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FAITH AND ITS EFFECTS;

OR,

FRAGMENTS FROM MY PORTFOLIO.

No. I. TO MR. M

Mr. Macknowledges himself unawakened-What is faith?-Interview with a Hicksite friend-Displeasure incurred-Doings and sayings at a class meeting-An unlikely subject of prayer presented-All things possible with God-Mrs. W.'s inquiry-The sinner condemned already-The culprit C-; his agony when under condemnation, the effect of his faith in man-Mr. M-not a believer in the Bible as the word of God; otherwise not unawakened-Indescribable solicitude-Influential friends cannot saveMr. M― under condemnation-Why the word of God has not the same effect as a voice from heaven.

MY DEAR MR. M. You acknowledge yourself unawakened, but in this I think you are in part mistaken. In view of your inquiries after the way of life, I would hardly dare pronounce you wholly unawakened. You would not with so much sincerity desire instruction relative to that faith without which it is impossible to please God, unless you were in a degree aroused to an interest about your spiritual state.

By your inquiry, "What is faith ?" I am reminded of an interesting incident in my religious history, which in all its bearings is to my mind signally illustrative of faith and its effects. As you have

Hicksite Friend.

been religiously trained, and are not unused to rehearsals of Christian experience, you will know how to appreciate such intermixtures of my own experience as will be helpful toward illustrating the subject.

Some time since I invited a Hicksite friend to accompany me to meeting. You know of Elias Hicks-of his rejection of the atonement, the only foundation of the Christian's hope, and also of his light estimate of the Scriptures, designating them as the dead letter, &c. So you will not be astonished when I say that I could not think of my friend as a follower of Christ. Knowing that she regarded herself as a professor of religion, and that any approach to her which failed to recognize her as such might wound her feelings, I knew not in what form of expression to give vent to my unutterable yearnings for her. At length, after a little suspense, I said,

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"Mrs. do you not sometimes feel that you would love to forsake all and follow Christ?"

She gave an evasive answer, and by her manner most clearly indicated that she was displeased. Finding her thus guarded by a religious profession, which, if touched, gave displeasure, I ceased approach her on the subject of her salvation.

About ten months after, in admonishing the members of my class, I said, "Too many mistake the mark, by absorbing themselves in their own

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experience, whereas the design of God in redeeming us unto himself seems to be this:-That we give ourselves at once wholly and for ever away to his service, in order that we may be unto him a peculiar people, zealous of good works, not living to ourselves, as we should do were we ever absorbing ourselves in perplexities about our own experience. Who would not dismiss a servant that was ever saying, 'I have about as much as I can do to serve myself?""&c. Several members resolved to come up to the point of entire consecration, that is, to serve Christ wholly: we then covenanted together to begin at once to work for God. I suggested to them to single out some individual, not the most likely, by way of being religiously influ enced, but the most unlikely, and to interest themselves, even as for their own souls, in the experience of such, until we should meet again on the coming week.

Pursuant to the advice I had given, I began to think, Who shall I take to labor for so absorbingly during the week? when it was suggested, You had better inquire of God. I did so. To my astonishment, the individual referred to, with whom my former efforts had seemingly been so fruitless, was presented. For a moment, I turned away with dismay. My thoughts ran thus :-Were the most vile, reckless sinner, suggested, or even a professed infidel, I might in some way know how to approach

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