How Shall Man
be Just with God?

By Albert Barnes

VII. The Influence of Faith in Justification.

In the last section, in showing how we are saved through the merits of Christ, it was remarked that the means by which we become interested in his merits, or by which they are made available to us, is faith It was then proposed to go into a fuller explanation in the subsequent parts of this tract. That duty it remains now to perform.

The substance of the Christian doctrine on this subject is expressed in the following passages of Scripture: "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." Rom. i. 16, 17. The doctrine of this passage is, that a man is considered just before God, and treated as such, not in virtue of his own works, but in virtue of his exercising faith in Christ.

For therein," that is, in the gospel, "the righteousness of God," or God's plan of regarding and treating men as righteous, "is revealed from faith to faith;" that is, by faith unto those who have faith, or who believe, as it is written, "The just shall live by faith," or those justified by faith shall have everlasting life. It is needless to prove at length that this is the settled doctrine of the New Testament.

"Therefore we conclude," says the apostle in the third chapter of this epistle, (ver. 28,) "that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Again, " By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." Rom. iii. 20-22. So the apostle Paul says again, "A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ." Gal. ii. 16. In accordance with this, is the great doctrine which the Savior taught his disciples to promulgate as comprising all that he designed them to teach: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark xvi. 15, 16. That is, there is no other method of being saved but by believing, or by faith, and if a man has not this, he must be lost.

Probably every one who has ever read these passages has been disposed to ask, Why is so much stress laid on faith in the plan of redemption? Why is it made so central, and so indispensable in the salvation of the soul? What inherent virtue is there in this act that has given it such a preeminence over all other virtues? What is there in this that should make it a substitute for all the good works that men can perform? Perhaps some will be disposed to add, that the system of Christianity is thus removed from all other systems, and is different from all the laws and principles on which men act in other things. Merit, in other cases, is not in accordance with a man's belief, but according to his virtues—his moral worth—and why should faith have such special eminence in the eye of God? The rewards of this life are not distributed according to a man's faith or credulity, and why should the rewards of heaven be? We judge of the excellency of a man's character not according to the readiness with which he embraces what is proposed to him for his credence, but usually somewhat in proportion to his caution and the slowness of his belief, and why does religion require a man to hasten to believe that which is proposed to him, as if this were the chiefest of the virtues? When, also, a man is put on trial, he is acquitted, not because he exhibits an example of trusting in his judge or his advocate, but because he is able to vindicate his conduct; and why shall we not look for something analogous in religion? Why are pardon and hope; life and joy—heaven and glory; peace here and bliss hereafter; all made to depend on faith, the center and the circumference; the beginning, the middle, and the end, according to the gospel, of every virtue? These are questions which it is natural to ask they are questions which the friend of Christianity should feel it to be a part of his vocation to answer. The relation or connection which these questions bear to the subject before us is this: Supposing that man has no merit of his own, as has been shown, and that there are infinite merits in the Redeemer through which we may be saved, why is it proper that we should avail ourselves of those merits only through faith? Why should faith be the instrument by which we may be treated as if those merits were ours?

The answer to these questions is, that, in the circumstances of the case, faith constitutes a union with the Redeemer, of such a nature as to make it proper to treat us substantially as he himself is treated; that is, as righteous; to make it proper that we should share his happiness, his favor, his protection on earth, and his glory in heaven; that the union formed by faith between the soul and the Redeemer is so tender, so close, and so strong as to imply an identity of interest, and to make it certain and proper that the blessings descending on him should, according to their capacity and wants, descend on those who believe. It is meant that the particular reason why faith has been selected as the means of this is, that it constitutes a union more close, firm, and enduring than any other virtue, and that it meets and overcomes more evils in the world than any other act of the mind would do. On this account, it is singled out from all other acts of the mind in the plan of justifying men. To many these remarks may appear abstract and obscure now. It is proposed, therefore, in a series of observations to show why faith is so important; why it is the very cardo rerum—the hinge of salvation.

One other preliminary remark should be made. It is that there is a great and essential difference between faith and credulity. We distinguish them accurately in common life; we fear that they are sometimes confounded when men think of religion.

The inquiry proposed embraces essentially the two following points: Why faith is of so much importance in a work of salvation; and why faith in Christ is made so prominent and essential. The first point of inquiry is, why faith is of so much importance in a work of salvation. In reply to this inquiry let it be observed, (1.) That faith acts an important part in the affairs of the world. Using the word in the sense of confidence, there is nothing else on which the welfare of society more depends, or which is more indispensable to its prosperous and harmonious relations, It enters into every thing, and we are every day and every hour acting under its influence and depending on it as essential to all that we hold dear. It is the cement of families, of neighborhoods, of governments, of nations. The faith of treaties, of compacts, of promises, of friendships, of affection, is that which holds the world together, and without which society would go to pieces. To loosen it at once, would be like loosening every rope in a ship, or unscrewing every fastening and bolt in a machine. It is by faith, or mutual confidence, that the relations of domestic life are maintained; that the harmony of a family is secured; that business, in a mercantile community, is carried on; that a banking institution effects the purpose for which it was chartered; or that a government can secure the ends for which it was instituted. It is by faith only that we derive lessons of valuable instruction from history, or act with reference to what is yet to come. If we had no more confidence in any of the testimonies of history than we have in the fabulous details of the dynasties of India, the mythological periods of Grecian history, or the legends of the saints, all past history would be utterly useless, for it would convey no certain lessons; if we had no faith in the stability of the course of events—the rising of the sun, the moon and the stars; the return of the seasons; the continuance of the laws of magnetism, of gravitation, or of vegetation, we should form no plan for the future; we should neither plant a field, nor build a ship, nor venture out on the ocean where we might soon be without sun, or star, or compass. We confide in our teachers, in a physician, a counselor, a clergyman, and it would be impossible that the cause of education, jurisprudence or religion, could be maintained if there were no such confidence. The farmer of the Eastern States believes in the vast fertility of the West, of, which he has heard, but which he has never seen, and, with his wife and children, leaves the graves of his fathers to seek that land on the strength of his faith; and the merchant believes that there is such a place as Canton or Calcutta, though he has seen neither; and on the strength of that faith would embark all his property in the same vessel, and stake the whole question about making a fortune in this world on his strong confidence that such places, of which he has heard, have an existence. In like manner we are exercising confidence in every thing. We believe the testimony of the historians, though we never saw Xenophon, or Thucydides, or witnessed the events of which they wrote; we vote for the man whom we have never seen; we confide in the bankers across the waters whom we never expect to behold. Were it not for this unceasing confidence in the varied operations of faith, we could not get along for a single day or hour. The affairs of the world would at once stand still. The hands of society would it once become loosened, and every thing would fall into irretrievable confusion.

It is true, there may be much credulity in the world, and multitudes in all professions and relations in life are imposed on. But so, also, there is much counterfeit money, and many may be injured or ruined by it. But the existence of a circulating medium is indispensable, and there is by far more genuine than false coin at any time in the world, and any quantity of spurious coin does not render that valueless which is genuine. So any amount of credulity does not prove that it is improper that men should ever repose confidence in one another, or that all faith is valueless.

(2.) The second observation illustrating the importance of faith with reference to the subject before us is, that faith is the strongest conceivable bond of union between minds and hearts. It is, in fact, the cement of all unions, and without which all else is valueless. In friendships, in treaties, in national compacts, in social intercourse, in the tender domestic relations, it is the very bond of union, and there is nothing else that can be a substitute for it. The seal which is affixed to a letter that is sent to a friend does not make it secure because no one has power to break it, but because there is confidence in each postmaster through whose hands it may pass, and in each stranger or friend into whose hands it may happen to fall, that he will respect the seal, and will not break it. The seal which is appended to a will does not render it secure because no one has power to break it, but because the testator has confidence that his friends and that the courts of his country will respect his wishes when his mouth is forever closed against the possibility of his declaring his desires, and his hand powerless to assert his rights.

Look into the relations of life. What is it that forms and preserves those numerous unions on which the very existence of society depends? What is the basis of the union of husband and wife, of parent and child, of brother and sister, of friend and friend? What is there but mutual confidence?

And is it asked what is the strength of that? In answer to these questions an illustration may be employed, taken from the most tender relation in life. This illustration is used, because it is the very one more than once referred to on this subject in the Bible, and because it enters so vitally into the welfare of society. Here is a young man just entering on life. His character is fair; his profession is honorable; his person and standing are liable to no objection, and no suspicion—but what he may be yet no one earthly can tell, for no one can certainly predict about what a man will be, till he is tried. Here is a youthful female—the joy of her mother and the pride of her father's heart. She has been delicately trained; has a home that has every attraction; is secure there of unfailing friends as long as her father and mother shall live, and has ample means of support. She breaks all these ties; leaves the home of her childhood; bids adieu to father, mother, brothers, and sisters, and commits herself into the hands of this comparative stranger. A father's, and a mother's, and a brother's love she exchanges for his. Her hand, her heart, her property she gives to him. She pledges herself to go where he goes; to suffer what he suffers; to make his friends hers; to love him with an ardor with which she loves no other human being; to break away from every tie of country and home if he shall will it; and in a sense more absolute than exists in any other case, to commit her happiness into his hands. Every day and every hour that they will live, she is dependent on his prosperity, his virtue, and his smiles for her happiness, and the moment his affections are withdrawn, or he ceases to be a virtuous man, her happiness is dead. If he is virtuous, faithful, and kind, she regrets not the act of confidence with which she gave him her heart and hand. But what if he trifles with her happiness?

What if he always meets her with a frown? What if he proves false to his vows? What if he becomes a wretched drunkard? Now what is the foundation and the source of its strength? Confidence; and when that is gone domestic peace dies. She has made a sacrifice of her happiness, and her earthly felicity is a wreck.

Let another thought be suggested here. It is, that this union of confidence secures an identity in their destiny. They are one—one flesh, said the Savior—and the same events will now affect both. Before this union the storm might have beat on one of them, and sunshine gladdened the path of the other. Now the storm and the sunshine come on both alike. The light that gladdens the eyes of the one is also a pleasant thing to the other; the star that rises propitiously on one, rises propitiously also on the path of the other. The blessings of peace and joy that greet the one, greet also the other. There is one heart, one pulsation, one breathing, one soul made up of the two. And so if calamity comes; if, under the roof where they are to abide, the pale destroyer shall come with stealthy foot-tread, and change the rose on the check of a smiling babe to the lily of death, it will be a scene in which both their hearts will bleed alike, and they will weep together over the open grave.

If one is sad, both are sad; if one is poor, both are poor. Their union, one pre-eminently of mutual faith plighted before the altar, constitutes an identity in all the great events of life, and secures to both substantially the same treatment from the Great Disposer of all things. They share the same fortune; the same honor or disgrace; the same sorrows and the same joys; they are wafted on to a port of bliss or are wrecked in the same vessel; they are greeted with the same welcome in life, they are buried in the same grave. It is easy to apply this illustration to the matter in hand.

(3.) The third illustration is, that faith is of such a nature that it is adapted to meet all the evils of the world. The idea is, that it has been made the hinge or turning point of salvation, because the want of it has been the source of all the calamities which man has suffered, and because, if this is restored, the evil of the world would be at an end.

The grand evil on earth, and the source of all subordinate evils, is a want of confidence in God. This was the evil at the start, that man reposed more confidence in the teachings of the tempter, than in the law of he Creator, and this has been the source of all our woe. Man has no confidence in his God. He does not believe that the Most High is qualified for universal empire; that he manages the affairs of the universe well; that his law is equal and just; that his dispensations are in accordance with equity; that his plan of salvation is wise. He does not show his confidence in him by yielding implicit obedience to his laws, or by submitting to his dispensations. He does not go to him and ask counsel of him in the darknesses and perplexities of life; he does not seek support in his arms in times of calamity. He does not commit his great interests to him, believing that he will be his guide through life, and that he will yet make "all things work together for good." He confides in other things. He confides in his own strength, till his strength fails; in his philosophy till it deludes and deceives him; in his fellowmen till they all betray him; in friends and kindred, till they drop into the grave; in his skill and sagacity, till he comes to a place in life where "the right hand loses its cunning." He confides in stocks and stones, in graven images, and four-footed beasts and creeping things, but by nature he has no confidence in God.

This is the grand evil of the world; this the source of all our woes; for a want of confidence here produces the same kind of evils, though on a larger scale, as the same want everywhere. We have seen that the welfare of society depends on mutual confidence. Now, to see how wretched any society can possibly be, we have only to suppose the existence there of the same want of confidence which subsists between man and his Maker. If a perfectly malignant being wished to diffuse as much misery as possible through the world, all that he could desire would be to break up universal faith. He would go into a community, and with the touch of a magic wand would in a moment destroy all confidence in each merchant, bank and insurance office, and lawyer, and physician, and clergyman. He would go into each school, and destroy all confidence in the instructor. He would go into each family, and destroy everywhere the mutual confidence of husband and wife, and introduce universal distrust and jealousy. He would unsettle the faith of every child in his father, of every brother in his sister. What would be the result? He would at once arrest the wheels of commerce; put an end to business; make every professional man useless and wretched; take away sleep from the pillow of every husband and wife, and fill every family, and the whole community with heart-burnings, jealousies, contentions, and strifes. No man would know in whom to trust; no one could form a plan dependent in any manner on the fidelity of others; no one could be certain that any of his purposes of life could be effected. The scene at Babel would be reacted again all over the world, and worse disorder than that which followed from confounding the language of the people there, would pervade all classes and conditions of mankind. The remedy for such a state of things would be the restoration of mutual confidence. In such a condition of ill, nothing would have so far-reaching an effect. It would in fact meet all those ills and make society harmonious and happy. The wheels of commerce, of government, of domestic peace, of public improvement. of education, would again roll on harmoniously, and happiness would again bless the world. The want of faith or confidence in God has produced all the ills on earth, of which those just supposed are but an emblem; the restoration of confidence in God would strike at the root of all those ills, and make this a happy world. It is this which makes heaven happy, where every being has faith in God and in all that dwell there; and with all our wants and sadnesses this too would be a happy world, if there were universal confidence in God. In our sorrows we should then have peace, for we should believe that all is well ordered; under our heavy burdens of life we should find support, for we would go and roll all on his arm; in all the dark and perplexing questions that now agitate us about the introduction of moral evil and the prevalence of iniquity, our minds would be calm, for we should feel that there was a reason for it all, and in the prospect of death—that which now makes us so sad—our hearts would find more than peace—we should utter the language of joy and triumph, for it would be only the coming of a messenger to bear us to a much-loved Father's arms. The grand thing that needs to be done on earth to make this a happy world, is to restore universal confidence in God, and this is the whole aim of religion, this the object of the scheme of redemption. Hence the necessity of faith is laid at the foundation of the whole scheme; it is the cardinal thing in the plan of salvation. This restored, what a happy world, after all, would this be! For it is a beautiful world. It is full of the proofs of God's goodness and love. There are a thousand comforts that meet us every day and every night; and a thousand tender chords that should bind us to our Creator. If we confided in him as qualified for universal empire; if we felt that be, was fit to manage the affairs of his own world; if we believed that he will yet bring order out of confusion and light out of darkness; if we trusted that his law is good and his commandments holy, and if we would go to him with the confiding spirit with which a little child goes and tells all his troubles to his father, this would be still a happy world. For that grand undertaking of the almighty Father of us all, to restore unwavering confidence in himself, manifested in the Gospel, the world should be unfeignedly thankful, and one of the principal topics of praise on earth should be, that he has required faith as the very elementary principle of his religion.

(4.) A fourth remark, in explanation of the subject, is that faith is required, or is made the condition of justification, for this reason: There is an obvious propriety that, where salvation is provided and offered, there should be some act on our part signifying our acceptance of it. If we are to be saved through the merits of Christ, there should be some reason on our part why we should be. There should be some act indicating our wish or our will; some expression of our desire in the case; something that shall serve to distinguish us from those who are not saved. It evidently would not be proper, it would not be consulting the nature which God has given us, to receive the race indiscriminately into heaven without any intimation of a wish to be saved, or to save one part and leave the other, unless there were something that would indicate in the one a desire to be saved, which did not exist in the case of the other. What would better show this than faith? What would be a better expression of a desire to be saved? What act would be more appropriate in accepting salvation; in the intimating of a wish that the benefits of the death of Christ might be ours? What would constitute a stronger bond between the soul and him than this; what would come nearer to-ward constituting that identity on which it is proper that those who are united should be treated alike? You are a father; you have two sons. They both become disobedient. They leave your house at their pleasure; go where they choose; are out at such hours as suit their convenience; keep such company as they desire, and are wholly regardless of your laws. They heed neither your promises nor your threats, and they have gone so far that they have now no confidence in you. You have favors which you are willing to bestow on them. You would be willing to receive them to your house, and to treat them as sons, alike in your lifetime and in your will. But would you think it unreasonable that, as a condition of their being received and treated as sons, they should evince returning confidence in you? And if one of them should return, and should ever onward manifest the confidence due from a son to a father, and the other should not, would you think it improper to make a distinction between them in your lifetime and in your will? And would they and the world be at a loss for a reason why it was done? The remark here is, that faith in Christ is the appropriate act by which we accept of the benefits of his work, and that this constitutes a difference between him who accepts of his salvation and him who does not; and that this is a reason why the one should be treated as if he were interested in those benefits and the other not; that is a reason why the one is justified and the other not.

Bearing in mind the remarks now made, that a restoration to confidence would meet innumerable evils in a family, in a commercial community, between neighbors and between nations, and that the restoration of confidence in God would meet all the evils under which this world labors now, I proceed to show why faith in Christ particularly is made so important as a condition of salvation. With reference to this, three remarks may he made:

(1.) The first is, that we are to repose faith or confidence in Christ as authorized to negotiate the terms of reconciliation between God and man. The whole system of revealed religion proceeds on the fact—a fact which is apparent without any revelation—that an alienation exists between God and man, or that man is in a state of revolt. It was with reference to this alienation that the Son of God came into the world to accomplish the most difficult of all undertakings, that of reconciling opposing minds, and of bringing them into harmony. On the one hand, there was the infinite mind of God, whose law had been violated, and whose government had been rejected and outraged, and whose threatenings had been disregarded; and on the other, there were countless millions of minds wholly alienated from the Creator. To bring the holy Creator and the millions of rebellious minds into harmony; to propose the terms on which God was willing to forgive sin; to make such arrangements as that he could consistently pardon; and to bring the minds of revolted men to a willingness to be reconciled, was the work undertaken by this great peace-maker.

But it is evident that this work could not be accomplished, unless confidence was reposed in him by both the parties of the unhappy controversy. In infinitely smaller matters, when nations are alienated, if a mediator proposes arrangements of peace, or if ambassadors are appointed to negotiate a peace, it is clear that the matter could not proceed a step unless there were confidence on both sides in the mediator or ambassadors.

Christ is a great mediator; a peacemaker between God and man. On the part of God, there was every reason to repose entire confidence in him in so great an undertaking, for he was his only begotten Son; eternally in his bosom, and loved, with an infinite love, before the foundation of the world. John xvii. 24. By him the worlds had been made; (John i. 3; Heb. i. 21;) and under him, with reference to the work of redemption, their affairs had been administered up to the time when he appeared in the flesh. God the Father reposed unlimited confidence in him when he appointed him to be the mediator, and intrusted to him the execution of the great purpose of reconciling the world again to the divine government. This confidence reposed in Christ in the work of mediation, is often referred to in the Now Testament, by the Savior himself, and by the sacred penmen: "This is my beloved Son," was declared from heaven at his baptism, "in whom I am well pleased." Matt. iii. 17.

"Father," said the Savior, just before his death, "glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." John xii. 28. "Thou hast given him power," said be again, "over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." John xvii. 2. "All power is given auto me in heaven and in earth; go ye therefore and teach all nations." Matt. xxviii. 18, 19. "I am the way," said he, "and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." John xiv. 6. So we are told, that "there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." I Tim. xi. 5.

These things show the degree of confidence which the Father reposed in him in the work of mediation, intrusting to him the message of mercy; appointing him to convey it to men; and endowing him as Mediator, with all the power and authority which were requisite to accomplish so great a work.

But confidence in him is not less required in regard to the other party than by him who had appointed him. It is clear that, unless we have confidence in him as the messenger and ambassador of God; unless we regard him as sent from heaven, and as authorized to propose terms of reconciliation; unless we feel that he can make a definite arrangement, and that what he proposes will be sanctioned by God; unless we feel that he is authorized to propose terms of pardon, and to declare our sins forgiven, and to pronounce us accepted and justified, it would be impossible for us to avail ourselves of any arrangement for salvation through him. We should feel that we were trifling with a great subject; and in our serious moments, when we thought of the great interests at stake, we should be in no humor to trifle. None of us would seriously think of embracing any terms of reconciliation with God proposed by Mohammed, or Zoroaster, or Confucius; by Lord Herbert or Mr.

Hume; for we do not suppose that any of these men were authorized to propose terms of salvation.

We have no confidence in them as ambassadors of God, whatever we may think of them in other respects. The primary ground of faith, therefore, in Christ, is, that we have confidence in him as a mediator, an ambassador, a peacemaker; as authorized to propose to us the terms on which peace may be obtained with our offended Creator. "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." John viii. 24.

(2.) The second remark to which we referred, showing specifically why faith in Christ is demanded, is, that it is by his agency and merits only that we, can be received into the favor of God. He came not only to bring the message of reconciliation, and to propose the terms, but to do and to suffer whatever was necessary to be done, in order that we might be accepted of the Father, or in order that we might be saved consistently with the interests of justice. The case somewhat resembles what it would be in the instance of an ambassador coming to negotiate a peace who should not only come to propose the terms, but should actually have in his possession that which alone could be regarded as a reparation for wrong done by one of the parties to the other, and who should come not only to persuade the party which had done the wrong to be willing to be reconciled, but also to avail itself of what he was ready to furnish to repair all the evil done, and to satisfy the other party. In such a ease, it would not be unreasonable to ask confidence in himself, or to make this one of the conditions by which the favor might be available. In fact, it could not be consistently made available in any other way, or on any other conditions, and, unless there were faith in him, the negotiation could proceed no further.

Thus we are required to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus. We are destitute of merit. We have violated the law of God, and can do nothing to repair the wrong. We are debtors, to an incalculable amount, to justice; and we have nothing with which to pay the debt. We can do absolutely nothing to vindicate our own conduct; to undo the evils that we have done; to make up for the dishonor which we have put on the law of God; to atone for our thousands of faults and follies. At this point the Son of God appears, and he comes with the assurance that he has himself perfectly obeyed the law, and has honored it as fully as it can be honored by obedience; that he has suffered a most bitter death, a death aggravated by every form of cruelty as an expiation for our sins; that he will become the guarantee or surety that the law shall suffer no dishonor if we are saved; that no injury shall result from our pardon, and that, in fact, all the good effects have been secured by his death which could be by our being doomed to bear the penalty of the law ourselves; and that all that is needful for us now is to become united to him by an indissoluble bond to put ourselves under his protection; and to be so identified with him that it will be proper to treat us as if we had personally obeyed the law, or borne its penalty. That which will constitute the closest union in the case, and which will do most to render this identity of treatment proper, is confidence in him as our Savior, and reliance on his merits, or faith.

(3.) The third remark necessary to explain the subject, or to show why faith in Christ is made the turning point of justification and salvation is, that the act of believing on Christ is made in circumstances and in a manner indicating confidence of the highest kind that ever exists in the human bosom, constituting a union of the closest conceivable nature. It is an act so identifying the soul and the Savior as to make it proper that the same treatment which the Redeemer receives should in this measure be received by his people, or that in the divine treatment they should be practically regarded as one. The circumstances are these:(a) The sinner feels that he is lost and ruined. He is made sensible that he is guilty before God, and that he has no claim to his mercy. His heart is evil; his life has been evil; his whole soul is evil. If justice were done him, he feels that he would be forever banished from God and heaven. Yet he feels that he has a soul of infinite value.

It is to endure forever. It is capable, in the long eternity before it, of suffering more than the aggregate of all the sorrows that have yet been endured on earth, and in hell. It is capable, also, in that infinite duration, of enjoying more than the aggregate of bliss of all that has been experienced on earth united with all that has been known in heaven. A boundless eternity is before the trembling sinner, and infinite interests are at stake.

(b) He despairs of salvation in himself. He feels now that he has no power to rescue his soul from death. He cannot confide in his own arm, or in the arm of any mortal. He has tried every method of salvation; every way of obtaining peace of conscience; every plan that proposed security to his soul, but in vain. He stands now a lost and ruined being trembling on the shores of eternity.

The boundless ocean spreads out before him. Clouds and darkness rest upon it. He has deserved no mercy; he has no claim on God to be his guide and protector; he can urge no reason why he should be admitted to a world of peace.

(c) In these sad and perilous circumstances, he commits his soul with all its infinite and eternal interests, into the hands of the Lord Jesus. By a simple act of faith he embraces him as his Savior, his friend, his sacrifice, his advocate. Renouncing all confidence in his own merit, he re-solves to rely on the merit of Christ; abandoning every plea on the ground of what he has himself done, be resolves to urge the merits of the Savior as his plea, and forsaking forever all reliance for salvation on birth or blood; on moral virtues or intellectual attainments; on rank in life or the commendation of friends; on the goodness of his own heart or on forms in religion, he stakes his own everlasting interest and the question of his final salvation on the belief that there is a Savior, and that Jesus is the Son of God, and that he is able and willing to save him. He is willing to risk the issue on this belief, and he who was a moment before trembling on the verge of hell as if there were no hope, now calmly turns the eye to heaven, and smiles through his tears and says, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

(d) This is a wonderful act of confidence. That is great confidence which is evinced when a drowning man seizes a rope that is thrown to him, and suspends the question of his safety on the belief that you can draw him to the shore. That would be great confidence which the man who was shipwrecked, and who had clambered up a projecting rock above the reach of the waves, should evince if he would fasten a rope let down from above around his body, and swing off over the raging billows, trusting to the rope and the strength of those above to draw him up. And that is great confidence in a case already referred to where a delicately framed youthful female leaves her mother and father and commits herself, for weal or woe, into the hands of a comparative stranger.

But such acts are not equal to that by which the dying soul commits itself to the Savior. They will hardly do for an illustration. For what are the raging waves of the ocean compared with the rolling fires of the world of despair? What is the periled death of the body compared with the death of the soul? What are all the temporal interests which youth, or beauty, or virtue can commit to another here, compared with those eternal interests which are intrusted to the Son of God? It remains then only to add:

(e) That in virtue of such a union there should be identity of treatment. So we saw in the illustration of the husband and wife, where the union between them led on common sorrows and common joys; common successes and common reverses; common sunshine and common shade.

Much more should it be so in the more tender and close union of the soul to the Savior by the act of faith. They become one. He is the "vine," they are the "branches;" he the "head," they the "members;" be lives in them and dwells in them. He is "Christ in us the hope of glory." We are members of his body, his flesh, and his bones." I live," says the apostle, "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." "Because I live," said the Savior, "ye shalt live also." Through all life's future scenes his people will be treated as he was; and the union with him is so close that it introduces them to common joys and triumphs with him forever. They will be made happy because the same blessings that descend on the "head" wilt flow to all the "members." In view of these remarks, the following thoughts may be suggested:

(1.) The simplicity and ease of the way of salvation in the Gospel are remarkable. The leading thing required of him who would be saved is faith or confidence in the Redeemer. Thus Paul said to the trembling jailer at Philippi, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Acts xvi. 31. So again in the Epistle to the Romans, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Rom. x. 9, 10. Here, as everywhere in the New Testament, salvation is represented as easy. The terms are as simple as possible. There is no requisition of our attempting to obey the whole law of God as a condition of salvation; no demand on us to offer costly sacrifices, or to make pilgrimages to a distant shrine, or to practice penances and fastings, or to lacerate the body, or to attempt to work out a righteousness by conformity to external forms, or by union to a particular church. The simple, the single thing demanded is faith on the Son of God. If man has this, he is safe. No matter what his past life has been; no matter what his complexion, rank, or apparel; no matter where he lives or dies; no matter whether he worships in a splendid temple or under the open vault of heaven, and no matter whether his body rests in consecrated ground or amid the corals of the ocean, he is a child of God and an heir of the kingdom. Whatever may be said of this plan of salvation, it cannot be said that it is not sufficiently simple, and that it does not breathe a spirit of benignity toward the lost and ruined children of men. The infidel cannot object that God has not adapted it to the condition of human nature at it is made up, for the most part, of the ignorant, the down-trodden, and of children; nor that it has required more of any man than the human powers can render. Yet,

(2.) While thus simple and easy, it is on the great principles which we see everywhere prevail. There is required in salvation that which keeps the social world together, and causes human things to move on in harmony, that without which all the interests of man would be a wreck. There is required that which would arrest all human ills, and make this still a happy world- confidence in our God. Man wants but this to make him a happy being here; he will want but this to make him happy forever. As confidence is the great principle which cements society, so it was indispensable in religion that confidence in God should be restored. We cannot conceive that a human being could be saved without faith. Even if it had not been distinctly and formally required, in the plan, it is impossible to conceive that there could have been salvation without it. The very process of returning to God from our wanderings implies returning confidence in him, for how or why should the sinner return to him if he has no confidence in him? And how could he be happy in heaven if he had no confidence in God? What would heaven be if there were the same distrust of the Deity, and the same jarring opinions, and the same alienation from him, and the same doubt of his being, his justice, and his goodness there which exist on earth? The plan of salvation by faith is laid in the deepest philosophy and is based on the irreversible nature of things.

(3.) The subject suggests a remark on the nature and aims of infidelity. Men often think that unbelief is a harmless thing. They sometimes regard it as a special proof of meritorious independence to be an infidel. They pride themselves on their philosophy, and their freedom from vulgar prejudices and priestcraft: perhaps on their freedom from the prejudices instilled by a pious parent, a pastor, or a Sunday-school teacher. They consider the denunciations of unbelief in the gospel as singularly harsh, and use no measured terms in expressing their abhorrence of a system which denounces the eternal pairs of hell on a man because he will not believe. The want of faith, say they, is a harmless or a meritorious thing. But are you connected with a bank? Would you think that a harmless effort in a daily paper which should attempt to unsettle the confidence of the community in your institution? Have you a character for virtue, which you have secured by years of toil, and of upright deportment? Is that a harmless report in the community which tends to destroy all confidence in that character? Are you a father? Is it a harmless effort of your neighbor when he attempts to unsettle the confidence of your own children in your virtue? Are you a husband? Is he a harmless man who shall aim to unsettle your faith in the wife of your bosom, and produce between you and her an utter want of confidence? And is there no evil in that state of mind where there is no confidence in God that rules on high—the God that made us, and that holds our destiny in his hands? Is it nothing to unsettle the faith of man in his God, and to introduce universal distrust in his government? Is it nothing to inculcate or cherish the thought that the governor of the world is a dark, malignant, harsh, and severe being, and to alienate the affections of creation from its God? Let the history of the earth answer. All our evils began in that unhappy moment when our first parents lost their confidence in their God. "Loss of Eden," toil, sweat, despair, perplexity and death, tell what the evil was. Calamities have rolled along in black and angry surges, and the dark flood still swells and heaves upon the earth. Peace will be restored and paradise regained only when man is restored to confidence in his God—and this is the grand and glorious work of the gospel. This done in any heart, and its "peace becomes as a river and its righteousness as the waves of the sea." This done all over the earth, and millennial joy will visit the nations. This done, as successive individuals or generations leave the world, death is disarmed of his sting, for the departing soul leaves with full assurance of faith on the Savior.