psychological symptom of the Christian life must be moral and spiritual, no less than its last and highest manifestation. Thinking so, we have reason enough for rejecting Principal Candlish's forensic doctrine of saving faith. And even orthodox forensic theologians must be aware, that this doctrine has seldom or never played a part in the religious life of any man. No one ever conceived his own conversion as having consisted in his 'assent to an arrangement.' Multitudes in the olden time have conceived of conversion as a personal covenant with heaven, and have written out their contract with the Redeemer; but such a mutual engagement is a totally different thing from simple assent to the finished work of Christ. In fact, we can see that Dr. Candlish's formula would be very embarrassing to the revivalist. The latter wishes his anxious inquirers' to forget themselves; the formula concentrates attention upon self. He wishes to induce faith; the formula, in its completed form, brings out into sharp relief the impossibility of faith, which the anxious' ex hypothesi too keenly feel. The formula may be true, but it is eminently unserviceable.

The consequence is, I think, that evangelists generally fall back upon the bare definition of faith as belief. They press an 'anxious inquirer' with such a text as Isa. liii. 6, or John iii. 16, -with statements of the fact of redemption: Do you believe that?' they ask. 'Oh, yes,' says the other. Then,' say they, 'you have faith, you see-and you are saved.' This is certainly an extremely frequent method of the 'inquiry room.' And it is surely one whose illogical and irreligious character must be admitted by every competent judge. Millions 'believe' to the same extent in the notional propositions of the creed, who are as far as possible from living 'by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.' When the Westminster Confession represents faith as a mere belief, it safeguards the moral side of the truth by requiring belief to be supernaturally produced. Moreover, if a man does not believe, he cannot be made to stop doubting by the most impassioned assurances that his eternal welfare depends upon

his embracing a certain set of opinions. He may wish to believe; but a wish to believe is neither belief nor evidence. The human mind is an extremely imperfect machine for the discovery of truth; but it is not thoroughly alien to truth, as it must be, if our convictions came and went at the mercy of our own caprices. Indirectly, we may do much, by will or further or to impede our attainment of truth; but by direct volition we can neither believe nor disbelieve.

by wilfulness, to

The method fails in many cases; but undoubtedly there are cases in which it works well. The theory of substitution is one way of expressing the soul's dependence upon Christ. It is a very complex and intricate theory; and it may well be that those who have grown up in nominal orthodoxy have never accurately apprehended the lie of the doctrines which they profess. Then a time comes when, by good means or bad, their selfish fear or their conscience has been awakened. Probably there is a great deal of selfishness and a saving dash of conscience in their alarms. When, in their new state of anxiety, the doctrine of substitution is presented to them, it wears an entirely new aspect. Formerly it was a curiosity, or less than that—a tedium, perhaps; now, it is very salvation. The shock of surprise which they feel in having this interesting and relevant doctrine put before them gives the mind a jolt, which, to themselves, seems to mark a new personal attitude towards that Christ of whom the doctrine speaks, and which— we are so strangely constituted-does perhaps make it easier for them to take a fresh start in spiritual life. But, if this analysis is correct, the inquiry-room theology does not owe its success to treating faith as notional belief. It succeeds, partly because of the increased interest which an awakened conscience will take in any representation of the gospel offer; and partly it succeeds through mere confusion of mind. Besides these of success, we must remember that there are many cases of failure, and of worse than failure.

cases

VII.

In those cases which succeed, when a real spiritual life grows out of the crude teaching regarding faith given by orthodoxy, or given in connection with orthodoxy, something takes place. Can we see at all what takes place? Can we put any better account of Christian or saving' faith in the room of those accounts which we have rejected?

Essentially, we conceive that faith is the right attitude of the human spirit towards God, its Father. Thus faith includes the two elements of belief and trust. Under different circumstances, these elements may be differently combined. But in all cases there is a moral element in religious belief no less than in religious trust. Such belief rests upon moral grounds. The evidence for the being of God, or for the gospel of Christ, does not rise above probability, and makes part of its appeal to us because we feel, if we may so speak, that religion ought to be true, and that, whether its tenets be certain or uncertain, we ought so to frame our lives that we may suffer no shock if death should usher us into the presence of God, and arraign us before the judgment-seat of Christ. But religion does not call upon us to live out alone, in our own strength, this life of ideal faithfulness. 'Natural' religion-to speak of it for a moment by way of abstraction-tells us that God will be with us; and the gospel message promises us the indwelling of Jesus Christ Himself-if we have faith to receive these things as true.

When any one is brought into a state of anxiety on account of the consequences of sin, then the doctrine of God's justice, which formerly meant nothing to him, plays upon his soul with all its terrors. In other words, that part of Christian doctrine becomes a reality to the man, and verifies itself in his experience. This is one way in which the religious life may be expected to begin. But it is not the only way; and when it is treated as being normative—when the anxious soul' is represented as the normal representative of man, in presence

of the gospel, and when men argue from this-we are forced to go further back, and to inquire, What is the type of religious teaching which has made this the commonest initial form of Christian experience? May it not be that religious teaching has unduly fostered man's self-engrossment, so that his very piety is more or less morbid ? Still, as we have said, fear, distress, alarm, even blind and selfish alarm, may be expected often to show themselves when sinners begin to turn to God. The dread of punishment is something more than a selfish fear; there is conscience in it; conscience doth make cowards of us all'; the most craven fear of punishment may be a beginning, by which God's Spirit reasserts in man, through course of time, the whole of the truth-man's original or proper kinship with God, his fall by sin, and his recovery by the grace of God in Christ.

6

For the degree of faith which is expressed in the terrors of conscious guilt does not amount to Christian faith properly so called. Before we can have that, we must have the apprehension of God's redeeming mercy. If the religious life has begun with the consciousness of guilt, faith will show itself when the hope of forgiveness dawns upon the soul. And every such hope, which is sincerely and humbly embraced, and which is historically mediated by the revelation of God in Christ, is Christian faith. Whether it have any theory of the Atonement, or none, it implies the fact of the Atonement itself; it implies the presence of Christ, through His Spirit, reconciling the soul to the Father. At such a time the Christian facts become morally credible-mercy no less than judgment. It reveals itself as a saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came to save sinners. The character of God as our Father, condemning sin yet redeeming sinners, shines in its own light. And the promise of Christ shines in its own light when He tells us that He is the way, and the only way, to the Father.

But, if the Christian life does not begin with remorse-it must always include repentance-then, in a more normal

development, it may show the elements of faith more plainly. Faith includes belief, both in God and in Christ. Christian faith believes that God is the maker and ruler of all things, who speaks in our consciences, proclaiming right and wrong, -who is present in all created goodness, and purity, and aspiration-who is irresistible in power, and whose purpose stands fast. It also believes that Christ is come in the flesh, the witness of God, His revealer to sinful men, our supreme verification of the unseen spiritual world. It believes, through Christ, that God is both righteous and forgiving; and it believes that forgiveness and redemption come to us, by inscrutable spiritual channels, through Christ and for Christ's sake. Such is a Christian's belief. But his faith includes an element of personal trust as well.

When our belief

realises that there are full channels of God's providence and of God's grace besetting our lives on every side, laying claim to us personally, and promising to carry us through the trials of life to its Divine goal-faith is the willing consent of the heart to this. Such, I take it, is an outline of the faith of a Christian man. Such is justifying faith.

In all this there is no possibility of distinguishing mechanically between God's gift and man's performance. It is an indissoluble Divine unity-a communion with God, which must sink into nothing if God were to withdraw Himself. That man reaches full blessedness in the life of faith constitutes no ground for inferring that man could do something or anything by himself, apart from God. It is in no sense arbitrary that faith should be the instrument of salvation; faith is the atmosphere of the Christian and moral life. Belief in an objective tendency of the universe towards righteousness—i.e. in the will and purpose of God-is necessary, if man is to pursue the moral life with any constancy, or with any good measure of success. Faith in God as our help, even when we have sinned -in God as our only life, and in God in Christ as holy, just, and loving, Christianity implies such faith; but, where you have that faith, you have the beginning of salvation, the germ