XII.

FAITH, GENUINE AND SPURIOUS.

BY REV. W. S. LEAVITT,

PASTOR OF A CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, NEWTON, MASS.

"Faith without works is dead."-JAMES ii. 20.

THE great religious question with us is, "How shall man be just with God?" To this question different answers have been given. Some have gone to one extreme, holding that mere faith is sufficient, and that works of righteousness are not at all necessary to our acceptance with God, or to our enjoyment of his favor. Others have gone to the opposite extreme, holding that faith is not necessary at all, and that a correct life and a good moral character will insure any man's salvation. And even those who have avoided both these errors, have sometimes had but a confused idea of the real connection between faith and works.

There are two great principles on this subject set forth in Scripture. One is, "that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law"-that he cannot obtain salvation as a reward, or in payment for his righteous deeds, but by faith in Christ. The other is, that faith does not "make void the law"-does not take away the necessity of righteousness; that the faith required in the Gospel, cannot exist without producing real holiness of life. A very slight examination will show that the two are not inconsistent with each other that confidence in the revealed mercy of God, may well harmonize with love to him, and with obedience to his law.

I propose to consider the second of these principles, as it is presented in the text:

FAITH, WITHOUT WORKS, IS DEAD.

1. Because mere speculation is not the appropriate business of man. A habit of mere speculation is possible. Man is capable of looking at truth abstractedly, or without any regard to its practical bearings. He may accustom himself to view the truths of science, or philosophy, or morals, or religion, simply for the gratification of his curiosity, or the exercise of his mind, like the general propositions of mathematics, which may be demonstrated and admired as

true, without any thought of applying them to practice, or without once asking whether there be any realities to which they correspond. And such speculations are very fascinating to many minds, and to some almost irresistible. There is a great deal of pleasure in these day-dreams of the intellect; in building palaces of clouds, beautiful to look at, harmonious in their proportions, fitly joined together and compacted in all their parts, but designed for no practical use. Much skill, and mental power, and taste, may be expended on them, and in such employment a man may wish to pass his life. And yet they are altogether out of place in a world like This is a world of realities, of things that are practicalnot of cloud-castles and day-dreams. Every man has a thousand interests that always demand his care; all the energies of his mind should be brought to bear upon practical things. He has no time. and no strength to waste upon mere speculation-it is not his proper business here. The life of man is too short; he has none too much time for the practical affairs of life; he may fill up every hour with duty, and he ought. The flying moments are too few, and too precious, to be given to idle dreams, or employed in doing that which looks forward to no practical results. If man had nothing to do in the world-no appointed work, no appropriate business, no wants to supply, no interests to take care of, nothing to hope for, nothing to fear, no relations nor duties to his fellow-men, who might be affected by his conduct: if he had to choose perfect idleness, utter vacuity and emptiness of mind, or speculations upon abstract truth-then, of course, it were better he should do this, than do nothing, and such speculations would be his appropriate work. But he is reduced to no such alternative. He can find enough to do. He is not placed in a castle of indolence, or a paradise of ease; his wants will not take care of themselves; his desires will not be gratified without any effort of his own. Life is a mazy path, beset with dangers; and the dangers will not, of their own accord, keep out of his way, Mere speculation upon abstract truth, however correct, however beautiful it may be, will not keep him from starvation; it will not bring him the comforts of life; it will not guide him through its snares; it will not shield him from its ills. Nor will it discharge his duty to others: it will not feed the hungry; it will not comfort them that are bowed down; it will not bind up the broken heart. This is a world in ruins; a world full of misery and tears; and the relief of its sorrows affords full employment for the noblest intellect, and for the most enthusiastic feelings of good-will to man: but mere speculation will not wipe away a single tear, nor take off a single burden from the weary and the heavy-laden of earth. In its best estate it reaches no higher than that benevolence which says to them that are naked, and destitute of daily food, "Depart in peace; be ye warmed and filled”—but gives them not those things which they need.

It is so in religion. Mere speculation will not ease the soul. A

faith which looks at religious truth as an abstraction, and-makes it subservient to no practical uses, is dead. It fails of doing its appropriate work it was not made simply to exist, clear, it may be, and beautiful, as an icicle-and as useless. It is contrary to all the analogy of God's government, contrary to the first principles and the very idea of religion. Man as a religious being has something else to do than merely to speculate on truth, or merely to believe it without making its influence the moving power of his life. "Faith without works is dead"-dead to all the appropriate business of life-dead to all useful purposes; to all the ends for which we are placed on earth, and which we ought to fulfil. On all subjects, the theory and the practice of truth are united; they are made to go hand in hand; and what God hath joined together, man has no right to put

asunder.

Man as a religious being has wants to supply: he is at enmity with God, and he needs peace; his heart is defiled with sin, and he needs a cleansing and sanctifying power; he has gone astray, and his erring feet need to be guided into the path of life; he is lost, and he needs salvation. And what shall it profit him to have the most correct views of God's plan of mercy; to see, as clearly as angels do, his ruin and his remedy-if he practically keeps aloof from that mercy, and will not apply that remedy to himself? What shall it avail him that he knows every step in the path of life, while he still walks in the road that leads to death? What propriety is there in his idle faith-in his fruitless speculations on religious truth-while his soul is trembling between heaven and hell? "Thou believest there is one God: thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremTheir faith is doubtless correct enough; but it is worthless : it does not work by love: it produces no fruits of holiness there: and it is at least quite as much out of place, and quite as worthless, on earth. A dying man, hastening to eternal retributions, has something else to do: his proper work is to secure the salvation of his soul; and until he has done this, all his speculations are of no avail; they may be correct and magnificent, but they are correct and magnificent trifles: and though he have all knowledge, and believe all mysteries, it will profit him not at all. His faith is out of place: it belongs to the tomb-to the dwelling of things that return to the dust-it is dead.

2. Faith without works is dead, because the very design of requiring faith is that it may produce good works.

There are but two uses to which truth can be put; two ends it is capable of answering-to be looked at, and to produce a practical effect. There is, doubtless, pleasure in admiring truth-as there is in admiring a painting or a landscape. Truth is the mind's landscape whose glories it may search out, whose sunshine may make it glad, and in whose beauties it may rejoice.

The earth is full of the glory of Jehovah; the eye is never wea

ried with beholding his wondrous works. When it was first revealed to the inhabitants of heaven, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. And doubtless angels, to this day, find pleasure in admiring this exhibition of his wisdom and power. And yet the world was made for some other end than merely to be admired. And truth also exists for some other purpose than merely to be admired; and unless it accomplishes something else, it might as well not be at all. There is much that is beautiful, much that is sublime, in the truths of science and philosophy but their highest value does not lie in this, but in the practical effects they can be made to produce, and the uses to which they can be put. We might spare the beauty for the sake of the utility, but we could not spare the utility for the sake of the beauty. The shadows may be tinged with many a rainbow color, and may glitter gorgeously in the sun; but if there be no substance, what can they do? what are they worth in a world of realities?

Now it is not to be supposed that God has revealed to us the truths of the Gospel merely that we might look at them, and admire, and say, "How wonderful." The supposition is not in accordance with his character or his mode of dealing with us. There is nothing in his character from which we may suppose that he does anything for mere display. He did not make the world merely to show his creatures what he could do. He is not worshipped as though he needed anything: he dwells in light unapproachable; his happiness is perfect; it is not dependent on the homage of his creatures: it will not be diminished if they fail to admire his works-what need then had he to display his power? And in all the history of his ways, where is the record of anything that God has done for no other purpose than to call forth admiration? Neither has he made known truth to us simply that we might admire his wisdom, and wonder at the extent of his knowledge. The truths that we gather from his works, the truths that are thickly strewn in all places of his dominions, the truths that his Providence everywhere proclaims,-are all revealed, not for display, but for some useful end: and if the truth of the Gospel be an exception, it is the only exception in the universe, and the strangest. It would seem that if any truth is revealed for useful purposes, it must be this-truth which relates to the things of eternity, to interests whose importance eternity alone will enable us fully to understand; truth which concerns the life and death of the soul; truth which is so eminently practical in its appearance; which is capable of producing such great effects; so mighty to the pulling down of strong holds; which can burst asunder the iron chains of habit, and unloose those who were fast bound in sin; truth which is quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword; truth which God himself has likened to a fire, and to a hammer that breaketh the flinty rock in pieces: it cannot be that this truth was revealed merely to be admired.

There is but one other supposition: that religious truth is revealed, and our faith in it required, that it may produce its appropriate practical effects-that, as we are required to love our neighbor as ourselves, not that we may say in his necessities, "Be thou warmed and filled," and give him nothing; but that we may do the works of benevolence; so we are required to exercise faith in the Gospel, that we may do the works and show the effects of faith. The effects of faith, the legitimate operations of sacred truth, are, holy affections in the heart, and a life of obedience to the commands of God. God does not ask men to believe the Gospel and go on in sin. He has not set forth Christ and his cross as the objects of our faith, that we should believe and wonder and despise; but that our faith should work by love. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! yea, we establish the law." We are not to go on in sin because we have believed in the abounding grace of God: the object of our faith is to make us dead unto sin, and "how shall we, who are dead unto sin, live any longer therein?" Its object is to make us the servants of God, and how shall we still consecrate ourselves to the service of sin? The "end of our faith" is "the salvation of our souls"-but it is a holy salvation-a deliverance from the power of evil-a purification of the unclean heart-a new creation, after God, in righteousness and true holiness. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" It is the very design of our faith, that it may deliver us from the enticements of the world, and cast off its chains; that our affections, no longer bound to earth, may rise, and rest upon God, and upon things in heaven. God requires of us faith, that we may be purified by it; that we may be fitted to dwell in heaven, and be made like those holy spirits that worship before his throne. He requires of us faith, that we may make known on earth the riches of his grace; that we may tell from our own experience the constraining power of his love; that we may be living examples of the power of godliness; that our light may so shine before men, that they shall see our good works, and glorify God. He does not ask us to believe that we may be idle, and hang as dead weights upon the church; but that we may be careful to maintain good works. Practical righteousness, entire consecration, "holiness to the Lord," are the appropriate effects of the Christian's faith, and the very effects it was designed to produce. Of course, then, if our faith does not produce these effects, if it does not lead us to these works, it is worthless-it is dead. It will not restore the sick man to health, to have admired the remedy, if he has not used it: and it will not save the soul, to have admired the plan of salvation, to have believed it in all its features, while its conditions were not performed. And it will be no sufficient answer to the questions of the judgment-day, that we have never doubted the truth of the