she had reason, from his neglect, to question that son’s devotion! True love never has a doubt.
There are three things indispensable to faith—knowledge, assent, and appropriation.
We must know God.
“And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
Then we must not only give our assent to what we know; but we must lay hold of the truth. If a man simply give his assent to the plan of salvation, it will not save him: he must accept Christ as his Saviour. He must receive and appropriate Him.
Some say they cannot tell how a man’s life can be affected by his belief. But let someone cry out that some building in which we happen to be sitting, is on fire; and see how soon we should act on our belief and get out.
We are all the time influenced by what we believe. We cannot help it. And let a man believe the record that God has given of Christ, and it will very quickly affect his whole life.
Take John 5:24. There is enough truth in that one verse for every soul to rest upon for salvation. It does not admit the shadow of a doubt.
“Verily, verily”—which means truly, truly—“I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath— hath —everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
Now if a person really hears the word of Jesus and believes with the heart on God who sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, and lays hold of