Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified, by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law.  Received ye the Spirit, by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"[1] In these and other passages, faith and works are directly contrary to each other; so that in this connection, faith is not a “work.”  Let us examine this point, a little in detail, for it will throw light upon the subject under discussion.

In the opening of the discourse, we alluded to the fact that when a man’s attention is directed to the subject of his soul’s salvation, his first spontaneous thought is, that he must of himself render something to God, as an offset for his sins; that he must perform his duty by his own power and effort, and thereby acquire a personal merit before his Maker and Judge.  The thought of appropriating another person’s work, of making use of what another being has done in his stead, does not occur to him; or if it does, it is repulsive to him.  His thought is, that it is his own soul that is to be saved, and it is his own work that must save it.  Hence, he begins to perform religious duties in the ordinary use of his own faculties, and in his own strength, for the purpose, and with the expectation, of settling the account which he knows is unsettled, between himself and his Judge.  As yet, there is no faith in another Being.  He is not trusting and resting in another person; but he is trusting and resting in himself.  He is not making use of the work or services which another has wrought in his behalf, but he is employing his own powers and faculties, in performing these his own works, which he owes, and which, if paid in this style, he thinks will save his soul.  This is the spontaneous, and it is the correct, idea of a “work,”—­of what St. Paul so often calls a “work of the law.”  And it is the exact contrary of faith.

For, faith never does anything in this independent and self-reliant manner.  It does not perform a service in its own strength, and then hold it out to God as something for Him to receive, and for which He must pay back wages in the form of remitting sin and bestowing happiness.  Faith is wholly occupied with another’s work, and another’s merit.  The believing soul deserts all its own doings, and betakes itself to what a third person has wrought for it, and in its stead.  When, for illustration, a sinner discovers that he owes a satisfaction to Eternal Justice for the sins that are past, if he adopts the method of works, he will offer up his endeavors to obey the law, as an offset, and a reason why he should be forgiven.  He will say in his heart, if he does not in his prayer:  “I am striving to atone for the past, by doing my duty in the future; my resolutions, my prayers and alms-giving, all this hard struggle to be better and to do better, ought certainly to avail for my pardon.”  Or, if he has been educated in a superstitious Church,