We must live what
we preach. We must not suppose that faith in Jesus excuses us
from patient, faithful, laborious service. We must "live by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God"; that is, we must
fashion our lives, our conduct, our conversation by the
principles laid down in His word, remembering His searching
saying, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of
My Father which is in Heaven."
This subject of faith and works is very fully discussed by James
(chap. ii. 14-26), and Paul is very clear in his teaching that,
while God saves us not by our works, but by His mercy through
faith, yet it is that we may "maintain good work" (Titus iii.
14); and "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them" (Eph. ii. 8-10).
Faith must "work by love," and emotion must be transmitted into
action, and joy must lead to work, and love to faithful, self-
sacrificing service, else they become a kind of pleasant and
respectable, but none the less deadly, debauchery, and at last
ruin us.
5. However blessed and satisfactory our present experience may
be, we must not rest in it, but remember that our Lord has yet
many things to say unto us, as we are able to receive them. We
must stir up the gift of God that is in us, and say with Paul,
"One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and
stretching forward" (as a racer) "to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus" (Phil.
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