
 durance, and determination to hold up the word of 
 life. If, then, we are asked, " Where is the place 
 of power ; what is the secret of a life of triumph 
 over Satan, and sin, and Antinomianism V we an- 
 swer, in " lonely fellowship with Christy 
 
 This is the secret of all saintly power within the 
 soul, in the world, in the pulpit, in the press, in 
 business, in the social circle. Lonely fellowship 
 with Christ shall bring the soul His own gracious 
 
lyo THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 victories over all its foes, and end its inward strug- 
 gle with the powers of darkness. It shall prepare 
 us to teach the truth in clear lines, so that the 
 world shall not mistake. The ungodly will hate 
 and frown, and if possible, persecute ; but their 
 changing tribes shall feel the weight of that influ- 
 ence which eventually shall lay the nations at the 
 feet of Jesus. This truth applies both to individu- 
 als and to bands of Christ's followers, whether 
 large or small. Let the circles of His people take 
 their business to His throne, and stay there with 
 it, until they receive the thing they ask of Him, or 
 become panoplied by His Holy Spirit for the zeal- 
 ous efforts which shall bring the desire of their 
 hearts. Jesus often uses us to do His work and 
 accomplish His desires. In fact. He never does 
 what we can do. He will not do the common 
 things which belong to us. 
 
 What a blessing if every person of the company, 
 besides thus taking their work to Christ in a body, 
 lifts up his heart to Him in private ! For this lone- 
 ly fellowship with Jesus may be had, though we are 
 surrounded by many of our fellows. Our hearts 
 and our desires may be with Him though we are in 
 the crowded assembly, or in the busy thoroughfare. 
 There is a hiding with Christ, when the outward ap- 
 pearance is that of activity and business, and coa- 
 cern about others. Paul was hiding with him in 
 the shipwreck, when he was giving orders and di- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I7I 
 
 rections to the crew — changed from prisoner to 
 captain, though he appeared to be bound. And 
 many a semion which appears to engage all the 
 preacher's thoughts, is preached, while the heart is 
 leaning up toward Christ, and breathing after His 
 blessing. 
 
 Fellowship with the Lord Jesus is a condition of 
 oneness with the mind of Christ, and consequently 
 it is marked with the light of the Lord. We have 
 confidence that He heareth us, and if we ask any- 
 thing of Him, we know that we have that which we 
 ask of Him. " We walk in the light, as He is in 
 the light, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleansth us 
 from all sin." Such do not walk in darkness, but 
 have the light of life ; they have no wretchedness, 
 for Jesus has delivered them ; and no condemna- 
 tion, because they " walk not after the flesh, but 
 after the Spirit." 
 
 Such persons really pray. They may not use as 
 many words as some ; they may be very far from 
 fluency in their expressions ; but God hears them, 
 and answers in whatsoever they ask. Prayer is 
 not so much in the words as in the condition of 
 the soul. Eloquence of expression and mention 
 of wants fail when the will is not subject to God, 
 or when there is no faith. Our will laid at Jesus' 
 feet, and our hearts simply taking Him at His word, 
 the poorest expressions of our slow speech become 
 mighty in prevalence with God. But such a sub- 
 
172 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 jection of our whole being to God only is agreea- 
 ble to fellowship. 
 
 Beloved soul, do not think that it is just going 
 into a room and attentively reading a chapter, and 
 as attentively mentioning your wants. Far from it. 
 First of all, you must be willing to receive answer 
 from Jesus in His own way, to have Him take His 
 own course with you, and to send you " whither- 
 soever" He will. You must be willing that He 
 should bring you to this state of soul in the day 
 of His power. Then you may have precious 
 fellowship with Christ. Your will laid down, His 
 will shall be sweeter than honey to your taste ; your 
 plans all given up. His wisdom shall be yours. 
 Yes, he will guide you with His eye, and you shall 
 be confident of this ; though you be walking in 
 usual paths, or taken out of them in ways you know 
 not, or though you seem to be carried of the Spirit 
 to a distance from all you have ever known. 
 
 Beloved, is it not delightful, above all things on 
 earth, to see a heart alone with Jesus, asking Him 
 what He can do for it? And what shall we suppose 
 the answer to be ? The power of Jesus, the mean- 
 ing of Jesus' last sentence on the cross, '* It is fin- 
 ished," including, as it must, the purchase of the 
 Holy Ghost, the willingness of the heavenly I.amb 
 to fill his hungering and thirsting soul with right- 
 eousness — all these, and everything we know about 
 Jesus, proclaim that such a soul shall be very rich 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 73 
 
 in all the things of His storehouse. Pardon, peace, 
 hoHness, love, and the word of God shall dwell in 
 him " richly in all wisdom." He shall be '' filled 
 with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus 
 Christ, to the glory and praise of God." 
 
 Let us be among that number. Do not let our 
 mortality, our humanity, our natural condition as 
 sinners, hinder us from asking what He can do for 
 us. The answer will bring immortality, will shine 
 with the light of Christ Himself in our humanity, 
 and will prove His almighty power to make us His 
 ov/n representatives in this world ; flesh of His 
 flesh, and bone of His bone ; the several parts of 
 His body, shining with the brightness, the spiritual 
 life, the moral beauty of our living Head. 
 
 If we may have such fellowship with Him by 
 whom we can do all things, why should not our very 
 life be a doxology ? It will be, beloved, and He 
 shall approve His own workmanship. Praise Him, 
 ]:)raise the Holy Trinity, whose wondrous grace con- 
 founds the powers of darkness, and promises to 
 make earth happier than Eden. 
 
 2. The chief of all difficulties in the hearts of true 
 Christians is Unbelief The Lord, with gracious 
 continuance, has been inviting, '' Come and take," 
 " Drink abundantly ; " but what myriads are saying 
 of this rest of faith, "It is not for me." Though 
 they have desired it long, though they have conse- 
 crated everything, though often, both by The 
 
174 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Living Word, and by dear souls already at rest, 
 they have been encouraged to throw themselves 
 upon the ocean of infinite love, they still continue 
 to cry out " it is not for me." We have an answer 
 to their unbelief — and may the gracious Lord use 
 it as a specific for some longing soul. 
 
 IT MAY BE YOURS. 
 
 The " God of Peace " will do great things for 
 His chosen. This name proclaims it, therefore the 
 apostle loved the use of it in such a connection. 
 The " God of peace be with you all." (Rom. xv. 
 2f2i-) ''''The God of peace shall bruise Satan under 
 your feet shortly." (Rom. xvi. 20.) "The very 
 God of peace sanctify you wholly." (i Thess. v. 
 23.) The name expresses a gracious work of God, 
 wherein He has changed our condition, and drawn 
 our willing souls to His throne. It therefore in- 
 cludes everything that can embolden us to seek the 
 " best gifts," to expect the largest blessings. 
 
 Some of the "exceeding great and precious 
 promises" are really startling to those who have 
 been accustomed to go to the throne with a pil- 
 grim's pack. Their load has been as galling as the 
 Jewish ceremonial. It was more than they could 
 bear. They cut the promises down by interpreta- 
 tions. We are encouraged to enlarge upon the 
 promises rather than cut them down, by this holy 
 name — "The God of peace!" It signifies that 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 75 
 
 God is our Father, that we are reconciled to God, 
 that we are admitted to sonship, that He will fulfil 
 every legitimate desire of our being. 
 
 None will doubt that it is a legitimate desire — 
 to be, in our measure, fully conformed to His life, 
 to be perfect, to fulfil the end of our creation. This 
 His Holy Name is our heavenly warrant, therefore, 
 for our expectation of the fulfilment of His every 
 promise. The '' God of peace" expects us to take 
 the peace, the full peace which Himself hath given 
 at the cost of His greatest gift. Since He is our 
 " God of peace," we have every reason to expect a 
 result, in His gracious dealings with us, commen- 
 surate with the statement of this promise, with the 
 sacred meaning of the word peace, and with the 
 most extensive needs of our renewed nature. Be- 
 loved, in prayer we should be bold. Ask Him not 
 for the inside limit of His grace, but its utmost. 
 
 " Thou art coming to a King, 
 
 Large petitions with thee bring." 
 
 • 
 
 "The God of peace, that brought again from the 
 dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the 
 sheep, through the Blood of the everlasting cove- 
 nant, make you perfect in every good work to do 
 His will, working in you that which is well pleasing 
 in His sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom be 
 glory forever and ever. Amen." (Heb. xiii. 20, 21.) 
 
 There, dear child of God, is your heavenly war- 
 
176 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 rant. This promise covers all your need. Here is 
 the whole story. It expresses just the thing you 
 want — to be, in your measure^ "perfect in every 
 good work to do His will." It tells you how only 
 it can be done, Himself "working in you that which 
 is well-pleasing in His sight." Blessed be His 
 name, we are not ignorant of that inworking power ; 
 the only difficulty with you, beloved, being that you 
 have hitherto limited the promises, and hence you 
 have limited the praise of " Him who is able to do 
 exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
 think, according to the Power that worketh in us." 
 And this gracious fact of His inworking is based 
 upon the chosen foundation of our salvation, " the 
 Blood of the everlasting covenant." 
 
 Do you not see, precious soul, how this promise 
 belongs to you ? It is yours as much as if there 
 were not another soul on earth to claim the bless- 
 ing. Shall not this, then, stop the mouth of unbe- 
 lief which has hitherto said : " The precious expe- 
 rience is for those who -have more grace," " I am 
 too vile," "I am not rightly surrounded for the en- 
 joyment of it." It is your blessedness, that in ful- 
 filling to you the promises of His " everlasting cov- 
 enant," God does not have to kill off a few of your 
 friends, or to break down your business (if it be a 
 proper one), or to make an angel of you. He will 
 give you the precious experience of which I write, 
 and save you from your sins, in the highest or low- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I77 
 
 est position you may occupy. In the furnace, in 
 the lion's den, in the caves of the earth, being 
 ''destitute, afflicted, tormented," in a family of 
 children, yes, even " though your house be not so 
 Avith God " as David had to say ; anywhere, every- 
 where, the Lord can, and will give you " a heaven 
 below." But of course He cannot do it without 
 your faith. You must simply rely upon the won- 
 derful statements of His " exceeding great and pre- 
 cious promises," and believe that He can, that He 
 will, that He does for you, everything that He has 
 thus engaged to do. Before you can so believe, 
 you must have everything of your former possessions 
 marked, by an entire consecration, — " The Lord's 
 alojiey For how can you believe when you desire 
 anything out of God's order? 
 
 Now, my brother, or sister, old or young, sick or 
 well, crippled or straight, successful in business or 
 broken down, married or single, rich or poor, 
 learned or ignorant, widowed and desolate or hav- 
 ing an husband, favored or despised — behold the 
 grace ! You may be filled with the Spirit. I do 
 exhort you, singly and together, to take Jesus as 
 your FULL and present Saviour. " Be not filled 
 with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the 
 Spirit." Cast out the wine, the world, the flesh ; 
 let the Almighty Spirit in. *' If any man hear my 
 voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and 
 Id 
 
178 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 will sup with him, jind he A^ith Me." This promise 
 was sent to the members of a lukewarm church. 
 
 You that have hitherto unworthily given the 
 Saviour but a part, have had a secret idolatry, have 
 even denied Him — come now and be blessed, 
 come now and sup with Him ; now have your 
 "fellowship with the Father, and with His Son 
 Jesus Christ." God has declared His purpose and 
 His promise thsit jou should be holy, having all 
 grace, living above the world and near to Himself. 
 Beloved, it is, as His word says, " great peace ! " 
 See His description of it : " 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 
 understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
 through Christ Jesus." (Phil. iv. 6, 7.) Such a 
 peace may be yours. Every provision is made for 
 it, every promise is given to encourage the expecta- 
 tion of it ; He stands at your door with it. " He 
 is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
 God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make in- 
 tercession for them." (Heb. vii. 25.) "I am the 
 Door ; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, 
 and shall go in and out, 2iY\6. find pasture.'' "I am 
 come that they might have life, and that they might 
 have it more abundantly." (John x. 9, 10.) 
 
 "What more can He say than to you He hath said. 
 Who unto the Saviour for refuge have fled ? " 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 79 
 
 3. There is another trouble which keeps many 
 out of comfort and out of '' this grace wherein we 
 stand." It is a Seventh-of-Romans difficulty, and a 
 Galatian snare, which in our journey we do well to 
 keep in the distance by simple faith. Paul would 
 never have cried, " O wretched man that I am ! " but 
 for this, and many who have been burning lights in 
 the Church as Payson was, would have shone with 
 greater power, as indeed the lovely Payson himself 
 in his confession gives us room to see. This 
 trouble goes under the name of 
 
 LEGALITY. 
 
 Legality in the Christian system is opposed to 
 spiritual liberty. The one is a condition of the 
 most enlarged and enlightened pleasure, the other 
 is that of bondage and burdens. Spiritual liberty 
 finds its all in Christ, and revolves around Him 
 with conscious supports of His influential presence. 
 Legality very strongly professes the same, but is 
 continually looking to its own works as though they 
 were the complement of what God has done. 
 Hence while spiritual liberty is in the enjoyment of 
 a happiness which is sometimes indescribable, le- 
 gality is frequently under burdens resulting from its 
 continuously unfinished business. 
 
 Legality, therefore, sometimes greatly complains 
 that spiritual liberty enjoys so much and does so 
 little, and it quite loudly proclaims that spiritual 
 
l8o THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 liberty shall not enter heaven because it is going 
 there on flowery beds of ease. It insists that the 
 way is hard, narrow, thorough, and full of suffering 
 to the flesh, though the spirit is full of rejoicing. 
 Its own singing, however, does not sound like 
 heaven ; it is rather a mournful exhortation to 
 others, that if they do not put on sackcloth they 
 will most miserably perish. It becomes a sort of 
 spiritual police over the children of God, to watch 
 their frequent failures, to remind them of the strict- 
 ness of God's holy law, to assure them that but few 
 of them will see the Lord unless they do dift'erently, 
 to goad them into a certain way of living in which 
 everything shall be cut according to its own pat- 
 tern, and yield to its own sectarian spirit. And 
 hence those who yield to it come, not into a broad, 
 spiritual enjoyment, nor into the love of the thir- 
 teenth chapter of first Corinthians, but simply into 
 legality. As it is, so do they become in the world, 
 not gospel Christians, but legal ones. 
 
 Peter fell into legality when he was to be blamed. 
 Then, instead of the bold and daring apostle, he be- 
 came a dissembler. For legality makes cowards 
 of the brave. Peter's cowardice carried away many 
 besides, and even Barnabas was chained down to 
 Judaistic ways. Paul himself knew well what it was, 
 for he had been there, and experienced the same 
 folly. When these holy men simply held the hand 
 of Christ and walked in Him, He the meanwhile 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. l8l 
 
 working in them and around them, they were far 
 from all alarm from the very gates of hell ; much 
 more from Judaistic ways : but when they went 
 again to the commandment and tried to fulfil it by 
 great faithfulness and outward observances, they 
 cried out from their burdens. Sin, which had been 
 dead, revived, and they died. 
 
 The testimony of legahty is that of burdens. The 
 work, left to Jesus, is truly delightful, but taken 
 upon ourselves is a burden which we nor our fathers 
 were able to bear. But this testimony has various 
 shades. Now it will be recounting its good deeds ; 
 how it lives a much better life than many Christians, 
 how much it suffers for Jesus' sake, how particular 
 it is about the jots and tittles of the law, how it 
 hates such and such appearances on the saints, how 
 it is free to submit its doings to any inspection, and 
 therefore how complacent God must be with it, and 
 how wide open the door must be for it into glory. 
 "And oh ! " it says, " if I can only live so till the 
 last moment, heaven will be mine." 
 
 But soon its testimony is changed, and it groans in 
 conscious suffering of its own shortcomings. It has 
 been fearful of flesh and blood, it has not had the 
 courage for the performance of some difficult duty, 
 it has not been entirely dead to the opinions of the 
 mass of those who call themselves (many of them 
 truly are) Christians, it has been led into eating 
 something it should never have touched — some inv-^ 
 
1 82 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 ported grapes, or some expensive food, or it has 
 been sitting at some person's table without at once 
 breaking out into singing though the friends were 
 not accustomed to it, nor has it loaded itself with 
 burdens in doing duties, which it has done in such 
 a way as to make the duty pleasant. The duties, 
 indeed, are done, but they have been done too 
 easily. It would feel far better if they had been 
 done with more hardships to the flesh. And under 
 the power of such burdens as these it is legality which 
 cries out " O wretched man that I am ! who shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death ? " 
 
 It has been trying all the time to do right, but 
 has done wrong. • Its difficulty has been that it tried 
 too much. It has left off to let Christ lead it. It 
 has run unsent. It has cut its dress by its own 
 pattern, and has not had respect to the colors, and 
 tastes, and multitudes which Christ Himself has 
 created, and which He Himself will crown with His 
 own approval, if they who have possessed them 
 shall have walked with Him in white. It has been 
 unmindful of the easy yoke and light burden of 
 Christ, in making things hard to do which Jesus 
 meant should be precious privileges. 
 
 There is another phase of legality. In a meet- 
 ing held for the promotion of holiness some months 
 since we noticed a young man, without apparent 
 feeling during most of the meeting. The emotions 
 of some of the people began to rise into demonstra- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 83 
 
 tions of warmth, when suddenly this young man fell 
 from his seat upon the floor. Where this is the 
 work of the Holy Spirit we have no objections to 
 offer, but would encourage everything that is of 
 the Holy Spirit. After the meeting we asked the 
 young man what were his experiences. But how 
 were we astonished, as he appeared perfectly calm, 
 and as with carelessness rather than with emotion 
 he said, " Oh I just did it to mortify the flesh." 
 That was the first case we had heard of such a way 
 of mortifying the flesh. We have heard of some 
 since. But it occurs to us that if such truly desire 
 to mortify the flesh, it would be far better to fall 
 down in the street, or in some other place, than 
 one in which every person present maybe supposed 
 to have a kindly sympathy. But that is one of the 
 worst forms of legality. It is doing something for 
 Jesus' sake which Jesus does not want any to do. 
 They say that Satan tells them they are afraid to fall 
 down on the floor, and so they fall down to baffle 
 Satan. But if that be Satan (may it not be, is it not 
 simply a morbidity of conscience?) we certainly 
 should have another way of meeting the ques- 
 tion. We should answer — yes, we are afraid and. 
 ashamed to do anything which, if the whole com- 
 pany should do at the same time, would simply 
 demonstrate an unmeaning service, and an amal- 
 gamation of useless and foolish improprieties. 
 " Let all things be done decently and in order." 
 
184 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 We do thoroughly beUeve in being counted a 
 fool for Christ's sake when men will so call us for 
 our intelligent action. But we do also believe that 
 our utmost intelHgence is to be used in guarding us 
 from what really has no meaning in it. . The truth 
 of the gospel is foolishness, and prayer is foolish- 
 ness to the world, and strict holy living is the same 
 to those who live in sin, and the full proclamation 
 of these will bring a mortification of the flesh ; but 
 an unintelligent falling, to baffle the most intelligent 
 power of Satan, will and can only bring a legal sat- 
 isfaction, which a little intelligent searching would 
 do away with. 
 
 We believe in great thoroughness of religious liv- 
 ing, in the most scrupulous integrity and honesty, 
 and distance from the world ; but also in the most 
 intelligent submission to Christ as the source of all 
 wisdom and of all wise action. 
 
 The cure of legality is in the simplest faith in 
 Jesus. He has paid our debt. He at present 
 saves. Our duties do not save us. The way in 
 which Jesus saves is by working within us all right- 
 eousness. It is a sovereign's work. He makes us 
 pure by dwelling within us. When faith appre- 
 hends this fact, and simply leans on Jesus to do the 
 work, legality is cured. But when the soul, leav- 
 ing this simplicity, tries, and tries, and tries again 
 to work for God's favor, the disease and its con- 
 sequent wretchedness come on, and it cries, 
 
THE REST OK FAITH. 1 85 
 
 " Wretched man that I am." Let Jesus rule ! 
 Away with all endeavors after our own v/orking, 
 with all burdening ourselves with other men's sins, 
 and with judgments upon the saints. Perfection in 
 Christ is Christ in us, the hope of glory. 
 
 "Till to Jesus' work you cling 
 By a simple faith, 
 Doing is a deadly thing. 
 Doing ends in death. 
 
 "Cast your deadly doing down, 
 Down at Jesus' feet, 
 Stand in Him, in Him alone. 
 Gloriously complete." 
 
 CONSIDER, BELOVED, THE HEAVENLY HUSBAND. 
 
 Who and what are ours, and what for ? Here 
 Christian, is the unfolding of bliss. Make sure 
 answer to this question, and no man may ever call 
 you poor. Neither will you say you are poor, 
 neither vAW you doubt nor be dismayed. Christ is 
 ours. Let each one walk in the joy of this truth 
 (for it is not true collectively if it be not true in- 
 dividually) : " Christ is mine.^^ How rich we are ! 
 PYiendship with kings does not always bring riches. 
 The king may love you as a poor subject, or as a 
 faithful underling, and you may remain always such. 
 Not so with Jesus. " Henceforth I call you not 
 servants — but I have called you friends." Jesus 
 has no underlings. They do not cry out in the 
 streets after Him as by magic of personal presence 
 
1 86 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 and royal pomp, "Long live the king;" but His 
 meek presence charms the humble, and the little 
 children in heart, and they lay their all at His feet, 
 and raise their hallelujahs, though there may be 
 many who despise. The despisers wonder and 
 perish. Jesus raises these little ones into friends. 
 
 There is, however, more than this to be included 
 under the expression, " Christ is miner It is not 
 the "mine" of friendship : it is the "mine" of mar- 
 riage. There is no truth more clearly revealed than 
 that Jesus is our heavenly Husband, and we are His 
 bride. It cannot be so in the aggregate but by the 
 mystical union of single believers. " Thou shalt 
 call me Ishi (my husband), and shalt call me no 
 more " BaaU" (My Lord). And here is our blessed- 
 ness in reading the precious prophecies of good to 
 Zion. They belong to believers. The aggregation 
 of believers shall all together enjoy them when they 
 have as individuals embraced them. But this mat- 
 ter of our heavenly Husband has its individual ap- 
 plication in the New Testament. "Ye are become 
 dead to the law by the body of Christ ; that ye 
 should be married to another, even to Him Wlw is 
 raised from the dead." 
 
 The wife is no slave. The true wife of a good 
 husband, as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, 
 is inexpressibly dear unto him. He has taken her 
 to be one with him, and she is encouraged in the 
 full exercise of the marriage spirit. It is hers to 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 187 
 
 cherish the love by which she has come into pos- 
 session of her husband's name, his goods, his Ufe, 
 his associations. Into possession under him. 
 
 Let the name Husband be appHed to the Lord 
 Jesus. We are at once introduced to scenes of 
 blessedness of which the old prophets told. " As it 
 is written, eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love Him. 
 But God hath revealed thein unto us by His Spirit." 
 This union is not a fleshly union as though we knew 
 Christ after the flesh, and received honors for such 
 a royal relation. It is sweeter, deeper, more exten- 
 sive than any union of the flesh can be. With our 
 Jesus we go far from the flesh, far from the way of 
 the world, into the regions of spiritual relationship, 
 of exalted intimacy with Him WTio is unseen by 
 mortal eyes. But not unreal ; nothing more real, 
 we may rather say nothing so real, for our Jesus is 
 the Maker and Former of all realities. We feel 
 nothing so quickly as His smile, nothing so fully as 
 the turning away of His dear face. 
 
 The soul that is married to Jesus is well married. 
 There can be no question upon the good or ill favor 
 of his future life. For in this case the Husband 
 never grows cold, He never leaves His home to 
 seek among others an opposite craving. His desire 
 is to be with His chosen, and have His chosen near 
 to Himself. And therefore He has the most nat- 
 
1 88 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 ural desire to possess the unrivalled place in the 
 heart of His beloved. He knows full well that her 
 happiness is in her deepest simplicity of love and 
 submission to His every wish. For all His wishes 
 are good and only good. His will is the supreme 
 law of her enjoyment. 
 
 Believers in Jesus, His will is your highest law of 
 good. Keep close to your heavenly Husband, and 
 you will always be rich and happy, and in the sweet- 
 est fellowships of earth and heaven. What mistakes 
 they make who profess attachment to the Lord, yet 
 mingle carelessly with a godless and time-serving 
 world; whose closets are but seldom sought, and 
 when found are not places of real heart-prayer, but 
 only duty-places, and God's Word a duty-book. But 
 that is a very hard position. When the law of life 
 for a bride is a law of duties to be done, her spirit is 
 slavish, and her experience wretched. Worldly pro- 
 fessors are just of that class. They are like wives, 
 who expect to enjoy all the love of their husbands 
 when they do nothing to show that they have the 
 spirit of true liberty. But what a wife, whose heart 
 does not overflow with love ! How hard her lot ! 
 What a Christian, whose life is taken up with doing 
 things which " a task and burden prove." 
 
 Now God's Word says "all things are yours;" 
 but such Christians cannot understand any more 
 than the theory. They see it in the Word of God, 
 but they do not see that they are the persons com- 
 
, THE REST OF FAITH. 189 
 
 prehended in the word "yours." "It is for those 
 who have more grace than they." Suppose a wife 
 should say the same. The husband says to her, 
 "All things are yours, and I am yours." But bowed 
 down by a slavish spirit, she says, " Not for me." 
 She disbelieves his word. Her happiness will go for 
 nothing. No wonder that a Christian who is not 
 entirely devoted to Christ should be out with him- 
 self, out with the world, and not at one with the 
 Lord Jesus. We are even told that there are many 
 such — and now and then, in some places, such as 
 the Fulton-street prayer-meeting, quite frequently 
 you hear those who have long professed the Lord 
 Jesus doubting their conversion, or feeling most 
 \vretched from habits of sin and evil which they 
 might naturally expect the grace of God to cure. 
 They are living in the seventh of Romans. 
 
 " 'Tis a point they long to know. 
 Oft it causes anxious thought, — 
 Do they love the Lord or no. 
 Are they His or are they not ? " 
 
 Strange language for the bride to use of her hus- 
 band ! If the heavenly Husband should speak so 
 of His bride, it would seal her perdition. It is ex- 
 ceeding great unhappiness, when, while He remains 
 true, she cries for the faultiness of her love. 
 
 Alas ! that there should be a single soul of such 
 when Jesus lives to bless ! We do not refer now 
 to such as the poet Cowper, who was diseased, nor 
 
190 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 to any poor souls so afflicted. They should not be 
 a rule unto the Church, surely. But outside of the 
 number of such afflicted ones, why should there be 
 an uncomfortable soul, under the promises of the 
 Lord? Only through unbelief — through keeping 
 away from Christ. 
 
 Now the true wife has a way of enjoying her 
 husband's name, his position, his possessions, his 
 home, and his influence. And her way of so enjoy- 
 ing herself forms a proper directory for every 
 Christian in the enjoyment of our relation with the 
 Lord Jesus. She casts all her living into her hus- 
 band's life. She sinks everything she has into his 
 name ; his titles cover her all. About her name 
 she has no trouble ; she cares not for her own any 
 more, but only for his ; it is now a disappointment 
 for her to be called by her former name, a joy to be 
 called by his. She desires it published everywhere 
 that she is called by his name. And so of the rest 
 — what has she but his name covers it all. As to 
 her actions, it is now her chief study how she may 
 please her husband, in his absence, in his presence ; 
 her life, her time is devoted. This is her mode of 
 enjoyment. 
 
 Should it be otherwise with the Christian ? Nay, 
 the same. Our name is lost in that of our adora- 
 ble Lord ; our joy that it is so, our anxiety that it 
 may be published everywhere, that we are forever 
 to be called by His name. And what else for Him ? 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. I9I 
 
 When the name has gone can we keep anything 
 back ? Nay, to our Jesus everything goes with our 
 full souls. Everything ! Ah, beloved, He married 
 a very unprofitable bride. Is it not an unspeakable 
 joy to us that our Jesus took us from the lowest pit, 
 and made us all that we are by His own agonies ? 
 We render Him His own. 
 
 Now ye dearly beloved members of your heavenly 
 Husband's bride, let there be no legality, no duty- 
 service. And since He hath prepared such a puri- 
 fication as Esther never knew, let us who have this 
 hope on Him purify ourselves as He is pure. In 
 Him. That is our only purification, and it is com- 
 plete. He that is washed in this fountain, and 
 possessed by this Jesus, this heavenly Husband, 
 though he had been possessed with devils before, is 
 clean every whit. He has not need any more to be 
 looking at his filthiness, being assured if he look 
 unto his Lord the filthiness will be no more. 
 
 Is not the question answered. Who and what are 
 ours, and what for? Jesus is ours sweetly, fully, 
 everlastingly, and "with Him all things," for our 
 present purity, for the fulness of our joy, for His 
 own glory, and for eternity. 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 Dear ones in the Lord Jesus, if the stones are 
 not all out of the way, we at least have the princi- 
 
192 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 pie by which all may be removed. It is — how 
 shall we speak it without a shout of triumph ? — 
 
 ONLY JESUS. 
 HALLELUJAH TO THE LAMB. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH, 
 
 193 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 We now have some things for our dear Christian 
 reader, which may the precious Holy Ghost use for 
 an appHcation, and for a comfort, and for his growth 
 in grace ! We deal in plain words, but they come 
 from the cross, and may the sweetness of their liv- 
 ing source be in them ! We would write with great 
 earnestness on a theme so vital ; let the dear reader 
 hide himself in Jesus while we write.. 
 
 Firsts We put a question to you who have per- 
 haps stumbled at our doctrine, and now, even 
 though you wish the experience, yet stand as critics 
 of our words. 
 
 DO YOU live as you CAN? 
 
 There are those belonging to the Christian pro- 
 fession who make bold to say that they are not liv- 
 ing up to their privileges. If so, they are certainly 
 throwing away the most valuable possessions which 
 have ever been in their reach. But these are the 
 peculiar possessions which were purchased for them 
 by the precious blood of Christ. They are, there- 
 fore, so dear to the eternal Father that they cannot 
 
 13 
 
194 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 be thrown away with impunity. Trampling on the 
 blood of the covenant need be nothing more than 
 treating it lightly. Here are some souls, then, who 
 lightly say that they are not living as it is their 
 privilege to live. They seem to feel very little 
 concern upon the subject. 
 
 It concerns God, for it was His fore-ordination 
 that His people " should be holy and without blame 
 before Him in love," *' in all simplicity and godly 
 sincerity." He gave His Son to die for them to 
 this end in their lives. It concerns Jesus, for He is 
 now living to intercede for them, and to see of the 
 travail of His soul in them, that He may be satis- 
 fied after His dreadful sufferings. He is looking 
 for the fruit of His purchased, promised, sent, and 
 descending Spirit in them. It concerns the angels, 
 for they are most interested spectators in the things 
 of our lower world, as regards the salvation of 
 Jesus, and it must move them to the depths of 
 their being to see souls thus neglecting Christ, and 
 treating His blood as water spilled upon the 
 ground. Yet these say it lightly ! They complain 
 of a certain class whom they call ^'■perfectionists ; " 
 they smile at their doctrines, which, however, they 
 seek not to imderstand ; and they care not that in 
 that word they have fixed a stigma upon souls who 
 are in closest sympathy with the word, and work, 
 and ways of the Lord Jesus. And yet they say 
 freely that they do not live up to their privileges. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 95 
 
 Of course, they do not mean that it is impossible 
 for them to live up to their privileges. For privi- 
 lege is their passport. It is theirs freely to do or to 
 enjoy. 
 
 When a certain course ordained of God, prepared 
 by Him, proclaimed with all provisions for them- 
 selves in it, is made their privilege, all disability is 
 removed. They can take that course and live that 
 life, and they certainly are responsible for it. It 
 will not do certainly for such to be dying-thief 
 Christians — that is, to leave their peace with God 
 to be made at the last moment ! Let such take no 
 encouragement from the case of the dying thief. 
 It does not belong to them ; it was not spoken for 
 such as they. 
 
 The dying thief repented at his first sermon-hear- 
 ing, these have lived through whole years of preach- 
 ing ; he took hold of Jesus by faith, and witnessed 
 for Him before His enemies, and commenced a 
 holy life there at once, but these are living content 
 with what they freely allow is a mean apology for a 
 holy life, far below what it is their privilege to en- 
 joy. And yet they fully know that God cannot 
 look upon sin, that He cannot have worldly idlers 
 about Him, and that He must destroy everything 
 about them which defileth or maketh a lie, before 
 they can enter heaven. Ah ! they are willing, for a 
 little worldly comfort here, to be saved so as by 
 fire there ! But the willingness of sinful security 
 
196 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 and ease takes even this hope from them ; for the 
 things to be burned are not the wilful, willing, sinful 
 acts of a godless mind. They are rather mistakes as 
 to the connection of their doctrines with the cross of 
 Christ, and so if any shall be willing to be saved 
 by fire it may be that too late they will repent in a 
 fire that shall not be quenched. Awful thought ! 
 But whence is its rise ? In the hearts and minds of 
 those careless professors of religion whom Satan has 
 duped into living below their privileges ! He says 
 they shall not surely die, and they more than half 
 believe it. Why, they believe in the perseverance 
 of the saints ! Yes, and Satan is glad to have them 
 believe in that doctrine. They say that " there is 
 now no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 But, beloved friends, the Scripture does not say 
 any such thing, if you mean by it that when a per- 
 son is once a Christian he always will be one, do 
 what he will. Far from it. The Scriptures of God 
 in that precious verse most expressly say that those 
 to whom there is no condemnation are the ones 
 ** who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 Not every one who has the name of Christian per- 
 severes, but those who live up to their privileges 
 in following, with implicit obedience, the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 Freedom from condemnation is a walking in the 
 light, a coming up to the engagements of our holy 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 97 
 
 union with Christ our Lord, and walking with Him 
 in all the simplicity of a faith which acknowledges 
 Him to be the Divine Workman in the formation 
 of our thoughts, habits, sympathies, and of our life 
 itself. These are they who persevere, in whom, by 
 their own free will and choice, the Holy Ghost 
 works a continual holy living, and a constant 
 faith. 
 
 Sometimes these careless souls, who complain 
 that they do not live up to their privileges, in order 
 to help themselves to an argument against those 
 who advocate "holiness," ask them, "Well, 60 you 
 live up to your privileges ? " It may be a some- 
 what awkward question to answer. Yet all we 
 have is of sovereign grace, and we answer it by 
 that : " By the grace of God I am what I am." 
 We might answer that our reply is of no conse- 
 quence, since they admit that it is their privilege, 
 that they are at liberty to live up to theirs. For 
 sins which we might commit certainly will not save 
 them from the severe penalty of those who know 
 and can do their duty, but do it not. That is the 
 old method of argument in our unregeneracy. 
 
 "Encompassed by a throng, 
 On numbers they depend ; 
 They think so many can't be wrong. 
 And miss a happy end." 
 
 The retort of the question upon us, whether we 
 live up to our privileges, is simply the argumentum 
 
198 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 ad hojninem, which proves nothing in the case for 
 or against the question of our abihty to live holy- 
 lives. Of this kind of argument Abercrombie says : 
 " If a person be arguing in support of a particular 
 rule of conduct, we may retort upon him that his 
 own conduct in certain instances was in direct op- 
 position to it. This may be very true in regard to- 
 the individual, but can have no influence in the dis- 
 cussion of the question." If we do not live up to 
 our privileges, the fault is not with God, and does 
 not lie in the fact that we are unable, but in us, or 
 in any who neglect to use the grace which God has 
 so freely given them. For it is certainly and must 
 ever remain true that we can live up to our privi- 
 leges. God has established the privilege that we 
 may enjoy it, and reap the fruits of it and that we 
 may be without excuse in the day of judgment. 
 
 This is, therefore, a very serious matter. It will 
 not do to trust to your election, for that is only of 
 those who are active in all righteousness. Which- 
 ever view of election you may take, it gives no ex- 
 cuse and is no covering up of sin. Nor will it do 
 to trust to the imputation of Christ's righteousness, 
 to make up what you have wilHngly neglected, of 
 the imparted Holy Ghost's divine and saving influ- 
 ences. We beheve, from the careful perusal of the 
 Holy Scripture, that many who have been accus- 
 tomed to calculate upon having the righteousness 
 of Christ imputed to them at last, will be miserably 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 1 99 
 
 and fatally disappointed. For we see many trusting 
 to it who lower God's standard of holiness by pro- 
 claiming it impossible. But surely our God has put 
 forth no such standard. 
 
 It is very truly impossible for us to present an 
 absolute righteousness to God, but we certainly can 
 be recipients of the grace of God, which has every 
 benefit of the death of Christ included in its fulness, 
 and we can and must be responsible for the neglect 
 of its wonderful provisions for our saintly character, 
 Nor will it do to renounce the name of saint by a 
 strange appearance of humility. 
 
 It is understood that a certain clergyman, in a 
 sacramental address, some time since, said, " We 
 do not come to this table as saints." One of his 
 members lifted up his soul to the Lord, and said in 
 his heart immediately to this effect : '' Yes, Lord, 
 Thou knowest that / come to this table as a saint 
 washed in the blood of Jesus ^ and accepted in Him, 
 the Beloved, belonging to a compa7iy whom Thou 
 hast called saints^ and to whom as such Thou hast 
 proclaimed Thy exceeding great love in Him." 
 
 By the wiles of the devil only could such a con- 
 dition have been brought about in the Church. 
 Beloved, we must live up to our privileges. There 
 is no word in the Bible which assures those who 
 live below their standard of purchased benefits. If 
 Jesus has purchased our rights, and we do not live 
 in them, we must be responsible ; and it may easily 
 
200 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 be that many who confess themselves as such may 
 be sorry m eternity for their sad mistake. 
 
 There can be no excuse for pride, ambition, cov- 
 etousness, carelessness, vanity, fashion-following, 
 world-loving, barren Christians before the judgment- 
 seat. God will be justified when He judges us. 
 Men shall then own that they had plenty of oppor- 
 tunity, plenty of Divine assistance held out to 
 them and secured by the precious blood of Jesus, 
 and that all their want of growth and want of blame- 
 lessness was their own want of appropriating by 
 faith the promised work of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Up, and be doings beloved. It is the command 
 of God that we appropriate the work of Christ, and 
 He calls it the work of God that we believe in 
 Jesus. Whether we can live as we ought, ask 
 Jesus, and He will tell us that He will make us by 
 His own power, through faith, "perfect in every 
 good work to do His will, working in us that which 
 is well-pleasing in his sight." It is His work, and 
 He will surely do it ; our work and our privilege 
 alike is to believe Him, to have our hearts wholly 
 sanctified, and made meet for the inheritance of the 
 saints in light. 
 
 If the work of our sanctification be His work, 
 it must be an easy way for us. The pains were 
 His, the precious results are ours. Our privilege, 
 our engagement. For when we gave ourselves to 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 20I 
 
 Christ, // 7vas to take all He 7aould give. It must 
 be the nature of faith to give all and take all. 
 
 Do not, beloved, stand any more thinking of the 
 hardness of the way. For it must be called — as it 
 is the ofily way — so it is 
 
 THE EASY WAY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 Every one in all ages who has tried the way of 
 Jesus has found it an easy way. It is easy in 
 every step. All the hardness is before we truly get 
 into the way. Convicted persons think they have 
 much to do, they do much, and they anticipate 
 much hardship in following the Lord, after they 
 shall have commenced. But when they submit to 
 God's way they always find themselves happily 
 mistaken. They admire the easiness of casting 
 themselves upon and living in the Lord Jesus. 
 The only reason why there should be any lapse 
 from the peculiarly " peaceful hours they once en- 
 joyed" is found in the loss of simplicity in their 
 trust. Of course, losing this, they fall into incon- 
 sistencies, and sins, and very frequently are more 
 wretched than Paul is described to have been in 
 the seventh chapter of Romans, for they cannot 
 answer the question, " ^Vho shall deliver me?" as 
 soon as Paul did ; and so they stay in the " wretched 
 man " experience, failing to enjoy the glorious lib- 
 erty of the eighth chapter. 
 
 They are often, therefore, pained by the fearful 
 
202 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 discrepancies between the words of Christ and 
 their own experience. He said, "Take my yoke 
 upon you and learn for me, for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your 
 souls ; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'" 
 They frequently find the yoke of Christ hard, and 
 their burdens in His service heavy. This makes 
 them cry out for very pain, because they know that 
 Christ spoke the truth. Besides, multitudes are 
 heard professing with joy that they have found, just 
 as Jesus said, the yoke easy and the burden light. 
 Now their only difficulty is in the want of simple 
 faith. They do not with an unreserved consecra- 
 tion leave all things, all p7'esent things, all past 
 things, all future things in the hands of their Lord, 
 who is also their Life. They think they are in the 
 yoke with Christ, but if they examine they will find 
 that instead of being fully under Christ's yoke they 
 are only under the end of it, or they are leaning to 
 the outside of it. The yoke is well fitted to the 
 neck — but the end of it or the outer side of it will 
 only gall and fret the wearer. If he dreads carry- 
 ing an even share of the load, and thus pulls off 
 from his Helper, he only adds to the load, and 
 spoils his own spirit. But if he remembers that the 
 twin in this yoke is Christ Himself, and presses 
 closely up to Him in the place where His yoke was 
 meant to fit his brethren, he shall find the yoke of 
 Christ not only 'easy, but sweet, and he shall find 
 
THE REST or FAITH. 203 
 
 the load which his imbcHcf so much dreaded is no 
 load at all. For in this yoke-bearing Jesus takes 
 the weight of the load, and gives the simple be- 
 liever, who voluntarily takes place nearest Himself, 
 the unutterable pleasures of His companionship. 
 
 Legality, the state of burdens, presses on the 
 outer side of the yoke. Its doctrine is that the way 
 of Christ is a crucifying way, which therefore fosters 
 a spirit of complaint against those who find His 
 way so easy. And so the legalist goes on with his 
 burdens of sorrow and of service, looking at them 
 as his " evidences^ Therefore his " wretched man " 
 experience becomes one of his chief proofs that he 
 is a child of God. He gets the fact of his Chris- 
 tianity by inference, not directly from the bright 
 shining of Christ in his soul. No wonder he should 
 count the way hard. It is hard for him and for all 
 who get their evidences in the same way. This 
 legalist often sleeps at night on the question^ '' Who 
 shall deliver me?" — not on the ansivei'. Now the 
 question is a hard pillow, begetting headaches and 
 heart-aches, and spiritual rheumatism in " the joints 
 and marrow." But the answer of that question is 
 joyful in the extreme. He that sleeps upon that 
 lies down to pleasant dreams, and to a joyous con- 
 sciousness, in his wakeful moments, of a present 
 Deliverer. His communion at midnight is with the 
 Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The 
 " wretched " asker of the question tosses and 
 
204 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 groans, while the simple believer in the answer is 
 entertained with " songs in the night." To the 
 one the way is hard, very hard— "crucifying," as 
 he says, " to the flesh." To the other the cruci- 
 fixion is past — he is "risen with Christ " "in new- 
 ness of life" — the way is pleasant, how pleasant ! 
 " Joy unspeakable and full of glory," heaven begun, 
 a millennial experience. 
 
 This is the " Higher Christian Life." To get up 
 into it is not the work of years and of excruciating 
 sorrows. All the sorrow needful for it Jesus en- 
 dured. All the discipline for it is occasioned by 
 the Christian's slowness in believing. It is not 
 right to say that years are needful, years of toil and 
 painful experience, before one can enjoy it. This 
 may be common, but it is not necessary. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ, with deepest reverence 
 be it observed, is a better Banker. The checks 
 made out for the bank of faith are better paper 
 than many would make them. The will of the 
 Christian delays to present the check, the ^'•exceed- 
 ing great and precious promise^' but the will of 
 Jesus delays not. The rule of His bank is, " Ask, 
 and it shall be given." " My peace I give unto 
 you." It is in the present tense to all in believing 
 communion with him, and in the future tense to 
 give confidence for all future needs, and for all the 
 succeeding generations of saints, to the end of the 
 world — '■'•Ask and ye shall receive^ that your joy 
 
THE REST OF FAITII. 205 
 
 viay be full.'' Why, then, should we wait ? To get 
 better ? That is Jesus' work. To get rid of our 
 burden ? The Lord is our Burden-bearer. To 
 become ready for the enjoyment of a higher plane 
 of spiritual experience ? Alas ! that is only on the 
 principle of this world. How much better to yield 
 everything to Christ at ofice, and at once to enter 
 into the rest of simple faith, than to wait for years 
 and be crucified by a slow torture into a readiness 
 for this exalted experience, or rather into a readi- 
 ness to consecrate all to Him, and to believe in 
 His acceptance ! 
 
 Believe with many of every name, who live in 
 the constant sense of the presence of Christ, that 
 your joy may be full in a day, or an hour, yea, even 
 in a moment, and that better than by waiting for 
 years. The years of waiting only contract habits 
 of unbelief And these afterward may interrupt 
 the flow of simple faith. Now enter into rest. 
 Now give everything you can name that men call 
 *' yours," in special consecration to the Lord ; be- 
 lieve that He accepts your offering, and enter to 
 rest. Now ! " Behold, noiv is the accepted time ; 
 behold, now is the day of salvation." Now is the 
 time for a particular and unreserved consecration 
 — for committing all your future to your covenant 
 God — for taking Him at His word in every prom- 
 ise. Now is the time for your joy in Jesus to be 
 full, your peace in Him to be like a river, passing 
 
2o6 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 all understanding. Now is the time for you, in an 
 All-conquering Jesus, to be free from all bond- 
 age, and from all your foes — devil, sin, and self. 
 
 It is now more than five years since the writer 
 was brought into this gracious "highway." They 
 have been years of exceeding great comfort, and 
 that in many varieties of outward condition. The 
 Heavenly Master has led him through many dark 
 places, and down to the gates of death, with plenty 
 and with nothing. The winters have been as sum- 
 mers, and " December as pleasant as May." Old 
 burdens that haunted him through former years, and 
 old sins which bore him down to the earth, and old 
 idolatrous habits, fled before the power of The Liv- 
 ing Christ, who commenced there to " reign without 
 a rival " in his soul. Be it written, be it spoken ; ye 
 saints, help me to spread it, to the praise, and only 
 to the praise, of sovereign grace. The former life 
 was a hard one with a " wretched man " experience ; 
 these last years have abundantly proved Christ's 
 way to be easy. The Avay into the highway of holi- 
 ness is easy, and all along it is the same, for " all 
 the way along it is Jesus." Come, dear saints, give 
 up everything, lay down your all at Jesus' feet, and 
 continuously live in your Hiding-Place. 
 
 Second. Dearly beloved, abide in Christ. 
 
 The New Testament places before us a mode of 
 expression which is connected with our highest spir- 
 itual enjoyment. The same expression also looks 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 207 
 
 to the complete development of our soul's life. It 
 is the utterance of our Living Head. "Abide." 
 '* Dwell." *' If ye abide in me." " Dwelleth in me 
 and I in Him." These words, in their connection 
 with Jesus Christ and our own ransomed souls, are 
 the sweetest of all the languages. For they describe 
 the highest joy which is the strength of our souls, 
 they are the continual illustration of the meaning 
 of the words of Jesus on the cross, " It is finished," 
 and they give a substantial view of our Lord's esti- 
 mation of the riches of His inheritance in the saints. 
 Jesus with us, and we with Him ! How poor all 
 knowledge, how tasteless all intellectual pleasures, 
 how infinitely small all possessions in the absence 
 of that gracious fact ! For when a man abide in 
 Christy he has more than heart can wish. DweUing 
 in riches is not satisfying. It is often broken up, 
 and when connected with inability or want of inclin- 
 ation to use the wealth aright, it is really uncom- 
 fortable. But dwelling in Christ is always satisfying. 
 It cures the spirit and keeps it in health when the 
 body is low, and rejoices with foretastes of heaven 
 when trials press most severely. And why all this ? 
 Because dwelling in Christ is present, and full, and 
 unlimited salvation. In such a condition all that 
 looks untoward is really felt to be good, and there 
 is so much positive and heavenly enjoyment, that 
 the adversities of the situation are more than cov- 
 ered over. 
 
2o8 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Why should it not be so ? Dwelling in Christ 
 is everything. It is the hiding of ourselves where 
 Satan, and evil, and sin cannot reach us, and where 
 indwelling sin is taken away. ' ' Whosoever abideth 
 in Him, sinneth not." This is not to be understood 
 in a forensic sense, but practically. Because dwell- 
 ing with Christ is His own sanctification. Christ 
 cannot dwell with sin, and so the soul who dwells 
 with Him is kept from sin. Who keeps it pure ? 
 Jesus who only can ; Jesus whose name assures us 
 that He saves His people from their sins ; Jesus 
 who says, " I am the Way." How else can He be 
 called " the Way," but by His own divine energy, 
 which controls our movements, makes certain our 
 condition, and works in us mightily ? 
 
 It is on this account that we read so much in the 
 New Testament of His working in us. In walking 
 an earthly way, we do the work, but in spiritual life 
 we simply trust Jesus to do it. And so coming to 
 Him, He is not only the Way, but He is the " All in 
 all," " the Way, the Truth, and the Life." We find 
 Heaven by His communication of Himself to us. 
 Now, then, if any wish to be "free from sin," to be 
 "made clean," "to be holy," to have the power of 
 the devil and the works of the devil destroyed in 
 their hearts, they can have it no other way than by 
 abiding in Christ. It must be constant victory when 
 the unconquerable Conqueror is verily present. It 
 must be eternal security, which the gates of hell 
 
Tin: REST OF FAITH. 209 
 
 cannot even disturb, when we are shut up in God, 
 when God is all around us, and under us, and above 
 us, as a citadel ; and that by special promise, and 
 by the most satisfying statements of His salvation. 
 Who enjoy this victory? The souls that abide in 
 Christ. 
 
 " O that I knew where I might find it," says one. 
 " It is not my lot," says another ; and another still, 
 " I shall never be made perfect but through suffer- 
 ing." Stop, ye saints : the great salvation is at your 
 door. Christ. Only Jesus ! Away with your fears. 
 Make to Him such a consecration as you never 
 made before. Give up everything to Him. Keep 
 nothing for yourself. This is the very first step, 
 because Jesus cannot do the mighty work for you 
 while you are keeping back anything. It is simply 
 impossible. Oh, let me sound it loud — conse- 
 crate ! Nothing can be done in this cleansing way 
 while you have a will of your own. Get everything 
 on His altar. Not a thing behind. Not a friend, 
 or relative, or a dollar. All for Jesus ! Reputa- 
 tion, too. V>Q willing to be a fool. Be willing to 
 differ with many, for you will be compelled to. 
 People want so much of this world, that some of 
 the best of them tame down Jesus' expressions. 
 Self and reputation must go, that Jesus may make 
 Himself shine in you, and may give you His own 
 reputation. Then Jesus will fill you full with Him- 
 self. He will " open the windows of heaven, and 
 14 
 
2IO THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room 
 enough to receive it." 
 
 But some say, " How can I dwell in Christ ? Is 
 it at my disposal whether I do, or not ? I am will- 
 ing to give up all, but how can I dwell in Him so 
 that these gracious results will take place in me ?" 
 Well, dear one, Jesus is always first in the work. 
 He has excited those desires in you, and now it is 
 He first that is to dwell in you. Do you not be- 
 lieve that He will be as good as His word? " I 
 will dwell in them, and walk in them." Believe 
 Him. Fasten your faith upon Him and believe. 
 " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood," 
 he that continually rests at my bleeding side, and 
 alone trusts me for the nourishment of his spiritual 
 life, "dwelleth in me, and I in him." 
 
 Third. Learn a lesson of the utmost importance, 
 without which you can never get, nor can you ever 
 keep the blessing which you seek. 
 
 "BE STILL." 
 
 Let us learn what it means to be still. "Be 
 still, and know that I am God." You must not 
 think that it would stop your daily round of duties 
 in the family, or the community, or the church. It 
 would not lessen a jot the utmost activity of need- 
 ful, proper, God-ordained manual labor. It would 
 not shut you up in seclusion, but might even enhance 
 the necessity of constant motion in your body, to 
 
Tin: REST OF FAITH. 211 
 
 and from places of business, and the hiding-places 
 of sorrow and sickness and filth and misery. In- 
 deed, very often the soul that is still before God 
 is full of work, full of thoughts and plans about the 
 work which every saint may find. We may easily 
 conceive of such a soul as among the very busiest 
 of men. It may even be said that he that will be 
 still before God shall find plenty to do. Because 
 when we stand still, it is to hear the voice of the 
 Lord, and conscience, listening to the still, small 
 voice, sees the work of the Lord on every hand. 
 
 Now the lines of this world's activity and of the 
 stirring engagements of Christ's little ones are very 
 different. In the former it is all self — in the latter 
 it is not self We do not here speak of every one 
 who is called Christian. We speak only of Christ's 
 little ones, with babe-like faith, and who are in the 
 habit of resting on the bosom of Christ as John at 
 the Supper. They have learned to be still in spir- 
 it, though they are exceedingly active — active, as 
 some think, in that which results in Httle, — they 
 are willing to wait for the decisions of eternity. 
 And here is the characteristic of real quietness be- 
 fore God. The world and the worldly Christian (a 
 strange yet very charitable name) work in present 
 results ; they may look for future fruit indeed, but 
 they abound in present issues and perhaps in pres- 
 ent appearances. The other has laid all at Jesus' 
 feet, and labors not so much for the quantity as the 
 
212 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 quality ; his chief joy, when in secret he goes to the 
 Master with work which many think to be but Httle, 
 but which he knows to be, and Jesus loves as the 
 work of eternity. 
 
 Then, what we mean by " being still before God " 
 is, to be living in the conclusions of eternity — it is 
 to be acting as if the present hour of our work 
 would be the last. Ah ! that is it. Men call on 
 every side, and as the result proud souls are flying 
 on every side to see that they lose nothing — with 
 perhaps an occasional thought of scattering a little 
 of their plenty for benevolence ; but these that 
 quietly bend their souls to hear the still, small voice 
 of their God, do not always follow the crowd that 
 cry "here" and "there." Their simple desire is 
 to know what God would have them do, or where 
 to go, or what to suffer. They neither strive nor 
 cry nor lift up their voice to be heard or seen. 
 
 "Were all such," says an objector, " the work 
 would move on very slowly." But, beloved, were 
 all such, work Avould be done without reference to 
 its external report — without regard to the classes 
 of society in which, or the companions in labor by 
 whom. The results would be as the labor, apos- 
 tolically simple, but they would break forth into 
 such glorious issues as would soon fill the world 
 with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. 
 
 Dear child of God, your highest usefulness and 
 your greatest comfort lies in being still before your 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 213 
 
 covenant-keeping God. Do you desire to extend 
 your influence for Jesus' sake (no other motive is 
 of God) far beyond the narrow circle in which you 
 live ? First of all, get your soul on fire with a love 
 that draws you momentarily to the blessed Lord. 
 This you cannot do when you are going all about 
 the world for comfort, and for advice, and for work. 
 Stay a moment — yes^ stop lo7ig, if it may be re- 
 quired. At the last formal installation of the 
 writer over a pastoral charge, the minister who 
 charged the pastor reminded him of the word " con- 
 secration,' and urged him to act upon the thought. 
 It was in that pastorate, too, that my soul found 
 such a meaning in the word coiisecration as it had 
 not before known. It had before been a word of 
 general meaning, with quite general results. But 
 that is by no means the true view of consecration. 
 It is in reality the act of the soul in exclusive com- 
 munion with the Lord, with a complete yielding of 
 the whole being in special inventory to Him, for 
 service, for suffering, or for the grave. It presents 
 no stipulations, but rests solely in His sovereign 
 use and direction of all our powers and all the prop- 
 erty we may have thought belonged to our name. 
 Any other view of consecration is deficient and 
 ruinous. A glance is sufficient for the conclusion 
 that such a complete consecration is only made in 
 secret with God, and in a stillness of spirit which 
 has left the fretfulness of its unrest behind. 
 
214 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 I hear the groans of the hungry and thirsty multi- 
 tude. They are crying, " This rest is not for me. It 
 is for those who can Hve nearer to God than I can." 
 Nay, it is for you, dear soul — be still. Your crying 
 hinders your rest. Your aching soul needs rest. 
 " Where shall you get it ? " In Jesus. "When ? " 
 Just now. Be still. You are very anxious ? Well, " 
 anxiety is not always of faith. It very often hin- 
 ders it. It says to a man, " Let me lean on you," 
 or to men, " Bear me up; " but your burdens must 
 not be taken so far. Oh, what a mistake unbeliev- 
 ing children of God are under ! They take their 
 causes of trouble to men, as though they were 
 nearer neighbors than the throne. But when your 
 restless spirit goes to men, it turns from God — it 
 travels miles with a burden when it might lay it 
 down at once. Where is God ? Where is Jesus ? 
 Where is the Holy Ghost ? Ah ! if you could see 
 where God is, you would not be so long seeking. 
 You need not bring Him down nor seek Him be- 
 low nor send after Him. " Oh," you say, "let me 
 get out of this crowd, and I can see Him." No, 
 beloved, "be still." God is just here. Are you 
 on bustling Broadway or selfish and noisy Wall 
 Street, with a burden ? God is here — lay down 
 your burden. Your Lord Jesus is here to receive 
 your burden, and carry it for you all the way home 
 — no, not only as far as *Fiftieth Street, but all 
 
 * It was in Fiftieth Street, New York city, where the writer was filled 
 with burdens that well-nigh overcame him. But blessed be the name of 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 215 
 
 THE WAY HOME ! Ycs, this lest is for you, dear 
 soul. Jesus wants you to have it. Surely that is 
 warrant enough for your faith. If you are afraid, 
 trust Him. If all is dark, trust Him. Don't seek 
 to make sparks of your own kindling. Trust Jesus. 
 Remember how He sent one of His ministers for a 
 fish. He knew all fish, and He can successfully 
 send you for that fish which will fully supply your 
 present lack. 
 
 A man told me the other day that he had waited 
 long and was about worn out with waiting. What 
 a mistake ! True waiters 07i God do not get worn 
 out. This man was complaining, and that surely is 
 not being still before God. Waiting on God is full 
 refreshment ; for while God's answer is preparing 
 (it may be far off) He sends in to us delicacies, 
 such as abound only M a king's palace. Hence it 
 is written, " They that wait upon the Lord shall 
 renew their strength ; they shall mount up with 
 wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary, 
 and they shall walk and not faint." 
 
 Dear child of God, "be still." If the winds 
 howl and the tempest raves, be still. Jesus cannot 
 sleep. He is the Author of the day. Give all to 
 Jesus, and take all things. For in Him " all things 
 
 the Lord, in that place of burdens in Fiftieth Street, Jesus brought him 
 into this rest of faith ; and though the outward circumstances (the bur- 
 dens) became heavier, yet his rest was like that of heaven. Jesus car- 
 ried all the burdens, and has continued to do so ever since. Let the 
 reader say with me, Hallelujah to the Lamb. 
 
2l6 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 are yours." Only be still. For '•''this is the work 
 of God, that ye believe." 
 
 Fourth. Always let your faith be assured. The 
 greatest, mightiest faith (I speak after the manner 
 of men) is simple faith. Simple faith, theii, is full 
 assura7ice of faith, 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ, God-man, Sovereign 
 Saviour, the Light of the world, and the Light of life, 
 laid down his life " that we might have life, and that 
 we might have it more abundantly." The terms 
 expressive of the union between himself and His 
 saints show their privileges as beyond their own 
 power of description — friends, brethren, branches, 
 S071S of God, and thus in the same family as the only 
 begotten Son, with all the privileges of a saved 
 family, in Him the ark of safety, and bound to the 
 same heaven. The only condition to which we are 
 subject is simple faith. Now faith cannot be ex- 
 ercised when we retain any selfish boons. The sin- 
 ner must repent or he can never have faith. And 
 the true Christian has reserved nothing for himself. 
 If any suppose he is a Christian to whom Jesus is 
 not First and Last, he is simply deceived. But 
 when a man has let go everything for Christ, has 
 forsaken every false refuge, and has made positive 
 consecration of all (we know of no other kind of 
 valid consecration), he may be, he ought to be, fully 
 assured of his salvation. 
 
 For our salvation is not of ourselves. And ac- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 217 
 
 cording to the power by which we have it, we ought 
 to be assured of it. If it were in any sense our 
 own, then we might be privileged to doubt, since we 
 are so miserably ignorant, and weak, and hell-de- 
 serving in our own natural constitution. But as we 
 are to cast our own doings down, every one of them, 
 and as this salvation is all by faith in Him Who 
 doeth all things well, and Who never faileth, nor 
 ever faileth His people, we ought to believe fully 
 that we are saved, if we believe at all. It is simply 
 wicked to doubt God, and to let His word pass for 
 naught. 
 
 There have been many discussions upon the full 
 assurance of faith, and according to many old no- 
 tions it would seem that it was almost gracious to 
 doubt. It would be gracious to doubt if in any sense 
 we were saved by works. But since Jesus saves, 
 who can doubt ? For doubting is doubting Him. 
 " No," you say, "I don't doubt Him ; it is myself I 
 doubt, whether I have faith, or love, or true zeal." 
 But, beloved soul, who works these in the heart ? 
 Is it yourself? You freely answer, "Oh, no, it is 
 God who worketh in me to will and to do of His 
 own good pleasure." 
 
 Now, then, away with this pride which keeps you 
 from coming to ]csus jusf as you are. Let Jesus 
 work in you. Let him cleanse you for His own in- 
 dwelling ; you can never do it. Faith is a falling of 
 the whole being upon God. 
 
2l8 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Since the promises of God are so abundant in 
 this very direction, our faith is to rest on what God 
 has said. It must, then, be an assurance. Not to 
 be assured of what God has said, is to have unbe- 
 lief. The Scriptures therefore are full in the men- 
 tion and description of an assured faith, and they 
 are only condemnatory of a doubting life. Doubts 
 are devils in the Christian life. Let us have no 
 more of them. This can be done only as our faith 
 says, "only Jesus ! " " He must, He will, and He 
 does send His Spirit to do the whole work in me, 
 and to accomplish my salvation." 
 
 " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter 
 into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
 living way, which He hath consecrated for us, 
 through the veil, that is to say. His flesh ; and hav- 
 ing a High Priest over the house of God ; let us 
 draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of 
 faith / .... let us hold fast the profession of our 
 faith without wavering ; for He is faith fil that pro- 
 mis edr 
 
 Anything that has been promised is a subject of 
 assurance therefore. Saints may and must be as- 
 sured of that in their gracious standing before the 
 Lord. The Lord has assured all believers in the 
 possession of peace , perfect peace. " Thou wilt 
 keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on 
 Thee." 
 
 They may be assured of their hope^ " which hope 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 219 
 
 we have as an anchor of the soul." They may be 
 confident of the possession oi proper dispositions of 
 mind, " hereby we know that He abideth in us, by 
 the Spirit which He hath given us." They may be 
 undoubting in respect to the constant, unwavering, 
 infinitely kind gov ernvient of them by their heavenly 
 Father^ both in the restraints of His providence 
 and in the constrainings of His love. And since 
 He has promised it, they may be fully persuaded 
 that they are "partakers of the Holy Ghost," "par- 
 takers of His hohness," partakers of the divine 
 nature^ having escaped the corruption that is in the 
 world through lust." 
 
 How, then, should it appear strange to them that 
 they may be ^'■wholly sanctified in body, soul, and 
 Spirit ; zxiA preserved blameless unto the coming of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." ^^ Faithful h He that call- 
 eth them, who also will do it.'' Up from your doubts, 
 Christian. You have all this in Christ. These 
 gifts are the purchase of His blood and the work of 
 His Holy Spirit. " As thou hast believed," as you 
 now believe, so be it done unto thee. Rest assured 
 of this, that His word shall never fail thee, in gra- 
 cious effects upon thy soul, or in full provision for 
 any want of thy renewed nature. All this thou hast 
 in Jesus Christ. The half has not been told thee 
 of thy present riches, of a perfect inheritance in 
 Him. Look to Him for all, and all is thine. 
 
 Fifth. Let the love-power be in full force. It 
 
2 20 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 is infinitely better than the will-power. Though the 
 Marthas may have something to say of its position 
 in the present time (and these Marthas may be 
 very dear people to Jesus), yet in the end it shall 
 be seen that Mary's spirit, her quiet demeanor, her 
 gentle sympathy with Jesus in the persons of His 
 poor, and the sweetness of her speech in all her 
 exhortations and didactics, will have accomplished 
 much more to the glory of the Lord. Let us all 
 be Marys. 
 
 Love is a shining grace. Its supremacy in the 
 soul banishes all things that offend. You cannot 
 make it. The Holy Ghost produces it with divine 
 energy. Its fruit, therefore, is known, and well 
 known. Where it exists people do not live in 
 selfishness, in wantonness, in carelessness of their 
 neighbors, in forgetfulness of the salvation of souls. 
 For not only its pattern, its very life is in Him who 
 by love left the glories of the throne to work out 
 its saving power for a lost race. All the marks of 
 love predominate. It is not dependent on other 
 graces. It is the royal grace, which moves and 
 sways the other graces and directs all motions of 
 the man. In souls that are truly born again the 
 motions of love may be expected to predominate— 
 
 I. In the God- ward tendency of the whole man. 
 The law has two tables. The first directs our 
 loving zeal whence all goodness flows. And this 
 is according to the law of goodness itself God 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 22 1 
 
 knows that we cannot truly, or properly, or exten- 
 sively, and unselfishly love our brother man, and 
 thus keep the second table of the law, unless we 
 sincerely and with devotion love Himself, and 
 thus keep the first table. Therefore God says, 
 " love me first and love me best." Hence it is 
 safely affirmed that we cannot feel true love for 
 our fellow-man when the love of God is absent. 
 And hence we look in the lives of Christians for 
 bright, glowing, substantial love for God. And we 
 always find it in those who are truly born again. 
 Their new life is one of deep-seated love for God 
 — this its distinction ; its supreme attraction to 
 Him ; and to all its companions. 
 
 2. In addition to this is its man-ward action. It 
 is not a vague, philosophic, self-saving machinery 
 for moral display, but a heavenly flow of holy sym- 
 pathy in all that elevates man by glorifying God. 
 You may do much without possessing charity. 
 They have been known who, to use the Apostle's 
 figure, have spoken "with the tongues of men and 
 of angels;" but they have been but "sounding 
 brass and tinkling cymbals." A very little done 
 with this holy grace will be vastly greater than 
 thousands of mingled deeds in its semblance. 
 Though a royal grace, it is not lofty. It seeks no 
 titles, and gladly buries all high-sounding names. 
 And consequently in return the world often buries 
 this grace. 
 
222 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 The first item in Paul's description of it pro- 
 nounces its doom from the worldly code. " Char- 
 ity suffereth long and is kind." That is not the 
 way of men. The heavenly minded cover mul- 
 titudes of sins. They carry a cloak for the sins of 
 others, not for their own. But this cloak they 
 carry for the sins of others is not a bareworn coat, 
 that doth cost them little. It is the costliest of all 
 garments. They serve not the Lord with that 
 which doth cost them nothing. It costs them more 
 than gold. Charity suffereth long, and is kind. 
 
 With whom does it suffer long, and to whom is 
 it kind ? Is it with its companions on the way to 
 heaven, with souls in a holy exchange of thoughts 
 and powers and riches of eternity ? Nay, with its 
 enemies, with its persecutors, with the malicious, 
 with the self-willed, with egotistical and pharisaical 
 venders of a mock humility. If you have this 
 grace, and have been deeply wronged, and vio- 
 lently persecuted, it will shine the brighter amid 
 the keener cuts and swifter darts of even a refined 
 cruelty. Nor will it put up its injuries for a future 
 day. Though it were wounded in its tenderest 
 part, though the very exercise of its sweetness, is 
 repaid with insinuations, with threats, with open 
 violence, " it suftereth long, and is kind." It is 
 kind with a holy sympathy for the wants, and woes, 
 and faiUngs of a poor and uninstructed soul. Yes, 
 that is Christian charity ! Which pleads with God 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 223 
 
 for the soul of its fiercest enemy, and seeks his 
 good, even when affiUation, from the very nature of 
 the case, is impossible. 
 
 How sweet were this charity to overspread the 
 whole extent of the professing Church of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord ! Annihilating confessions of 
 many besetting sins, of unholy jealousies, and jeal- 
 ousies in the high places of Zion, would be no 
 more ; and not only in the inner consciousness, 
 but in the usual arrangements of the Church, in its 
 external and internal working on every hand, would 
 be seen the plain indications of the Lord's pres- 
 ence, and the holy joy of a heaven begun. 
 
 Beloved^ it is possible. Every saint may not only 
 hope for, but may now have that love which " is 
 the fulfilling of the law." It is very largely included 
 in the holy promises of our Covenant-keeping God. 
 The possibility of its attainment is seen in the 
 promise of the Holy Ghost, who is the living Author 
 of the heavenly flame. The Holy Ghost is the 
 very life and self of Jesus in the Church. Jesus 
 said, " He that loveth me shall be loved of my 
 Father, and I will love him and will manifest my- 
 self to him." (John xiv. 21.) Now the Lord does 
 not manifest Himself to any one without manifest- 
 ing Himself in him. He, therefore, who gets the 
 Holy Ghost, may have, ought to have, by very sim- 
 ple faith, this holy, self-abnegating love shed abroad 
 in his soul. 
 
2 24 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 There are three words of Scripture in this con- 
 nection, of great force in the encouragement of 
 those who desire God's marvellous work in their 
 souls. Let none say " it cannot be done," "it is 
 not for me," " it belongs to those who have made 
 greater advances in the divine Hfe." For it belongs, 
 by divine decree, promise, oath, and pledge, to 
 those in whose hearts He "hath begun a good 
 work." 
 
 Struggling Christian, I call your attention to 
 these three words which will assure you that you 
 cannot do the work, and must only believe. " Will 
 do itr Who will do it? "Faithful is He that 
 calleth you, who also will do it." He will do it. 
 He that calleth you, "He that hath promised." 
 He that ''is faithful." He that is " able also to 
 perform." " He that is holy. He that is true. He 
 that hath the key of David, He that openeth 
 and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man 
 openeth." He "will do it." This promise is won- 
 derfully illuminated by its connection with the 
 personal promise of the " Author and Finisher of 
 our faith." " If ye shall ask anything in my name, 
 I will do it." Now the Great Promise of Jesus 
 during His earthly life was the promise of the Holy 
 Ghost. In His presence with the Gospel Church 
 are fulfilled all promises of spiritual enlargement to 
 His earthly " house." By the Holy Ghost " He 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. - 225 
 
 will make a way to escape." " He will stablish 
 you and keep you from evil." 
 
 But behold the open door to all His holy prom- 
 ises, in the manifest fact that He will do what He 
 is able to do, for all who believe on Him. Do not 
 our hearts burn within us, beloved, while He opens 
 to us the Scriptures ? You have often, it may be, 
 regarded the love of which we have been writing, 
 as a possession out of your reach. But if it be an 
 inworking by a power outside of you, if (being 
 utterly unable to do it yourself), you trust that 
 power, which is infinitely willing, by His own re- 
 corded promises, to do what He is able to do to 
 meet your spiritual wants, do you not see that by 
 His unrivalled presence in your heart you will, 
 you must, be filled with His love ? Yea, unspeaka- 
 bly filled? 
 
 My precious brother or sister in this heavenly 
 life, doubt no more. ^'- He is able,^ " He is will- 
 ing," " He will do itr What ! will He fill your 
 body with bread, and not your soul with love? 
 Away with the wicked thought of His unwillingness 
 to meet the farthest reach of our desires according 
 to our capacity. He has " not brought us thus far 
 to put us to shame," nor has the blessed Holy 
 Ghost awakened desires which cannot be gratified. 
 
 Now then, in respect to this divine charity, 
 which if a man have he will possess every other 
 grace, let me say to the Christian — Expect to be 
 15 
 
226 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 filled with it. Set your mark high as the promise. 
 " Be 7iot filled with wine wherein is excess, but be 
 filled with the Spirit." Do not say to me — " when 
 I die." While you live, be filled with the Spirit. 
 It is a fearfiil thing to think that God will not 
 wholly sanctify us till we die, for that begets unbe- 
 lief in the power and willingness of God to make 
 us walk in his marvellous light, while the promise 
 and the fact of living in such light are clearly stated 
 in the Word of God. That is adding to and taking 
 from the Word of God with fearful "wages." Let 
 us then be filled with love. 
 
 *' The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 
 by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." That 
 is the secret of all power and of all confidence. It 
 saves us from shame in cross-bearing, and is the 
 inward basis of that statement of holy philosophy 
 — " we glory in tribulations also ; knowing that 
 tribulation worketh patience ; and patience, expe- 
 rience ; and experience, hope ; and hope maketh 
 not ashamed." This is thy blessedness, O Chris- 
 tian ! to be such an one as is described by the word, 
 Love, to the extent of your present capacities. 
 Now, then, do not go to the thirteenth chapter of 
 I St Corinthians to see how well you will look when 
 this grace fills your heart and life. But go at once 
 to Him who ^'■will do it,'' will create, energize, 
 increase it, sustain it in your heart. With an un- 
 reserved consecration first made so tJiat you can 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 22 7 
 
 believe, tnist God to fill you with Himself. Con- 
 secration of all you have and are, or hope to have 
 or to be, takes away the stones from the highway 
 over which -the King is to pass, and thus His way 
 is prepared to fill your heart with Himself. 
 
 Beloved people of our God, will you not be filled 
 with love ? Will you not enter that happy estate 
 which is called "heaven below," and which many 
 testify is their present portion ? " He will do it — " 
 how ungrateful to criticize the promise, the fact, 
 the manner of His working, or to smile as Sarah 
 did at the wonder which was presented to her. 
 *' No, far be it from me," you say. " He shall do 
 all His pleasure, He shall enter my heart and sup 
 with me, and I with Him." And so, love, which is 
 " the fulfilling of the law," shall reign within and 
 upon you. " God is love ; and he that dwelleth 
 in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him." 
 
 Sixth. Beloved, who have entered into this rest 
 of Sanctification by faith, we are leading a Hidden 
 Life. Let it be always so. For He is " able to 
 keep us from falling." 
 
 Intermissions of happy experience have been so 
 much the rule and the expectation, that among 
 many, faith for a full and present salvation has been 
 made void, and the promises of none or of little 
 effect. These intermissions, when the "wretched 
 man" experience is in the ascendancy, are opposed 
 to the genius of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
928 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 The true expression of gospel grace in the Hfe of a 
 beUever is that of spiritual joy, comfort, blessed- 
 ness. For he is a new creature, changed from the 
 old. He is a holy person as washed by the Blood, 
 and attended by the Spirit of the Lord. 
 
 He is made a new creature for a new Hiding- 
 Place. He has been redeemed that he may be the 
 Lord's and may live in the Lord. The Lord is his 
 house. " The Lord is my habitation, whereunto I 
 continually resort." Before he is fit for this royal 
 dwelling, he must be washed ; so the Lord has pro- 
 vided a fountain to wash in, that we may abide in 
 the Palace of the Lord's presence. A?id this is 
 our distinction. We live in the best part of the 
 universe, and have the best house in the universe. 
 How little the worldly nobles in wealth and out- 
 ward estate know of our riches, and our glory, and 
 our eternity ! They may think we are poor, but 
 we know that we are rich. They may think it a 
 poor house we are living in, but we know that mar- 
 ble or brown-stone is not of any consequence to 
 us — our earthly residence is only a temporary 
 shell. It is not our home. We have a house com- 
 pared with which the most costly and extensive 
 and noblest structures on earth are but as hovels. 
 Our house is where our citizenship is, whence our 
 conversation is. The earthly dwelling only our 
 lodging-place on missionary ground ; the life-home 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 229 
 
 unseen, unreached by fire, or sword, or any dan- 
 ger. 
 
 Could others see the grandeur of our life, and its 
 home, its eternal destiny, its ineffable bliss, they 
 would be filled with the utmost dismay in the midst 
 of their marble palaces with all their plenty ; they 
 would seek to exchange all they have for our Por- 
 tion. How blind they must be to think for a mo- 
 ment that it would be a poor exchange ! Their 
 house can pass from them, ours cannot pass from 
 us. They can and must pass away from their place, 
 but we are firmly fixed. Theirs can be bought with 
 a price which men can earn ; the price of ours was 
 only devised in the councils of eternity, and only 
 paid with the most costly gift of the Author of the 
 universe. Theirs is a place the like of which can 
 be found, perhaps better — some may even desire 
 to improve their surroundings by removal ; but the 
 like of our house cannot be seen ; nor is there any 
 desire to leave it. While men can easily and soon 
 become well acquainted with their most intricate 
 palaces, ours will take eternity to study upon with 
 ever-increasing delight, in view of Its amplitude. Its 
 security, Its exceeding great glory. For the richest 
 palaces of men were made with hands, but ours 
 was never made ; It never had a beginning, and 
 shall never have an end. These are not fancies. 
 They are solid truths, on which our souls feed with 
 inexpressible delight. While our riches and our 
 
230 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 hopes are described as the most exalted that an m- 
 telHgent being could desire, it is a very present 
 comfort that the description is in such language as 
 both large and small capacities can accept as state- 
 ments of fact. But to the praise of God's grace it 
 must be spoken, that our eyes have been opened 
 to see these things, else we should not have seen 
 them to this day. 
 
 It is our blessedness to see a fact in words like 
 these : ''Your life is hid with Christ in God." Now 
 if the body lose its head it loses its life. Christ is 
 our Head, and therefore "our life." We have life 
 because we are united to a living Head. Our eter- 
 nal life is in Him. This blessed Jesus once came 
 down to be handled by cruel men, but now He liv- 
 eth, and none can do anything but to submit to 
 Him or be ground to powder. He is to destroy 
 all enemies under His feet. If our life is precious 
 to Him — and it is, for He thinks enough of it to 
 hide it in Himself and keep it for Himself — then 
 none can ever reach it to mar it. For He is in the 
 Godhead. Satan might try to get a creature, he 
 might hope to secure an archangel, to raise a rebel- 
 lion once among His equals, but the swift power 
 of Jehovah hurled him into fearful perdition. And 
 our Jehovah Jesus tried him even when He Him- 
 self had taken up with the feeble tabernacle of a 
 man. He conquered him by a process which we 
 cannot fully comprehend. Beloved, our life is hid 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 23 1 
 
 in Jehovah Jesus ! It is hid with Him in the God- 
 head! 
 
 Our \i(e being hidden indudes its secrecy. Oth- 
 ers may tell us that it is not there ; some may pro- 
 fess to doubt whether there be any such life, or 
 any such residence for it. IVe hiow that it is 
 there. It is a precious secret with us. The se- 
 cret is threefold: ist. We know for ourselves that 
 I/e gave us our new life. We have been filled with 
 praise ever since, for most of us can tell when we 
 received the precious boon. 2d. We know that 
 we now have the life, and that we have abundance. 
 Let men and devils deride us, let them persecute 
 us, let them " say all manner of evil against us 
 falsely," we know that we are now living in the 
 Lord. 3d. We know that our life in Jesus, He 
 Himself is keeping, that we may enjoy it forever 
 with Him in glory. We know this because He has 
 said it, and because our enjoyment of His keeping 
 it is greater than could reach us by any other possi- 
 bility. 
 
 Our life, then, is one which is kept in precious 
 secret ; not indeed so that others cannot see it if 
 they will (for the fruit of holiness must be appar- 
 ent) ; but some hate it, and call it evil ; from their 
 rude touch our life is so secret, that they can never 
 produce a ripple on the calm sea of our confidence. 
 Beloved, do I not speak to them that know the 
 Gospel ? Do you not know that your life is hidden 
 
232 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 in God ? Yes, blessed be His glorious name. We 
 know it by the life-giving streams which come from 
 our living Head, by the soul satisfaction of His 
 presence with us continually, and by the " hidden 
 manna " which He hath already supplied. 
 
 That is a good hiding-place which Satan cannot 
 find. He knows every nook and corner where 
 men lay away their choicest treasures, but into this 
 hiding-place he cannot come, nor can he find it. 
 And if he cannot find it with all his malicious cun- 
 ning who or what else can ? Our security may be 
 most profound. " Let us not cast away our confi- 
 dence." Now we have sweet rest in our abiding- 
 place. What disease shall we fear ? What years 
 of gloom shall we fear? What losses shall we fear? 
 Does not Jesus own the body? Does not Jesus 
 own our future time ? Does not Jesus own our 
 estate ? If our life is hid in Him, are not all these 
 under His headship ? 
 
 Beloved children of the Most High, time was 
 when I used to fear disease, and gloom, and loss, 
 and littleness. But after preaching in such un- 
 worthy impressions for thirteen years, the gracious 
 Master showed me where my life was hidden, and 
 I said, "Jesus, these are thy concerns; I yield all 
 to Thee — my life, my expectations, my darlings, 
 my all, past, present, and future." Then began my 
 rest. It was a rest from the care of all things 
 which had given me trouble outside of my Hiding- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 233 
 
 Place. The Divine Teacher of my happy Dwell- 
 ing showed me things unknown before, e.g.^ how I 
 could be saved from sins which had troubled me 
 until I began to think either that the grace of God 
 was surprisingly inefficient for the work of my 
 transformation, or that I had never known the 
 grace of God at all. The latter I could not 
 believe. The former was a gnawing worm. In 
 my precious Hiding-Place, I find the Blessed Mas- 
 ter taking all care away from me. He assured me 
 that He would destroy these works of the Devil in 
 me, and He did ; so that, from the poor, fearing, 
 discouraged soul I once was, I became rich, and 
 believing, and resting. I found out that my sanc- 
 tification was in the Blood and Spirit, and not at 
 all in ray own efforts. It has been sweet indeed 
 to let Him do this work for me, while my all absorb- 
 ing enjoyment has been to be hid in Jesus and see 
 His wonder-working. The years which have fol- 
 lowed have been "heaven begun below." God 
 knoweth the truth of what 1 write, and He know- 
 eth that I write it but to tell of all His wondrous 
 works. You know He says to us, "Ye are my 
 witnesses." 
 
 With what delight the Church may live this hid- 
 den-life I Far from the world, and near to God. 
 Far from self, in God. Far from struggling to 
 carry the work of God along, and to carry self 
 along with it, " resting from our own works as God 
 
234 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 did from His ! " This is the way that God has 
 provided for His dear people to live, and it is the 
 only way that becomes them. They are children 
 of a king — it is proper that they should live a life 
 entirely beyond the comprehension of those who 
 have nothing to do with royalty, beyond the gaze 
 of those who merely live upon the surface of things 
 and in the present. 
 
 Christian, is this the life you lead ? Do I hear 
 the answer, " No, I wish I could have such an ex- 
 perience, but I have tried hard to enter, and can- 
 not?" Then, dear one in the Lord, if you are sure 
 that everything is laid upon the altar, it may be 
 that you are waiting for appearances, or for further 
 witness. Wait for nothing ; only believe. Why 
 should you wait for appearances of the heavenly 
 life, when the Lord has assured you of it. If He 
 says, " out of you shall flow rivers of living water " 
 — if He says that upon our believing Him we 
 should find rest unto our souls — it must be so 
 now with you. Do not wait to seek it ; believe it. 
 In gospel language, seeing is believing ; our eyes 
 are called faith. How can we expect to see with- 
 out believing ; the appearance is not the witness 
 of God. ''''He that believeth on the Son of God 
 hath the witness in himself" How often we have 
 said to poor struggling convicted sinners, " Do 
 nothing — only believe " ! 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 235 
 
 But, beloved Christian, struggling to enter into 
 rest, the very instruction you have given to such 
 is the great sign-board on all the way to the celes- 
 tial city. " Do nothing — only believe." Believe 
 that Jesus brings you where He said He would, 
 believe you are in the place where He has made 
 you desire to remain, believe that His exceeding 
 great and precious promises are fulfilled, believe 
 that He " worketh in you to will and to do of His 
 good pleasure," and that mightily. According to 
 your faith it shall be unto you. You shall indeed 
 go in and out and find pasture. 
 
 Let it be your habit, dear saint of the Lord, 
 since the Master Himself has hid your life, to daily 
 hide everything ivith Him. This is the part of the 
 work you are to do. Let everything have the 
 mark of your habitation upon it. Call not your- 
 self unclean, whom He has called and made holy, 
 and let nothing be with you which will not have a 
 full welcome into the King's Palace. With every- 
 thing hidden there, you shall have no cares fiom 
 outside ; and the cares of those inside are like the 
 cares of Eden. They " are careful for nothing, but 
 in everything by prayer and thanksgiving they 
 make their requests known unto God." They are 
 all hard workers ; there is no idleness among the 
 saints in the gardens which their Lord has given 
 them to dress and to keep, but their spirits may be 
 as quiet as the descending dews. Militant but 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 always victorious, always they "triumph in Christ," 
 who " maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge 
 by them in every place." For they act and 
 
 FIGHT, AND SPEAK FROM THEIR HiDING-PlACE. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 237 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS SUBJECT IN THE CASE 
 OF THE NOBLEMAN AND HIS SON. 
 
 John iv. 49, 50 : " The nobleman saith unto 
 Him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus 
 saith unto him, Go thy way ; thy son liveth. And 
 the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken 
 unto him, and he went his way." 
 
 This record is remarkable for two things : i. The 
 peculiar action of the Lord Jesus. 2. The simple 
 faith of the nobleman. It matters not who he was. 
 Some have thought he was Chuza, Herod's steward. 
 Of course all attempts to get at certainty will con- 
 sume our time away from the great thoughts that 
 lie hid in the record. More than that, the effort 
 would only chain us down to the letter, and thus 
 keep us from the ^' Spirit which giveth life." 
 
 This man came to Jesus with importunity, and 
 his words request haste, as though, if He did not 
 come, the spark of life would be gone. We that 
 have had our darlings laid thus low know some- 
 thing of the intense feeling with which he spoke. 
 It was a last call for the life of his child. When 
 
238 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 our lambs have been laid low, how we have prayed 
 for them ! This man knew that Jesus exercised 
 healing power. He believed that He was an in- 
 fallible Physician. Yes, he believed more. For 
 he believed that the power of Jesus exerted from a 
 distance was enough to cure this most desperate 
 case of his son. 
 
 I. The Saviour's answer is to be first observed: 
 *'Go thy way; thy son liveth." The word is 
 spoken as that of a commander over all forces and 
 all distances. Jesus knew all about the son at a 
 distance, and controlled all the forces in nature at 
 that distance to the breaking of the fever at the 
 very hour in which He spoke. 
 
 I. In this answer the compassionate Redeemer 
 encouraged the faith of the multitude. He would 
 show them how willing He was, and how able, to 
 do even the difficult thing that was asked of Him. 
 His short words were with power. A wave of 
 gladness rolled over that multitude who had "come 
 to hear Him, and to be healed by Him of their 
 infirmities." They were at once emboldened to 
 continue near Him. At once their doubts van- 
 ished, and they were glad to wait, and enjoy the 
 wonderful works of God. One of them was saying 
 to another, " Oh hear the dear man ! He commands 
 the disease at a distance. If He can heal this 
 man's child, surely He can heal us and ours who 
 stand in His presence." 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 239 
 
 Let us take the Redeemer's position. Stand 
 always in an encouraging attitude toward those 
 with whom we labor or among v/hom we live. 
 Payson said, " The man who wants me is the man 
 I want." Let all freely come to you. Open the 
 heart of love, and let the disconsolate and the poor 
 and needy in, to hear the words of life and comfort, 
 and to receive out of your fulness the gifb which 
 God means you shall bestow, Jesus thus shows 
 His compassion now. He does not ask any to 
 believe without testimony. His witnesses are all 
 abroad. These witnesses have a special commission 
 to invite all to come to Him. There is nothing so 
 well authenticated as His message ; there is noth- 
 ing so warm and hearty as His invitation ; nothing 
 so sure as His ability and willingness ; nothing so 
 fully set in the passage of time as His- wonderwork- 
 ing fulfilment of all His promises ; of the witnesses 
 of His might, none so intelligent, none so happy 
 and glad to testify of His power to save " to the 
 uttermost." 
 
 Ye that have anything to do in yourselves or 
 your families which requires more than man, come 
 freely unto Jesus Christ. As He encouraged these 
 Galileans, so He has encouraged you to come. 
 Come and ask His love. Come and ask, first of 
 all, ask Himself For if He dwell within you, you 
 shall know what to ask of Him further, and you 
 
240 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 shall know that whatsoever you ask according to 
 His will He heareth you." 
 
 2. In this answer, see Who we have to trust. 
 He appeared a man of sorrows. Very possibly 
 upon the look of His face there was an appearance 
 of deep thought. But He commanded winds, and 
 sea, and devils, and diseases, ' and they obeyed 
 Him. He knew all things. They never uttered a 
 subject but He was fully conversant with it, and 
 overcame them with the fulness of His answers. 
 They thought themselves wise in their undeveloped 
 and foolish science. He knew all the then unwritten 
 and the yet unwritten books. He knew the earth 
 was round, but if He had said it they would have 
 made it a special accusation against Him, and 
 would have made it a ground of His crucifixion, 
 though now our babes know it. Here He com- 
 manded the influences about this child at a 
 distance, and He knew them. Nor was it with 
 Him a vision, for as it is written, " He knew all 
 things." The deep passages of science which in 
 their turn have entranced the greatest minds were 
 altogether known unto Him. For He laid the 
 foundations of the earth, and in thought and being 
 travelled the fields of illimitable space ; in thought, 
 I say, as a man, in Being as God. To Him all 
 the philosophers of the ages were but as babes. 
 
 Oh how glad I am that my precious Jesus did 
 not put His ministers to the task of assigning Him 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 24! 
 
 a place, or as one says, "elaborating a theory re- 
 specting the personal rank of their Master in the 
 scale of being. On the contrary He Himself per- 
 sistently asserts the real character of His position 
 relatively to God and man, and of His consequent 
 claims upon the thought and heart of mankind. 
 Whether He employs metaphor or plain assertion, 
 His meaning is too clear to be mistaken. He 
 speaks of Himself as the Light of a darkened 
 world, as the Way by which man may ascend to 
 heaven, as the Truth which can really satisfy the 
 cravings of the soul, as the Life which must be 
 imparted to all who would live in very deed, to all 
 who would really live forever. Life is resident in 
 Him in virtue of an undefined and eternal commu- 
 nication of it from the Father. He is the ' Bread 
 of Life.' He points to a living water of the Spirit 
 which he can give, and which can quench the thirst 
 of souls that drink it. He is in Himself the one 
 Good Shepherd of the souls of men. He is the 
 Vine, the Life-Tree of regenerate humanity. He 
 claims to be Lord of the realm of death. He will 
 Himself wake the sleeping dead. He will raise 
 Himself from the dead. He encourages men to 
 trust Him as they trust God ; to honor Him as 
 they honor the Father" {Liddon's Bampton Lec- 
 tures. ) 
 
 His commandments are to be obeyed as those 
 that were uttered from Sinai. 
 
 16 
 
242 THE REST OF FAITM. 
 
 This gracious, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Om- 
 niscient Redeemer does not need from my hands 
 the assertion of any theory respecting His power 
 to save. My soul rests on Him as in His word 
 presented — my Lord, my Life, my Jehovah -Jesus. 
 Ah what power there is in His Word ! "Go thy 
 way; thy son Hveth." As a word of knowledge. 
 He knew that the fever broke at His word ; as a 
 word of power, He did it. He commanded, and 
 the sick body of the child stood firm in life. Ye 
 dear and precious readers, do you know what a 
 Lord you have ? and do you believe Him as such ? 
 
 Let us take example from this nobleman. This 
 was only the second recorded miracle; yet this 
 man acted as if he had heard of many. We have 
 heard and we have seen many. Ho7v many mira- 
 cles of grace we have seen ! what miracles of grace 
 we are ! Therefore let us consider — 
 
 II. The simple faith of this nobleman. 
 
 I. He took Jesus at His word. " Go thy way : 
 thy son liveth ; and the man believed the word that 
 Jesus spake to him, and he went his way." How 
 refreshing to see a man take Jesus just as He said ! 
 Men are sometimes very tender upon this point. 
 But they are not tender for the name of Jesus. 
 They do not like their own truthfulness questioned, 
 but they are very far from taking Jesus at His word. 
 But this man made not a single question. It was 
 an instant faith. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 243 
 
 He rested on the word which Jesus had spoken, 
 as though it were the Rock of Truth. And so it 
 was. The Word of the Lord was and is the most 
 solid of all things, for His Word made all things. 
 There is nothing so real as the Word of God. " By 
 the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and 
 all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." 
 
 Therefore, if Jesus has spoken anything, you have 
 no right to doubt it. If Jesus says, " He that be- 
 lieveth shall be saved," then, believing soul, you 
 have no right to doubt your salvation. I am met 
 here with the answer, " I do not doubt my Saviour, 
 but I doubt myself" That is right, beloved ; then 
 you must believe you are saved. " No, I'm afraid 
 I don't believe." Well, beloved, who then can only 
 remedy that evil ? Jesus — He alone. Now, has 
 He not said, " Him that cometh to me I will in 
 nowise cast out ? " Him that cometh for what ? 
 Why, to get all these things, these fruits of the 
 Spirit, these greatest treasures God has to give. 
 Have you come to Jesus ? Then, if you do not 
 doubt Him, you do believe He receives you, and 
 that He gives His Holy Spirit to you, and that The 
 Gracious Spirit works faith in you. 
 
 FAITH IS BEFORE AND ABOVE ALL WORKS. 
 
 I. A work-religion always has failed, and always 
 will fail. It failed in the garden of Eden, even 
 where Adam had all power to serve God. It is not 
 
244 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 strange, therefore, that in this day we should find 
 that works will Jiot comfort in the great emergencies 
 of life ; for God has said " Believe." That is God's 
 order for every one. 
 
 Firsts the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 
 is to be received by faith. 
 
 I St. For all new converts to the religion \ believ- 
 ing before baptism, aye, believing before pleasing 
 God. " What! should I not try to please God? " 
 This is pleasing to God — the work of God, the 
 way of God — " That ye believe on Him whom He 
 hath sentr 
 
 This has been needful in every case, and in every 
 true case of faith must have been observed. Abra- 
 ham did not go up Mount Moriah in obedience to 
 the command before he believed. It would then 
 have been a sad journey, and his answer to Isaac 
 about the sacrificial lamb would have been spoken 
 in indescribable agony. He went up believing ; and 
 so his obedience was that of a child, a comfortable 
 obedience. 
 
 2. There is therefore a reasonableness about this 
 order of God. Faith must be first for the comfort 
 of the worker, and for his security, (i) For his 
 comfort, so that the doings of his life may wear the 
 aspect and be really the work of a loving child. 
 (2) And, beloved, faith preceding our work, is 
 the only reasonable security we have. If Adam 
 failed we shall, unless we have hold of The Al- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 245 
 
 mighty. And it is the work of faith to take hold of 
 Him. God says in His commandment, " Do this." 
 Looking at our weakness, we should say, " Lord, it 
 is utterly impossible to do it." But we remember 
 at once, that believing is before doing ; and so we 
 betake ourselves to the Fountain of eternal strength. 
 We believe that He will enable us to perform. We 
 do perform by faith. This is the only way to live 
 according to the command. Wfe have Christ now 
 in the command. It is not a mere Mosaical pre- 
 cept, to be kept in mind by confessions of our ina- 
 bility to fulfil, and bloody sacrifices to remind us of 
 the necessity of fulfilment. 
 
 Christ is " the end of The Law for righteousness " 
 now. If we were left to fulfil it ourselves, we could 
 not at all ; but if Jesus resides within, if He gives 
 strength and life from the dead, it is full salvation. 
 And so we now look, not to the commandment, that 
 we may fulfil it ; but to Christ, that He may fulfil it 
 in us. It is thus that faith secures us. Faith before 
 obedience, secures obedience. Faith before doing, 
 secures the power to will and to do, that we may 
 stand complete in all the will of God. It is thus 
 that faith secures us in a present salvation. To a 
 soul that believes fully in The Word of the Lord, 
 there is no need of absence from the body to enjoy 
 heavenly things, and to live in the continuous en- 
 joyment of them. For Faith receives, according to 
 His promise, ^'' and grace for graced The first 
 
246 LHE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 requisite, therefore, for a soul to enjoy heaven 
 below, to be secure and happy, is P'aith in God 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 It may be seen in His own descriptions in the 
 Sixth of JMatthew. 
 
 " Wliich of you by taking thought can add one 
 cubit unto his stature." All your work to that end 
 will produce no result. God will see to it that we 
 have the right stature. We 7nay believe for that, we 
 may rest in Him with confidence that our stature 
 will best subserve the interests of His kingdom. 
 
 Again, " Why take ye thought for raiment ? 
 Consider the lilies of the field how they grow ; they 
 toil not, neither do they spin." " If God so clothe 
 the grass of the field • • • shall He not much more 
 clothe you ? " Then Jesus says, " Take ?io thought^* 
 about things to eat, and things to drink, and cloth- 
 ing. " Take no thought for the morrow." Jesus 
 does not say that a man should be idle, should not 
 work. But above all your work He says, ^'Believer 
 Do not have such a mistaken idea about God's 
 supply, as to suppose that your crowding care and 
 anxiety and unrest are going to get it for you, or to 
 help you labor for it. But first of all " Believe." 
 Seek the kingdom first \i. e. "believe"]. When you 
 believe God, your labor will be without care. You 
 will not labor as a slave to a certain end, the labor 
 being the end of your enjoyment ; but you will labor 
 with a happy prospect, assured that whether the 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 247 
 
 labor be much or little, profitable or unprofitable, 
 the trade good or bad, our provisions are fixed, and 
 our full supply, spiritual and temporal, as certain 
 as the existence of God. 
 
 3. The only bar to such an exalted enjoyment is 
 unbelief. Unbelief, which doubts the word and 
 work and Person and relations of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ to His Father, and to us. Unbelief puts the 
 lie on God, and leads men therefore inevitably to 
 sorrow and gloom, as it must and ought. Would 
 you, then, commence any work ? Do not begin to 
 do before you believe ; else by and by you shall, like 
 Nebuchadnezzar, be saying in the pride of your 
 heart, " Is not this the great thing which / have 
 done ? " 
 
 Would you commence any day aright, with 
 the possibility and probability of pleasant and use- 
 ful issues? Commence it believing. Look to 
 God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and sweetly, 
 believingly, unshrinkingly take His promises for the 
 day, as the needs come and go, as the varying cir- 
 cumstarujes may require ; assured (for simple faith 
 is assurance) that His mighty hand shall work with- 
 in you, around you, in the heavens over you, in the 
 earth beneath you, in devils to restrain and to 
 quench their darts, in men to conform them to His 
 promises, in angels that their ministrations may be 
 timely, in all elements, that wind and tide and 
 weather may best subserve the plan by which He 
 
248 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 condescends to make the most of your life. Oh ! 
 beheve. Only believe. Believe now. Keep on 
 believing, that God will do as He said, and as 
 these bird and lily lessons of Jesus in the Sixth of 
 Matthew plainly promise. It is the only consistent 
 action for Christians, and the opposite makes us 
 too low for description. For who but devils would 
 dare to put the lie on God ? 
 
 The great error of poor fallen htmianity is antici- 
 pation. Not the anticipation of faith, but of works, 
 and of sense, and of earthly powers. In fact, faith 
 has no anticipations that engage the will of the 
 creature. It has enjoyments which are like in kind 
 to those which shall be hereafter. But it knows 
 nothing of calculating the future, save to leave it 
 to Him Who controls. 
 
 Men of this world — how universally ! — anticipate 
 the fruitage of plans, and of confidence in men, and of 
 stratagem. They build airy castles, which, as they 
 have nothing more to support them than air, re- 
 quire no more than a single breath to dash their 
 fair proportions into oblivion. Many a man is 
 waiting impatiently for an estate ; and sometimes 
 waiting in an extravagant disappointment that some 
 one does not die, whose life is the only hindrance 
 to his own possession of a fortune. Chancery 
 swallows many a hope thus founded on the sand. 
 
 There are fond mothers and fathers to-day who 
 are sowing the seeds of bitter disappointment for 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 249 
 
 the future. They are clinging to their darlings as 
 though they would live forever. They look with 
 fondness upon the face, they stop to adinire the 
 step, the beauty, and grace of their own offspring, 
 as if calculating upon the rich payment they shall 
 have by and by for all their toil and care. Ah ! 
 they have brought up children for themselves, and 
 by and by God may claim them. But then the 
 war will commence. " That child was mine," shall 
 say the disappointed parents ; " why should the Al- 
 mighty rob me of my pet lamb ? " " Nay," shall 
 God answer their helpless disappointment. *' Ye 
 knew the child was lent — was mine, and ye antici- 
 pated your own schemes in its life. I, the Lord, 
 have taken no more than was my own. If such 
 airy castle-builders had only proceeded on the plan 
 of faith — if they had believed God would do best, 
 and brought and consecrated their all and their 
 darlings to God, their whole course of action would 
 have been changed, and the fearful falHng out with 
 God and His ways could never have occurred. 
 
 But some parent or possessor of dear treasures 
 tells me, " I cannot believe — I cannot let the 
 future thus alone ; that would be unearthly. I can- 
 not ; do not ask me so unreasonably to believe." 
 Beloved, if you cannot thus believe, there is some- 
 thing in the way. You are not in a condition to 
 believe, and your unfitness is for your own remedy. 
 It is a Pharisaical difficulty. It is the boon of self 
 
250 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 that must be thrown away, and self laid on the altar 
 of the Lord. The Pharisees could not believe, be- 
 cause they " received honor one of another." They 
 selfishly attended to their own honor, as many un- 
 believers selfishly calculate upon their treasures. 
 Let that which is in the way of simple faith there- 
 fore be laid down at Jesus' feet. Vea, your all. 
 You are too rich if you own anything which is not 
 specifically given to Jesus. 
 
 THE PRIMARY IDEA OF FAITH IS THAT WE HAVE 
 NOTHING, AND THAT WE CAN DO NOTHING. 
 
 I. We cannot do anything to please God. Ev- 
 ery attempt at pleasing God will be a failure with- 
 out faith. So God says. We cannot think a good 
 thought, for our minds are corrupted by sin. Who 
 can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? What 
 pure thoughts can come from an impure mind ? 
 As well expect a draught of sweet water from a 
 bitter fountain. 
 
 They do tell us of unregenerated persons who 
 are noble, disinterested, and who are exceptions to 
 what we say. I answer that I have never been 
 able, and hope never to be able, to resist the wis- 
 dom of God. He says, "Without Me ye can do 
 nothing." And therefore I conclude that a Christ- 
 less soul, however he may please men, cannot 
 please God, and that all his thoughts will be found 
 in some way mingled with self and sin. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 25 1 
 
 And if we cannot think a good thought, of course 
 we cannot do a good act ; that is, an act which 
 will please God. We may build palaces which in 
 their proportions will be matchless. We may set 
 steamers of incomparable beauty, safety, and speed 
 upon all waters ; we may charm society with our 
 music, may hold vast numbers upon the gaze at 
 our flights of eloquence ; may hide religion in the 
 dazzling glow of our external morality, and yet be 
 utterly unable to please the eternal God. He says 
 so. "Without faith it is impossible to please God.'^ 
 "The carnal [/. ۥ., the Christless] mind is enmity 
 against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, 
 neither indeed can be." Vain man, empty mind, 
 to stand before God without the love of Christ, and 
 expect to think, or say, or do anything which can 
 merit the favor of God, or in full or in part pay 
 for salvation ! Such people are trusting in refuges 
 of lies. God's Word declares it, and woe to the 
 minister who lets down the truth which is built 
 upon the Rock of Ages. As we can do nothing to 
 merit salvation, therefore let us try to do nothing to 
 merit salvation, but only believe, "•looking unto Je- 
 sus." 
 
 BELOVED FRIENDS, WE ARE AS POOR AS POOR 
 CAN BE. 
 
 2. We have nothing. It is the only calculation 
 of true faith. We do not come to the throne in 
 
252 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 any partnership with " Laodicean spirits." To the 
 Church of Laodicea God said, "Because thou 
 sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and 
 have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou 
 art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and bUnd, 
 and naked : I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried 
 in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white 
 raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the 
 shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint 
 thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." 
 
 The plan on which we go to buy gold and rai- 
 ment of God is not on the humanitarian line, but 
 on that of the poor. By nature men are nothing 
 short of beggars of God, though His bounty makes 
 them princes. " Come and buy wine and milk 
 without money and without price. ^' Come and have 
 it for nothing because of your deep poverty. My 
 dying reader, Jesus takes us in a very reduced con- 
 dition. All the strength of our original constitution 
 is sapped, all our beauty is fled. What few frag- 
 ments of righteousness are held is but " filthy rags." 
 
 Men put the lie on this, but they are helpless 
 after all. For however they awhile may build 
 house to house, and multiply field to field, the time 
 must soon come — soon as a weaver's shuttle — 
 when no art, nor wisdom, nor device can save the 
 body from a decaying heap of bones, and the beau- 
 tiful, intelligent human face from its skeleton skull. 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 253 
 
 "Wliose, then, shall these things be which thou 
 possessest ? " Ah, poor man, thou hast nothing ! 
 
 And of time what hast thou, but that which can 
 be placed upon the point of a cambric needle ? 
 Only the present passing moment. The dreams of 
 the future are nothing but idle plays of fancy. We 
 have no future. 
 
 And here is one secret of the riches of faith. It 
 
 HAS NO FUTURE. GOD IS ITS FUTURE. SiuCC WC 
 
 can do nothing, and since we have nothing with 
 which to please God, faith receives salvation as a 
 free gift. And as the gift is coming through pass- 
 ing time, it receives it by the moment. God's gifts 
 are j?wment by moment to believers. The living 
 Christian, then, lives only at one point of time — 
 the present moment. His is not the error of antici- 
 pating. 
 
 "To-morrow, Lord, is thine, 
 
 Lodgdl in thy Sovereign hand. 
 And if its sun arise and shine 
 It shines by thy command." 
 
 Men think it great poverty to be reduced to a 
 single moment ; but it is really exceeding great 
 riches. It is the true position of a dying man in 
 contradistinction from a false and untrue view of 
 life. 
 
 Let us look at the comfort of having no future. 
 When we have given up all the future to God (for 
 this is what I mean), all hopes of the future are laid 
 
254 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 up in God ; we have no hopes outside of God's 
 will, and, therefore, we cannot be disappointed. 
 That is the greatest of all human blessings. Free- 
 dom from disappointment is greater riches than the 
 possession of worlds. Disappointment is heart- 
 ache, heart-sickness ; but the waiting for the Lord's 
 future is blessedness. " They that wait upon the 
 Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount 
 up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be 
 weary, they shall walk and not faint." When God 
 has our future, we have no plans to fail, no schemes 
 to put through on an independent line of our own 
 will, but are supremely satisfied with God's order- 
 ing of our life. I do not mean that there are no 
 pangs. It is blessed to have God so order the 
 pangs that are consequent upon our earthly lot, 
 that we know infallibly that each one of them is in 
 its best time for the development of our glory in 
 Christ Jesus. And there is a test in the will of 
 God supremely sweet. 
 
 I do not mean that such living Christians cease 
 to exert mental and manual skill. I do not mean 
 that there are no Christian inventors — none who 
 plan for the prosperity, happiness, usefulness of our 
 race. Not at all. These very men who yield their 
 all and their future to God may be the best of 
 bank-directors, steamship builders and controllers, 
 presidents, governors, senators. I have yet to learn 
 that a saintly man is unable to keep a driving busi- 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 255 
 
 ness for God ; to make money for God, to build 
 houses for God, plant fields, cut down forests, settle 
 communities, make history, and all for God and 
 His Christ. When all have a pious regard and de- 
 light in the will of God, and have laid up their own 
 future in God, we shall have safer banks, and safer 
 buildings, more reliable ocean travel, and better 
 public men. Because they will all be unselfish^ and 
 sweetly set in the will of God ; rulers and people 
 walking together in the fear of God, and in the 
 comfort of the Holy Ghost. They will leave their 
 employment at the will of God for other, abler, or 
 for God's chosen hands. 
 
 That is what men need. For when the future is 
 all given up — the last strand of earthly holdings 
 broken — we are on full sail for the heavenly land 
 under heavenly breezes. No more fears of the 
 future, fears of poverty, of sickness, of failure, of 
 sorrow. Fears all gone. " Perfect love casteth out 
 fear." 
 
 Beloved, we here see how faith in God, trust in 
 Him, yielding up all to Him, is the work of God. 
 If man would do that work, it must be by faith. 
 This is the work of God, that ye believe. 
 
 This simple faith is beautiful in the case of the 
 nobleman. ''The man believed the word that 
 Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way." 
 
 I call your attention to — 
 
256 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 THE nobleman's EXAMPLE BEFORE THE MUL- 
 TITUDE. 
 
 It was good. They saw a pattern for their own 
 action. Jesus honored his faith, for this very oc- 
 currence has gone forth as an illustration of faith. 
 Some mother, perhaps, had a babe there over whom 
 she had nursed and watched with intensity ; she 
 hears the nobleman's entreaty, she hears the answer 
 of Jesus; but never having seen Jesus do miracles, 
 only having heard of one, she did not know His 
 spirit. This nobleman's action makes her confi- 
 dent. The nobleman's quick relief in spirit taught 
 her to receive the word of Jesus with the same con- 
 fidence. Her own pleasure in anticipating the 
 cure of her child approaches the enjoyment of the 
 fact itself 
 
 In like manner, beloved Christian, your hearty 
 reception of Christ in all His offices, and your 
 trusting, resting spirit, encourages every other 
 Christian in the like trust. The opposite discour- 
 ages weak souls, it gives slanderers room to talk 
 and prate about what they will call the ineffectual 
 grace of Christ, and stands as a dishonor in His 
 Church. 
 
 The principal manner of Jesus' work now is in 
 the dispensation of His grace. The action of true 
 faith — 
 
 (i.) Is prompt, receiving the promises, enjoying 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 25?9 
 
 them ; not going about with a sad countenance. 
 A sad countenance from any unsatisfied want in 
 Jesus, is dishonoring to Him. 
 
 (2.) The action of true faith being prompt loses 
 no time. It does not have to wait. It is ready 
 for business, for true pleasure, or for death. As 
 soon as this man had received his request of Jesus, 
 he believed and went his way. He was ready for 
 all his engagements. 
 
 In addition to the prompt faith, illustrated in the 
 case of the nobleman, it were well to stop and ask 
 the Gospel reader if we personally have not re- 
 ceived a 
 
 "ministry to testify." 
 
 Paul said he had a " ministry to testify." " Nei- 
 ther count I my life dear unto myself, so that I 
 might finish my course with joy, a7id the ministry, 
 which I have received oi the Lord Jesus, to testify 
 the gospel of the grace of God." (Acts xx. 24.) 
 Shall anything keep us from this testimony? Yea, 
 rather, shall not the greatness of our redemption 
 raise us up to the third heaven of desire to declare 
 the amazing grace ? O Lord Jesus, lay the minis- 
 try to testify upon each one of thy saints, that we 
 may tell the story with true effect. 
 
 We shall find that testimony is contagious. 
 Some of you know a place (The Palmer Meet- 
 ing) where the giving of testimony is like a silver 
 
 17 
 
258 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 tide which rolls in glory over the people. You 
 could scarcely weary in that place, for time is 
 ended. Hours pass as moments, while the Lord's 
 sweet little ones tell what He hath done for their 
 souls. I would that eveiy reader had the spirit of 
 that meeting. 
 
 Now it is very true that all cannot preach, but 
 all can be witnesses. Here is the glory of the gos- 
 pel, that the poorest, the feeblest, the most illiterate 
 of the flock may freely speak out of a shining heart. 
 And their simplicity will often exceed the learning 
 of the wise. Indeed, the wise can only give in this 
 testimony as they become little ones. The worldly 
 wise, the self-wise, have no such privilege. Their 
 wisdom must all be laid at Jesus' feet, and they 
 must be simple enough to let their hearts flow to- 
 gether with all the elect. When they all consent to 
 become little and unknown, to let the Lord work in 
 His own way with them, they may occupy the wit- 
 ness-stand ; — till then it is very little they can have 
 to say among Christ's babes, for it is hard to talk 
 out of an empty heart. 
 
 Beloved, I was brought up to preach, and I have 
 in my measure followed my calling. I am perfectly 
 willing that men should say my preaching ability is 
 small, yet I have written many sermons with great- 
 est care. And I have burned hundreds of those 
 sermons up, because when I had written the ser- 
 mons it was all I had to say ; out of the unstudied 
 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 259 
 
 treasures of a heart filled with grace I did not have 
 the wherewithal to bring up, and God's little ones 
 must have washed and prayed for me to be one of 
 their number. Now for the change. Rather than 
 preach a sermon which will draw me the compli- 
 ments of men, rather than be known as the preach- 
 er, I choose to be a simple witness of Christ's "ut- 
 termost" salvation. His uttermost salvation, the 
 true cross-preaching, is solid, and infinitely beauti- 
 ful, in the sight of the truly wise. Yes, I would 
 rather be a simple witness in that little flock that 
 gather at the Tuesday meeting, and at kindred 
 places, than be the greatest preacher in the land. 
 Such could preach great sermons, and die in his 
 dignity. But I would rather die in the littleness of 
 a babe resting on the bosom of infinite love, with 
 the sweet story of the cross simply and alone com- 
 ing out of my mouth to save and to bless men. 
 
 Up, dear souls; ye can all be witnesses. 
 All of you that love Jesus can tell it, and that is 
 the testimony which bears fruit. Those of you that 
 desire to appear well in your speech have not the 
 uttermost story to give. But those of you who are 
 willing to be anything or nothing are ready to tell 
 the stoiy. The simple declaration, " I know that 
 I love Jesus, and that He is my present Saviour,^* 
 may, coming from some soul whom God has pre- 
 pared to say it, prove of more power than many 
 sermons. I speak that I do know. 
 
26o THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 Ah, then, it is objected, the testimony has to be 
 prepared. Yes, — by the Lord in your heart. 
 One man can say the words I have just written, and 
 though in statement they be the cream of a Christian 
 experience, yet they might fall like icebergs ; anoth- 
 er would speak them, and they would seem to come 
 from the opening of furnace doors which burn with- 
 in sufficiently to impel vast machinery, and when 
 open burn and glow upon those outside with amaz- 
 ing light and heat. Wliat made the Samaritan 
 woman's testimony so powerful was, that she had 
 been talking with Jesus ; but if her mere presence 
 with His humanity produced a crowd of suppliants 
 and admirers, how much more when Jesus dwells 
 within us ? Get Jesus enthroned, and you have 
 light, and heat, and power which will compel a 
 hearing, though you speak with greatest simplicity. 
 Let me be plain. Do not leave it to guess-work 
 that Jesus is your All and in all. Be sure that you 
 love Jesus with intensely gi eater affection than you 
 do your dearest earthly darling. Have it so though 
 it should cost you as much as it would have cost 
 the young man who went away sorrowing because 
 he had great possessions. Be sure you have the 
 one thing which he lacked. Let all go for Jesus, 
 that He may have free scope in your heart in mil- 
 lennial sweetness, without any police. He does 
 not want you to come to Him in such a way that 
 you will be compelled to whip yourself up to His 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 26 1 
 
 service, or that your conscience or your will or a 
 godless world will goad you to duty. He docs 
 not desire you to be needing close sermons that 
 cut you in every quarter of your soul. He simply 
 desires an empty heart that He may fill it, a will 
 given up to Him that He may control it ; and so 
 shall your conscience, as a judge, have its millenni- 
 um, its approving rest, in the peace among the com- 
 munity of your powers. Then, instead of needing 
 close sermons, you will have a story to tell which 
 shall be heard gladly by hungering souls, whose 
 powers, both greater and less than your own, shall 
 be united in His service. The Lion, and the Lamb 
 together, and all the wild-beast spirits among men, 
 shall help each other to testify to the wondrous 
 work of God. The story these all tell is the God- 
 prepared story of reigning, triumphant grace. Yes, 
 beloved, let Jesus in fully, and then you will not 
 only have to say. He told me all things that ever 
 I did. Nay, nay ; from the innermost temple of 
 your soul you will say. He telleth 7ne all things 
 that Himself doeth^^ for He is my Friend, my 
 Husband. 
 
 WITNESSES OF THE LORD. 
 
 It always was, now more than ever, a time to 
 witness for Jesus. Every Christian, from the time 
 of his regeneration, is a Heaven-appointed witness 
 
262 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 of the I^ord. The testimony is to be confined to 
 no time or place, but universally given to the full 
 extent of our ransomed powers. Our names, our 
 business, our families, our conversation, our friend- 
 ships, our associations, our jjossessions, are never 
 to be allowed to dissociate us in any, the least way, 
 from Christ. On the contrary, all these are to have 
 the name of Christ burned upon tliem, and in- 
 effaceably impressed, so that wherever these are 
 known it shall be known tliat they are Christ's, and 
 not ours. This will honor Christ, and our testi- 
 mony shall be living light. Oh, beloved, does not 
 your soul glow with great joy, and burn with fer- 
 vent love, seeing that you may be a witness for 
 Jesus, of His power to save ; of His fulness, of His 
 great compassion, of His "grace abounding to the 
 chief of sinners," of the hojK" which is an anchor to 
 the soul, of the assurance of eternal life, of the 
 ever-present Holy Spirit, His deep comforts and 
 infallible directions through His Word ? What an 
 unutterable privilege ; what royal dignity, to be 
 witnesses for the King of kings ! 
 
 Now for the work ! What first shall be done ? 
 Do you ask with strong desire? Is it your soul's 
 best work to 
 
 "CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL?" 
 
 First, then, sec, dear fellow pilgrim to the " ex- 
 cellent glory," that He is crowned and triumphant 
 
THK REST OF FAITH. 263 
 
 within you. Nothing can be done before tliis. 
 Your ]jowcrs are not ready until the r>anic of Jesus 
 is stamped upon them by His indwehing Spirit. 
 Have it done, then, so that you are sure of it. Do 
 not once attemjjt to hope that all is right, until you 
 are sure that the Holy C^host has sealed you. You 
 will feel His work on your inirj>f)scs, on your will, 
 on your affections, on your thoughts. Then, as a 
 fire in the bones, it will come out. 'J 'bought will 
 be active, and will lend activity to speech. You 
 will be decided when men oppose ; and the more 
 you testify, the more will Jesus give you to feel 
 supreme satisfaction with His work. Your testi- 
 mony, though it be concerning what Jesus has done 
 for you, will have very little self in it. It will be a 
 hiding all self behind the cross of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Words may be few — they will be spoken with 
 a fearless independence ; they may be far from 
 eloquent — they will tell upon tho world. They may 
 even seem to be lost ; it may ai>pear to us that we 
 are testifying here and there for nothing, but here- 
 after it shall appear that they have sprung up to the 
 glory of God, anrl have not returned void. 
 
 One thing that the witness for Jesus should 
 especially do is to lay aside all anxious care for 
 results. He may look fcjr results, but these do not 
 spring up by His own hand. Ood will bless, but 
 let him wait. For if over-anxious for results, he 
 
264 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 may be misled to take that for a reward which is 
 only temporary, and which will sadly disappoint 
 him in a coming day. If we labor faithfully for 
 Jesus, He will see to it that our labor is not in 
 vain, will show -us His own gracious encourage- 
 ments, and at last, at last, we " shall come again 
 with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us." Said 
 a man to one who was distributing tract cards, " Did 
 you ever see any result of this labor from the thou- 
 sands you have scattered ? " " Only one," was the 
 reply. But, beloved, if the thousands had not been 
 scattered, that one would not have been gathered. 
 That one paid for thousands upon thousands more. 
 Thousands of tongues, millions of words, years 
 of trial for Jesus' sake, no amount of toil or pain 
 that we can endure for Him, will be too much. 
 Glory be to His name. Let us be witnessing for 
 Him in life, in service, in word, in prayer, in praise, 
 in conference, in confession, everywhere, in season, 
 out of season. Dearly beloved, let us be as firm, 
 as clear, as pointed, as full in our testimony as 
 though we felt ourselves in the article of death, and 
 on the borders of the Heavenly Canaan. 
 
 christian, keep sowing. 
 
 " Keep sowing." So said a Christian to a person 
 
 who had given him a tract by which he had received 
 
 spiritual benefit. The brother who gave the tract 
 
 counts it a joy to tell every man, woman, and child 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 265 
 
 he meets, something about the Lord Jesus. The 
 The cars, the steamboat, the street, the store, the 
 parlor, the sick room, the counting office, are the 
 places which never fail to hear his voice', in which- 
 soever he may be. Many will meet him in the 
 judgment, who will then remember the words of 
 faithfulness he has spoken. It was doubtless a 
 great encouragement to him, when a brother, who 
 had been deeply moved by his words for Jesus, ear- 
 nestly said, " Keep sowing, brother." 
 
 Christian, reader, are you daily and hourly sowing 
 for Jesus ? Do you belong to that company who 
 go forth weeping and bearing precious seed, who 
 shall doubtless " come again with rejoicing, bring- 
 ing their sheaves with them ? " Sow beside all 
 waters, brother, sister of Jesus ; not only where the 
 soil looks good ; for even there, there may not be 
 much depth of earth. Sow everywhere the precious 
 seed of divine truth, tell everywhere the power of 
 the Blood of Jesus to save from hell and from sin. 
 
 But what is this sowing ? The seed is the Word, 
 but what is the sowing ? The hand sows the natu- 
 ral seed into the earth ; this sowing is done by the 
 heart, and either the mouth or the hand may be its 
 instrument. Then the great necessity is to have the 
 heart full of the precious seed. The seed is the 
 Word ; but the memory may be full of the words 
 of Scripture while the heart is c[uite empty of their 
 love or of their spirit. How, then, shall we get the 
 
2 66 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 heart full of these seeds ? The soul of the writer is 
 full while he thinks of the answer. Dear reader, 
 the word is not only written in the Bible ; it is Em- 
 bodied IN Christ. Get Jesus Christ, the Em- 
 bodied Word, in your soul. 
 
 "Christ liveth in me," said the holy apostle. 
 When this is the happy fact, the soul understands 
 the Scriptures, and has no need of the teachings of 
 men. He feels the power of the heavenly seed. 
 He feels the life of that energy which is to convert 
 the world, if it be ever converted. The love of a 
 present Jesus in the soul is like a fire within, which 
 puts all the being in motion. It commands all the 
 powers of the body, " so that they cannot do the 
 things which they would " when swayed by the un- 
 regenerated will. Christ in the soul is an energizing 
 Spirit. He is a commander of the powers for God. 
 He takes away the love of the world, and of the 
 flesh, and tears away the power of the devil. He 
 illustrates the meaning, and makes manifest the 
 fulness of the Scriptures in the knowledge of the 
 things of God. He convinces that these contain 
 the only way of salvation, and all that man can 
 possibly need to bring him triumphantly to heaven, 
 and to make him conqueror over sin this side the 
 grave. 
 
 Christ Jesus, by His own spiritual indwelling 
 causes the soul to feel and to know that divine, 
 refreshment, holy courage, lively joy, and constant 
 
THE REST OF FAITH. 267 
 
 energy, by which we may continually refresh, in- 
 struct, assist, incite, souls into the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, or on their way to glory. Ministerial 
 labor must be very distasteful work where Christ 
 is not reigning in the heart. But let Christ be 
 enthroned, let Him command all our powers, and 
 the humblest of laymen shall be the Lord's prophet. 
 Ministers who only preach in the pulpit never 
 preach. Such cannot be a "flaming fire." But 
 every one can be a flaming fire whose loving, living 
 words for Jesus burn everywhere. When the heart 
 is glowing with Christ, the Scriptures will be prec- 
 ious, and the words that come from the mouth will 
 be the seed which He will use and approve. 
 
 Therefore, beloved lover of Jesus, keep sowing. 
 Let the heart be a repository of the riches and the 
 knowledge of Christ, and so let the mouth declare, 
 exhort, praise, utter comforts to the afflicted, as the 
 case may be. Do not merely ask. Where shall I 
 go to declare this word ? but do it wherever you 
 are. Cards, tracts, books, may be given with the 
 hands, but let the mouth be open for Christ. In 
 any way, in every way, keep sowing the seed ; the 
 name, the will, the work, the blood of Jesus shall be 
 precious seed unto life eternal. O wondrous grace, 
 which permits poor worms to plant that which shall 
 forever bloom in the world of fadeless joy ! " Keep 
 sowing," for you know not whether shall prosper, 
 this or that ; you know that those who are faithful 
 
268 THE REST OF FAITH. 
 
 in this vineyard shall not lack a good harvest for 
 the praise of our great Lord. Let us have no selfish 
 desires for our own results — we shall be fully satis- 
 fied in the glory of Jesus Christ. 
 
 WE REST IN LABOR IN JESUS. 
 
 THE END.