Growth in Faith

Growth in Faith

(No. 3384)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1913.

DELIVERED BY C. H, SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 12, 1867.

"The Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith." Luke 17:5.

THE Apostles said this. I have sometimes thought that Paul's speech at
Lystra, when he forbade the multitude to worship him and told the
people that he was a man of like passions with themselves, has need to
be repeated in the ears of many modern Christians, for there is a
tendency in the Christian Church to set up the Apostles and other
eminent saints upon a platform high above the level of ordinary
humanity! I do not say to worship them, but rather to hold them in
extraordinary esteem than to regard them as models for imitation.
Brothers and Sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ would have us to know that
we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our
infirmities. He would have us be certain that He, Himself, was tempted
in all points like as we are. With equal certainty would He have us to
know that the chosen twelve, the leaders of His host, who went forth
from Him, were men of like passions with ourselves. We are not to look
upon them as though they were unapproachable heroes, a sort of Divine
character, or as though they were free from our infirmities and our
troubles. They were as we are–and if they excelled us it was by Divine
strength, alone, by strength which we also may receive–by Grace which
is as free to us as it was to them. If they were here, they would still
have to struggle with unbelief and, conscious of their unbelief, would
say again, "Lord, increase our faith."

The Apostles said it and the Apostles said it to Jesus. They went to
the Strong for strength! It is idle to go elsewhere. In vain would they
have said it to one another. In vain would they have searched the whole
world to find some eminent saint to whom to address the petition! They
would have been like those foolish virgins who said to the wise, "Give
us of your oil," and they would have had the same answer, "Not so, lest
there be not enough for you and for us." The virgins went to those that
sold and bought for themselves. The Apostles went to Christ, the
Lawgiver, the Author and Finisher of their faith and, lifting up their
hearts to Him in the prayer, "Lord, increase our faith," they, before
long, gained a comfortable answer and became strong in faith, giving
glory to God!

Now, I shall need your attention at this time to five or six
observations about faith as a growing thing. The first observation is
this–

I. THE TEXT THROWS A LITTLE LIGHT UPON WHAT FAITH IS.

This is not altogether a dark subject, but still it is one upon which
there has been a great deal of controversy. You are aware, perhaps,
that in the first flush of the Reformation it was asserted by most
Divines that saving faith was full assurance, or, at the least, that
full assurance of salvation and of a personal interest in Christ
entered into the essence of saving faith–and this has been maintained
by a very large number of Divines and is still maintainedby many
Christians that to personallybelieve that Christ died for me is saving
faith.

Now, we believe this to be an error. We prize full assurance beyond all
price. We count it to be a gem beyond all earthly values, but we think
it is a distressing Doctrine to some of the weak ones of the flock to
say that full assurance is necessary to salvation! We believe it to be
necessary to deep joy, necessary to edification, necessary to
usefulness–but necessary to salvation we do not believe it to be! We
believe there are thousands on the Rock of Ages who sometimes fear they
are not there–and tens of thousands who will enter Heaven whose faith
never reached beyond the simple reliance upon Christ–which we hold to
be the essence of saving faith.

The persuasion that Christ died for me comes after the exercise of
faith and is an outgrowth of that faith. It is faith in full bloom, but
it is not necessarily the essence of faith in Christ. Some of those who
teach that to believe that Christ died

for me is faith, teach at the same time that Christ died for everyone!
Now, it will strike your mind at once that this kind of faith which
they teach is nothing but the belief of a very simple truism, for if He
died for everyone, then He must have died for me–and my believing that
he died for me may, as far as I can see, be a simple intellectual
operation–having nothing to do with the heart–and certainly not
requiring the assistance of the Holy Spirit, for anyone can believe
that since as long as Christ died for everyone, he died for me! Faith
of that sort is a very simple thing and although every Christian is
also to perceive that Christ died for him, finally, yet if you begin
with that, you begin at the wrong end and you may be guilty of
presumption instead of exercising the faith of God's elect!

What, then, is the essence of saving faith? It is this–trust in
Christ–dependence, reliance upon Him. It is a belief that Jesus Christ
is the appointed Savior of the world. That He is also the Atonement for
sin. But it is more than that–it is a trusting in the work of Christ
to save you. As to whether Christ has died for you in particular or
not, that you shall find out, by-and-by, but faith is coming
empty-handed and accepting Christ's fullness. To come naked and take
His righteousness to be your glorious dress. To go, vile, to the
Fountain which He has filled with blood, to be washed therein– in
fact, to have done with all self-confidence and to put your whole
reliance in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever has this is saved–whatever
else he has not, he is saved! And neither death nor Hell shall ever
destroy a man who in simple, honest confidence depends on what Christ
has done for the salvation of sinners. If you lay hold upon Christ to
be All in All to you and if you say, "Nothing but Jesus do I know–what
He has done is all my rest and all my rejoicing," then you have God's
promise for it, "He that believes on Him has everlasting life." And you
have it and you, therefore, shall never perish!

This, then, is saving faith, and this is the very soul, and essence,
and substance of it! It is not, in itself, full assurance, but full
assurance grows out of it. In the Helvetic Confession, faith is said to
be "a most firm confidence in Christ"– another little mistake! A most
firm confidence in Christ is faith and is strong faith–but there may
be faith where there is no "most firm confidence," though this may be a
very valuable evidence. Faith, however, may sometimes be mixed with
unbelief. But where any amount of reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ
exists, there is the evidence of true faith, although that reliance may
not amount to a happy, comfortable, delightful persuasion of one's own
personal salvation. Yet it is faith, saving faith, and will save the
soul of him who has it! Let that stand as the first observation.

II. Secondly, FAITH, WHEREVER IT IS, IS CAPABLE OF GROWTH.

The Apostles said, "Lord, increase our faith." Faith is the gift of God
and it is given us by degrees. Faith is not always the same in degree,
even at the time of the new birth. All children are not alike strong
when they are born into the world. All faith is not alike strong at
first. Sometimes those who are first at the beginning, get last
afterwards–and sometimes those who are last at the beginning, outstrip
the others! God does not give us all the same endowment of faith when
we commence. Some of us are very tender, much troubled and find it very
difficult to lay hold even upon the least of God's promises. But the
faith is all of the same nature–though it is not all of the same
quantity and degree–it is all the same quality. A diamond is a
diamond, though it is no bigger than a pea or the point of a pin–it is
precisely of the same character as the Koh-I-Noor, though it is not so
large. So with faith. Faith as little as a grain of mustard seed is
just as much the faith of God's elect as if it were as large as a
mountain! It is still living faith. It is the same, though smaller in
amount. It is not always the same in quantity when we receive it, but
after we have received it, it grows.

This is proved by the later lives of the Apostles themselves. Take
Simon Peter as an instance. At one time poor Simon, indeed–how he was
to be pitied! He sat down to warm his hands at a fire in the High
Priest's palace and, as he was sitting there, a pert servant girl said
to him, "You, also, were with Him." And so weak was Peter's faith that
he actually denied his Master! But not many weeks after that, the Holy
Spirit descended on Simon Peter and now the same man who blushed with
fear before the flippant maid is standing up before thousands in the
streets of Jerusalem and delivering himself with the greatest bravery
on behalf of the Gospel of the Crucified Christ! There is now no fear,
or trembling, or unbelief in Simon Peter, for Pentecost has come and he
is made strong and bold by the Holy Spirit! How wonderfully has he
changed! You might almost have thought that there were two Simon
Peters, rather than one, so marvelously has he grown in faith and
courage!

Further, that faith grows is very clear from the fact that there have
been and are thousands of other persons who have evidently had more
faith than you or I ever had, and yet who have found that their faith
was not always strong. Look at the martyrs–how they went to their
deaths singing hymns on the road. How many of them triumphed in the

amphitheater when wild beasts tore them to pieces! How they were thrown
into damp, reeking dungeons, where they laid until the mildew grew upon
them and there they were left to starve–and yet how there they died
with joy in their hearts and songs on their lips! Those were men and
women of faith whose shoelaces you and I are not worthy to
unloose–they were far, far greater than we! And yet if you had spoken
to any of them, they would have said that they were no better than we
are when they began, but that God had, by His Grace, nurtured and
tended their faith until it had become what it was. Do you know what
this growth in faith is? We never become nursing fathers and mothers to
any of our Brothers and Sisters or our hearers until we have this
growth in faith. I bless God that I have seen many of you grow in
faith–and my earnest prayer is that everyone of you may grow to the
full assurance of hope unto the end, so that I may have to say of you
all, "Your faith grows exceedingly, and your love unto all the saints."
Yes, Brothers and Sisters, we do see faith grow in others quite as
plainly as we have ever seen the shrubs and the plants growing in the
field!

Moreover, I think you and I are conscious that our own faith has grown.
I know mine has. I know it is weaker, sometimes, for we may grow
backwards. Yet I am conscious, taking the run of the years, that my
faith is stronger than it was.

I will tell you how faith grows. Sometimes it grows in intensity. You
believe the same things, but you believe them more firmly. A child has
a pearl in its hand. Yes, but now the child has grown up into a man and
he has the same pearl, but how differently he holds it! When, as a
little child, he held the pearl, then you might, perhaps, have taken it
away from him. But now that he is a man, see how he doubles his fists
and grasps the treasure! So it is with the man who grows in faith. He
gets such a grip upon eternal Truths of God that you cannot take them
from him! He has learned to stand firmly. He is not carried about by
every wind of doctrine. He keeps the helm of his soul fixed right to
the port where he is bound–let the wind blow and the storm howl and
moan as it may!

Faith also grows not only in intensity but in extent, so that you
believe more than you once did. At first we believe a few great Truths
and then knowledge comes to our assistance and instead of only three or
four great majestic Truths of God, we learn ten–and as we advance
further we learn a hundred! Sometimes, however, we grieve to confess
that as our faith grows in extent, it diminishes in intensity, which is
a very poor gain. But if we believe more and believe all with the same
intensity as we did at first, then is our faith growing, indeed, and we
are advancing after a most healthy and happy fashion!

Faith does grow–we know it does–in these two respects, for we have,
some of us, been conscious of the growth in ourselves. Beloved, it
would be a very strange thing if faith did not grow. It was a great
miracle when Joshua made the sun stand still because that day the sun
was the only thing in all the world that did stand still! Everything
else was moving. It is part of God's law that every star shall
revolve–that there shall be nothing inert. Even the great sun, itself,
rolls round and is constantly going on its mighty way. The sun was the
only thing that day that stood still and, therefore, it was, indeed, a
miracle! Now, if faith did not grow, it would be the only thing in the
Christian that stood still and did not grow–for everything else in the
whole man certainly grows.

Does not Christ teach us this, again, by His talking of, first, the
blade, then the ear and then the full corn in the ear? At another time
we are told that we are children and that we think as children, and
speak as children–but that when we shall become men, we shall put away
childish things. In other places something is said about little
children, then about children, and then about young men and then about
the fathers. I will not quote all the instances–they are too
numer-ous–in which both by metaphor and by plain speech, we are taught
in God's Word that the whole Christian grows and, therefore his faith,
which is as his right arm, must surely grow, too!

Faith, then, is a matter of growth. And now thirdly–

III. GROWTH OF FAITH IS VERY DESIRABLE. I said at the first that the
very least faith is saving, but then it is

not desirable that we should only have the very least faith. It is
exceedingly desirable that we should get the greatest possible faith!

Growth in faith is desirable and it is so, first of all, because
unbelief is a very great sin and where there is little faith there is
evidently lurking unbelief and, consequently, sin–and no true
Christian would like to be easy while he is daily committing sin. It is
not possible for us to be weak in faith without transgressing. Weak
faith may bring us a blessing, but weakness in faith is an evil–and to
indulge weakness in faith and not to struggle out of it would only be a
willful increase of guilt!

Brothers and Sisters, I do not think that we ever estimate aright what
a bitter and an evil thing our unbelief is. It is a question, really,
whether there is any other sin which makes so direct a stab at the
Truth of God as this does! It is a question whether there is any sin
more defiling to us, or more dishonoring to God. Brothers and Sisters,
we ought to daily aspire to the highest faith in order that we may
expel unbelief–and so be delivered from constant sin!

Growth in faith also is necessary for our sanctifcation. It is by faith
that sin is kept down and that all our Divine Graces grow. Unless faith
is vigorous, we cannot expect to be making progress towards perfection.
Sanctification is a daily and unceasing thing. It is carried on in our
thoughts and hearts by the Holy Spirit, but faith in the precious blood
is the great means He uses for that sanctifying.

We overcome sin through the blood of the Lamb applied to us day by day
by the hyssop of faith. Brothers and Sisters, if you neglect your
faith, you will soon find that, struggle as you will, to advance in
other Graces, your struggles will be all in vain. Faith, faith,
faith–this is the reservoir and if this is not well filled, the pipes
will soon run dry!

Again, growth in faith is necessary to our comfort. Little-Faith goes
to Heaven, but his feet are sore on the road. He gets into the Kingdom,
but it is like a leaky vessel that has cast its precious cargo
overboard and only just manages to get into port–it almost founders at
the harbor's mouth. Little-Faith stumbles at a straw, but Great-Faith
is very full of comfort. His mind is stored with grateful recollections
of past mercies and his eyes beam with the fond anticipations of
mercies yet to come–and so Great-Faith makes a Heaven for itself here
below–and goes towards the songs of Glory rehearsing some of them on
the road! Give me strong faith in God and I need ask for nothing else,
for strong faith will turn poverty into wealth, weakness into strength,
deep sorrows into lasting joys and monster difficulties into marvelous
triumphs! More faith and you shall have plenteous comfort. It is always
feast days and feast nights–it is a merry Christmas all the year round
to a soul that has an unstaggering faith in the promises of the blessed
God!

Strong faith is also very necessary to our usefulness. If we go to our
work timidly, scarcely knowing our own interest in Christ, we may have
a blessing, but it is not likely to be a great one. But when we know
whom we have believed and have tasted and handled that the good Word of
God is assuredly ours, then what we speak will come with Grace and
power–and under the varying unction of the Holy Spirit there are more
probabilities of our success when we work with faith than when we work
with doubting! Indeed, it is to faith that the blessing comes! I
question whether our preaching in unbelief is of much service, but if
we preach believing that souls will be saved, then they will be saved!
If we preach relying on God's promise that His Word shall not return
unto Him void, it will notreturn void, but there shall be fruit for the
sower according to the assurance of our faithful God!

Brothers and Sisters, I cannot now speak to you at length upon a topic
so important, but I leave it with you, being assured that you cannot
think too much of it. To have your faith growing exceedingly is
desirable above all things. Seek for it, I pray you, and may the Lord
grant it to you according to His fullness of mercy. But now let us
ponder the joyous truth, that–

IV. GROWTH IN FAITH IS OBTAINABLE.

The Apostles would not have asked for it, would not have been allowed
to ask for it, if it had not been possible to receive it! They did ask
for it, they did receive it and, therefore, you and I may ask for it
and receive it. They exhort us to obtain it–at least they practically
do so by their example–therefore we may obtain it. It is always a sad
thing and greatly depressing to Christian growth when you picture in
your mind's eye great and eminent saints as being far above anything
that you can ever be. Brothers and Sisters, let me beseech you, when
you read the life of such a man as Dr. Pay-son, do not say, "He is such
a spiritually-minded man! I shall never be like he!" You shallbe like
he by God's Grace! When you turn to the life of Whitfield, young man
who is about to enter the Christian ministry, let not the Evil Spirit
say, "You cannot be so devoted and so seraphic in earnestness as he
was." Why not? Where Whitfield fell short of being perfect, you fall
short with him and you will be short, indeed–but why not be as he? The
same Master who made him has also put you upon the wheel. The same
Spirit who kept him fervent and faithful has promised to dwell in you!
Why should not the same results be produced? I know that you sometimes
look up to those who are more advanced in the Divine Life than you are.
You who have lately been united to the Christian Church envy them–you
do not think that you can ever reach their standard. Ah, Beloved, be it
your prayer to reach the best in the Church, that if it is the Lord's
will, you may feel yourselves to be less than they are and yet to be in
reality far fuller of God's Grace and love, and every good thing than
any of them! Aspire, my Brothers and Sisters–do not despair, but
aspirefor God's Glory, to prove to this

wicked world that Christianity has not lost its vigor–that it is still
possible for us to be as simple-minded and as heroic as the Apostles
were. Aspire to what they obtained! Ask for an increase of faith, as
they asked for it–and when you have it, be not content even with that,
nor think that you cannot by any possibility be as full of faith as
they were!

I know that the enemy will tell you that you are placed in a position
where you cannot possibly be so full of Divine Grace. Tell the enemy
that he is a liar from the beginning! You may be in a position where
you cannot be extensively useful. You may be where you are neither
called upon nor expected to do many of the works which others perform.
But circles are admired and praised not because of their largeness, but
their roundness! So you will have honor from God, not according to the
size of your sphere, but according to the completeness with which you
fill it, doing as unto the Lord who requires of you according to His
will and through His Grace. A nursery maid having the care of two or
three children, teaching them the sweet story of the love of Christ and
seeking to bring their hearts to Jesus may be more faithful than I am
with a large congregation continually listening to me. She may do all
her work–it will be hard for me to do all mine. You with a little shop
and much labor to make both ends meet–and with a large family to bring
up in the fear of God–may have more honor from the Master, at last,
than many a man whose name is blazoned before the world!

It is not where you are, but whatyou are. And it is not how you are
seen, but how you live in the sight of God. That is the thing that
matters! Ah, dear Friends, it is possible that in the sphere where you
are, to excel as much in faith as Paul did when preaching at Athens! Or
Peter, standing in the midst of Jerusalem before the Parthians, Medes
and Ela-mites! Let nothing deter you. Believe that you would not be
taught to pray, "Lord, increase our faith," if God would not answer the
prayer–and that He will answer it and give you the highest faith that
ever man had–even you, so that on the sickbed, or in the midst of
poverty you may be as illustrious an example of faith as the best known
Believer who has ever adorned the annals of the Church. But to
proceed–as this growth in faith is obtainable, so, in the next place–

V. THERE IS A PROPER MEANS FOR OBTAINING IT.

If I might advise you, the first means I would lay down for making
faith grow would be that which the Apostles adopted, namely, prayer
They said, "Lord, increase our faith." Pray much that your faith may
grow. Oh, I am afraid in this naughty age in which we are so busy with
a thousand cares, that we are only too deficient at the Mercy Seat and
this accounts for the fact that there is so much superficial religion
among us. If you would learn to believe God's promises, go with the
promises to God and see them in the light of His Countenance! Plead
them with solemn earnestness, not wavering before the Mercy Seat till
you have a comfortable assurance that God will be to you what He has
said. Let us have more prayer and there will be more faith!

Next to that, search the Word more. The more we are familiar with God's
Inspired Book, the more likely shall we be to believe it. If I want to
believe a story which is current, I shall best strengthen my credence
of its truthfulness by hearing it constantly repeated. When I begin to
examine a Doctrine and I see that the Doctrine is clear, then I cannot
help believing it. Now come to the Word of God, pure and unadulterated,
and, as you read it, it will be its own witness. The glory which "gilds
each sacred page, majestic like the sun," will flash before your eyes
and you will then marvel that you ever could have doubted it. And let
me tell you–many a promise which you have passed over before, or
thought it to be scarcely worth attention, will shine out in splendor
and delight your eyes and enrapture your spirit! Oh, how dead is the
Word of God at one time, to what it is at another! You shall read it in
the dark without the help of the Holy Spirit and it shall be to you
like Christ in the eyes of the unregenerate world–"without form and
comeliness." But at another time, when God shines upon it, you shall
find it to be marrow and fatness to your soul and you will wonder that
you have ever risen from perusing it, so delightful shall it be to your
soul!

Search the Word much! Seek to enquire into the facts and Doctrines of
the Gospel. There are very few theological treatises issued now-a-days.
You do not read theology. You do not care about it! I know what you
read–three-volume novels and especially religious tales in magazines!
I wish that we were rid of these religious tales. I like irreligious
tales much better, for when they are downright irreligious, people will
not read the trash–but when these tales are flavored with a little of
the spice of godliness, they go down with them and their heads get
stuffed up with the silly nonsense they read! And instead of being the
better by what they read, they are rather the worse. I wish you would
sit down and study some of the good old stuff which your grandmothers
used to read. Some of those old men and women used to sit down and when
they had put on their spectacles, would read through some treatise on
the Doctrines of the Gospel. Those were the grand old women who, when
the minister was unsound, soon let him know that they would hear no
such old wives' fables, but would only have good Gospel Truth! And
their husbands were of the same sort–they read and searched for
themselves. Now-a-days I believe that if a man has only a glib tongue,
he may preach very much what he likes. There are hundreds of our
hearers who today would go after a Calvinist or even a hyper-Calvinist
and tomorrow would go and hear an Arminian–and it would all be good
because of the garnishing and because of the little sprigs and flowers
all over the dish! God deliver us from such religion as this and give
us to know the Truth of God by searching it out! Do, dear Friends,
search out the Truth in God's Word. Seek to get a firm grip and deep
knowledge of it. It were well for half the Christians in England if
they would learn the Assembly's Catechism. They would get a world of
knowledge even by that compendium, but getting the Truth by the Word is
an even more profitable means of increasing our faith!

Let me say again that faith is very frequently helped to grow by
communion with the saints. Those of you who are younger will often be
helped by talking with the more mature and advanced in the Christian
life. Yes, the sickbeds of those who are tried and afflicted are often
a school in which young disciples may learn lessons in faith! Here you
may be enriched with pearls and gems which can be bought in no other
market. And suffering saints–men and women who have been in the
furnace and have the smell of the fire upon them, who have become like
silver purified seven times, who can bear their witness to help given
in days of poverty and of deep sustaining Grace in seasons of sore
bodily and mental an-guish–these can greatly enrich and, through what
they shall give, your faith shall grow!

And your faith will also grow, no doubt, when God treats you as He has
treated them, for, after all, other people's experience is not of half
the value to us as is our own. It is when we feel ourselves in the
pinch, when we begin to pass through the fire that we fly to the
Eternal God and rejoice that "underneath are the everlasting arms." Ask
for the sanctified use of affliction! Pray for the sanctified use of
prosperity, too, and so by all Providential means your faith will grow.

Remember, however, that the only real mode of growth in faith is by the
power of the Holy Spirit As I said at the commencement of this
discourse, Peter's growth in faith came upon him at Pentecost. And it
was the same with the others of the twelve–they became new men because
the Spirit's power rested upon them. Beloved, if we have more of the
power of the Spirit of God, more exercise of His power within us, our
faith will increase!

Faith, then, is a growing thing. We ought to desire to have it grow. It
can grow and I have told you some of the means by which it may grow.
And now two or three minutes upon–

VI. THE WAYS IN WHICH YOU CAN HINDER ITS GROWTH.

I say only two or three minutes, though it is a very large subject. You
can very easily hinder your growth in faith. You can do it by
neglecting faith, by letting your Bible grow dusty, by leaving a
ministry which is edifying, by despising the Holy Spirit. You can do it
by not exercising what you already have. You cannot lose your faith if
it is true faith, but you can lose much of its comparative power by
worldly-mindedness, by giving yourselves up to covetousness, by
forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as is the manner of
some–by falling into sin, by tampering with the flesh, by indulging in
vanity–by anything which will grieve the Holy Spirit! You may also
weaken your faith by dwelling far from the sun. Dwellers in lands of
snow and ice soon grow cold, and so may it be with us by living far
from God and the Sun of Righteousness. As by refraining from meat a man
may soon grow weak, so by abstaining from spiritual food and soul
nourishing, our faith will soon decay. As a long drought quickly makes
the flowers of the garden to droop their heads, so if there is a
drought of Divine influence upon you, very soon your faith will begin
to wither. By living, however, close to God and simply looking up to
Him for everything, your faith my continue to grow until it gets to be
the full assurance of faith and, like Abraham, you are "strong in
faith, giving glory to God." And here I shall close by saying, let it
be one of the resolute pursuits of our life, that being saved we may–

VII. SEEK AFTER THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF GRACE THAT IS OBTAINABLE.

I have heard of a good woman–a widow–who was once in great trouble
when visited by her pastor, but on a second visit she was found to be
very happy. "What has happened?" enquired her pastor. "What has made
you so cheerful?" She said, "I have been reading that precious word,
'Your Maker is your Husband.'" "How has that comforted you?" he said.
"Why," she answered, "when my husband was alive, I always lived up to
his income. But now that my Maker is my Husband, I will try to live up
to His income and oh, what a task I have got before me if I am to live
up to the income of God that has no bounds and no limits and knows of
no such thing as exhaustion! If I may draw upon Him to the utmost
extent of His income, how richly I may live!"

Well, now, let us adopt the good woman's policy and try to live
according to the income of our blessed Husband, the Lord Jesus Christ!
Then shall our faith grow exceedingly and our love and all our Divine
Graces!

Now I am afraid there are some here who have no faith, who have never
trusted Christ. Then, dear Friends, it is our solemn duty to remind
you, before we sit down, that without faith it is impossible to please
God. You have come here, tonight, and I am glad you have–and some of
you come often–and I am rejoiced. You are honest, sober, moral,
amiable. This is all well, but you would like to please God, would you
not? Well, but without faith it is impossible for you to please Him!
You may do what you may, but without faith it is impossible to please
God! God will never accept anything from any of us unless He sees the
blood of His Son with it. If you do not go to Christ, it is no use
going to the Father, for "no man comes to the Father," says Christ,
"but by Me."

What? You have forgotten to trust in Jesus? You have thought that
something else would do? You have been trying your fancied good works,
your prayers, your feelings? Now, dear Friends, remember what the
Apostle Paul did. He went round about for many years to establish his
own righteousness, but as soon as he trusted in Christ, he said, "Those
things which were gain to me, I counted loss for Christ: yes,
doubtless, and I count all things loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord." Now, I will tell you. You may,
perhaps, be a churchman and you feel very pleased to think that you
have been so regular in your life. Or you may be a Dissenter and feel
proud to think you are such a consistent Nonconformist. Now, if ever
you are converted, these things which are gain to you now, you will
count to be less than nothing! You, too, will count them to be loss as
compared with Christ. Yes, and your prayers, your repentance, what you
have given to charity and what you have done–this, and that, and the
other–you will look upon them all as being less than nothing and take
Christ to be everything to you! "What are you doing, now?" said a good
old Divine to a Brother who was dying. He said, "I am doing, now, what
I have done many times before in health–I am taking all my good works
and all my bad works–indeed, they are so much alike that I can
scarcely tell which is which–and I am tying them all in one bundle and
throwing them overboard as fast as I can! And I am just clinging to
Christ with all my heart and all my soul." This is the only way of
safety. None but Jesus! Nothing of yours–not one brass farthing–but
Christ, Christ, Christ–Christ at the top and the bottom, at the
beginning and the end, first, last and throughout!

You must have nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ! And if you do this
night depend upon Him, why, my dear Friend, your sins are all forgiven!
Just what Christ said to the poor grateful leper, I say to you in
Christ's name–if you really do depend upon Him–"Your faith has saved
you. Go in peace!" Though your past life may have been ever so vile and
you have come in here without God and without hope, yet if you now
believe in Jesus Christ and rely alone upon Him, none of your sins
shall be mentioned against you any more forever. "I have blotted out
your sins like a cloud and, like a thick cloud, your transgressions."

May you have faith given you tonight and then another day, after you
have faith, may you pray, "Lord, increase my faith." That is not your
prayer tonight–be thankful if you have any faith at all! But you who
have faith tonight, pray tonight, and pray always, "Lord increase our
faith."