peculiar interest, for besides the usual English relish for a difficulty, Mr. Longford possessed a strong and ruling desire for usefulness of the most solid and enduring kind; and often said "that, as far as his own enjoyment was concerned, he would rather remove one stumbling-stone out of the way of a young wayfarer, and help to perfectly develop his spiritual life, than teach the mere alphabet of Christianity to a dozen." He himself had

struggled into the light. It was not a sudden flash of glory that discovered to him the kingdom of heaven, but a painful wearisome, toilsome search for the truth of God, with deviations into the paths of error, that brought him at last face to face with God in Christ. For more than three years he was in a state of utter confusion about his spiritual condition, and did not know whether he was or was not a Christian, had no real peace and therefore no real power all that time, seemingly made no progress whatever, was often racked almost beyond bearing with tormenting fears, and sometimes felt a dread of death that emptied the cup of life of all its joy. But all this rough and severe treatment had left him with so firm and clear a faith, and such a feeling of thankfulness, that he had a certain degree of satisfaction in finding others going through a similar experience, because he felt he could certainly anticipate for them a similar result, and might, perhaps, have the privilege of contributing to its realization. Like Thomas, he was naturally a doubting, hesitating, cautious man; always looking twice, and often half a dozen times, before he leaped; and occasionally he "looked" so long that either the chance of leaping was gone, or the need for it removed. He had "go little very in him; but what he lacked in "dash" he made up in steady plodding power. Never committing himself very readily to anything, he could always be relied upon to carry out to the last stone any enterprise that he had undertaken. He seemed to have no impulse. Some thought him cold as an iceberg, and in their selfflattery judged him lacking in piety; others imagined him shy as a blushing girl; not a few were surprised that he had friends at all: and yet it was well known that his few friends, who were all amongst young men, never forgot him, always loved him warmly, and were amongst some of the most reliable, and useful, and promising members of the church and school. Like Moses, he was slow of speech. At first his style was jerky and uncomfortable, and much like

water gurgling out of a narrow-necked bottle. As he became more interested in his theme his sentences seemed like chips of stone flung out as if meant to hit hard and impress durably; but when he fairly "warmed to" his subject he could speak with a crisp energy and a quiet beauty that pleased every listener. But his intense and soul-pervading religiousness, and his large fund of common sense, formed his strength. He would look at things for himself; and this, added to an observant eye and a devout spirit, made him always ready with practical illustrations, convincing arguments, and sympathetic counsels. In a word, he was just the man, as Margaret Mostyn's quick wit had told her, to deal tenderly and wisely with her brother's religious difficulties.

At the time arranged Mr. Longford arrived at Prince Arthur's Road; and as Mr. and Mrs. Mostyn understood well enough what was going on, and were prayerfully anxious as to the result, every arrangement was made so that George, Maggie, and their visitor, might have everything their own way. Soon, and without much preface, Mr. Longford approached the subject of the evening's talk; and getting a little excited with his painstaking and suffering pupil, said at length

"Then we clearly understand do we, George, that your chief difficulty is at present about saving faith?'” "It is, sir."

"But since that is a very wide field, and we might wander about it a long time before finding just where the stumbling-stone is, try and tell me, if you can, whereabouts it is that you trip up."

"Well, it seems like this-I have been told, ever since I could remember anything about religion, that if I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ I shall be saved. I have heard it at home from my father, mother, and Maggie. I have heard it at chapel, in the Sunday school, and at the corners of the streets. I have read it in books and tracts. And yet, as far as I know and can gather in any way, I do believe in the Lord Jesus; that He is God's Son, and the Saviour of the world; that He came into the world to save sinners; and I know and feel that I cannot be saved apart from Him; and I do hope only in Him for salvation; but I cannot say that I am saved, that I am a Christian; nor do I love and live like Maggie, or like others that I know. I must be wrong somewhere. is it ?"

So

Where

"Exactly, exactly!

I see. Yes! Just so. Faith, but not rest! Faith, but not power. I see."

....

And yet you would have thought that Mr. Longford did not see; since he paused for what seemed a very long time, and the little company sat in silence; George and Maggie looking at him, and he anxiously looking at the carpet as if trying to decipher his answer from its designs. At length he broke the profound stillness. "This is it. Remember that the word faith means the same in the New Testament as it does anywhere else. Mostly it does. Not always. But when it is commanded to be exercised in Christ, as the condition of salvation, as a short, easy, and safe method of becoming a Christian, it always means the same as it does when you talk about faith in one another, faith in your friends; just as the words love, hate, fear, choose, reject, mean the same in the gospels and epistles as they do in the family, the market, and the world." "Then is the act the same ?"

Precisely; there is no difference whatever in the act, considered as an act."

"Then you would really say, Mr. Longford, that believing in you, or in my master, or in anyone, is the same as believing in Christ ?"

"Really I say that! As an act, it is the same in each case; just as your movements of body, your grasp of the plane, and so forth, are precisely the same whether you plane a piece of deal for a window-sash or a piece of mahogany for a wardrobe; although one is much harder work than the other, and may require much more skill and practice to plane well."

"But doesn't that degrade the 'faith of the New Testament,' and make it level with the commonest acts of life ?"

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Degrade! Common! It is the very glory of the gospel, the crowning feature of the Christian religion. There is no evidence stronger that it is from God the Father of us all, who loves us all, and seeks the salvation of all. Why, George, is it not a glad message indeed that God has given us a 'way of salvation' to walk along, that requires no other walking faculties than the sort we are using, and must use every day of our life? Anyone may be saved by a method like this. Sick and dying men can trust a friend, if they can do nothing else. Children, little children, 'walk by faith.' The most ignorant can confide in a promise. The poorest may get a treasure that costs no more than loving trust and willing reception. In fact, no one is shut out of

this way. Every one can pay the toll of faith; for we are only called upon to do an act exactly like those we are doing at least twelve hours out of every twenty-four."

"How strange," exclaimed George, "that I should never have thought of this. Here I've been imagining all along that I could not have the right 'faith' because I believed in Christ as I believed in my mother. I have thought I had to do something extremely different from the ordinary every-day acts of life; and yet surely I ought to have expected that God would use a language we could understand, and direct our steps in words we could easily make out."

Maggie's face now lighted up. She saw the clouds were drifting, and her heart was filled with a joy that overflowed into every feature of her face; and with calm but glowing earnestness she broke in, saying,

'Certainly I had never seen the subject in this light before; but it seems to me just like our loving God to make our peace and joy depend upon an act so simple and necessary, natural and beautiful, as faith. He makes our bodily health and life dependent upon acts we can readily perform, eating, exercise, and the like, and upon food we can readily acquire. What is so common as the air we breathe? What is so necessary as bread? And as the first is given universally, so the second is the one food that can make its home in any part of the wide world. It is indeed as the negress said, when she heard the preacher describing the love of God as wonderful, 'Massa, me no tink it wonderful: it just like Him.'

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on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved' is no more laying down an impossible task, or taking our minds out of their ordinary exercises, than when a Iman who has walked over a hard road for many miles is asked to turn aside into a pleasant garden, walk around it, and partake of a well-prepared feast."

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'Still," said George, "if you will be so kind, I shall be glad to hear an explanation of this act of faith, so that I may compare your illustration with my experience, and see if the hopes you have started are well-grounded."

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Certainly. Illustrations are windows through which we look into the temple of truth; and since faith is the commonest act of life, illustrations of it are numberless as the sands of the sea. Here is one out of the many. It is a supposed case, which will show one aspect of the process of believing. A judge is seated on the judicial bench trying a man accused

of burglary. He listens to the statement of persons giving evidence. The policeman found two of the lost coins in the man's pocket; Mr. A. saw him in the street where the robbery happened five minutes before the alarm was raised; and so on. As the judge listens, he thinks; and the process of thinking is at last summed up in the words, 'I believe the prisoner at the bar is guilty: I am persuaded he is the man who stole the money.' What has the judge done? He is now a believer in this man's guilt. How came he to be such? Faith came by hearing; but not by hearing only, but by thinking also: He thought his way through the evidence, and at length was persuaded of that fact to which the evidence pointed. So that faith is in this case a certain kind of thinking about evidence and the forming of a conviction of the sort to which the weight of the evidence leans. Do you see?"

"Yes, clearly! But apply it, please, to the faith that saves the soul.""

"Well, thus the message of pardon and life is proclaimed by God to the sinner through Jesus Christ; many witnesses testify to the reality and fulness of the pardon and life. The sinner hears, thinks, prays, and becomes sure that as God is true and good, so this message is one on which he may rely. Christ is, as God says, the Saviour; in Him is life. He is persuaded that there is salvation in no other, and if he completes his faith he accepts the offered pardon as for him, and becomes forthwith a disciple in Christ's school."

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But, Mr. Longford," exclaimed Maggie, "you surely do not say that in every case 'saving faith' is like that. I recollect no such thinking, no such prolonged meditation."

"Very likely," Miss Mostyn; "but remember, first, memory does not register all that takes place in the mind; and next, that some acts of the mind are so swift that we are hardly aware of them; and last, this, that your suggestion is true that cases differ very much. But just tell me what you can of the beginnings of your faith."

"As to that, I really can say little. I seem just like a little orphan girl whose conversation I read this morning. Asked by her companion what she did with her troubles now she had lost her mother, she replied, Mother told me whom to go to before she died. I go to the Lord Jesus; He was my mother's friend, and He's mine.' 'Oh, but He is a great way off; it is not likely He minds you,' her companion objected. 'I do not know anything about that,' said the orphan;

'all I know is, He says He will, and that's enough for me."

"Just so; but that beautiful answer shows a similar state of mind. The child knew her mother, and felt that she could trust her from what she knew of her; and she was led by that mother to know the Saviour, and knowing Him she felt that He was so good and faithful that she might and did rely upon His word. In one case the act may be swift as lightning, and in another as it was with myself, painfully slow; but the act, as an act, is the same in all instances."

With strong earnestness in his tone, as if convinced, George said,

But

"This, then, is it, as it now appears to me: faith or believing is a kind of thinking, and of thinking the way the evidence about the facts or persons in question leads, and as that evidence guides. one objection to all this occurs to me, which I have no doubt you have considered. It is, that Paul says, 'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." "Well, go on; give the whole verse." "And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.""

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'Now does not the latter clause explain the former? The apostle is not, as some imagine, contrasting believing with the heart and with the head. The word heart in this passage, and indeed generally in the Bible, means the inner man (e.g. thinking in the heart, Matt. xiii. 15, &c.) as opposed to the outer. The distinction drawn is that between internal experience of religion and a public avowal of it."

Then came another pause, another looking at one another, and another apparent study of the patterns of the carpet. Evidently, thought Mr. Longford, a point has been gained; George sees that. I will wait and let him suggest his next difficulty. He had not to wait long; for as the idea seemed to be settling to its place amongst the other ideas of his mind, it occurred to him that his feelings were not much altered, and that, though the act of faith might be the same in all cases, the effects were not; and he said,

"Still, sir, I can't say that now I feel I'm a Christian, although I do see that I must have been a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ for some time. There is not that change of feeling I should expect; so that I imagine the results of faith differ a good deal, even if the act, as an act, of the mind is always the same."'

"Not too fast, George, not too fast. Generally speaking, you may much sooner displace and destroy a wrong idea than you can change the current of the

feelings. Of course the effects of faith will vary greatly. Though a circular saw acts in the same way always, it does not cut hard oak and soft pine at the same rate. In building a peasant's cottage and a peer's palace you may use the same tools-spades and hammers, saws and planes. Fire out of its place burns to the ground a great city; put underneath the boiler of a locomotive, it carries relief to the homeless and destitute. The effects of faith depend upon what we believe, and to what extent our faith is real, intense, and pure."

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Not upon the amount, then ?"

Well, not so much upon quantity as quality, if I may talk in that way; though when the quality is right, i.e. when the faith is pure, and the direction of it is also right, i.e. fixed on the right person or the right truth or facts, then the more there is of it the greater are its results."

"That you see, I think," interposed Maggie, "in the woman who touched the hem of the Saviour's garment; for she had much fear and only a little faith, but it was genuine and sincere, and in One who could heal her of her disease, and therefore her little pure faith did great wonders."

"And don't you remember, Miss Mostyn, that the apostle James also tells us a similar thing when he says 'the devils believe and tremble?' Trembling is the natural effect of their faith; for what do they believe? Not that the Son of God loved them and gave Himself for them; but that God is their Judge, and that they have no ground to hope for His mercy. It is a terrible truth in which they believe, and it produces a feeling of terror."

"Then might you say," inquired George, "according to what anyone believes such will be the result?"

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Yes; only taking care to add this, that there may be degrees of faith'little faith' and 'great faith;' 'faith' and the full assurance of faith;' 'weak faith' and 'strong faith;' 'faith that removes mountains' and 'faith so weak that it cannot cast an evil spirit out of a child.'"

"As to the degrees of faith, that seems simple enough to me; but a question arises on the other part of what you say, and that is, what is to be believed in order to the saving of the soul? Am I believing the right truths, the right facts, and on the right Person ?"

Here, again, Mr. Longford paused a minute or two, as if unwilling to answer, or doubting the best way of meeting such an inquiry. At last he exclaimed, in a somewhat higher key than usual, "Much

might be advanced about that. Many different ways of meeting your query. I am not sure at this moment which is the best." And then, looking straight into the eyes of his listener as if he would pierce him through, he continued, "This plan I've often adopted; and from all I see of your condition, George, I think it may best suit you. See, then. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing what? The testimony of God concerning His Son. Just read 1 John v. 9, 11, putting the word 'testimony' for 'witness' and 'record.""

And George took the Bible and read: "If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God which He hath testified of His Son. And this is the testimony, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."

"There you see the 'evidence.' It is that there is life, eternal life in Christ. That includes every blessing; for we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.' 'Christ died for our sins, and was buried and rose again." This is the gospel. Pardon, peace, rest, power, motive, all are in Christ. God Himself bears that testimony to His Son in the Scriptures. He says salvation is in Christ. And this witness is true; you believe that, do you not, George?" "With all my heart."

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That is, you have thought upon God's testimony, and now you are persuaded that in Christ there is everlasting life." "Yes."

"Now let us read the first part of the twelfth verse of the chapter you just quoted from, and add to it John vi. 47: 'He that hath the Son hath the life;' the other is, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath ever

lasting life.' Putting the two together we see that it is not enough to receive God's message about His Son. That alone will do us no more good than, if suffering from an acute disease, we hear of a medicine that will cure it, and go no farther than to get all the evidence about its curative power. The medicine must be taken. We must believe on Christ, in Christ. The testimony must bring us to Him of whom the Father testifies. The life is in Him, and we must go to Him for it. This is what we may call the second stage of faith; and to many it seems the only one, because they have grown up in the first almost unconsciously. You see both these stages in the case of the Philippian jailer; for Paul and Silas not only said, 'Believe on Christ,' but they spake unto him the word of the Lord. They repeated God's