f God'" (Acts vii. 56).

"Faith is the penitent thief, crying, 'Lord, remember me' (Luke xxiii.
42). Assurance is Job sitting in the dust, covered with sores, and
saying, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth;' 'Though He slay me, yet
will I trust in Him'" (Job xix. 25; xiii. 15).

"Faith is Peter's drowning cry, as he began to sink, 'Lord, save me!'
(Matt. xxiv. 30). Assurance is that same Peter declaring before the
Council, in after-times, 'This is the stone which was set at nought
of you builders, which is become the head of the corner: neither is
there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved'" (Acts iv. 11, 12).

"Faith is the anxious, trembling voice, 'Lord, I believe; help Thou
mine unbelief!' (Mark ix. 24). Assurance is the confident challenge,
'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who is he that
condemneth?'" (Rom. viii. 33, 34).

Faith is Saul praying in the house of Judas at Damascus, sorrowful,
blind, and alone. (Acts ix. 11.) Assurance is Paul, the aged
prisoner, looking calmly into the grave, and saying, 'I know whom I
have believed.' 'There is a crown laid up for me' (2 Tim. i. 12; iv.
8).

"Faith is Life. How great the blessing! Who can tell the gulf between
life and death? And yet life may be weak, sickly, unhealthy, painful,
trying, anxious, worn, burdensome, joyless, smileless, to the very
end.

"Assurance is _more than life_. It is health, strength, power, vigor,
activity, energy, manliness, beauty."

A minister once pronounced the benediction in this way: "The heart of
God to make us welcome; the blood of Christ to make us clean, and the
Holy Spirit to make us certain." The security of the believer is the
result of the operation of the Spirit of God.

Another writer says: "I have seen shrubs and trees grow out of the
rocks, and overhang fearful precipices, roaring cataracts, and deep
running waters; but they maintained their position, and threw out
their foliage and branches as much as if they had been in the midst
of a dense forest." It was their hold on the rock that made them
secure; and the influences of nature that sustained their life. So
believers are oftentimes exposed to the most horrible dangers in
their journey to heaven; but, so long as they are "rooted and
grounded" in the Rock of Ages, they are perfectly secure. Their hold
of Him is their guarantee; and the blessings of His grace give them
life and s