not deceived; God is not mocked, whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also reap.' It is the teaching of Jesus Christ
Himself.

But there is a dreadful danger that we, with our partial vision, shall
see one side of the truth so clearly that we do not see the other; and
so you get two antagonistic schools of Christian teaching who have torn
the one word into halves. One of them says, 'Man is saved by faith
only,' and forgets 'faith without works is dead'; and the other says,
'Do your duty, and never mind about your belief,' and forgets that the
belief--the trust--is the only sure foundation on which conduct can be
based, and the only source from which it is certain to flow.

Now, if I should not be misunderstood by that same narrow and contracted
vision of which I have been speaking, I would venture to say that
salvation by faith alone may be so held as to be a very dangerous
doctrine, and that there is a very real sense in which a man is saved by
works. And if you do not like that, go home and read the Epistle of
James, and see what you make of his teaching: 'Ye see, brethren, how
that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.' 'Faith wrought
with his works, and by his works was his faith made perfect.'

Only let us understand where the exhortation of the text comes in. We
have to begin with absolute departure from all merit in work, and the
absolute casting of ourselves on Jesus Christ. If you have not done
that, my brother, the teaching 'Laying up in store for themselves a good
foundation' has no application to you, but this teaching has, 'Other
foundation can no man lay. Behold, I lay in Zion a tried corner-stone.
Whosoever believeth in Him shall not make haste.' If you have not
committed your souls and selves and lives and hopes to Jesus Christ, the
teaching 'Lay hold on eternal life' has only a very modified application
to you, because the only hand that can grasp that life is the hand of
faith that is content to receive it from His hands with the prints of
the nails in them. But if you have given yourselves to that Saviour, and
received the germinal gift of eternal life from Him, then, take my text
as absolutely imperative for you. Remember that it is for you, resting
on Christ, to treasure up eternal life; for you to build on that sure
foundation gold and silver and precious stones which may stand the fire;
for you, by faithful continuance in well-doing, to lay hold of that for
which you have been lai