The Malady and the Remedy

Preached at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London, in 1845

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Rom 3:23-26

THERE are two points that every gospel preacher should never cease to enforce upon the consciences of those who desire to fear God. One is, the utter fall of man; and the other, the complete salvation of the elect through the blood and righteousness of Immanuel. In these two points there must be no trifling, no compromise. On the one hand, the fall of man is never to be set forth in any other way but as thorough and complete; and on the other, the recovery by the mediation and work of the Son of God must be set forth as entire and as complete as the fall. If the fall be half way, the recovery will be but half way; but if the fall be to the very deepest centre of ruin, guilt and misery, then the recovery will be to the very highest point of glory, salvation and bliss. Thus, like tenon and mortice, they fit into each other, and the one moves side by side with the other. So that in preaching we cannot separate the utter fall of man from the complete salvation of those who are interested in covenant love and blood.

In the text the apostle in the most decisive manner declares the utter ruin of man. Of the elect, in common with the whole of Adam s fallen progeny, he asserts in the most direct and decisive terms: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." He shows here the fall of man in two distinct points of view. First, "All have sinned." All God s people before they are called by grace, before made new creatures by the operation of the Spirit of God upon their hearts, before quickened into divine and spiritual life-of them it is true, all have sinned. Does not conscience bear a responsive echo to what God the Spirit has here declared? Does not conscience in a living man s bosom strike in with this solemn testimony? Who in this congregation that fears God can stand up, look the Almighty in the face, and say: I have not sinned? John says: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

All the election of grace know and feel themselves to be sinners, when righteousness is laid to the line, and judgment to the plummet; when the sins that they have committed are brought before their eyes, and laid with weight and power upon their consciences. Many of the Lord s family have been gross sinners, the vilest of sinners, before the Lord touched their hearts by His grace-perhaps living in drunkenness, swearing, lying, thieving and adultery! Many of the quickened family of God-when they look to the rock whence they were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence they were digged-know that they lived in the commission of open sins and iniquities! But all the Lord s people have not been open, coarse, profane sinners, in this sense of the word. Guardians, parents, morality and various influences have so operated that some at least of the Lord s family have not been left to commit gross open sin. But are they one whit better? In the eye of man they are. But in the eye of God are they one whit better? If the unclean glance is adultery-if the angry thought is murder-if the rising pride of the heart be a dethroning of God from His pre-eminence-if God weigh the intents of the heart-if His all-seeing eye judges men by motives-if the very thought of foolishness is sin, and the very secret movement of the heart towards evil is in the sight of God stamped with awful and horrible iniquity-who can escape the charge of being a sinner in God s sight?

But the apostle adds another word, that none may escape; he throws an ample net and encloses all that float in the stream; he will allow none to swim through its meshes. He therefore says: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." There is a stroke to cut you down! You may say you have not been an open sinner; no one can charge you with drunkenness, whoredom, theft, blasphemy and other sins that men commonly indulge in. But see how this word cuts you down to the ground in a moment! "Come short of the glory of God."

What is it to come short of the glory of God? It is to act without a view to His glory. Now everything that we have ever done which has not been done with a single eye to God s glory, has the brand of sin stamped on it. But who in an unregenerate state, who, as the fallen son of a fallen parent, ever had an eye to the glory of God? Did such a thing ever enter into man s natural heart as to speak to God s glory, act to His glory, consult His glory and live to His glory? Before ever such a thought, such a desire can cross our breast, we must have seen Him who is invisible; we must have had a view by faith of the glory of the Three-One God; we must have had an eye given us by the Holy Ghost to see that glory outshining all creature good. Every movement, then, of the selfish heart, every desire to gratify, please and exalt self, is a coming short of the glory of God. This stamps all natural men s religious services with the brand of sin. It leaves the religious in the same awful state as the irreligious; it hews down the professing world with the same sword that cuts down the profane world. When men in a state of nature are what is called "religious", is their religion s end and aim the glory of God-the glory of free grace-the glory of the Mediator between God and men-the glory of the Holy Ghost, the only Teacher of God s people? Take it at its best, its brightest shape, is it not another form of selfishness, to exalt their own righteousness, and climb to heaven by the ladder of their own doings? And is not this a coming short of the glory of God? But besides that, the very glory of God requires that every one accepted in His sight should be without spot, speck, stain, or blemish. A pure God cannot accept, cannot look upon, cannot be pleased with impurity; and just in proportion to the infinite purity and ineffable holiness of Jehovah, must all impurity, all carnality, all unholiness and the slightest deviation from absolute perfection be hateful and horrible in His sight.

Now who can say that he has ever brought forth a righteousness which can bear this close inspection? Who can say he has cleansed his heart and hands from evil? Where, where is the bosom in which sin has not made her nest? Where is the mind that is free from "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life"? Where is the heart that is a pattern of the image of the Lord of life and glory? But if we come short of this in any one particular-if we deviate from it for a single moment of our lives, for a single breath we draw-we fall immediately under the curse of an avenging law. Thus this awful sentence in a moment sweeps away man s righteousness, as the north wind sweeps away the mists: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Ga 3:10 By one blast of this north wind of God s terrible justice, the works of man, and all his righteousness are swept away as an unclean thing, and he stands naked, shivering and guilty before a holy and tremendously just Jehovah.

Now this all the election of grace are brought more or less to feel. It is a solemn and indispensable preparation of the heart for mercy; -it is the introduction by the hand of the Spirit into the antechamber of the King of kings. It is the bringing of the soul to that spot, that only spot, where grace is felt, received and known. It is therefore, utterly indispensable for the election of grace, for all the ransomed and quickened family of God to have this felt in their conscience, that they have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. What painful sensations and piercing convictions are experienced in every conscience that has felt the weight of sin, by knowing experimentally the purity, holiness and righteousness of Jehovah discovered to the heart!

But how this prepares the soul for, something better and brighter! Did the fall of Adam take God unawares? Was it not foreseen by His all-prescient eye? It was. God permitted the Fall to take place according to His own wise appointment, that there might be established on the foundation of the Fall His own glory-that there might be a righteousness brought in as far superior to Adam s righteousness, as heaven is superior to earth, as the sun outshines the faintest and feeblest twinkling star. Therefore it was necessary for the display of grace, for the manifestation of the mercy and favour of God to the chosen race, that the Fall should take place. By the Fall, the mercy, grace and wisdom of God were to be displayed in the salvation and glorification of His own peculiar people.

This leads me to the second part of the subject set forth so amply, so clearly in the words of the text. "Being justified freely by His grace..." What does "grace" mean? What is its spiritual signification? It means, simply,  favour;  and favour irrespective of the worthiness or worthlessness of the party toward whom that favour is shown. Grace is the free flowing forth of infinite condescension and tender love from the bosom of Jehovah to a chosen race, irrespective of all that should be found in them that might provoke God to withdraw His favour from them utterly.

1. The sovereignty of grace is one of its most blessed features: that it chooses freely its own objects; that it never consults the will of man, but visits those objects that infinite wisdom and infinite mercy has seen fit to select. Man, rebel man, may kick at the sovereignty of grace, and accuse the holy Jehovah of injustice in the exercise of this sovereignty. But I believe His dear family will all be made to bow to it sooner or later with holy admiration and heartfelt adoration; and instead of rebelling against it, this will be the feeling of the soul when grace visits the heart: "What! me, Lord?" How it humbles, melts and dissolves the heart into contrition and brokenness before God, ever to believe that grace should be fixed upon so worthless and so vile a wretch! And the deeper we sink into a knowledge and feeling of our base original, the more shall we admire and adore the sovereignty of grace in choosing us, and bringing us to a knowledge of God and of His Son Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.

2. But besides the sovereignty of grace, there is its freeness;  that it flows freely forth from the bosom of God; that it wants no conditions to be performed by the creature, requires no good hearts, demands no good lives-though it makes good hearts, and though it makes good lives when it comes; but in the first instance, when it flows freely forth from the bosom of God, it demands no good heart, and no good life, on the part of the favoured object; but flows freely forth-as freely as the air flows in the bosom of the sky, as freely as the river pours forth its stream into the bosom of the sea.

3. Another feature of grace is, it is superabounding. O sweet and blessed word! that grace superabounds over all the aboundings of our sin; that however high the tide of sin may rise, there is a springtide of grace that flows over all; that however deep the waves of corruption may appear to be-deep beyond the fathom-line of human intellect-yet there is a sea of grace deeper still, an unfathomable ocean of eternal mercy and eternal love, as far beyond all the demerits of the creature, as the creature is lower than Jehovah "the God of all grace."

Now, this grace-in its sovereignty, in its freeness and in its superaboundings-is manifested chiefly in two things; one is, in setting forth a complete propitiation -the other, in bringing in a spotless righteousness.

What do we want as sinners? What does conscience crave when guilt lies upon it? Is there anything so suitable, anything so precious, as redemption and propitiation? Both are implied in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation."

But what is propitiation? By propitiation we are to understand, a sacrifice acceptable to Jehovah, by which God, or rather His attributes are propitiated; whereby God can be favourable, whereby mercy, grace, pardon, can freely flow forth. Now sin, and the law condemning sin, barred out, barred back, the favour of God. They were the opposing obstacle to the love of God. For God cannot, as God, love sin and sinners; therefore, the sin of man, and the holy law of God, the transcript of His infinite and eternal purity, barred back, so to speak, the favour of God. It was needful, then, that this barrier should be removed, that a channel might be provided through which the grace and mercy of God might flow: in a word, that sin might be blotted out, and that the law might be accomplished and fulfilled in all its strictest requirements; or, as the text closes it, that God "might be just"-retaining every righteous attribute, not sacrificing one of His holy perfections-and yet, though just, perfectly just, "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." But how was this to be effected? No seraph, no bright angel could ever have devised a way. It lay locked up in the bosom of the Three-One God from everlasting; and that was-that the only-begotten Son of God, who lay from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person," should become a bleeding Lamb-the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Re 13:8; -that He should take into union with His own divine Person, human nature, "the flesh and blood of the children"-pure, spotless and holy-and offer up that nature, that body which God prepared for Him, a holy sacrifice. When He came into the world the sacrifice began, and every holy thought, every holy word and every holy action, in suffering and performing, that passed through His heart, dropped from His lips, or was performed by the hands of the only-begotten Son of God, when He was upon earth, was part of that sacrifice. But the grand consummation of it the offering up of that body especially was, when it was nailed to the accursed tree, and His blood was shed to put away sin. Now, this is the propitiation, the redemption, the sacrifice-the way, the only way, whereby sin is expiated-the way, the only way, whereby sin is pardoned.

But in order that this blessed sacrifice and atoning propitiation may pass over to us; that its value, validity, efficacy and blessedness may be felt in our consciences; there must be that wrought in our souls whereby it is embraced. The only salvation for our souls is the propitiation made by Jesus upon Calvary s tree. There is no other sacrifice for sin but that. But how is that to pass into our hearts? How is the efficacy of this atoning sacrifice to be made personally ours? It is by faith. Does not the Holy Ghost declare this by the mouth of the apostle? "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood."

Now, this is the turning point in the soul s salvation. This is the grand point to have decided in a man s conscience before God. This is the Cape to be doubled by every one that sets forth upon the sea of salvation. Before he can double this Cape, he is driven back by storms, and tossed by winds; and often he fears lest he should be engulfed in the billows. But when, by living faith, he is enabled to double this Cape, to see the propitiation through the blood of the Lamb, to feel his very heart and soul going out after, and leaning upon, and feeling a measure of solid rest and peace in the blood of the sacrifice offered upon Calvary-then he has doubled the Cape of Good Hope, then he has passed into the Pacific Ocean from the stormy Atlantic; and then he begins to receive into his conscience a measure of the favour and grace of the Lord God Almighty.

But before we can see the efficacy of Christ s atoning blood, we must see by faith the Person of Immanuel. There all our faith centres. If we have never seen Jesus by the eye of faith, what is our profession worth? Is not this life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent? Does not the apostle say: "Let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus?" Was not this the bent of the apostle s soul and heart? -"Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before." Was he not straining every sinew pressing forward to "know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings?" Was not that the goal to which the heavenly minded man was urging his course-to know the bleeding Lamb of God, to feel the power of His resurrection in his heart, and to be led by the divine Spirit into secret communion with His sufferings, so as to have a measure of His suffering image stamped upon his tender conscience? Before then we can have faith in this atoning blood, we must see the glory of the Person of the Lord of life. Said John: "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,  full of grace and truth." Were your eyes ever anointed to behold the glory of Jesus? Did your faith ever contemplate-did your hope ever anchor in-did your love ever flow forth to the glorious Person of Immanuel? Was He ever precious to your soul? ever "altogether lovely" in your eyes? so that you could say: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee." Now, if as convinced of your sin against God you have seen this Person by the eye of faith, you have had faith flowing out of your soul to His atoning blood; for His atoning blood derives all its value, all its validity, and all its efficacy from its being the blood of that glorious Person. Upon that atoning blood we then view infinite dignity stamped, as it is the blood of the Person of Him who was God-Man; and we then see the dignity, immensity and glory of the Godhead of Jesus stamped upon the sufferings and blood that flowed from His pure Manhood. When we see that by the eye of faith, what a rich stream does it become! what a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness! what value is stamped upon it to purge and cleanse the guilty polluted conscience!

Now, when this is known and felt, the soul is justified; justification passes over from the mind of God into the bosom of the sinner. He never was, in the mind of God, in an unjustified state; but he was so in his own conscience and as touching the law, and as regards his standing as a sinner before the eyes of a holy Jehovah. But the moment he is enabled by living faith to touch and take hold of the atoning blood of the Lamb of God, justification passes over into his soul, and he becomes freely justified, pardoned and accepted, through the blood of sprinkling upon his conscience; and he stands before God whiter and brighter than snow, for "the blood of Jesus Christ, God s Son, cleanseth from all sin."

But, you will observe, the apostle does not necessarily connect assurance, nor does he necessarily connect consolation the highest consolation, that is with faith in His blood. There is many a poor, trembling, doubting, fearing sinner who has faith in Jesus blood, and yet has not experienced the full liberty of the gospel. He has believed in Jesus, and yet has not received into his heart that Spirit of adoption, that Spirit which beareth witness with his spirit that he is a child of God. He has fled for refuge to the hope set before him in the gospel; he has believed in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God; he has looked to the atoning blood of the only sacrifice God accepts for sin; and he has felt in a measure-not perhaps a full measure, not in a measure that altogether satisfies-but he has felt a measure of peace, pardon, salvation and love flowing into his bosom through that atoning blood. It has been "precious blood" to him. Faith may not have been very powerful-who shall define its extent? it may not have lasted long-who is to define its duration? but if ever that blood has been seen by the eye of living faith, and rested upon for eternal life, and a measure of peace has been felt through the sprinkling of it by the Holy Ghost on the conscience-that soul has received justification; it has passed over from the mind of God into that sinner s heart and conscience.

But the apostle adds: "That God might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Thus, wherever the blood of the Lamb has been looked unto and believed in, there the righteousness of God, which is "unto and upon all them that believe," is freely communicated. Pardon through blood, and justification through righteousness, always go together. They are parts of the same salvation; both branches of the finished work of the Son of God. Whoever receives pardon through blood, receives justification through righteousness; for it is "unto all and upon all" -imputed unto, clothed upon-"them that believe." Then what a wonderful termination of all! "That God might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Are they not wondrous words? Are weightier, more wonderful words to be found through all the Bible? "That He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Does not the justice of God stand arrayed against the sinner? Does not the justice of God condemn him in his minutest thoughts, in his most secret motives, in every word of his lips, every conception of his heart, every action of his hands? Can this divine attribute be sacrificed? Can God in the slightest degree, for a single moment, cease to be just? If He ceased to be just, He would cease to be God. If one attribute of the divine character could suffer the most momentary eclipse; if the faintest shade of darkness could pass over the character of Him who dwelleth in the light, which no man can approach unto-He would cease to be the infinite, eternal Jehovah. No. The things of time and sense may fall into ruin; the sun may drop from the sky; the heavens may be rolled back like a scroll, the earth and its elements be dissolved by fervent heat, and the inhabitants thereof die in like manner; every star may fall from its sphere, and every planet vanish from its place-but Jehovah stands unchanged and unchangeable amid the wreck of ages, and amid the universal dissolution of all transitory things. He cannot for one moment sacrifice one of His attributes. Every created thing, every finite intelligence, must sooner be annihilated, than Jehovah sacrifice or suffer the slightest tarnish of any one of His eternal attributes.

Yet God can be just, infinitely just, scrupulously just, preserving His attribute of justice unchanging and unchangeable, and still be "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." The way in which this was effected will take endless eternity to understand and a boundless eternity to admire and adore. That the only-begotten Son of God-He who is equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost-should come down to this lower world, take upon Him the form of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, become a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"-suffer, groan, agonize, bleed and die-in order that the justice of God might still stand, and the salvation of men still be secured; that the mercy of God might flow forth unimpeded by the demands of unblemished justice-what a subject for eternity itself, not to exhaust, for it is inexhaustible, but to explore. Thus, by the mediation of the Son of God, justice was maintained in all its inviolable integrity. Nay, more, the justice of God was highly magnified thereby: for when the Lord of life and glory was "made of a woman, made under the law," and fulfilled the solemn requisitions and holy demands of that law, as the Scripture says, He "magnified" it and "made it honourable;" He stamped an eternal dignity and immense and unspeakable value upon the law, by condescending to obey and fulfil it. So that, so far from the justice of God being diminished, it was rather heightened and magnified by the mediation of the Son of God. Thus He not only is just in the highest sense of the word, but He also can be and is the "justifier of him, which believeth in Jesus."

But what is meant by the expression "the justifier?" It means that God can count man as righteous, can freely pardon his sins, can graciously accept his person, can impute to him righteousness without works and can bring him to the eternal enjoyment of Himself. And who is the character that He thus brings to Himself by justifying him? "He that believeth in Jesus." What simplicity, and yet what sweetness and suitability is there in the gospel plan! Say it ran thus: "That God might be just, and yet the justifier of him that worketh, that pleaseth God by his own performances, that produceth a righteousness satisfactory to the eyes of infinite purity." Who then could be saved? Would there be a single soul in heaven? No: such a word as that would trample down the whole human race into hell. But when it runs thus: That it is the mind and purpose of God, His eternal counsel which cannot pass away-that He is the "justifier of him which believeth in Jesus"-the poor, the needy, the exercised, the tempted, the distressed and the perplexed, that believe in Jesus, that look to Jesus and rest in His Person, blood, righteousness and love for all things-that these are justified, that these are pardoned, that these are graciously received, and saved with an everlasting salvation-how sweet, how suitable, does the gospel that declares this become to the living, believing soul!

Now you must know-if conscience is honest in your bosom-you must know whether you have ever believed in Jesus, or not. Such a mighty revolution can never take place in a man s soul without his knowing something about it. Memory can chronicle a number of insignificant events-birthdays of children, marriage days, trifling occurrences of childhood and youth. And shall memory not chronicle that important era in a man s life, that mighty revolution whereby he passed from death unto life, whereby he was manifested to be a saved soul by believing in the blood and righteousness of the only-begotten Son of God? Have you never had glances, glimpses, views, sights and discoveries of the Son of God in His beauty? As you have lain upon your bed, as you have sat by your fireside, as you have heard the word preached, as you have read the Scriptures, as solemn feelings have been raised up in your heart from time to time-has there been no seeing by the eye of living faith the once-crucified but now glorified Immanuel? What! no panting after Him? No longings? No intense desires, no sweet communications, no precious tastes, no divine discoveries, no heart full of love toward His Name? Surely, if you are a believer in the Lord of life and glory, some of these things in a measure-I dare not set up a very high standard in these things-but surely some of these things in a measure have passed in your bosom. Now, if you have known what it is thus to go forth in the exercise of living faith upon the only-begotten Son of God, God has justified you; for He is the justifier, the accepter, the approver, the pardoner of him which believeth in Jesus. "Who is he that condemneth? It is God that justifieth."

"But O" say you and I say so too "my guilty conscience often condemns me-my backslidings often condemn me-my inward and outward slips and falls often condemn me-and my own heart often proves me perverse!" It is so, to our shame and sorrow. But shall these things alter the eternal purpose of God? Shall the inward condemnations of conscience cancel the grand act of justification on the part of Jehovah? Shall doubts, fears, sinkings, despondencies and exercises stretch forth their hand to blot the believer s name out of the book of life? Shall they dash away the validity and efficacy of the blood of sprinkling, nullify the work of the Son of God, and prove the Holy Ghost a liar? They may tease and harass, they may distress and perplex and it is good to be exercised about them, but they shall not eventually condemn, for "there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." He that believes in Jesus is passed from death unto life, from condemnation unto justification.

Is any other gospel worth the name? Is any other way of salvation so called, though really the way of death and damnation worth a glance? Is not this the only way? and do not all other ways terminate in disappointment and despair? What a mercy it is that there should be such a way! What are we? Are we not, in ourselves, lost sinners? Is there any hope for any of us under the law, in our own righteousness, by our own performances, or through our own resolutions? Are not all these things as the spider s web? But is there not a glorious Mediator at the right hand of the Father? Is there not seated on a throne of grace a great High Priest over the House of God, able to save to the uttermost? And does not this once crucified but now glorified Jesus, graciously speak to every sin-troubled bosom and every exercised heart: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest?" Is it not better to trust in His Name, to look to His blood, to shelter beneath His righteousness, and to yield up our heart s affections into His sacred hands and keeping, than to trust in a name to live, to a form of godliness, to our own intentions, our own hearts, or our own works? I am sure the Lord will bring all His people here-though often by "terrible things in righteousness"-by cutting up and cutting to pieces every delusive hope, every presumptuous claim, every vain-confident expectation-and by enabling them, with simplicity and godly sincerity, and in the actings of that living faith of which He Himself is the author and finisher, to give themselves, wholly and solely, up into the hands of the Lord of life and glory, to be saved by Him with an everlasting salvation.

The Lord in mercy make it more and more manifest! We are perplexed sometimes because our faith is so weak and wavering. But the question is not whether our faith be weak and wavering, but whether it is genuine. That is the grand question to have decided. You may have strong faith, so called, and it be nothing but awful presumption: you may have weak faith, and yet that faith be genuine.

The Christian often cannot see

His faith, and yet believes.

I believe there is often more real faith, more genuine trust more heart-felt confidence in the poor, exercised, plagued, tempted, distressed people of God than in those who stand upon a lofty pinnacle, who never doubt their interest, and think nothing worthy the name of faith but strong assurance. There is often the strongest faith where that faith is the most deeply tried; there is often the most simple, implicit and childlike confidence when it seems as though one blow would dash every spiritual hope to atoms. We see this in the woman with the issue of blood, who touched the hem of the Lord s garment-in the leper who kneeled down before Him, and said: "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean"-in the Syrophenician woman, who begged for a few crumbs from the Master s table-and in the centurion, who only wished a word to be spoken, for he was sure that word would produce a healing effect. We see that all these were trembling and fearing characters; yet the Lord declares of the centurion, that He had not seen so great faith, no, not in Israel. And instead of cutting them off as weak in faith, He commended the strength of it.

And thus you may find when all things are most against you, your faith then though tried will be most strong; and perhaps, when all things seem for you and you think your faith is sailing on a fair sea, there may come a storm which shall sadly try it. But whether your faith be weak or strong -whether your consolation be great or small-this is the great point to have decided by God s testimony in an honest conscience-whether we have faith at all. Have we one grain, one spark, one particle of living faith? If we have we are as safe and as secure as the strongest believer.

The Lord shine upon His work where begun, mercifully carry it on, and shed abroad that perfect love which casts out all fear, and bring His people to this blessed spot-to be "determined not to know anything among men save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."