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The Fundamentals.
has been snatched from helplessness and despair by unmerited grace, will never forget to carry himself as a forgiven man.” (Rev. T. Phillips.) He will not fail to look back to the rock whence he was hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence he was digged. Gipsy Smith keeps the hedge row at the foot of his Cambridge garden that he may enjoy uninterrupted view of the Common on which his father’s tent was pitched, and whence he used to sally forth as a young timber-merchant. (He sold clothes-pegs, you remember.) We love him for this. Lifted to honor and usefulness by Grace, he gives God the praise. Grace Divine makes gracious men. Good works and graces are by no means excluded from believers’ lives. They are the product of gratuitous salvation, the evidence of saving faith, the acknowledgment of grateful hearts. The Grace- saved sinner works out the salvation that has been wrought in him. He is his Saviour’s willing bond-slave. He cannot be content with triumphing in Christ’s grace; he must grace His triumph, too. It is with him as it is with the inhabitants of the city of Bath, who record their appreciation of its heal ing waters on a tablet inscribed as follows: “These healing waters have flowed on from time immemorial, Their virtue unimpaired, their heat undiminished, Their volume unabated; they explain the origin, Account for the progress, and demand the gratitude Of the City of Bath.” The analogy is nearly perfect. God’s grace may well be likened to flowing waters, to streams hot and health-giving, to streams that never cool nor fail. Moreover, ‘“they account for our origin and progress,” that is, we owe our spiritual being and well-being to them. And as for demanding gratitude- well, “Streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loud est praise.” Oh, let us preach up Grace, even if it be not graciously received. “If the people don’t like the doctrine of Grace,”
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