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* See Tract, “Building from the Top,” by Rev. W. Haslam
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This question was not asked in jest or in ignorance; it was like a riddle.  What did she mean?  In a few years this lady passed away, but her enigmatic words remained.  No doubt she thought to herself that I was beginning at the wrong end, while I went on talking of the choir, organ, happy worship, and all the things that we were going to attempt in the new church; that I was aiming at sanctification, without justification; intending to teach people to be holy before they were saved and pardoned.  This is exactly what I was doing.  I had planted the boards of my tabernacle of worship, not in silver sockets (the silver of which had been paid for redemption), but in the sand of the wilderness.  In other words, I was teaching people to worship God, who is a Spirit, not for love of Him who gave His Son to die for them, but in the fervour and enthusiasm of human nature.  My superstructure was built on sand; and hence the continual disappointment, and that last discouraging overthrow.  No wonder that my life was a failure, and my labours ineffectual, inasmuch as my efforts were not put forth in faith.  My work was not done as a thank-offering, but rather as a meritorious effort to obtain favour from God.

Repentance towards God, however earnest and sincere, without faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, is not complete or satisfying.  There may be a change of mind and will, producing a change of actions, which are done in order to pacify conscience, and to obtain God’s favour in return; but this is not enough.  It is like preparing the Found without sowing seed, and then being disappointed that there is no harvest.  A garden is not complete or successful unless the Found has been properly prepared, nor unless flourishing plants are growing in it.

Repentance with Faith, the two together, constitute the fullness of God’s religion.  We have to believe, not in the fact that we have given ourselves—­we know this in our own consciousness—­but in the fact that God, who is more willing to take than we to give, has accepted us.  We rejoice and work, not as persons who have surrendered ourselves to God, but out of loving gratitude, as those who have been changed by Him to this end.

I will go on now to tell how I was brought at this critical period of my life to real faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.  This was done in a way I knew not, and moreover, in a way I little expected.  I had promised a visit to Mr. Aitken, of Pendeen, to advise him about his church, which was then building; and now, in order to divert my thoughts, I made up my mind to go to him at once.  Soon after my arrival, as we were seated comfortably by the fire, he asked me (as he very commonly did) how the parish prospered.  He said, “I often take shame to myself when I think of all your work.  But, my brother, are you satisfied?”