The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 457

:

FAITH IN THE SAVED SINNER ALONE

417

the logical consequence of this error that the faith of the Ethicals possible without Scripture, and

is

is

not necessarily intended for Scrip-

According to their theory, to believe is the soul's breathing, more than another name for prayer. Indeed, there should but have been no Scripture, and in the absence of sin there would have been none; hence faith, which is only the restoration of a soulfunction disturbed by sin, is possible without Scripture. ture.

little

This theory is far-reaching. They believe that even among the heathen the Lord had His elect, tho they never had heard of the The heathen of classic times were a sort of unbaptized Scripture. Christians, entering the Kingdom of heaven under the leadership

Tho modern

of their patriarch Plato.

rationalists reject Scripture,

yet they are such lovely and devoted people that faith can not

be denied them.

Reasoning in

this

way, they arrive at the follow-

ing conclusions 1.

Not the Confession, but the

motive of the heart is the

main

thing; and 2.

Tho men claim

Scripture,

to have discovered intentional frauds in and therefore reject it, they are still " brethren be-

loved."

The

Word

consistency

is

evident.

should be careful

Wherefore ministers loyal to the

how they speak

of the being of faith, lest

they feed the evil which they seek to restrain.

All that vague and

flowery talk about faith as the breath of the soul, as the soul's sweet trust of love, etc., has a direct

the line

is

a dividing-line.

tendency toward Ethical

error.

For

Do you acknowledge or deny it?

The Ethicals deny it. There is no settled boundary between God and man, but a certain transition between the finite and infinite in the God-man no absolute separation between the elect and the ;

but a sort of gradual transition in the presentation of a universal redemption; no absolute separation between sin and holi-

lost,

ness, but a certain conciliation in the sanctification of the saints;

no absolute separation between life before and after death, but a bridge across the chasm in the state of believing. Nor is there between the Bible and the books of men, but a kind of affinity in the legends of Scripture and, finally, not between the condition with or without faith, but a transfer from the one into the other in the pre;

paratory workings.

The tnediutn

practical result of this false standpoint is the belief in a

between believers and unbelievers, 27

viz.,

a third state for

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