Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1896-01-23
Salvation by Faith,
by W JONES, D. D., LII D.

Disbelief was the cause Of the frs
sin and the active cause of all the Sir
now in the world Faith 10 the oppo
site of unbelief. In the exercise Of
faith man always first apprehends the
fact or proposition which claims bis
confidence. He then percelves the
evidence that supports the statement
Then by an act of his will he believes
and receives the fact on the evidence
presented. The believing soul then
obeys God and receives Christ as his
Savior, and God for Christs sake,
saves him from his sins.
There are some popular errors we
must avoid in order to believe. We
must abandon the notion that faith is
some mysterious gift bestowed upon
the penitent, or rather to produce pen
itence. We must discriminate be-
tween faith as the condition of saliva
ton, and that which God does for tis
and in us, when we have believed.
We must not confound faith with the
Holy Ghost who alone is the agent Of
salvation. And then we must care
fully discriminate between the wit
ness of the Spirit to our salvation by
which God assures us that the work
Is accomplished--and the evidence
God has given us on which we are to
believe His Word and receive His
grace, Thousands perish because
they refuse to believe, and wait for
the witness Of the Spirit as the basis
of faith.
The primary proposition of the Cos
pei is that faith is obligatory upon all
men. Faith being the act of the will
by which any proposition is received
as true, there can be but one genuine
basis of falkland that is evidence.
There never was any fact established
in science, or law, or religion, except
by evidence. Jesus recognized this
fact and, when He was risen from the
grave, He sought the disciples and
demonstrated to them His resurrec-
ton. He showed them His hands
and His side" He could have had
but one purpose-to satisfy them that
He was the same Jesus who was cru
CITED and that now He was alive for
ever more. After this interview in
which Thomas was not present the
other disciples assured Thomas "That
they had seen the Lord" that they
had examined His wounds. Thomas
would not take any hearsay evidence,
he was too much Of lawyer to make
a mistake at a vital point in his case
he must see the nail prints and the
spear mark for himself. Then Jesus
sought Thomas, as He had the others,
and with proofs that left no place for
doubt satisfied Thomas, and never a
doubt crossed his mind afterward.
The evidence of Chrlst's ministry
and miracles, and the facts of His
death and resurrection are carefully
collated and arranged with the ante
cedent history and prophesv, into
Zone Revelation" which God gives
as the basis of faith to the end of
time. On this solid basis all true
Christian faith rests. Faith, there
fore, cannot be the agent of salvation,
but is the sole condition of our union
with the Father, the condition Of per-
sonal salvation and of power for sue
cessful work in the vineyard of the
Lord. Neither can faith be a gift &C.
companylng salvation if it is the con-
dltion of salvation. For if faith is a
gift bestowed for any reason what.
ever, and at the same time is the con-
dition of salv alton, no person is now
responsible for being unsaved, wheth-
or he yet remains on the earth or is
eternally shut up in hell. The i'm.
portant word is the proposition
its original significance is equivalent
to because of" it implies the instrn-
mental means of, and not the agency,
Because of our faith we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Pardon brings peace, secures hsr.
mony in the realm of Flaw, the spiritual
life is impaired, the convert is able tc
know, to stand, to walk; he is prepar.
ed to advance, it is all by or because
he is faithful that he keeps his cor.
rect relations with God. II faith i,
the condition on which God gives sal