generous, and most unconditional. If I were to come as an accredited
agent from the upper sanctuary with a letter of invitation to you,
with your name and address on it, you would not doubt your warrant to
accept it. Well, here is the Bible, your invitation to come to Christ.
It does not bear your name and address, but it says 'Whosoever,' that
takes you in; it says 'all,' that takes you in; it says 'if any,' that
takes you in. What can be surer or freer than that?"

Equally helpful are the words of Horatius Bonar in "Words for the
Inquiring":--"If you object that you cannot believe, then this
indicates that you are proceeding quite in a wrong direction. You are
still laboring under the idea that this believing is a work to be done
by you, and not the acknowledgment of a work done by another. You
would fain do something in order to get peace, and you think that if
you could do this great thing 'believing,' if you could but perform
this great act called faith, God would at once reward you by giving
you peace. Thus faith is reckoned by you to be the price, in the
sinner's hand, by which he buys peace, and not the mere holding out of
the hand to get a peace which has already been bought by another. So
long as you are attaching any meritorious importance to faith, however
unconsciously, you are moving in a wrong direction--a direction from
which no peace can come. Surely faith is not a work. On the contrary,
it is a ceasing from work. It is not a climbing of the mountain, but a
ceasing to attempt it, and allowing Christ to carry you up in His own
arms. You seem to think that it is your act of faith that is to save
you, and not the object of your faith, without which your act, however
well performed, is nothing. Accordingly, you bethink yourself, and
say, 'What a mighty work is this believing--what an effort does it
require on my part--how am I to perform it?' Herein you sadly err, and
your mistake lies chiefly here, in supposing that your peace is to
come from the proper performance on your part of an act of faith;
whereas, it is to come entirely from the proper perception of Him to
whom the Father is pointing your eyes, and in regard to whom He is
saying, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen, look at Him, forget
everything else--everything about yourself, your own faith, your own
repentance, your own feelings--and look at Him! It is in Him, not out
of your poor act of faith, that salvation lies; and out of Him, not
out of