FAITH.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 76, 6 December 1884, Page 3

FAITH.

(ADVERTISEMENT. ) Those tha i. have the least acquaintanei with the New . Testa-men t- will be fullaware that faith is everywhere represente< as being tin- one sole condition of salva tion, thro.Ugh.th-* Lord Jesus Christ;, alsi that it is through the exercise offaitl

_JlLll.4iJpl'-L-U.JU_^Ul_a___!>^--irj^_J^.V_..'l-^_r J Ca_rK that- every blessing must be secured, foi the contimrmco and completion oil tlic Christian life and character. Believing r.ud not believing, with the heart unto righteousness, is the one great distinction between saint aud sinner. Believing, merely, in the articles of this or that creed with the intellect is not saving faith, nor yet belipving merely with the mind even the plain teachings of Christ and his Apostles, as set forth in the New Testament. Men may thus believe and yet remain unaltered in heart, habit and life. Devils believe and trembie, and yet thoy aro devils still. An orthodox head is not : always associated with an orthodox heart and life. It is with the heart— the seat of affection, and from which the issues of life ever come — that man must believe, in order to be saved. Heart faith alone takes hold on a living Christ, impropriates the saving benefits of his sacrificial death, clings to him with a fond and fearless tenacity, and causes the outer character to be increasingly more Chri.tlike and the heart to be thrilled with a consciousness of being savingly united to hira. All who lack this faith are practical infidels, if not theoretical infidels. Their mental assent to the doctrines of Christ is devoid of any benefit, and only tends to reveal their inconsistency and augment their condemnation. It is not until this matures into saving faith that any happy consequences can flow therefrom. The wisdom and mercy iu making faith the sole condition of salvation will become manifest if the following faets are duly considered, viz. : — 1. A3 man fell through losing his confidence in God's word, it only Beetns meet and right that his restoration should bo brought about by recovering aod exercising that lost confidence. Respecting thc forbidden fruit God had said to man, " For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The serpent comes afterwards and says to Eve, " Ye eh fill not surely die," words in effect the very reverse of what God had previously said. To be continued.