Sermon Illustrations on Faith in Christ

Nothing to Lose

Faith in Christ offers joy now and eternal hope, with nothing to lose if wrong.

An unbeliever once approached a consistent born-again believer and began to ridicule him. "Listen to me, my friend," said the Christian. "On my instrument I have two chords-joy of faith in Christ and hope of eternal joy in heaven. You have only one-hope of joy in this life." "What do you mean by that?" "Let me explain. I want to be on the safe side. Suppose that after death there is really nothing, and both of us are destined to disappear into nothingness. Who do you think is getting more satisfaction out of life right now-you with your empty philosophy or I with my faith in Jesus Christ? I think that I really have it over you as far as enjoyment is concerned. So that if you are right, I should lose nothing by having committed myself to faith in Christ. But if I am right, what will become of you? My fellowship with Christ assures me of joy in this life and eternal bliss in case there is life after death. I have nothing to lose. But you? If it turns out I'm right, you will be lost in the future. And on top of it all, you will find that you didn't enjoy the peace of heart and the joy of being on the side of right in this life, as I did." Not Presumptions, but Certainties The name of Michael Faraday is known to scientists and students everywhere. He was a British physical scientist whose discoveries contributed much to our knowledge of electricity. The modern world has deified science-physical science. But we must never forget that all scientific investigation is based upon the premise that for every effect there must be a cause, and that the universe is governed by laws. All experiments are based on the laws we are continually discovering, and only a pseudo-scientist would claim that we have reached the end of our discoveries. Where would we be if we had no faith in the trustworthiness of physical laws? We would never entrust ourselves to an airplane. When Faraday was dying someone asked him, "Mr. Faraday, what are your presumptions, your hypotheses now?" "I do not entrust my head to presumptions at this moment, but to certainties," he replied. " 'For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I committed unto him against that day' " (2 Timothy 1:12).

What Does It Mean to Believe?

Acts 16:31

Faith means trusting fully in Christ for salvation, like resting on Him.

Many years ago now, when John G. Paton first went out as a pioneer missionary to the new Hebrides Islands, he found that the natives among whom he began to work had no way of writing their language. He began to learn it and in time began to work on a translation of the Bible for them. Soon he discovered that they had no word for "faith." This was serious, of course, for a person can hardly translate the Bible without it. One day he went on a hunt with one of the natives. They shot a large deer in the course of the hunt, and tying its legs together and supporting it on a pole, laboriously trekked back down the mountain path to Paton's home near the seashore. As they reached the veranda both men threw the deer down, and the native immediately flopped into one of the deck chairs that stood on the porch exclaiming, "My, it is good to stretch yourself out here and rest." Paton immediately jumped to his feet and recorded the phrase. In his final translation of the New Testament this was the word used to convey the idea of trust, faith, and belief. "Stretch yourself out on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).

Saving Faith

Saving faith fully trusts Jesus to support and save us like water supports a swimmer.

Phillips Brooks defined faith by saying, "Faith means Forsaking All, I Take Him." Saving faith is leaving the spot where we are now standing and jumping into the arms of Jesus with full confidence that He is able to bear us up. It is like trying to swim. Swimming is work as we know. Before we can swim, we must believe that the water is able to bear us up; saving faith is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ first and then swimming in the great sea of His love and everlasting mercy. This is a faith that saves.

Understand with Your Heart

Romans 10:10

Faith is trusting God with the heart, not just intellectual belief.

W. J. Dawson gives his testimony as follows: "Well do I remember how like a flash of light that verse of Romans 10:10 illumined my soul one day, when all was at its darkest for me. And then I saw what it all meant: that God did not ask me to believe with my intellect at all, but to trust Him with my heart. From that hour the world has brightened in me, for I know now that I have found God. Often and often now I cannot believe with the intellect, but I can with the heart." Does Your Faith Show? Dr. J. M. Buckley, a Methodist preacher, was once asked to conduct what they used to call in those days an "experience meeting" at a church in the South. That was a meeting similar to a testimony meeting such as we sometimes have today. A woman arose and bore witness to the preciousness of her religion as light bringer and comfort giver. "That's good, sister!" commented Dr. Buckley. "But now about the practical side, the positive side. Does your religion make you strive to prepare your husband a good dinner? Does it make you look after him in every way?" Just then Dr. Buckley felt a yank at this coat tails by the host preacher, who whispered ardently, "Press those questions, doctor; press those questions. That's my wife!" Does our faith show by what we do for others?

Lippen to” Jesus

The Scottish word 'lippen' illustrates trusting Jesus fully for everlasting life.

“He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.”

John 6:47

Being of Scotch extraction, I always greatly enjoy the broad Scotch translation of the New Testament. In that you will never find our English word, “believe,” but you will find the word “lippen.” For instance, John 3:16 reads, “For God se loved the warld as to gie His Son, the only begotten Ane, that ilka ane wha lippens till Him sudna dee, but hae life for aye.” What does that word mean, the word “lippen”? It just means to trust your whole weight on a thing, trust it implicitly.

A Scotch minister was visiting a poor woman who was in great distress about her soul. She just could not seem to understand. By and by he left her, and on his way back to the manse he was troubled to think he had not been able to help her. He came to a bridge over a burn in front of the house, which he started to cross, going step by step very carefully with his buckthorn cane.

An old Scotch woman called out, “Why, Doctor Man, can ye no lippen the brig?” He laughed and waved his hand, and said to himself, “I have the word for my auld lady.” So he went back to the cottage. She opened the door and said, “O Doctor, you’ve come back again?”

He said, “I have the word for you now.”

“What is it, Doctor?”

“Can you no lippen to Jesus?”

“Oh, is it just to lippen to Him? Why, surely I can lippen to Him. He will never let me doon, will He?”

They bowed together, and she settled it. That is all God asks you to do. Believe the record He has given concerning Jesus; put your heart’s trust in Him. You may be assured that you have life eternal for “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know” — not merely hope, not just have a reasonable assurance, but full assurance — “that ye have eternal life.”

Praying or Trusting

Praying alone does not save; trusting in Christ’s blood is essential for salvation.

“As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

Visiting in a hospital not long ago, I spoke to a poor man of emaciated aspect, whom his friends had been anxious that I should see. He was evidently in a very precarious condition, possibly soon to be summoned from time to eternity. I told him I was anxious to know how he stood as to the great matter of his soul’s salvation, and asked if he enjoyed peace with God.

“Oh,” was the reply, “I’m all right as to that. I’m praying all the time.” A look of intense self-satisfaction settled on his face.

“Well, my dear fellow, I hope you know what Christ had to do to save such sinners as we are and that you know Him as your personal Saviour.”

“Oh, that’s all right. I’ve known about Jesus for a long time. I’ve belonged to a church since I was a boy. I haven’t any fear for I’m always praying.”

“Well, you see, it is not enough to know about these things, and people are not saved by praying. Do you trust in the precious blood of Christ?”

A violent attack of coughing interrupted the conversation. When he was easy again, he said, “I can’t talk more to you, sir. It excites me too much. But you needn’t fear for me, for I won’t forget to pray.” With this he turned from me, evidently signifying that the conversation was over, so I could do nothing but retire, leaving on the table some simple gospel tracts in the hope that, as he could still read, they might be used of God for blessing to him.

His case is, I fear, like that of many who put prayer, or other Christian practices, in the place of Christ, whereas the truth is, Christ first, then all these other things; or, in other words, life first, then the needs of the newborn babe. Saved people are surely praying people, but there are thousands of persons who pray who are not saved. The Pharisees prayed even long prayers, yet they were not saved.

Nowhere in His Word, does God ask people to pray for salvation. Nowhere is eternal life promised in answer to prayer. People in recognized relationship with God are taught to pray, as children making known their wants to a loving Father. In the case of the one apparent exception, Simon the sorcerer of Acts 8, to whom Peter says, “Pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee” (Acts 8:22) it is that of a man by profession already a Christian. His own answer to the Apostle is the proof that the secrets of his heart had been made manifest, and thus of his unfitness to pray, for he exclaims, “Pray ye to the Lord for me” (Acts 8:24).

Sinners desiring salvation are throughout Scripture urged to trust, to believe, to have faith in the Son of God.

Paul’s answer to the jailer’s anxious inquiry, “What must I do to be saved?” is not that he should pray, or beseech God to help him, but is clear and simple, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” God has not one plan for one class of sinners and a different one for another. All who ever were saved in any dispensation were saved by believing the testimony of God. His present testimony is that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried and rose again, and He says, “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” (Romans 10:9).

We are not saying these things to hinder any soul in distress from crying to God, as the publican who cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” But we warn any soul from putting his confidence in anything which, in the end, would only fail him; and what an awful thing to fail in a matter whose issues are eternal. “God be merciful to me a sinner” is the acknowledgment of need and guilt, but cannot give peace. The publican might have cried that forever and still have not so much as dared lift up his eyes to heaven had he not believed God’s Word. The moment the testimony of God is believed, that “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18), the soul enters into peace with God.

Instead of calling upon us to pray for salvation, God Himself is beseeching men through His ambassadors to be reconciled to Him. Through them Christ is pleading with sinners to trust Him.

Precious then to be able to say, “I am trusting all the time” instead of what this poor man in the hospital was vainly repeating.

The Blind Beggar

John 9:9

The healed blind man boldly confessed Jesus as the one who gave him sight despite opposition.

Here is a whole chapter in John (ix) of forty-one verses, just to tell how the Lord blessed that blind beggar. It was put in this book, I think, just to bring out the confession of that man. "The neighbors, therefore, and they which before had seen him which was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he; others said, He is like him; but he said, I am he." If it had been our case I think we would have kept still; we would have said, "There is a storm brewing among the Pharisees, and they have said, 'If any man acknowledges Christ we will put him out of the Synagogue.' Now I don't want to be put out of the Synagogue." I am afraid we would have said that; that is the way with a good many of the young converts. What did the young convert here? He said, "I am he." And bear in mind he only told what he knew; he knew the Man had given him his eyes. "Some said, He is like him; but he said, I am he." So, young converts, open your lips and tell what Christ has done for you. If you can't do more than that, open your lips and do that. "Therefore, said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash; and I went and washed, and I received sight." He said, "He anointed my eyes with clay, and I went to the pool and washed, and whereas I had no eyes, I have now got two good eyes." Some skeptic might ask, "What is the philosophy of it?" But he couldn't tell that. "Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not. They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and do see." He wasn't afraid to tell his experience twice; he had just told it once. "Therefore, said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? and there was a division among them." Now I am afraid if it had been us, we would have kept still and said, "There is a storm brewing." "They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of Him, that He hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet." Now you see he has got to talking of the Master, and that is a grand good thing.

I Am Trusting Jesus"--A Young Lady's Trust

True seeking means trusting Jesus, who has been seeking you all along.

The other Sunday, when I was speaking on "Trust," a person came to me next day and said, "I want to tell you how I was saved. You remember you told about that lady who sought Christ three years and could not find Him, and when you told that, it was I. I was in that same condition and through your story I got light." I don't think I have ever told it but what somebody got light and life. I will tell it again, for I would go up and down the world telling it if I could get a convert. One night I was preaching, and happening to cast my eyes down during the sermon, I saw two eyes just riveted upon me. Every word that fell from my lips she just seemed to catch with her own lips, and I was very anxious to go down where she was. After the Sermon I went to the pew and said, "My friend, are you a Christian?" "Oh, no," said she, "I wish I was. I have been seeking Christ three years and I cannot find Him." Said I, "Oh, there is a great mistake about that." Says she, "Do you think I am not in earnest? Do you think, sir, I have not been seeking Christ?" Said I, "I suppose you think you have, but Christ has been seeking you these twenty years, and it would not take an anxious sinner and an anxious Saviour three years to meet, and if you had been really seeking Him you would have found Him long before this." "What would you do, then?" Said I, "Do nothing, only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." "Oh," said she, "I have heard that till my head swims. Everybody says, believe! believe! believe! and I am none the wiser. I don't know what you mean by it." "Very well," said I, "I will drop the word; but just trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save." "If I say I trust Him, will He save me?" "No, you may do a thousand things; but if you really trust Him, He will save you." "Well," said she, "I trust Him, but I don't feel any different." "Ah," said I, "I have found your difficulty. You have been hunting for feeling all these three years. You have not been looking for Christ." Says she, "Christians tell how much joy they have got." "But," said I, "you want Christian experience before you get one. Instead of trusting God, you are looking for Christian experience." Then I said: "Right here in this pew, just commit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust Him, and you will be saved," and I held her right to that word "trust," which is the same as the word "believe" in the Old Testament. "You know what it is to trust a friend. Cannot you trust God as a friend?" She looked at me for five minutes, it seemed, and then said slowly: "Mr. Moody, I trust the Lord Jesus Christ this night to save my soul." Turning to the pastor of the church she took him by the hand and repeated the declaration. Turning to an elder in the church she said again the solemn words, and near the door, meeting another officer of the church, she repeated for the fourth time, "I am trusting Jesus," and went off home. The next night when I was preaching I saw her right in front of me, "Eternity" written in her eyes, her face lighted up, and when I asked inquirers to go into the other room she was the first to go in. I wondered at it, for I could see by her face that she was in the joy of the Lord. But when I got in I found her with her arms around a young lady's neck, and I heard her say, "It is only just trusting. I stumbled over it three years and found it all in trusting;" and the three weeks I was there she led more souls to Christ than anybody else. If I got a difficult case I would send it to her. Oh, my friends, won't you trust Him? Let us put our trust in Him.

The Warrior'S Thoughts

A Christian's constant focus on heaven shapes their life and priorities.

"A certain Grecian warrior, wherever he walked, was thinking of battles; he asked himself continually, if he should be assaulted on such a piece of ground how he would model and dispose his army for his defence. A Christian should be thinking of heaven, how he may get thither, and what he shall enjoy there." To be engrossed in a pursuit is the readiest way to success in it. We are thoroughly alive unto God when we get so far as even to eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life. Where our treasure is there will our heart be also. The object which is supreme in our heart will continually make itself prominent in our life. When Joshua saw the angel of the Lord, he gave him a military challenge, for his whole soul was in the war. The colour of our chosen occupation will tinge our whole existence. "For to me to live is Christ," saith the apostle. The musician will be moving his fingers upon the table as if he were playing a tune; the sailor will roll about in his walk on shore as if he were still on board ship; and even so will the soul that communes with God rehearse its joys when it is busy with other matters. When God and heaven bear our thoughts away, it is good evidence that we are preparing for eternal felicity; for he must needs be soon in heaven who already hath heaven in him. When heavenly things take up our souls, our souls will soon be taken up to heaven.

Lord, let me think of thee and thy word all the while I am awake; and when I sleep, if I dream at all, let my imagination still tend thy way. Oh, that I were fully and only filled with thee, till everywhere and at all times my every thought were thine! With all thy ransomed ones I would sing— In full and glad surrender we give ourselves to thee, Thine utterly, and only, and evermore to be! O Son of God, who lovest us, we will be thine alone, And all we are, and all we have, shall henceforth be thine own!"

Believing, is Looking

Believing in Jesus is continually looking to Him for salvation and provision.

Believing on Jesus is LOOKING to him, looking to him for salvation. You see that poor widow with a young family, weeping as if her heart would break. When I ask her what ails her, she tells me she is behind with her rent, and her landlord threatens to turn her to the door, unless she can pay her debt, and find security for the next six months. So I tell her to dry her tears, and do her best to work for her children, and just look to me for her rent. How full of joy she is all at once! How cheerfully she works! and, though she has not a penny laid past for the term, she has no fear; and when asked, Why? she says, "I am looking to him, for he bade me; and I know he will not fail me. What he promised is just as sure as if I had it in my hand." Now, believing on Jesus is something like this. If I might so speak, it is the heart's look to Jesus, — a single glance, indeed, at first, and yet a constant looking to him ever after. J. H. Wilson.

Believing, is Trusting

Trusting Jesus with your soul assures you He will keep it safe until the day of judgment.

There is a boy whose father was buried yesterday. Today he is wearing his father's gold watch. Some wicked lads are trying to take it from him. He is struggling to keep it; but they are too strong for him. He is just about to lose it, when I come up, and say, "Give it to me, my boy, and I'll keep it safe for you." For a moment he looks at me with doubtful eye; but as I say to him, "Trust me!" and he sees that I am earnest and sincere, he hands it over to me, and I prevent him from being robbed. That is just what the apostle Paul says of himself. He had, as you have, something far more precious than a gold watch, — an immortal soul; and he was afraid of losing it: he could not keep it himself. Jesus said, "Give it to me," and he gave it to him; and then you hear him saying rejoicingly, "I know whom I have believed" (which is the same thing as whom I have trusted), "and am persuaded that he will keep that which I have committed to him against that day." You, my dear friends, have souls too; and they are in danger of being lost: there is only one way of getting them saved, — giving them into the keeping of Jesus, "trusting" him with them. What warrant have you for trusting him? Just what Paul had, — His own word; and that is always enough. J. H. Wilson.

Believing, without Seeing

Faith involves trusting Jesus even when you cannot see Him, just as a child trusts a father's voice.

I had been absent from home for some days, and was wondering, as I again drew near the homestead, if my little Maggie, just able to sit alone, would remember me. To test her memory, I stationed myself where I could see her, but could not be seen by her, and called her name in the old familiar tone, "Maggie!" She dropped her playthings, glanced around the room, and then looked down upon her toys. Again I repeated her name, "Maggie!" when she once more surveyed the room; but, not seeing her father's face, she looked very sad, and slowly resumed her employment. Once more I called, "Maggie!" when, dropping her playthings, and bursting into tears, she stretched out her arms in the direction whence the sound proceeded, knowing that, though she could not see him, her father must be there; FOR SHE KNEW HIS VOICE. Lib. Treasury.

Christ, Divinity of

A skeptic's prayer leads to conviction of Christ's true divinity through personal experience.

A Unitarian was once present at a revival service, and was invited to go forward to the altar, and seek Christ. "But," said he, "I do not believe in him." It was suggested that he should test it by prayer. He went to the altar, and poured out his test prayer, "O Christ! if thou be a God, reveal thyself." He had not prayed long, ere he sprung up with new convictions, exclaiming, "He is a God, he is a God!"

Christ, a Book

Building faith on Christ ensures victory over all the devil's attacks.

As he that setteth the foundation of his house upon a firm rock may be sure that the foundation shall be able to bear the weight of that which shall be set upon it, and that no rain or flood shall wash it away; so he that buildeth his faith upon Christ, as he is set out and preached unto us in the gospel, shall be sure that hell-gates — that is all the power, force, and cunning of the Devil — shall never be able to prevail against him. Cawdray.

Doubt, Removed

An unexpected encounter with a Jewish man ended a skeptic's doubts about Christ.

It is related that a gentleman of London, in great doubt whether there ever was such a person as Christ, was going home one night in the dark, when a man fell into his arms, and the beard of a Jew crushed against his face. This opportune meeting with one of those who crucified Christ drove his doubts away instantly and forever. Dr. Ryland says, "In the croaking of a Jew, I hear, as if the voice of Gabriel proclaimed from heaven, 'Jesus, the true Messiah, was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem.'

Doubting, Cured

Knowing and trusting Christ personally removes doubts about His divinity.

A theological student once went to Dr. Hodge with his difficulties about the divinity of our Lord and Saviour. The doctor listened patiently, and then said, "My dear young friend, your difficulties are of the head. If I should answer them, new ones would suggest themselves. The best way to remove them, and guard yourself from future and similar troubles, is to have Christ within you. Learn his life; learn to trust in him more, to love him more; become identified with him; and your doubts as to his divinity will disappear." The young student followed his advice; his doubts fled; and, on a subsequent death-bed, he bore his testimony to the divinity of our blessed Lord.

Education, Christian

Christian education fosters love for God, faith in Christ, and openness to the Holy Spirit.

To give a man a Christian education is to make him love God as well as know him; to make him have faith in Christ as well as to have been taught the facts that he died for our sins, and rose again; to make him open his heart eagerly to every impulse of the Holy Spirit, as well as to have been taught the fact as it is in the Nicene Creed, that he is the Lord and Giver of spiritual life. Dr. Arnold

Faith, Beginning of

Even weak faith can grow to sustain us firmly anchored in Christ and heaven.

When the suspension bridge across the Niagara was to be erected, the question was, how to get the cable over. With a favoring wind, a kite was elevated, which alighted on the other shore. To its insignificant string, a cord was attached, which was drawn over, then a rope, then a larger rope, then a cable strong enough to sustain the iron cable which supported the bridge, over which heavily-laden trains pass in safety. This could never have been done but for the little kite-string, which may represent a weak faith, yet reaches to Christ and heaven, and may enlarge to gigantic proportions, and hold its possessor fast anchored within the veil.

Faith, in Christ

Faith unites us to Christ, enabling His power to save and move us forward.

Look at that locomotive as it snorts like a giant war-horse to its place in the station at the head of the train. You have in that engine power of amplest capacity to drag at swiftest pace the far-stretching carriages. Boiler, tubes, pistons, fire, steam,—all are in perfect order; and that broad-browed man gives assurance of tried ability to guide the charge committed to him. You look: carriage after carriage is filled, the hour has struck, the bell rung; and yet there is no departure, no movement, nor would be till "crack of doom," if one thing remained as it now is. Aha! the lack is discovered: the uniting hooks that bind engine and train together were wanting. They have been supplied. Like two great hands, they have clasped; and a screw has so riveted engine and carriage, that they form, as it were, one thing, one whole; and away through the dark sweeps the heavy-laden train with its freight of immortals. Mark! no one ever supposes that it is the uniting hook or link or coupling, that draws the train. A child knows that it is the engine that draws it. Nevertheless, without that hook or link or coupling, all the power of the engine were of no avail: the train would stand still forever. Exactly so, my brethren, is it in the relation of faith to Christ. It is not our faith that saves us, but Christ that saves us. Grasart.

Faith, Freedom of

Faith is a free lord that cannot be captured or condemned by earthly or spiritual powers.

Men have no more of you to work upon than some inches of phlegmatic clay. Your souls, your love to Christ, your faith, cannot be summoned nor sentenced nor accused nor condemned by pope, deputy, ruler, or tyrant. Your faith is a free lord, and cannot be a captive. All the malice of hell and of earth can but hurt the scabbard of a believer; and death, at the most, can get but a clay-pawn in keeping till your Lord take the King's keys and open your graves. Rutherford.

Faith

Faith is the vital spiritual air sustaining the Christian's life and work through prayer.

Living by. The true Christian is a man working under water, he is out of his proper element; he could not live at all, spiritually, unless he drew down continually that pure, fresh, vital air into his soul,—even the air of the heaven above him. His soul would die without it: but prayer is the open mouth, and faith is the pipe, by which he constantly inspires the air of the pure heaven above him; and, strengthened by supplies of grace, he is enabled to work in this dim world, till, his day's work being over, he is drawn up, or rather springs up, as the diver in the bell rises to the surface as soon as "the weights" that kept him down are shaken off. Champney.

Jesus, Sight of

Seeing Jesus by faith brings freedom, pardon, and peace worth all effort.

To see Jesus clearly with the eye of faith is to see the deep opening a way from Egypt to freedom's shore; is to see the water gush full and sparkling from the desert rock; is to see the serpent gleaming on its pole over a dying camp; is to see the life-boat coming when our bark is thumping on the bank, or ground on rocks by foaming breakers; it is to see a pardon when the noose is round our neck, and our foot is on the drop. No sight in the wide world like Jesus Christ, with forgiveness on his lips, and a crown in his blessed hand!—this is worth laboring for, praying for, living for, suffering for, dying for. You remember how the prophet's servant climbed the steeps of Carmel. Three years, and never cloud had dappled the burning sky; three long years, and never a dew-drop had glistened on the grass, or wet the lips of a dying flower: but the cloud came at last. No bigger than a man's hand, it rose from the sea, it spread; and as he saw the first lightning's flash, and heard the first thunder's roll, how did he forget all his toils, and would have climbed the hill not seven, but seventy times seven, times, to hail that welcome sight! It is so with sinners so soon as their eyes are gladdened with a believing sight of Christ; when they have got Christ, and with him peace. Dr. Guthrie.

Of Monsieur Bautain

Monsieur Bautain found faith, hope, and charity through studying the gospel's truth.

M. L. Bautain, a professor of philosophy at Strasburgh, has furnished an account of the power of the Scriptures on his heart:—"A single book has saved me; but that book is not of human origin. Long had I despised it; long had I deemed it a class-book for the credulous and ignorant; until, having investigated the gospel of Christ, with an ardent desire to ascertain its truth or falsity, its pages proffered to my inquiries the sublimest knowledge of man and nature, and the simplest, and at the same time, the most exalted system of moral ethics. Faith, hope, and charity were enkindled in my bosom; and every advancing step strengthened me in the conviction, that the morals of this book are superior to human morals, as its oracles are superior to human opinions."

Venturing On Christ

Complete confidence in Christ's sufficiency removes fear of death and judgment.

The Rev. Dr. Simpson was for many years tutor in the college at Hoxton, and while he stood very low in his own esteem, he ranked high in that of others. After a long life spent in the service of Christ, he approached his latter end with holy joy. Among other expressions which indicated his love to the Redeemer, and his interest in the favor of God, he spoke with disapprobation of a phrase often used by some pious people, "Venturing on Christ." "When," said he, "I consider the infinite dignity and all-sufficiency of Christ, I am ashamed to talk of venturing on him. Oh, had I ten thousand souls, I would, at this moment, cast them all into his hands with the utmost confidence." A few hours before his dissolution, he addressed himself to the last enemy, in a strain like that of the apostle, when he exclaimed, "O death, where is thy sting?' Displaying his characteristic fervor, as though he saw the tyrant approaching, he said, "What art thou? I am not afraid of thee. Thou art a vanquished enemy through the blood of the cross."

Acknowledgment Of Staupicius

Victory over sin comes by trusting Christ, not relying on one's own resolutions.

Luther relates concerning one Staupicius, a German divine, that he acknowledged that before he came to understand the free and powerful grace of Christ, he resolved, and vowed a hundred times against a particular sin; yet could never get power over it, nor his heart purified from it, till he came to see that he trusted too much to his own resolutions, and too little to Jesus Christ; but when his faith had engaged against his sin, he obtained the victory.

25 Sermon Illustrations on Faith in Christ