Mr. Fuller mentions two characters intimately acquainted with each other. One was favoured with great prosperity; the other, fearing for his soul, asked him if he did not find prosperity a snare to him. He replied, "I am not conscious that I do, for I enjoy God in all things." Some time afterwards he lost his means, when again his friend asked him if it was not too much for him. He replied, "I am not conscious that it is, for now I enjoy all things in God." This shows the permanent advantage of the benefits of redemption to the soul. "Assure my conscience of her part In the Redeemer's blood, And bear Thy witness with my heart QUEST. 33. What is justification? ANS. Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. ROM. v. 1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. EPH. i. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. ROM. iii. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Ver. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; Ver. 26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 2 COR. v. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. GAL. ii. 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. ROM. iii. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. I. The nature of justification.-It is not to make righteous, but to declare or account righteous in law: Deut. xxv. 1; Prov. xvii. 15. As condemnation does not make a person wicked, but pronounces judgment on his transgression; so justification does not make a person righteous, but declares him to be righteous. II. Its Author.-It is God that justifieth: Rom. viii. 33. It is therefore complete and authoritative. III. Its source.--The free grace of God: Rom. iii. 24. by merit on our part, but it springs from the love of God. IV. Its benefits.-They are twofold. It is not procured 1. Pardon of all our sins. This includes both past and future. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Through Christ is preached unto us the forgiveness of sins. 2. Acceptance as righteous in the sight of God. The justified sinner is not simply acquitted; he is received into favour-regarded as a righteous person before God. V. Its meritorious cause.-The righteousness of Christ imputed to us. Christ's substitution is accepted for sinners. His perfect righteousness is sufficient to justify us. It is put down to our account before God-reckoned ours in law. Christ assumed our nature, suffered for our sins, that this justification might be secured. Though justification is a grace to us, it is a purchase by Christ. VI. Its instrumental cause.—It is received by faith alone. Faith on our part is the means of acceptance--the hand that takes it. We do not work for it or help to procure it. It is received by faith alone. We are not justified because of faith, but because or on account of Christ's righteousness; but we receive that justifying righteousness by faith alone. 1. See the forgiving love of God. LESSONS. 2. The excellency of Christ's righteousness. 3. The necessity of faith in order to be justified. ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Luther called this doctrine "the article of a standing or of a falling Church." As it is clearly received, so does the Church stand safely: if obscured, it falls into error. The Church of Rome has obscured this doctrine, and made sanctification necessary before we are justified. "The terms 'justify' and 'justification' are taken from the common concerns of life, and applied, with some necessary variation of meaning, to the state of sinners who have found acceptance with God; and they imply that the sinner is now dealt with as if he were a righteous person: and therefore he is wholly exempted from those sufferings which are, strictly speaking, penal, and is entitled to the reward of perfect obedience; though in himself he hath merited no such reward, but, on the contrary, hath deserved the punishment denounced in the law against transgressors. These are commonly called 'forensic terms,' referring to the practice of human judicatories; and they seem to have been originally taken from such transactions. Yet this derivation gives us a very inadequate idea of their import. For when a man is charged with a crime before an earthly tribunal, he must either be condemned or acquitted: if he be condemned, he may be pardoned. but he cannot be justified; if he be acquitted, he may be justified, but he cannot stand in need of pardon......On the other hand, our justification before God always connects with pardon, and implies that we are guilty, and we are justified as ungodly; righteousness being imputed to us without works."-Rev. T. Scott. When Luther visited Rome, he was climbing up Pilate's Stairs on his knees for the benefit of his soul; but as he ascended, the text, "The just shall live by his faith," Hab. ii. 4, came into his mind, and he at once descended with a sense of shame. He afterwards said, "When by the Spirit of God I comprehended these words, when I learned how the sinner's justification proceeds from the pure mercy of the Lord, by means of faith, then I felt myself revive like a new man, and entered at open doors into the very paradise of God." John Wickliffe said in his prayer: "Lord, save me gratis! Lord, save me gratis!" It was a famous dictum of the Reformers, "That we are justified by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone." It always produces good works. These works have no merit, but as the fruits of faith they are evidence. An old man, a seller of blacking, at his stand in Paris, was often observed to be occupied with some old book. Tracts from time to time were given him by a certain person, and with these he was much gratified. Upon his request a New Testament was then given him, and this made him anxious for the whole Bible. When he received it, he stood over it in ecstasy. "Where shall I begin in this world of wonders?" he exclaimed. "I want to know it all at once. After standing in the street till late in the evening to obtain a few pence by his blacking, this poor man devoted many hours every night to studying and reading the sacred volume to his wife by the light of a glimmering lamp till one or two in the morning. In a few months, at more than seventy years of age, he made great advances in the knowledge of divine truth. When he discovered the doctrine of justification by faith, he was overwhelmed, and he could not believe that any one had discovered it before, or at least so clearly as himself. When Harlan Page was on his death-bed, allusion was made to his great usefulness. He replied: "O brother, I am nothing, and have done nothing. I am nothing but a poor sinner. I am a blank, and less than a blank. I hang on the mere merits of Christ. I have come short in everything. I have done wrong, and felt wrong, and I cast myself alone on the blood and righteousness of Christ." The Rev. James Hervey of Weston-Favell said, shortly before his death, to a friend: "My grand consolation is to meditate on Christ; and I am hourly repeating these heart-reviving lines of Dr. Young's : 'This, only this, subdues the force of death. Nor I alone! A rebel universe! My species up in arms! Not one exempt! Yet for the foulest of the foul He dies; And God held dearer, as more kind to man.' QUEST. 34. What is adoption? ANS. Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. 1 JOHN iii. 1. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. JOHN i. 12. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. ROM. viii. 15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Ver. 16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: Ver. 17. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. EPH. ii. 19. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God. EPH. i. 5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. 2 COR. vi. 17. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, Ver. 18. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. I. The nature of adoption. It is to take a strange child into the family and treat him as a son. II. Its Author.-God the Father adopts children of sinful men into his spiritual family. III. Its source. It is entirely of grace. No necessity of nature required it. The act is voluntary on the part of God. Pharaoh's daughter was not bound to adopt the Hebrew child found in the ark of bulrushes. The child has no claim to be adopted into a family. Sinners have no claim to be made children of God by adoption. God does this of his own free grace. Earthly adoption has regard to some excellence, and would not select the deformed or diseased: God adopts the vile and degraded, the chief of sinners. IV. Its privileges.-There are many. 1. The Father's name-a new name: Isa. lxii. 2. 2. Fatherly preservation. God takes care of his family. Not a hair of their head falls without their Father: Matt. x. 29. 3. Fatherly provision. He gives them their daily bread. Their water also is sure. "Why art thou, being the king's son, lean from day to day?" 2 Sam. xiii. 4. 4. Fatherly correction. Because they are sons he chastens them, to train their character: Heb. xii. 5, 6. 5. Fatherly answers to prayer. He hears his children cry, and will give them good things: Matt. vii. 11. 6. Fatherly inheritance. All things are theirs, because Christ is theirs. They are joint-heirs with Christ: Rom. viii. 17. V. Its obligations.-Filial love, confidence, obedience, submission, and brotherly love. LESSONS. 1. We may become God's children, by receiving Christ. The benefit is inseparably connected with faith. 2. God's children should obey their heavenly Father. 3. All God's children should love one another. 4. God's children should prepare for their inheritance in heaven. ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. The Roman law provided for adoption. A childless man could take the child of another, make him the legal heir to his name, titles, and possessions; and the adopted shared the home and honours of his kind friend. In America there has been much adoption, and it has been very successful. Not above one in a hundred cases has failed. The Orphan's Advocate is a paper that has been the means of bringing together the childless and the fatherless. In one number there were twenty-six advertisements of homes for children, and twenty-eight of children needing homes. Here is one advertisement: "Who will find the child? Among the many good places for children, we know of a superior one for an infant boy, twenty months old, to fill the vacancy left by the death of an infant of that age in a family of prosperous people. If we mistake not, the child should have light eyes and hair: an orphan would be preferred."-" Many orphans," says a writer on this subject, owe their happy homes to the influence of other children. We have known instances where a child persuaded parents to adopt a little orphan, and where others have been persuaded to do the same." 66 A most affecting case of adoption took place at the close of the American War of Independence. The Rev. James Caldwell and his wife were both shot. They left nine orphans. At the funeral of Mr. Caldwell, Dr. Boudinot led the nine forward, and made an appeal to all who wished to prove the truth of the word that the seed of the righteous should not be forsaken, and showed an example by adopting a boy. They all found homes that day. All afterwards lived to be respectable and useful. One was taken by the Marquis de Lafayette to France, and educated under the care of his lady, the Marquise de Lafayette. He returned to America, and was one of the most distinguished philanthropists in New York. Another of the sons of Mr. Caldwell became a judge; and yet another, Elias, the seventh child, made noble efforts on behalf of colonization, and a town in Liberia is named Caldwell in honour of him. George Müller in Bristol has a home for orphans, and thousands have been cared for by him, by the liberality of Christians, given to him for this purpose. Mrs. Susan Huntingdon, on the death of her mother, wrote thus :-" Oh to be adopted-taken into God's family; to have him exercise over us the endearing, the watchful attention and care of an omniscient and almighty |