stery
of the atoning sacrifice of Christ as expounded by St. Paul. Faith
justifies, because it is for the Christian the vision of an ideal.
What we admire in another is already implicitly within us. We {178}
already possess the righteousness we believe in. The moral beauty of
Christ is ours inasmuch as we are linked to Him by faith, and have
accepted as our true self all that He is and has achieved. Hence faith
is not merely the sight of the ideal in Christ. It is the energy of
the soul as well, by which the believer strives to realise that which
he admires. According to the teaching of Scripture faith has thus a
threefold value. It is a receptive attitude, a justifying principle,
and an energising power. It is that by which the believer accepts and
appropriates the gift of Life offered by God in Christ.

3. _Obedience_.--Faith contains the power of a new obedience. But
faith worketh by love. The soul's surrender to Christ is the crowning
phase of man's response. The obedience of love is the natural sequel
of repentance and faith, the completing act of consecration. As God
gives Himself in Christ to man, so man yields in Christ to God all he
is and all he has.

Without enlarging upon the nature of this final act of self-surrender,
three points of ethical value ought not to be overlooked.

(1) Obedience is an _activity_ of the soul by which the believer
appropriates the life of God. Life is not merely a gift, it is a task,
an achievement. We are not simply passive recipients of the Good, but
free and determinative agents who react upon what is given, taking it
up into our life and working it into the texture of our character. The
obedience of love is the practical side of faith. While God imparts
the energy of the Spirit, we apply it and by strenuous endeavour and
unceasing effort mould our souls and make our world.

(2) It is a consecration of the _whole personality_. All the powers of
man are engaged in soul-making. Religion is not a detached region of
experience, a province separate from the incidents and occupations of
ordinary existence. Obedience must cover the whole of life, and
demands the exercise and devotion of every gift. Not only is every
thought to be brought into subjection to the mind of {179} Christ, but
every passion and desire, every activity and power of body and mind are
to be consecrated to God and transformed into instruments of service.
'Our wills are ours to make them thi