(Spurgeon, All of Grace. part 5)

enough in actual experience. There is no discrepancy between the
truth that the sinner believes, and that his faith is wrought in
him by the Holy Spirit. Only folly can lead men to puzzle
themselves about plain matters while their souls are in danger.
No man would refuse to enter a lifeboat because he did not know
the specific gravity of bodies; neither would a starving man
decline to eat till he understood the whole process of mutrition.
If you, my reader, will not believe till you can understand all
mysteries, you will never be saved at all; and if you allow self-
invented difficulties to keep you from accepting pardon through
your Lord and Saviour, you will perish in a condemnation which
will be richly deserved. Do not commit spiritual suicide through
a passion for discussing metaphysical subtleties.
     
     "MY REDEEMER LIVETH"
     
     CONTINUALLY have I spoken to the reader concerning Christ
crucified, who is the great hope of the guilty; but it is our
wisdom to remember that our Lord has risen from the dead and
lives eternally.
     You are not asked to trust in a dead Jesus, but in One who,
though He died for our sins, has risen again for our
justification. You may go to Jesus at once as to a living and
present friend. He is not a mere memory, but a continually
existent Person who will hear your prayers and answer them. He
lives on purpose to carry on the work for which He once laid down
His life. He is interceding for sinners at the right hand of the
Father, and for this reason He is able to save them to the
uttermost who come unto God by Him. Come and try this living
Saviour, if you have never done so before.
     This living Jesus is also raised to an eminence of glory and
power. He does not now sorrow as "a humble man before his foes,"
nor labor as "the carpenter's son"; but He is exalted far above
principalities and power and every name that is named. The Father
has given Him all power in Heaven and in earth, and he exercises
this high endowment in carrying out His work of grace. Hear what
Peter and the other apostles testified concerning Him before the
high priest and the council:
     The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and
hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be
a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and
forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:30, 31).
     
     The glory which surrounds the ascended Lord should breathe
hope into every believer's breast. Jesus is no mean person--He is
"a Saviour and a great one." He is the crowned and enthroned
Redeemer of men. The sovereign prerogative of life and death is
vested in Him; the Father has put all men under the mediatorial
government of the Son, so that He can quicken whom He will. He
openeth, and no man shutteth. At His word the soul which is bound
by the cords of sin and condemnation can be unloosed in a moment.
He stretches out the silver scepter, and whosoever touches it
lives.
     It is well for us that as sin lives, and the flesh lives,
and the devil lives, so Jesus lives; and it is also well that
whatever might these may have to ruin us, Jesus has still greater
power to save us.
     All His exaltation and ability are on our account. "He is
exalted to be," and exalted "to give." He is exalted to be a
Prince and a Saviour, that He may give all that is needed to
accomplish the salvation of all who come under His rule. Jesus
has nothing which He will not use for a sinner's salvation, and
He is nothing which He will not display in the aboundings of His
grace. He links His princedom with His Saviour-ship, as if He
would not have the one without the other; and He sets forth His
exaltation as designed to bring blessings to men, as if this were
the flower and crown of His glory. Could anything be more
calculated to raise the hopes of seeking sinners who are looking
Christward?
     Jesus endured great humiliation, and therefore there was
room for Him to be exalted. By that humiliation He accomplished
and endured all the Father's will, and therefore He was rewarded
by being raised to glory. He uses that exaltation on behalf of
His people. Let my reader raise his eyes to these hills of glory,
whence his help must come. Let him contemplate the high glories
of the Prince and Saviour. Is it not most hopeful for men that a
Man is now on the throne of the universe? Is it not glorious that
the Lord of all is the Saviour of sinners? We have a Friend at
court; yea, a Friend on the throne. He will use all His influence
for those who entrust their affairs in His hands. Well does one
of our poets sing:
     
     He ever lives to intercede
Before His Father's face;
     Give Him, my soul, Thy cause to plead,
No doubt the Father's grace.
     
     Come, friend, and commit your cause and your case to those
once pierced hands, which are now glorified with the signet rings
of royal power and honor. No suit ever failed which was left with
this great Advocate.
     
     REPENTANCE MUST GO WITH FORGIVENESS
     
     IT IS CLEAR from the text which we have lately quoted that
repentance is bound up with the forgiveness of sins. In Acts 5:31
we read that Jesus is "exalted to give repentance and forgiveness
of sins." These two blessings come from that sacred hand which
once was nailed to the tree, but is now raised to glory.
Repentance and forgiveness are riveted together by the eternal
purpose of God. What God hath joined together let no man put
asunder.
     Repentance must go with remission, and you will see that it
is so if you think a little upon the matter. It cannot be that
pardon of sin should be given to an impenitent sinner; this were
to confirm him in his evil ways, and to teach him to think little
of evil. If the Lord were to say, "You love sin, and live in it,
and you are going on from bad to worse, but, all the same, I
forgive you," this were to proclaim a horrible license for
iniquity. The foundations of social order would be removed, and
moral anarchy would follow. I cannot tell what innumerable
mischiefs would certainly occur if you could divide repentance
and forgiveness, and pass by the sin while the sinner remained as
fond of it as ever. In the very nature of things, if we believe
in the holiness of God, it must be so, that if we continue in our
sin, and will not repent of it, we cannot be forgiven, but must
reap the consequence of our obstinacy. According to the infinite
goodness of God, we are promised that if we will forsake our
sins, confessing them, and will, by faith, accept the grace which
is provided in Christ Jesus, God is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But, so
long as God lives, there can be no promise of mercy to those who
continue in their evil ways, and refuse to acknowledge their
wrongdoing. Surely no rebel can expect the King to pardon his
treason while he remains in open revolt. No one can be so foolish
as to imagine that the Judge of all the earth will put away our
sins if we refuse to put them away ourselves.
     Moreover, it must be so for the completeness of divine
mercy. That mercy which could forgive the sin and yet let the
sinner live in it would be scant and superficial mercy. It would
be unequal and deformed mercy, lame upon one of its feet, and
withered as to one of its hands. Which, think you, is the greater
privilege, cleansing from the guilt of sin, or deliverance from
the power of sin? I will not attempt to weigh in the scales two
mercies so surpassing. Neither of them could have come to us
apart from the precious blood of Jesus. But it seems to me that
to be delivered from the dominion of sin, to be made holy, to be
made like to God, must be reckoned the greater of the two, if a
comparison has to be drawn. To be forgiven is an immeasurable
favor. We make this one of the first notes of our psalm of
praise: "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." But if we could be
forgiven, and then could be permitted to love sin, to riot in
iniquity, and to wallow in lust, what would be the use of such a
forgiveness? Might it not turn out to be a poisoned sweet, which
would most effectually destroy us? To be washed, and yet to lie
in the mire; to be pronounced clean, and yet to have the leprosy
white on one's brow, would be the veriest mockery of mercy. What
is it to bring the man out of his sepulcher if you leave him
dead? Why lead him into the light if he is still blind? We thank
God, that He who forgives our iniquities also heals our diseases.
He who washes us from the stains of the past also uplifts us from
the foul ways of the present, and keeps us from failing in the
future. We must joyfully accept both repentance and remission;
they cannot be separated. The covenant heritage is one and
indivisible, and must not be parceled out. To divide the work of
grace would be to cut the living child in halves, and those who
would permit this have no interest in it.
     I will ask you who are seeking the Lord, whether you would
be satisfied with one of these mercies alone? Would it content
you, my reader, if God would forgive you your sin and then allow
you to be as worldly and wicked as before? Oh, no! The quickened
spirit is more afraid of sin itself than of the penal results of
it. The cry of your heart is not, "Who shall deliver me from
punishment?" but, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? Who shall enable me to live above
temptation, and to become holy, even as God is holy?" Since the
unity of repentance with remission agrees with gracious desire,
and since it is necessary for the completeness of salvation, and
for holiness' sake, rest you sure that it abides.
     Repentance and forgiveness are joined together in the
experience of all believers. There never was a person yet who did
unfeignedly repent of sin with believing repentance who was not
forgiven; and on the other hand, there never was a person
forgiven who had not repented of his sin. I do not hesitate to
say that beneath the copes of Heaven there never was, there is
not, and there never will be, any case of sin being washed away,
unless at the same time the heart was led to repentance and faith
in Christ. Hatred of sin and a sense of pardon come together into
the soul, and abide together while we live.
     These two things act and react upon each other: the man who
is forgiven, therefore repents; and the man who repents is also
most assuredly forgiven. Remember first, that forgiveness leads
to repentance. As we sing in Hart's words:
     
     Law and terrors do but harden,
     All the while they work alone;
     But a sense of blood-bought pardon
     Soon dissolves a heart of stone.
     
     When we are sure that we are forgiven, then we abhor
iniquity; and I suppose that when faith grows into full
assurance, so that we are certain beyond a doubt that the blood
of Jesus has washed us whiter than snow, it is then that
repentance reaches to its greatest height. Repentance grows as
faith grows. Do not make any mistake about it; repentance is not
a thing of days and weeks, a temporary penance to be over as fast
as possible! No; it is the grace of a lifetime, like faith
itself. God's little children repent, and so do the young men and
the fathers. Repentance is the inseparable companion of faith.
All the while that we walk by faith and not by sight, the tear of
repentance glitters in the eye of faith. That is not true
repentance which does not come of faith in Jesus, and that is not
true faith in Jesus which is not tinctured with repentance. Faith
and repentance, like Siamese twins, are vitally joined together.
In proportion as we believe in the forgiving love of Christ, in
that proportion we repent; and in proportion as we repent of sin
and hate evil, we rejoice in the fullness of the absolution which
Jesus is exalted to bestow. You will never value pardon unless
you feel repentance; and you will never taste the deepest draught
of repentance until you know that you are pardoned. It may seem a
strange thing, but so it is--the bitterness of repentance and the
sweetness of pardon blend in the flavor of every gracious life,
and make up an incomparable happiness.
     These two covenant gifts are the mutual assurance of each
other. If I know that I repent, I know that I am forgiven. How am
I to know that I am forgiven except I know also that I am turned
from my former sinful course? To be a believer is to be a
penitent. Faith and repentance are but two spokes in the same
wheel, two handles of the same plough. Repentance has been well
described as a heart broken for sin, and from sin; and it may
equally well be spoken of as turning and returning. It is a
change of mind of the most thorough and radical sort, and it is
attended with sorrow for the past, and a resolve of amendment in
the future.
     
     Repentance is to leave
The sins we loved before;
     And show that we in earnest grieve,
By doing so no more.
     
     Now, when that is the case, we may be certain that we are
forgiven; for the Lord never made a heart to be broken for sin
and broken from sin, without pardoning it. If, on the other hand,
we are enjoying pardon, through the blood of Jesus, and are
justified by faith, and have peace with God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, we know that our repentance and faith are of the right
sort.
     Do not regard your repentance as the cause of your
remission, but as the companion of it. Do not expect to be able
to repent until you see the grace of our Lord Jesus, and His
readiness to blot out your sin. Keep these blessed things in
their places, and view them in their relation to each other. They
are the Jachin and Boaz of a saving experience; I mean that they
are comparable to Solomon's two great pillars which stood in the
forefront of the house of the Lord, and formed a majestic
entrance to the holy place. No man comes to God aright except he
passes between the pillars of repentance and remission. Upon your
heart the rainbow of covenant grace has been displayed in all its
beauty when the tear-drops of repentance have been shone upon by
the light of full forgiveness. Repentance of sin and faith in
divine pardon are the warp and woof of the fabric of real
conversion. By these tokens shall you know an Israelite indeed.  
   To come back to the Scripture upon which we are meditating:
both forgiveness and repentance flow from the same source, and
are given by the same Saviour. The Lord Jesus in His glory
bestows both upon the same persons. You are neither to find the
remission nor the repentance elsewhere. Jesus has both ready, and
He is prepared to bestow them now, and to bestow them most freely
on all who will accept them at His hands. Let it never be
forgotten that Jesus gives all that is needful for our salvation.
It is highly important that all seekers after mercy should
remember this. Faith is as much the gift of God as is the Saviour
upon whom that faith relies. Repentance of sin is as truly the
work of grace as the making of an atonement by which sin is
blotted out. Salvation, from first to last, is of grace alone.
You will not misunderstand me. It is not the Holy Spirit who
repents. He has never done anything for which He should repent.
If He could repent, it would not meet the case; we must ourselves
repent of our own sin, or we are not saved from its power. It is
not the Lord Jesus Christ who repents. What should He repent of?
We ourselves repent with the full consent of every faculty of our
mind. The will, the affections, the emotions, all work together
most heartily in the blessed act of repentance for sin; and yet
at the back of all that is our personal act, there is a secret
holy influence which melts the heart, gives contrition, and
produces a complete change. The Spirit of God enlightens us to
see what sin is, and thus makes it loathsome in our eyes. The
Spirit of God also turns us toward holiness, makes us heartily to
appreciate, love, and desire it, and thus gives us the impetus by
which we are led onward from stage to stage of sanctification.
The Spirit of God works in us to will and to do according to
God's good pleasure. To that good Spirit let us submit ourselves
at once, that He may lead us to Jesus, who will freely give us
the double benediction of repentance and remission, according to
the riches of His grace.
     "BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED."
     
     HOW REPENTANCE IS GIVEN
     
     TO RETURN to the grand text: "Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance
to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Our Lord Jesus Christ has
gone up that grace may come down. His glory is employed to give
greater currency to His grace. The Lord has not taken a step
upward except with the design of bearing believing sinners upward
with Him. He is exalted to give repentance; and this we shall see
if we remember a few great truths.
     The work which our Lord Jesus has done has made repentance
possible, available, and acceptable. The law makes no mention of
repentance, but says plainly, "The soul that sinneth, it shall
die." If the Lord Jesus had not died and risen again and gone
unto the Father, what would your repenting or mine be worth? We
might feel remorse with its horrors, but never repentance with
its hopes. Repentance, as a natural feeling, is a common duty
deserving no great praise: indeed, it is so generally mingled
with a selfish fear of punishment, that the kindliest estimate
makes but little of it. Had not Jesus interposed and wrought out
a wealth of merit, our tears of repentance would have been so
much water spilled upon the ground. Jesus is exalted on high,
that through the virtue of His intercession repentance may have a
place before God. In this respect He gives us repentance, because
He puts repentance into a position of acceptance, which otherwise
it could never have occupied.
     When Jesus was exalted on high, the Spirit of God was poured
out to work in us all needful graces. The Holy Ghost creates
repentance in us by supernaturally renewing our nature, and
taking away the heart of stone out of our flesh. Oh, sit not down
straining those eyes of yours to fetch out impossible tears!
Repentance comes not from unwilling nature, but from free and
sovereign grace. Get not to your chamber to smite your breast in
order to fetch from a heart of stone feelings which are not
there. But go to Calvary and see how Jesus died. Look upward to
the hills whence comes your help. The Holy Ghost has come on
purpose that He may overshadow men's spirits and breed repentance
within them, even as once He brooded over chaos and brought forth
order. Breathe your prayer to Him, "Blessed Spirit, dwell with
me. Make me tender and lowly of heart, that I may hate sin and
unfeignedly repent of it." He will hear your cry and answer you.
     Remember, too, that when our Lord Jesus was exalted, He not
only gave us repentance by sending forth the Holy Spirit, but by
consecrating all the works of nature and of providence to the
great ends of our salvation, so that any one of them may call us
to repentance, whether it crow like Peter's cock, or shake the
prison like the jailer's earthquake. From the right hand of God
our Lord Jesus rules all things here below, and makes them work
together for the salvation of His redeemed. He uses both bitters
and sweets, trials and joys, that He may produce in sinners a
better mind toward their God. Be thankful for the providence
which has made you poor, or sick, or sad; for by all this Jesus
works the life of your spirit and turns you to Himself. The
Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our hearts on the black
horse of affliction. Jesus uses the whole range of our experience
to wean us from earth and woo us to Heaven. Christ is exalted to
the throne of Heaven and earth in order that, by all the
processes of His providence, He may subdue hard hearts unto the
gracious softening of repentance.
     Besides, He is at work at this hour by all His whispers in
the conscience, by His inspired Book, by those of us who speak
out of that Book, and by praying friends and earnest hearts. He
can send a word to you which shall strike your rocky heart as
with the rod of Moses, and cause streams of repentance to flow
forth. He can bring to your mind some heart-breaking text out of
Holy Scripture which shall conquer you right speedily. He can
mysteriously soften you, and cause a holy frame of mind to steal
over you when you least look for it. Be sure of this, that He who
is gone into His glory, raised into all the splendor and majesty
of God, has abundant ways of working repentance in those to whom
He grants forgiveness. He is even now waiting to give repentance
to you. Ask Him for it at once.
     Observe with much comfort that the Lord Jesus Christ gives
this repentance to the most unlikely people in the world. He is
exalted to give repentance to Israel. To Israel! In the days when
the apostles thus spoke, Israel was the nation which had most
grossly sinned against light and love, by daring to say, "His
blood be on us and on our children." Yet Jesus is exalted to give
them repentance! What a marvel of grace! If you have been brought
up in the brightest of Christian light, and yet have rejected it,
there is still hope. If you have sinned against conscience, and
against the Holy Spirit, and against the love of Jesus, there is
yet space for repentance. Though you may be as hard as
unbelieving Israel of old, softening may yet come to you, since
Jesus is exalted, and clothed with boundless power. For those who
went the furthest in iniquity, and sinned with special
aggravation, the Lord Jesus is exalted to give to them repentance
and forgiveness of sins. Happy am I to have so full a gospel to
proclaim! Happy are you to be allowed to read it!
     The hearts of the children of Israel had grown hard as an
adamant stone. Luther used to think it impossible to convert a
Jew. We are far from agreeing with him, and yet we must admit
that the seed of Israel have been exceedingly obstinate in their
rejection of the Saviour during these many centuries. Truly did
the Lord say, "Israel would none of me." "He came to his own and
his own received him not." Yet on behalf of Israel our Lord Jesus
is exalted for the giving of repentance and remission. Probably
my reader is a Gentile; but yet he may have a very stubborn
heart, which has stood out against the Lord Jesus for many years;
and yet in him our Lord can work repentance. It may be that you
will yet feel compelled to write as William Hone did when he
yielded to divine love. He was the author of those most
entertaining volumes called the "Everyday Book," but he was once
a stout-hearted infidel. When subdued by sovereign grace, he
wrote:
     
     The proudest heart that ever beat
Hath been subdued in me;
     The wildest will that ever rose
     To scorn Thy cause and aid Thy foes
Is quell'd my Lord, by Thee.
     Thy will, and not my will be done,
My heart be ever Thine;
     Confessing Thee the mighty Word,
     My Saviour Christ, my God, my Lord,
Thy cross shall be my sign.
     
     The Lord can give repentance to the most unlikely, turning
lions into lambs, and ravens into doves. Let us look to Him that
this great change may be wrought in us. Assuredly the
contemplation of the death of Christ is one of the surest and
speediest methods of gaining repentance. Do not sit down and try
to pump up repentance from the dry well of corrupt nature. It is
contrary to the laws of mind to suppose that you can force your
soul into that gracious state. Take your heart in prayer to Him
who understands it, and say, "Lord, cleanse it. Lord, renew it.
Lord, work repentance in it." The more you try to produce
penitent emotions in yourself, the more you will be disappointed;
but if you believingly think of Jesus dying for you, repentance
will burst forth. Meditate on the Lord's shedding His heart's
blood out of love to you. Set before your mind's eye the agony
and bloody sweat, the cross and passion; and, as you do this, He
who was the bearer of all this grief will look at you, and with
that look He will do for you what He did for Peter, so that you
also will go out and weep bitterly. He who died for you can, by
His gracious Spirit, make you die to sin; and He who has gone
into glory on your behalf can draw your soul after Him, away from
evil, and toward holiness.
     I shall be content if I leave this one thought with you;
look not beneath the ice to find fire, neither hope in your own
natural heart to find repentance. Look to the Living One for
life. Look to Jesus for all you need between Hell Gate and Heaven
Gate. Never seek elsewhere for any part of that which Jesus loves
to bestow; but remember,
     Christ is all.
     
     THE FEAR OF FINAL FALLING
     
     A DARK FEAR haunts the minds of many who are coming to
Christ; they are afraid that they shall not persevere to the end.
I have heard the seeker say: "If I were to cast my soul upon
Jesus, yet peradventure I should after all draw back into
perdition. I have had good feelings before now, and they have
died away. My goodness has been as the morning cloud, and as the
early dew. It has come on a sudden, lasted for a season, promised
much, and then vanished away."
     I believe that this fear is often the father of the fact;
and that some who have been afraid to trust Christ for all time,
and for all eternity, have failed because they had a temporary
faith, which never went far enough to save them. They set out
trusting to Jesus in a measure, but looking to themselves for
continuance and perseverance in the heavenward way; and so they
set out faultily, and, as a natural consequence, turned back
before long. If we trust to ourselves for our holding on we shall
not hold on. Even though we rest in Jesus for a part of our
salvation, we shall fail if we trust to self for anything. No
chain is stronger than its weakest link: if Jesus be our hope for
everything, except one thing, we shall utterly fail, because in
that one point we shall come to nought. I have no doubt whatever
that a mistake about the perseverance of the saints has prevented
the perseverance of many who did run well. What did hinder them
that they should not continue to run? They trusted to themselves
for that running, and so they stopped short. Beware of mixing
even a little of self with the mortar with which you build, or
you will make it untempered mortar, and the stones will not hold
together. If you look to Christ for your beginnings, beware of
looking to yourself for your endings. He is Alpha. See to it that
you make Him Omega also. If you begin in the Spirit you must not
hope to be made perfect by the flesh. Begin as you mean to go on,
and go on as you began, and let the Lord be all in all to you.
Oh, that God, the Holy Spirit, may give us a very clear idea of
where the strength must come from by which we shall be preserved
until the day of our Lord's appearing!
     Here is what Paul once said upon this subject when he was
writing to the Corinthians:
     Our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the
end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the
fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:8, 9).     

     This language silently admits a great need, by telling us
how it is provided for. Wherever the Lord makes a provision, we
are quite sure that there was a need for it, since no
superfluities encumber the covenant of grace. Golden shields hung
in Solomon's courts which were never used, but there are none
such in the armory of God. What God has provided we shall surely
need. Between this hour and the consummation of all things every
promise of God and every provision of the covenant of grace will
be brought into requisition. The urgent need of the believing
soul is confirmation, continuance, final perseverance,
preservation to the end. This is the great necessity of the most
advanced believers, for Paul was writing to saints at Corinth,
who were men of a high order, of whom he could say, "I thank my
God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given
you by Jesus Christ." Such men are the very persons who most
assuredly feel that they have daily need of new grace if they are
to hold on, and hold out, and come off conquerors at the last. If
you were not saints you would have no grace, and you would feel
no need of more grace; but because you are men of God, therefore
you feel the daily demands of the spiritual life. The marble
statue requires no food; but the living man hungers and thirsts,
and he rejoices that his bread and his water are made sure to
him, for else he would certainly faint by the way. The believer's
personal wants make it inevitable that he should daily draw from
the great source of all supplies; for what could he do if he
could not resort to his God?
     This is true of the most gifted of the saints--of those men
at Corinth who were enriched with all utterance and with all
knowledge. They needed to be confirmed to the end, or else their
gifts and attainments would prove their ruin. If we had the
tongues of men and of angels, if we did not receive fresh grace,
where should we be? If we had all experience till we were fathers
in the church--if we had been taught of God so as to understand
all mysteries--yet we could not live a single day without the
divine life flowing into us from our Covenant Head. How could we
hope to hold on for a single hour, to say nothing of a lifetime,
unless the Lord should hold us on? He who began the good work in
us must perform it unto the day of Christ, or it will prove a
painful failure.
     This great necessity arises very much from our own selves.
In some there is a painful fear that they shall not persevere in
grace because they know their own fickleness. Certain persons are
constitutionally unstable. Some men are by nature conservative,
not to say obstinate; but others are as naturally variable and
volatile. Like butterflies they flit from flower to flower, till
they visit all the beauties of the garden, and settle upon none
of them. They are never long enough in one place to do any good;
not even in their business nor in their intellectual pursuits.
Such persons may well be afraid that ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
perhaps fifty years of continuous religious watchfulness will be
a great deal too much for them. We see men joining first one
church and then another, till they box the compass. They are
everything by turns and nothing long. Such have double need to
pray that they may be divinely confirmed, and may be made not
only steadfast but unmoveable, or otherwise they will not be
found "always abounding in the work of the Lord."
     All of us, even if we have no constitutional temptation to
fickleness, must feel our own weakness if we are really quickened
of God. Dear reader, do you not find enough in any one single day
to make you stumble? You that desire to walk in perfect holiness,
as I trust you do; you that have set before you a high standard
of what a Christian should be--do you not find that before the
breakfast things are cleared away from the table, you have

(continued in part 6...)



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file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-01: spgr-05.txt
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