fe, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
from death unto life."--John 5:24.

_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--When Paul says, "To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth _the ungodly_, his faith is counted
for righteousness,"--Rom. 4:5, he is in line with the teaching of the
Saviour when He said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
kingdom of God before you,"--Matt. 21:31; and if the teaching of the
Saviour and Paul on this point is true, then there is not left one
square inch of ground on which the teachers of "salvation by
character" may stand. They are not in agreement with the Saviour and
Paul on this point, but there is one with whom they are here in strict
agreement; "I hope for happiness beyond this life"; "I believe that
religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and
endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy"; "The only true
religion is deism, by which I then meant and now mean the belief of
one God, and an imitation of his moral character, or the practice of
what are called moral virtues; and that _it was upon this only_ (so
far as religion is concerned) _that I rested my hopes of happiness
hereafter_. So say I now, and so help me God." These are exact
quotations from "The Age of Reason," by Thomas Paine. And those who
preach "salvation by character" thus line up with Paine against the
Saviour and Paul. They fail to see that there can be no proper
character without proper motive, and that there can, in the sight of
God, be no proper motive till one is redeemed, saved, and thus placed
where the motive will be love, the purest motive possible to human
beings. And they fail to see that _God's plan with men_ is to save
irrespective of character, and then to develop in the redeemed man the
real character for all eternity.

God has not two ways of salvation; He has not two ways of believing on
Christ. What is essential to one man's salvation is essential to the
salvation of every man. What is "believing on Christ" for one man, is
believing on Christ for every man. When Paul says "I know him whom I
have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I
have committed to him against that day,"--2 Tim. 1:12 (R. V.), he has
given the pattern of saving faith. "I know him." Man _must_ know Him
in His real character as Saviour or he cannot commit to Him against
that day the matter of his eternal destiny, cannot believe on Him.
What are the essential things, t