would have Paul's faith, if I would say with his energy of conviction, "I live in faith," then my faith, filling and moving my whole life, must be an intelligent faith, an inquiring faith, a studious faith, a growing faith, a faith for all thought and duty. If I believe like Paul, I must believe with every breath and every step, unceasingly as I think, and feel, and do.

We may all be thankful for our coming to see better that the faith of the Gospel, the "one faith," as the Scriptures call it, is a living and personal faith. One of the fine notes of the pulpit to-day is its emphasis of the person of Christ, Him as the object of trust. There is a distrust of man-made creeds, with their definitions and abstractions. Less and less do we hear such questions as, "Do you believe in total depravity ?" or, "Do you believe in a limited atonement ?" or, "Do you believe in the damnation of the heathen?" The right time has come when more and more it is felt that the all-important question is, "Do you believe in Christ?" We are swerving from the mere belief of wordy theories about the deep things of God. Men are right in being dissatisfied with a blank, notional faith, or a cold, propositional faith. While the old wine-skins of ecclesiastical confessions are bursting with the ferment of modern thought, while differences of interpreting human creeds grow wider and wider among those who have subscribed to the creeds, it is a cheering sign that all eyes turn to the person of Christ, and proclaim a simplicity of faith in Him for salvation and hope. It is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, more and more widely recognized, confessed, preached, that the faith of our salvation is not faith in a notion, not faith in a proposition, not

faith in a summary of man-made formulas, but faith in a person, and Him Jesus Christ the Son of God.

There is Christ in the Gospel, openly set forth crucified. We are called upon to look at Him in faith, to lean upon Him in faith. The truth of the Gospel is thus living and personal, and our obedience is living and personal. But now, on the other hand, we must beware of a danger. I think that it makes itself unmistakably felt in evangelistic work nowadays. We are getting away from a bare notional and propositional faith. We are emphasizing a living and personal faith. Now let us be careful that, in the way we preach and believe, we do not fall into a certain cant, and unconsciously make this living and personal faith a feeble sentiment. For instance, we hear exhortations such as "Come to Jesus," "Only trust Him," "Just believe.” We hear these over and over amid anecdotes and songs, with never a word otherwise, until faith seems to be a very weak, narrow thing, and the person of Jesus a cloudy, unreal object. A live, serious man might cry out sometimes, "Who is He that I may believe in Him? Tell me more of Him. Why should I trust Him for my salvation? What is the salvation that I should believe on Him as my Saviour?"

When we turn to the Gospel of salvation, it makes all this plain. It does not proclaim a blind faith, nor a canting faith. It proclaims, indeed, a living and personal faith; but it maks this faith clear, plain, luminous.

shows you and me what it is to believe, and how we should believe, and why we should believe. It teaches with a large thing faith is, as large and deep and full as Juman life. It teaches who the Saviour is, and how We know Him. It reveals Him, describes Him,

identifies Him with all the truth of God and all the need of man. Faith in a Person is the faith of the Gospel; but the Person !-see Him, mark Him, know Him in life and in death, in word, in deed, in character!

Consider two Scriptures, in which we are taught how free the faith is either of superstition or of sentimentalism. As Jesus passes by, He sees a man blind from his birth. He calls the poor man, and restores his eyes. As the neighbors wonderingly behold him, and ply their question, "How then were thine eyes opened?" all that he can answer at first is, "The man that is called Jesus-the man that is called Jesuswhether he be a sinner, I know not." Jesus finds him cast out of the synagogue, and asks him the living, personal question, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" How large and deep the question is! Something more than "the man called Jesus;" something other than the ignorance, "whether he be a sinner, I know not." "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" What answer could the poor, ignorant man make but "And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?" Honest, guileless, ready to believe-but first honestly and inquiringly, "Who is he, for my faith?" And the answer of the Son of God, how personal, and how distinctive, instructive, descriptive, "Thou hast both seen him, and he it is that speaketh with thee"! Then could the intelligent, grateful confession drop from the lips, "Lord, I believe." The Person was real, and described for faith; and the faith was real and intelligent in the Person.

Or, turn to an Apostolic scene. An ignorant, barbarous jailer, in a torment of conscience, prostrate, cries aloud, "What must I do to be saved?" The answer

of the Gospel is immediate, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house." The answer is simple: it calls for a living and personal faith. But read on. There is something more. It is not abstractly, "Just believe," nor a cant of repetition, "Trust in Jesus,' "trust in Jesus." The jailer might well then have asked with the man of John's testimony, "Who is he, that I may believe on Him?" The preacher of the Gospel, in that midnight hour, promptly went on to reveal and make known the Lord Jesus Christ, Him whom they preached as the object of a living and personal faith. "And they spoke the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house."

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ"-such is faith living and personal; but, living and personal, it is a faith whose light and life are revealed, taught, measured in the Word of God, in which Word also the Spirit of truth reveals and describes Him in whom the faith livingly and personally centers. It is a faith both that intelligent and vital even in the heart's first believing. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ livingly and personally, is to believe from what the Word of the Lord has to speak concerning Him, and concerning Him in His vital relation to those who are exhorted to believe. For, according to the faith of the Gospel, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to believe

1. Who He is. The Gospel does, indeed, put a mighty emphasis on the person of Christ-and right here first, the very center of His person, who He is. "Who do men say that I am?" It is Jesus's own question, addressed to His disciples at a crisis in His ministry. Who is He? This man who goes about,

doing good, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, preaching the Gospel to the poorwho is He? It is not a small question. It is a supreme question. So Jesus will test both the intelligence and devotion of His disciples. "Who say ye that I am?" The answer is directly and glowingly personal-"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Nay, even when Jesus blesses men and women-once when He turned the light of His power on the grave, declaring, "I am the resurrection and the life," and appealed to the broken heart weeping beside him, "Believest thou this?" again the answer came back vividly personal, "Yea, Lord: I have believed that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, even He that cometh into the world." Again, when disciples were deserting the Lord, and when He tested the fidelity of the twelve, "Would ye also go away?" not only does Peter speak aloud the heart's deep need, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" and the heart's strong grasp of the blessing for its need, "Thou hast the words of eternal life," but also the heart's clear, unclouded faith concerning Him who so richly blesses, "And we have believed, and know that thou art the Holy One of God."

"Believe on Jesus," "trust Jesus." "Who is He, that I may believe on Him?" If I have the faith of the Gospel, I shall believe, first of all, that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I shall believe it with all my mind and heart in an intelligent, satisfied and grateful faith. Not in vain did the Apostles thus preach and teach concerning Jesus. They preached Him. vitally and personally; and they preached the central truth of His person for faith; and this truth of His person was the Messiah, the Christ, the fulfiller of prophecies