June 14

Only believe. - Luke 8:50.

WHAT the Saviour said to the ruler of the synagogue he says to us. “Ah,” some may be ready to say, “this is easily said, and the Christian life upon this principle must be a very easy concern.” But these are very much mistaken: there is nothing to which we are so naturally averse as this. A legal bias is natural to man; and the reason is, that originally we were placed under a covenant of works, in which doing was every thing, while the gospel places us under a covenant of grace, where believing is every thing. Little, therefore, did the Jews imagine, when they said to our Saviour, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?” little did they imagine they should have such a reply as he gave them. “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” And hence says the Apostle John, “This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” And hence said Paul and Silas to the awakened jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

It is by the exercise of a living faith on the Son of God that we obtain relief for our souls at first from the dreadful condition of bondage to Satan, and that we are brought into “the glorious liberty of the sons of God;” and all our supplies of comfort and support in every after-period and condition must be of faith in the very same way; for, as the apostle tells the Romans, we can only be “filled with all joy and peace in believing.” We have reason, therefore, to infer that faith is not a very common thing,-I was going to say, even among believers themselves; and Mr. Newton somewhere exclaims, in one of his letters, “What unbelieving believers are the best of us!” Surely there is very little of this principle even in many Christians, if we may judge from the small degree of their joy in Christ. Surely “if they believed” they would be established, and “the consolations of God” would not be “small with them.” Surely if their faith was more clear in its discernments, more firm in its holdings of the promises of God, more simple and entire in its reliances on the Mediator, more lively and powerful in its actings, it would draw them away from those gloomy fears and those anxious suspicions which now dwell upon their comfort, like so many moths “fretting a garment.”

What is the reason that one Christian rejoices so much more than another? Has he a firmer foundation to build upon? No. All these things are the same in themselves, and therefore the same in their relation to us. But the thing is that some Christians make more use of the Saviour by faith than do others. The well is the very same, but they have nothing to draw with, or they have a very small and leaky vessel. The same feast is spread before them; but, as Hosea says, “the yoke is not taken from their jaws,” and therefore they cannot partake of it. But, says our Lord, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

“Believing, we rejoice

To see the curse removed;

We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,

And sing bis bleeding love.”