words of your dying Saviour. O, meditate upon them continually, and let them ever be at your right hand, to fit and prepare you for trials in time, and for the great trial of a coming eternity. Rest your soul upon them; they are firmer than a rock-a solid foundation on which you may safely build your hopes for eternity. O, remember-remember, "It is finished!"

THE EVANGELIST'S ROOM.

(Continued from page 258.)

A. M. W.

Evangelist. This conversation between the two young friends must have been interesting to you. Well, how did they conclude? Was the young woman convinced at last?

4th Enquirer. I cannot say, as I heard no more. storm having abated, they both rose and went away.

The snow

The conver

sation was to me particularly interesting, as it removed some of my difficulties.

Evan.--And can you now see your way clearly?

4th Enq.-I thought I was beginning to see my way, but, on a matter of such importance, I deemed it right to go and speak with my minister, to whom I related the above conversation, so far as I could remember it, when he told me to beware of such men and such doctrines, that it was a most dangerous error to say Christ died for all men, and one that would certainly prove fatal to such as trusted their souls upon it-that no man was warranted to say or think that Christ died for his own sins in particular, and that therefore I must renounce such a sentiment with all my heart.

Evan.---Did your minister indeed, tell you that you must not believe that Christ Jesus died for your sins?

4th Enq.-He said I had no warrant to believe that Christ died for me, but that I must first believe the gospel, and, after I believed the gospel, I would be warranted to believe that Christ died for me in particular, but not before, as this last truth was an inference to be gathered from my faith in the gospel.

Evan.-But what is the gospel, if it is not the declaration that Christ died for your own sins as well as others?

4th Eng. That is the very question I put to him, and he said I must believe that Jesus Christ died for sinners, and, after believing this, I was warranted to infer that I was among the number for whom he died.

Evan.-If Jesus died for all sinners, you are fully warranted to believe he died for you; but if he only died for some sinners, where is your warrant for thinking yourself among the number? You have none whatever. But there are more errors than one here. First, there is the error of making you take two steps instead of one. According to this system, you are first to believe the gospel, and, after you believe the gospel, you are warranted to believe that Christ died for your sins. Now, the Scriptures assure us that the

belief of the gospel itself saves the soul-saves, not by inference— not by warranting us to infer something from it—not by requiring us to make our first faith the ground of a second faith but saves us without the need of any such inference or any such double act of believing. It is very true, that, were the gospel what your minister thinks it, to wit, the declaration that Christ died only for some sinners, faith in such a gospel could be of no benefit; for how could the belief that Jesus died for some sinners save me? Neither

could I draw any saving inference from it. To build a second faith on such a first faith, would only be building two air castles instead of one. The only thing that renders a double faith necessary to salvation is a false gospel. The simple belief that Jesus died for some sinners, and only for some sinners, cannot save, and therefore cannot be God's gospel---the belief of which at once saves the soulbut part of a man-made system, which, finding a first faith insufficient and defective, adjusts itself to its manner of working, and requires a second faith to save itself from destruction. But there is another error in that method of stating the gospel, and that of a very dangerous description. There is the error of substituting faith for Christ, and making your faith your Saviour instead of Christ. If I must first believe that Jesus came to save sinners, and then feel myself warranted (not from the truth, but from my faith,) to believe myself included, what is this but resting my faith on my former faith, instead of resting it directly on Christ? Suppose a boat driving before the tempest, and in danger of being overwhelmed in the waves-suppose also that a stately barque, seeing the danger of the mariners, should make towards them and cast them a rope, calling on them to fix it to the boat and be drawn alongside and saved from the hurricane. What should you think of these mariners, if, instead of fixing the rope to their boat, they should merely tie a knot on the rope itself, and let it go into the sea? Would you not call them madmen? But not less mad is he who trusts in his for-. mer trust instead of trusting in Christ Jesus. Ah, friend, beware! God does not come to us and leave us room to draw uncertain inferences, or place our faith and our souls on hollow foundations. He comes to us with facts, palpable and plain, and leaves no room for conjecture, nor excuse for unbelief. He tells us "the truth," and commands us to believe it at once, and warns us that, if we reject it, it will be at the peril of our souls. Can it be possible that the faithful and true God should come and command us to believe the truth and be saved, if, after all, there be no saving truth for us to believe? And can there be any saving truth for us to believe, if it be not true that Christ died for our sins? Forgiveness through Christ" is the gospel that is to be preached to every creature; and, as there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood, it must be as true that the blood of Jesus was shed for all as that the gospel of forgiveness is to be preached to all. O, how vain a thing it is to pretend that forgiveness of sin can be sincerely pressed on the acceptance of all, if there be many for whom no blood was shed?

66

4th Enq.---I cannot deny the force of your reasoning; but there are some difficulties on the other side which appear to me as perplexing and unanswerable; and, if you please, I will state one or two. Evan.---I shall be glad to hear them.

4th Enq.---My first is this: If Christ died for all, no man is saved by the death of Christ. He owes his salvation to something else. If he died for every man, and if the sacrifice was sufficient, it must prove the salvation of every man.

Evan.---Now, before I proceed to answer your objection, remember what we both hold in common. I presume you will admit that

God commands all who hear the gospel to believe and be saved? 4th Enq.---Undoubtedly He does.

Evan. You will also allow that God must be perfectly sincere, when He presses forgiveness and salvation on the acceptance of every hearer of the gospel?

4th Enq.-I do believe that God is perfectly sincere in this.

Evan. You surely cannot think that there can be such a thing as remission or salvation, without the shedding of blood-do you? 4th Eng.-The Scriptures teach us that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission."

Evan.-Well, keep this in mind. It proves that blood must be shed for all to whom remission is preached; and, as remission is preached to every creature, it follows that you must be in error somewhere. By perceiving clearly that you are wrong somewhere, you will be better prepared to hear what I have now to say on your views of the atonement. Your reasoning assumes that an atonement for my sin, implies my salvation; otherwise, that I cannot be said to owe my salvation to it. Now, I may owe my salvation to it, as what was essential to my being saved, although it should not (by the mere fact of its having been made) secure my salvation. A provision for my salvation may surely render me a debtor for salvation to Him that makes that provision, although my being actually saved depends upon my availing myself of the provision made. I know that many have got into the way of feeling as if irresistible grace alone were grace; yet they do not so feel in reference to other matters. If a man say of a teacher, "I owe him all I know," or of a friend, "I owe to him all my advancement in life," in neither case is he understood to mean that the benefit received from the teacher or friend had not been made to depend on his receiving the instruction of the one, or availing himself of the help of the other. The Scriptures nowhere teach us to regard the death of Christ as so connected with our salvation, that we may not reject both the gift and the giver. It is compared to the rending of a veil the cleaving of a rock-the opening of a door, a way, a fountain, &c. Before the Scriptures can be made to correspond with your statements, they must undergo a change which none could justify. Take for instance the smitten rock---It is admitted on all hands to be a striking type of Christ. Let us make it here parallel with your statements, and see how it will stand. Take your statements first,

"If Christ died for all, no man is saved by the death of Christ. He owes his salvation to something else. If He died for every man, and if the sacrifice was sufficient, it must prove the salvation of every man."

If the rock was cleft for all, no man is saved by the cleaving of the rock. He owes his salvation to something else. If the rock was cleft for every man, and if the rent was sufficient, it must prove the salvation of every man.

By the above reasoning, the Israelites would have been saved from death, by the mere rending of the rock, without drinking of the water that gushed out of it. In the same way, we might speak of the rent veil---the opened fountain---the broken bread, &c. It seems self-evident, that if a fountain be opened for sinners, and if sinners, as such, are invited to drink, or to enter and wash, that the invitation itself (if honestly made) is the strongest possible evidence, that for all the fountain was opened, and the waters free, and that nothing short of actual prohibition can justify any man in saying, after such an invitation,---perhaps the fountain was not opened for me---perhaps it contains no water for me. If any man says so, he is disbelieving THE TRUTH, and his unbelief is MAKING GOD A LIAR. But if the fountain was opened for all---if the water was free to all, then Christ died for all, for His death was the opening of the fountain for sin and uncleaness, and His blood was the living water that was in it. Either Christ died for all or He did not; if He died for all, the question is at rest; if, on the contrary, there be some for whom He did not die, it cannot be sin in them to believe that very truth; nay, it is their duty to believe it---they ought to believe the truth, though the heavens should come down. If Christ did not die for them, that is the only truth they can believe without sin; to believe more would be to believe a lie-their faith would then be their sin, and, as such, deserving of condemnation.

4th Eng. But there are many spirits already lost; did Christ die for these?

Evan.-Well, take one of these. Here is lost soul-the soul of one dead a thousand years ago. Here is a man for whom you say Christ never died. What could such a man believe, but this very truth? You surely could not wish he had believed what was not true, and if you could not wish him to believe what was not true, far less could God wish him to believe what was not true. The only truth left him to believe, then, was the truth that Christ did not die for him. Well, he believed that Christ did not die for him, and in believing this, you say he believed the very truth of God; yet he is lost. How does this accord with God's own declaration, that he that believes the truth shall be saved? God says he must be saved if he believes the truth. You say he believes the truth. Will he yet be saved?

4th Enq.---But he is not believing the truth about Jesus Christ. Evan. What is the truth about Jesus, if not that Jesus died for his sins? Is there any truth worth his while minding, if this be not true? Tell him at once what you would have him to believe.

4th Enq,-Let him believe what God commands him to believe,

Evan.---What is that? If Jesus did not die for his sins, does God command him to believe the opposite lie? Such a command would be a sinful command, and obedience to it would be sinful obedience. Can God give such a command? Can He require such obedience? No, no. This will not do. Within the range of all truth, there can be nothing more certain than the fact, that Christ" tasted death for every man," and within all the range of falsehood and blasphemy, there can be nothing more false or blasphemous, than representing the God of integrity and love, as providing salvation for some of his creatures; and for the rest, providing nothing but certain destruction from His presence, for rejecting a salvation that was never meant for them, and trampling on that blood that was never within their reach.

4th Enq.---I have another difficulty on which I should like to hear your mind. You stated last night, in very strong language, that God had already given eternal life to every man. How can this be? If eternal life be already given to every man, then_all must be saved. If a man has life, what more does he need? If I had eternal life, I would surely be safe enough, unless I can both have it, and not have it, at the same time.

Evan.---Your mistake here is a very common one, and arises, in the first place, from losing sight of the distinction between a gift bestowed, and a gift received. Were eternal life a worldly gift---an estate, a mansion, or a purse of gold, we should seldom err in saying that the bestowing amounted to the same thing with the receiving of it. Be a man's character what it may, we never calculate on his despising an earthly portion. Is he a prodigal? O! then, a splendid estate is a rare thing! how it meets a man's sensual longings, just to have wealth at comand! Is he earthly minded? In that case, there is something in an earthly portion so exquisite and suitable, that he is drawn to it as the needle toward the pole. All this is quite natural, for what is like worldly gifts to worldly minds? It is quite different, however, when the gift is a heavenly one. That which makes a wordly gift so natural to the wordly mind, is the very thing that makes a heavenly gift distasteful to it. It is by overlooking this distinction between heavenly and earthly gifts, that you and thousands more have fallen into the grand mistake of thinking, that if eternal life be already given, it must be already received as a matter of course. By transferring your thoughts from earthly gifts, which are always welcomed, to heavenly gifts, which are always scorned and rejected, you have been led to confound the distinction between a gift bestowed, and a gift received. Forgetting that the carnal mind as naturally rejects holy things, as it thankfully receives carnal things, you have been cheated into the ruinous conclusion, that if eternal life be already given to all, all must be eternally saved. I hope you see my meaning?

4th Enq.---I see it clearly, but I must have time to think of it. Evan.Attend, now, to what I am about to say. "This is the