If we were more willing to let Christ be our all in all,
surely we should more realize this blessed truth. Disputations
on theoretical differences seem to me like disputes
on the principles of a fire-escape among those
whose sole rescue depends on at once committing themselves
to it, since the most perfect understanding of its
principles is utterly in vain if they continue mere
_lookers-on;_ while others, with perhaps far less _head-_knowledge,
are safely landed. This, it seems to me, is
the distinction between head-knowledge and heart-knowledge,
between dead creed and living faith; and every
day, I think, more convinces me that it is "with the
_heart_ that man believeth unto righteousness." As thou
hast so kindly spoken of myself, and thy kind interest
for me, may I add that what I have known, small though
it be, of this faith, has been all of grace; nor do I hope
or wish but that it may be, from first to last, of grace
alone. If I love Christ, it is because He first loved me:
because God, who is rich in mercy, has shown me the
great love wherewith He loved me, when I was dead in
sins; nor should I have had one glimpse "of the knowledge
of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ,"
had not God, who "commanded the light to shine out of
darkness," shined into my heart.
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