An Objection and an Answer

A SERMON DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything, nor
uncircumcision; but faith which works by love." Galatians 5:6.

THE most prominent doctrine in Paul's teaching was that of
Justification by Faith. He taught it so very plainly, so very boldly–I
had almost said so very baldly–that it seemed necessary to the Holy
Spirit that James should bear testimony to the necessity of holiness as
the result of faith. Hence the Epistle of James is put into the sacred
canon lest any should wrest and twist the language of Paul from its
proper meaning. His great teaching–anybody can see this with half an
eye–the great teaching of Paul is that we are saved by the Grace of
God through faith in Jesus Christ. This doctrine has always been taught
in the Church of God and it is, as Luther well put it, the standing or
falling article–the test of a standing or a falling Church.

A Church which holds this doctrine in its integrity, notwithstanding
many errors, is still a Church of Christ, but the church which denies
this, whatever else it may hold, is against Christ, and is not a Church
of Christ at all. The great Reformation, for which we so often bless
God, was brought about by this light. The Truth of God, which had been
hidden in darkness, was held forth in the preaching and teaching of
Protestant Reformers. For a long time after those eminent men had
departed, the testimony of all the Protestant Churches to Justification
by Faith was clear and unwavering. You can scarcely read a sermon of
any of the immediate successors of the Reformers, but you will find it
filled with the doctrine that man is justified through the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, by faith in Him and not by the works of
the Law.

It was the same testimony which produced the revival in the last
century, when Whitfield and Wesley awoke the slumbering masses of our
population as they went forth through every town and hamlet preaching
the Gospel. Whatever difference there might have been between those
eminent Evangelists and their followers, they did not differ at all
upon this point, that men are saved by believing in Jesus Christ–by
resting upon the Atonement once offered for human sin upon the bloody
tree of Calvary. And I rejoice, dear Friends, that this doctrine was
never more clearly preached than now. As the time of the singing of
birds has come and the Churches are waking up and expecting a blessed
springtide, I thank God that there is this sign of its being a truthful
work! Among other gracious signs it is conspicuous that Jesus Christ is
preached and that faith in Him is declared to be of paramount
importance.

That it is so is evident from the opposition which has been aroused! I
can hear the voice of the old growler–he is a gentleman that never has
been absent when the banner of Christ has been unfurled. He is
beginning, again, to whine and snarl, as he always did, and to bark at
this doctrine, in particular, as not according to holiness, subversive
of morality and mischievous in all its tendencies! I shall not attempt
to stop his growling. His temper tells its own tale. He and his cronies
do but display their natural disposition. If dogs delight to bark and
bite, Dr. Watts has taught us to let them do so, "for 'tis their
nature, too."

I am not thinking of the cynical skeptic just now–my aim is to meet
the sincere seeker. This objection takes the form of a difficulty in
the minds of some who are anxious to find salvation. They say to
themselves, "Can it be so? Is it possible that by simply believing on
Christ, Himself, my soul can be saved? I can comprehend that this might
be made a condition upon which God should pardon me, but that is not
all I need. I need a new heart. I need a right spirit. It would be of
little use for me merely to have my past sins forgiven. I need to
become a better man. The salvation that I need is salvation from my
sins, from temptations in the world and from the uprisings of my own
naturally depraved heart. If I cannot get that, the mere pardon of sin
is a very small business. I can understand, however, that God would
pardon me upon my believing in Jesus. What I need to know is what
effect my believing in Jesus will have upon me, personally–what change
would accrue to my nature as the result of my believing."

It is about that I want to talk–faith which works–faith which works!
And I want to show something about how it works. It works "by love." To
begin, then, I shall first attempt to answer the enquiry, "What is the
faith which saves the soul?" And I venture to answer the question,
first, by saying that it does not differ as a mental act from any other
kind of believing. I fully admit that there is much about faith that is
mysterious and of that I may speak presently. But if any man asked me
what the act of believing is, I should not hesitate to reply, "I
believe God just the same as I believe anybody else–believe Him as I
believe my father, as I believe my mother, as I believe my wife. It is
the same mind which believes and it is the same act of the mind that
comes into operation. It is a rational assent. Faith is to believe what
God says, to take it to be true, real, a matter of fact."

Now, when I believe what a man tells me, I do not say to myself, "Well,
that is now a piece of my creed," and so put it on the shelf and have
done with it. A man tells me, for instance, in the middle of the night,
that my house is on fire. You know what I should do. You know what you
would do. You know what any sane man would do! But when you are told in
God's Word that you are in danger of the wrath to come, do you believe
what you read? No, you do not, or you would not be so cool as you now
are. Your imminent peril would prompt instant action. I would to God
that what men call faith in a religious point of view were as prompt in
its proceedings as the common acts of faith which they exercise towards
their fellow men!

The fact is, the creed we profess comes often far–very far–short of
the credit we give to our fellow creatures about the common affairs of
life. Do you want to be saved? Believe God as you would believe the one
that told you that your house was on fire! Believe God as you would
believe your friend–believe Him actively, really, truly–for that is
faith. God tells you that you have transgressed against Him, but that
He wills not your death–that He has, therefore, sent His Son into the
world to suffer in the place of sinners and that if you rely upon His
Son you shall have immediate forgiveness and shall be saved. Believe
that message! Believe it to be true! You ought to believe it, for God
cannot lie.

It is an indisputable fact that whatever God says, stands good. It is
not contingent upon anything but His own will and He is without
variableness or shadow of turning. What He says He means. Believe Him,
then, whom you have not seen, as you would believe anyone whom you see
daily. Give credit to the Word He has written as you would credit any
word that is spoken to you. And if you do so believe, mark you, your
faith will then resolve itself into an act of reliance. If I believe a
man, when I am in trouble, and he says, "Now, Sir, leave that with me I
will get you through"–I rely upon him to do it. I leave the matter in
his hands and go my way.

This is the very core of saving faith. It is to say, "Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners. I am a sinner. I will trust Him to save
me. He, on the Cross, made expiation for me and I am at peace. My heart
rests on the Atonement which He has offered." It is dependence,
reliance–or as the old Puritans used to say, "recumbency"–leaning
upon a Friend because I have ceased to rely on myself. If He takes the
burden, I stand aloof. His the weight, mine the relief, free from
pressure, free from anxiety. That is faith, easy, artless
faith–self-renouncing, God-honoring faith! It is unequivocal
faith–faith taken in the simple common acceptance of the word, of the
act, of the feeling. The very core, marrow, essence, soul of faith is
reliance upon Jesus Christ, once offered for human sin, and now gone,
covered with Glory, up to the right hand of God to represent sinners
within the veil!

And this reliance, wherever it is true, may also be described as an
acceptance of what God has set forth as a propitiation for sin. God has
given His Son. Let me put it in other words. God Himself, because He
could not tarnish His justice, has descended to earth and taken up our
Nature–He has worn the clay garb of our humanity. God Himself has
suffered, has died upon the Cross as if He had been guilty. The Judge
has taken the culprit's place and borne the vengeance due to the
offender. He says, "Will you accept My Substitution? Shall it be so?
Are you willing that I should be in your place, that you may be in
Mine?"

Sinner, I ask you, now–and let your heart reply–are you willing that
the scourging of Christ should be in the place of your being scourged?
Are you agreeable that by His stripes you may be healed? Are you
willing that His blood should be shed instead of your blood–His death
instead of your eternal death? You say–

"My faith does lay her hand

On that dear head of Yours,

While like a penitent I stand

And here confess my sin.

You Say, "I am all too glad to take this Substitute, this blessed
Substitute and to accept God's way of salvation." Very well! You are
saved then and there! Believing God's testimony, relying on God's Son,
accepting God's way of salva-tion–that is the faith that saves the
soul!

That is not faith which says, "I am saved because I believe I am." That
may be a lie. It is not a faith that says, "I feel so happy and,
therefore, I am saved." There are a great many that feel very happy,
indeed, that will be lost. But it is a faith that goes upon principles,
upon the Truths of God written in Scripture–not upon excitement nor
upon feelings. God gives Christ to save men and Christ saves all who
trust Him. I trust Him, therefore He saves me. I believe God gave me
that trust, therefore I give all the glory to God! Having no works to
boast of, I confess that I am saved through what Jesus did on my
behalf. That is my first direction for your first dilemma.

I want to answer a few objections against this being the way of
salvation. Let me ask you, however, what on earth is the good of your
objecting? If God has made this to be the way of salvation, your best
plan is to accept it. What good will your objections do? "Can I not do
as I will with My own?" would be God's response to your impertinence!
As surely as this Book is God's Word, so surely are we taught there
that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ. "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved: he that believes not shall be damned." Now it
is no use your kicking against it. There it stands and it will not be
altered for anyone.

Were this city starving and a man of wealth were to bring in bread and
distribute it, any regulations he chose to make for the distribution,
he surely would have a right to enforce! Nobody ought to quibble at it.
God has made and fixed this fast and firm– there is no other
salvation. "There is no other name given under Heaven among men whereby
we must be saved." Man, do not object! We sometimes say to boys who go
out to business and do not like the work, "It is no use quarrelling
with your bread and butter." Surely the available supply of actual
necessities ought to silence every murmur. What profit, I pray, Sir,
can you expect to come of quibbling at God's Covenant, or challenging
the propriety of His salvation which He has prepared before the face of
all people?

God has fixed it! He will not alter the thing that has gone out of His
mouth. Leave your objections for something else! Write to the
newspapers, if you please, about some public grievance, but to impugn
with indignation, or bemoan with bitter complaints, God's way of
salvation must be the most unprofitable, not to say the most
impertinent and wicked way of wasting time! It is alleged that when we
tell men to believe in Jesus and they will be saved, they will go on in
sin–they will despise good works–they will, perhaps, grow immoral!
The answer is this. Do they? Do they? I quoted a very homely proverb
just now. I will quote another quite as homely. "The proof of the
pudding is in the eating." And truly the proof of the doctrine is in
the practical results.

Do the people that believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, renouncing
all trust in their good works, plunge deeper into sin and make this a
reason for licentiousness? Answer honestly. Turn to the pages of
history and see, on a large scale, the aspect of society. What do you
think of the cavaliers of King Charles's day? They certainly were not
Believers in justification by faith! I do not know, exactly, what they
did believe in. But I suppose had there been a preacher of good works
and the whole duty of man who adorned moral essays with graceful
language, sparkling wit and aphorisms from heathen authors, these
gallant gentlemen would have listened to the court preacher with a
listless satisfaction and gone home to their ladies to tell what a
profitable sermon they had heard.

But where do you look for social virtue among men, holy living before
God and noble sacrifices for the public good? Why, among your Puritans!
Among the rough men that would do anything but sin, who feared no man's
face in the day of battle and who feared God in the sanctities of their
private chambers and the secret recesses of their own hearts! Around
Cromwell's campfires at night there may be many disputes about
doctrines but never a dispute about this question–that we are
justified by faith in Jesus Christ! All the world knows that the men
who cry up good works have not got any stock in hand, or even a sample
to show–while those who preach up faith in Jesus Christ are,
themselves, the very people whose biographies will bear to be written
and who exhibit the very works which this doctrine is supposed to
destroy!

Judge, therefore, by facts! But if the doctrine of faith is such a
wonderfully easy way of salvation and when it is accepted men just go
on as they did before, why do not all the licentious people receive it?
Why do you not hear in the theater and the saloon the song sung–

"I do believe–I will believe–

That Jesus died for me"?

If Free Grace is such a potent factor in the merchandise of free
living, why not introduce it more freely among your harlots? Why does
it not find favor among the gay and giddy, the fast and frivolous? Do
men do that? No! Because the world knows that our faith will not blend
with their filth! If any man among you would like to come up here and
say, "I, for one, believe in Jesus Christ and yet I lead a licentious
life," he would become known as a hypocrite among the sensuous and the
Sybarites! It is all very well to bribe false witnesses who say that it
leads to that. You know it does not. The licentious are the last
persons to talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ!

Yet if it were so, if the expiation of Christ pleased in ever so small
a degree, the Epicurean of the world, it would surely be one of the
doctrines which the self-indulgent would seize upon with the greatest
eagerness. No, Sir, the man that lives in vice and violates every
precept of the Decalogue is just the man to make conscience of going on
Good Friday to his church–there he takes the sacrament and believes
that he, somehow or other, gets absolution! At our Agricultural Hall
services and noonday Prayer Meetings they will sneer because, they say,
it is encouraging hypocrisy instead of putting down immorality, and so
on. Yes, we know where the talk comes from–from men who lack a
morality of their own! If they were to look at their true lives it
would suffice.

Again, suppose we were to change the system of preaching and preach
that men were to be saved by good works– entirely by what they did.
You say, "That would set them working!" Perhaps it would, or perhaps it
would not–most likely the latter, for as a general rule it never has
produced much result. Dr. Chalmers' experience was that he preached
morality till he had not any moral people left–and he did not see
anybody converted to Jesus Christ. I believe you may preach against
sin, but if you do not, at the same time, proclaim the way of
salvation, you prevent shame and leave men accusing one another and
excusing themselves. Your model sermons would become monstrous
travesties of honesty! In plain English, you would be preaching up
selfishness.

You say to these people, "Do this, that you may be saved." What is,
then, to be the objective of their life? Self-salvation. That is the
one thing they are to live for–that they may somehow merit Heaven. But
it is a doctrine that will pay extremely well! If you happen to be a
priest and want something that will really pay you for your services, I
do not know anything better than to tell them that they will get to
Heaven by their benevolent actions, their deeds of charity and
especially their alms to the church! And, of course, you need to remind
them that in their departing moments it will be extremely useful to
leave a large sum of money for the benefit of the church and much to
the advantage of their souls! Oh, it is an excellent plan of picking
their pockets!

If men give in that way, they are giving to God, they say. It is a
bald-faced lie! They are giving to themselves– seeking their own
salvation. It is a pure system of selfishness from beginning to end and
he that lives to save himself is living with a mean purpose! I wonder
how he can look himself in the face, and say, "God made me, and yet I
am not living to His glory, but I am living to save myself." I say,
Sir, that if your system could be worked out and produce the best
possible effect that could come of it, it would only be to reduce
mankind into a race of self-seeking men, seeking, indeed, self in a
very fine garb, but still seeking self.

"How about faith?" you say. Why, faith in Jesus Christ saves us from
self! We believe in Him and we are saved from that day, for we live not
for self-salvation. We are saved and now, out of love to Him who saved
us, we live unto His praise and glory, this being our grand
motive–that we might glorify Him, not seeking a reward, but, "As you
have loved me, O ever loving Lord, so would I love You!" This is
something better than selfishness. This is, in fact, salvation from
self, which is no mean part of salvation from our sins. Push the matter
still closer home. I would like to ask another question. You say that
to tell a big evil sinner that God forgives him on the spot when he
believes in Jesus is to encourage him in sin.

Come, then, and defend your hypothesis! Suppose that the man is led to
believe that God has forgiven him, what will be the effect upon him?
Think a little. Have you never heard of the effect of kindness upon
men? Do you not believe in it? Some men are all for whips and chains.
Flog them! Give them a term of penal servitude! Exile them! That is the
law and it is supposed to be capable of working a wonderful reformation
in their characters. But have you never heard of the effect ofkindness?
I will tell you a story of a Quaker. Isaac Hopper was in the streets of
Philadelphia and he heard a waiter swearing awfully. This waiter waited
upon him in a hotel and he swore there.

"Well," said Hopper, "I must stop this man's swearing." So he brought
him up, (it was many years ago), before the Philadelphian court, which
then had a law that anybody who cursed God should be fined. So Cain got
fined. Some years afterwards Hopper was in Philadelphia and he saw
Cain, not in the white cravat of the waiter, but in rags. He had
evidently been living a life of drunkenness. Now Hopper had desired
this man's good, so he said to the man, "Cain, you have not much
improved since I saw you last."

No, he had not and he had some bad ways. Hopper asked him if he did not
remember when he had him brought before the Philadelphian court and
fined for using bad language. Remember it?! He certainly did remember
it! He should never forget the nasty trick that the Quaker had played
on him. "Now," Hopper said, "Friend Cain, I meant your good. I really
did desire your good." Cain said, "And I cursed at you dreadfully,
afterwards." So Hopper put his hand into his pocket with all the
calculation of business and he said, "Friend Cain, you were fined so
much and the interest upon it since then is so much. I can assure you I
only meant your good and now I give you this back."

Then he proceeded to speak to him very kindly till big tears stood in
Cain's eyes. And Cain said, "After all, Mr. Hopper, there is something
better in the world than I thought there was." And it was the means of
reclaiming the man. The fining did not do him good, as we generally
believe it does on those of whom we speak as "worthless characters."
Kindness–that's what set him right! A more remarkable case was that of
Penel, the master of the lunatic asylum in Paris, in the days of the
Convention. There were hundreds of people chained to the floor and
Penel sued the Convention that they would allow him to set them loose.

He proposed to let loose fifty furious savages first. Caithon, the
president, said, "I will come down tomorrow and see these creatures.
And if you are concealing any of the enemies of the republic, death to
you at the guillotine." And when Caithon went down they howled at him,
like so many wild beasts, and he said, "I think you are maddest of all
of them, but you may do as you like, though I am sure you will be the
victim of it." There was one English captain in the house who had been
chained there 40 years–chained down to the ground because he had got
one of his hands loose and had killed a keeper–a savage, morose beast
of the worst kind that could be.

Penel went to him and he said, "Captain, if I set you free will you act
like a rational being?" "Ah, that I would," said the man, "but you are
all afraid of me–all of you." "No, I am not," said Penel, "I have got
these men here who could manage you very well, but I will trust you, if
you behave yourself rationally." Oh, he would behave very well, that he
would–the very man who killed his keeper! And when his chains were
taken from him he strove to rise, poor man, but for many minutes he
could not stand, because he had been chained down so long. At last he
got up and looked up at the sky and could only say, "Beautiful!
Beautiful! Beautiful!"

And he became not only calm, quiet and tractable, but made himself a
sort of superintendent over the rest. I believe Penel was the means of
bringing all the poor creatures who had been let loose back to sober
reason and something like reasoning obedience of the laws under which
they lived–simply by kindness. And has that been done by madmen? Why,
it has been done by some of us, who were worse than mad–mad with sin!
We have trusted them, forgiven them, been kind to them and conquered
them! And do you believe, if the everlasting God says to a sinner,
"Now, you will destroy yourself if you go on. I am angry with your sin
and though I hate your sin, I do not hate you. I have laid your sin on
Christ. Believe it." And will you believe, if the man believes it–he
will rise up to be worse than he was before?

Human nature is bad enough, but, after all, this is not the way of man!
The cords of love hold us and the bands of a man restrain us. I will
ask you, Sir, that makes the objection, if you could be met on the
Tabernacle steps tonight or at your own door by an angel, who should
say to you, "I have brought you this scroll fresh from the hands of the
Eternal God: on it is written, 'I have loved you with an everlasting
love; therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you, I have bought
you with My precious blood: your sins, which are many, are all
forgiven.'"–Sir, would the effect of that upon you be to make you live
a worse life than you did before?

You would be a devil–worse than a devil–if such were to be the
consequence! But it could not be so. "I feel I must begin a new
life"–that is what I want you to feel. And, therefore, I preach to you
tonight, not as an angel with a scroll, but as a man, like yourself,
with the Christ-inspired volume before me! Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall have pardon for the past and you shall, with the
reception of that pardon, find a change come over your nature which
shall inspire you with nobler purposes and make you another man than
you are at present! I might thus continue to

speak, but I refrain. If the objection is not driven away by my feeble
sentences, may God drive it away by His mighty Spirit!

Now my closing effort shall be to show the comparative power of faith.
Paul says that faith works. It works by love–not by dread or fear, but
by love. Oh, blessed machinery is this! Love shall be the great
communicator–the great band which connects the mighty engine of faith
with our lives–faith which works by love. Do you ask how faith works
by love? Why, when a man believes God's Testimony and sees that,
notwithstanding all his offenses, God loves him and has provided His
own dear Son to be a ransom for him, the man says, "My views of God are
changed. I never understood that God was like this. I thought, surely,
that He was very angry with me, that I should be utterly destroyed and
that without remedy.

"Has God given me His only-begotten Son and did that only-begotten Son
bear for me what I ought to have borne? Then I cannot be His enemy. It
was ignorance of what He is that made me indifferent to Him. My
indifference begat insolence and that made me oppose Him. Love has come
into my soul, now, and I see who God is. God is Love. God is Light and
in Him there is no darkness at all." The man's mind is, by that very
fact, changed in regard to God. And having effected this revolution of
feeling, you have gone a long way towards changing the man's actual
life. The next step after that is repentance. The man says, "Well, I
struggled against a mighty God who had made Laws which I have broken
and only knew that He would punish me. I feared the worst. I felt
case-hardened. I said, 'I will go on, for there is no hope.'

"But now I perceive that God has never done anything towards me for
which I should hate Him. He has never viewed me in a malicious spirit,
but He has always regarded me with an eye to my good. I hate myself to
think that I should have offended Him. Wretch that I am, that I should
have lived 40 years denying the existence of One who has never
forgotten me a single day! Wretch that I am, that I should have taken
that name in vain which is a name above every name–the name that is to
be my everlasting joy. O, my Father, my Father, how could it be that I,
Your child, should be Your foe? My Savior, my bleeding Savior, how was
it that I could revile Your people, despise Your Cross and trample on
Your blood? I grieve, for I have grieved You! I hate the sins that made
You mourn, now that I see that You forgive–and I thank You."

There is a change, you see, of the view the man takes of God and then a
change in the views which he takes of his own actions–and he repents
in dust and ashes when he discovers the love of God. Yes, and Faith
works by love yet farther, for Faith leads to the foot of the Cross and
says, "Look there." And the soul stands and looks up! And as it looks,
it lives! And as it lives, it loves! And as it loves, it weeps! And as
it weeps, it gazes upon Christ, again, and says, "Yes, He is the Son of
God and yet the greatest sufferer that ever lived! He was offended, yet
He died! He it is whose Laws were broken, yet the punishment of our sin
was upon Him!

And as we look into those wounds and read those griefs, and as our eyes
begin to penetrate within His flesh to see the heartbreak which He
endured. And as the ear catches the sound of, "Eloi! Eloi! Lame
Sabacthani." And as our heart gazes into the side and sees His heart
that was broken, we begin to love and weep–and love and weep again.
And then we say to ourselves, "What should I do for Him who died to
save my wretched soul?" Sin becomes hateful and we ask, "How can I
please Him? How can I serve Him?" Then we wish we could die for Him and
as He does not ask us to do that, we pray that we may live for Him.
Love to Him becomes the strongest incentive, the mightiest impulse, the
motive power that sways our entire being!

Oh, I wish you felt it to be so in your own souls! It has been so in
some of us and now, forever more, to us, to live is Christ! Now for the
love we bear to His name, Christ has become the great object of our
being! And so faith, leading us by the way of gratitude up to the
standpoint of love, begets in us a desire to please Him and also a
desire to imitate Him–for love, somehow, always grows like its object.
You cannot love a thing without becoming something like it, in
proportion to the force of love. And just in proportion as you love
Jesus, you must become like He. Oh, Objector, would it hurt the world
if men were to grow like Christ? Whatever you may think about the
religion we have taken from His lips, I know you cannot speak against
the life which He lived!

And if faith in Him will make men like He–and it has made them like He
and is making them like He every day–it cannot be an evil and a
licentious thing! It must, in fact, be the greatest power for morality,
the greatest strengthener of social law and order and the very best
principle a patriot might desire to spread throughout the nation in
which he lives!

Talk no more about morality, I pray you. O bleeding Lamb, the best
morality is love to You! And where is it but in those who trust You
with their soul, their All in All?

You will always find that those who thus, out of gratitude, desire to
imitate Christ, inevitably become lovers of their fellow men. When we
imitate Christ, we cannot be men-haters. To hate is not Christ, but the
very opposite of Christ. Our blessed Lord and Master is no man-hater.
When I listen to a cynic I know that Christ is not of his school. When
I read the sharp and cutting satire. When I have heard men spoken of in
terms which make them to be brutes–at least a few dozen generations
back–I know that that doctrine was not learned of Christ. My Master,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was the poor man's Friend!

Never a syllable fell from His lips which would make a tyrant feel at
ease in His despotism. Never did He utter a syllable that would make
the oppressive master feel that he had any right to tread down his
workmen. Never did He utter a line that would make the workman feel
that he had the right to be envious of those who possess more talents
or enjoy higher privileges than he had. His teaching was justice and
His life was love. If you ask me for a man that all might respect–such
a man as one would wish all men to be with whom we dwell–I can only
commend you to the Person and Character of my Lord! And if you are to
become imitators of Him, the husband will be the kindest husband and
the most loving of fathers! The mother will be the most tender and
amiable of mothers and of wives!

If you have been forgiven by Christ and so love Him mightily and
imitate Him diligently–well, you will be such men and women that no
pastor need be ashamed to say, "They belong to my flock!" And no fellow
Christians will need be ashamed to acknowledge you as one of their
fraternity! Oh, Beloved, there is growing up in this country, I fear,
more and more a feeling of alienation, the one from the other. I cannot
speak, as some do, of "the good old times," for I believe the times
were never so old as they are now and never so good. But I do grieve to
see that different classes are positioned against each other. It will
be ill for our country if this jealousy goes on, for rivalries provoke
resentments.

God has given us preeminence among the sons of men in many respects and
if the house would not be divided against itself it would prosper. If
we will, every one of us, resolve to love his neighbor as himself and
to seek his brother's good, each one seeking and satisfied with that
which is just and equal, whether occupying the higher or the lower or
the middle place, from how many districts, manifold distractions would
be averted! Yes, but if we will, each one do more, and be generous and
kind and loving, we shall be benefactors, indeed, and bless our
country! I do not know by what process we can be brought to do this so
surely and so reasonably, as by our believing in Jesus Christ! Feeling
gratitude and love to Him, then imitating Him, and then becoming like
He, we shall verify, in our triumph over the world, the virtue of that
faith whereby, alone, the victory can be won!

One other remark. If you would have faith in Christ as the ground of
justification, do not mix up this gift in your thoughts with anything
else that has nothing at all to do with it. "Neither circumcision
avails anything, nor uncircumci-sion." These outward distinctions are
of no consequence. They might have made a great difference at another
time and under other circumstances, but, "from now on know we no man
after the flesh." "If any man is in Christ he is a new creature; old
things are passed away; behold all things are become new." Now, there
may be, and most likely there are, not a few of my hearers who are
enquiring the way of salvation but cannot understand it because they
distract themselves with thoughts about themselves that are totally
irrelevant.

I think I can read the thought which is just now passing through the
minds of many of you. "Oh," you say, "I should like a few minutes
conversation with the pastor!" And why? Have you any questions to ask?
Is there any matter I have failed to make plain? Do you not understand,
one and all of you, that, entirely irrespective of anything about your
birth, your bringing up, or your business, the simple direction of the
Gospel is, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Suppose I
listened to you. It would not be very difficult for me to conjecture
what everyone would have to say. "Well," says one, "I wanted to tell
you, Sir, that I was trained in the Established Church and christened
before I was three months old." That means nothing.

"Alas, Sir!" says another, "You could not imagine the disadvantages of
my childhood. My parents were no churchgoers. They never had me
sprinkled or dedicated, or anything else. I was reared like a heathen."
Well, that is no detriment–it means nothing. "Why, Sir," says one, "I
could repeat the Catechism and I knew by heart all the collects before
I was four years old." "Alas!" says another, "I never was taught
anything." Know assuredly, my Friends, that there is but one salvation
for white men, or black men, for Pharisees or publicans! When you
believe in Jesus, you are born-again!

Every trace of your former self is wiped out. I would that you counted
yourselves dead and buried, that you might live the new life and say
with the Apostle, "The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God."

Some of you have been converted during the last few weeks. I hope a
good many of you have. Some of you have been converted to God in this
place. There are here present, I doubt not, those who have been brought
to believe in Christ under various agencies piously and prayerfully
conducted at this time in our metropolis. We greet you cordially. Our
adversaries watch you narrowly. They say, "Well, but will they stand?
Will they last?" "Is their conversion worth anything?" Now, I do pray
that you who profess to have found Christ, do not make a sham of it. Do
let it be salvation from sin that you have got. Salvation from Hell–is
that what you want? That is not the salvation you ought to try after.
It is salvation from sin. That will bring salvation from Hell!

You know, every thief would like to get salvation from going to prison,
but that would not be of any particular use to him. The salvation that
is worth having is the salvation from thieving any more. Mr. Thief, if
you get that, you will get salvation from prison, too! Salvation from
Hell is not the issue, but salvation from sinning. Now let us see how
you live, you converts. You go home, Sir, and growl at your wife. You
go home, Madam, to be snappish with your servant. You go home,
housemaid, to be slovenly in your duties. You go home, working man,
resolved to give half a day's work for a whole day's wage. You go home,
master, to act the tyrant over your men. Well, you have been converted,
have you?

I pray God to undo such a conversion and begin again with you! There
are lots of people who need to be unconverted before they are
converted–to have the rubbish they have built up themselves pulled
down before Christ can begin. Suppose you have some freehold ground and
it has an old remarkable building on it. With a new edifice in view,
you must clear away every vestige of the former house. There are plenty
of people who have a good-for-nothing conversion that needs sweeping
away before God can do anything with them.

Pray to the Lord in this way–"Lord, I beseech You save me from my sin.
Let me have a perfect faith which works, not a faith that sends me to
sleep, not a faith that gives me a dose of opium and says, 'There, your
conscience was like an aching tooth and would not stop aching, but I
have stopped it.'" Now, ask the Lord to extract that which causes
pain– to take away that which causes the mischief–not to give you
quietness for a time. Ask for a right spirit and a new heart. Remember,
you must be born-again. Though it is quite true as we say and sing,
"Only believe and you shall be saved," yet if that, "only believing" is
of a sort which merely asserts without intelligence of the mind,
without emotion of the heart, there is nothing in it.

It leaves you what you were before–it is not the faith, pure and
simple, that will save your soul. Evidently it will not save you, for
it has left you still slaves to your sin. True, real, childlike faith
in Jesus Christ saves us because it works by love. The Lord grant you
to possess this precious prize which we persistently preach–the faith
which works by love.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Romans 3:20. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–351, 544, 406.

[The original title of this sermon was A Remonstrance and a Rejoinder]
__________________________________________________________________

"Do You Love Me?"