but rather as a meritorious effort to
obtain favour from God.

Repentance towards God, however earnest and sincere, without faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ, is not complete or satisfying. There may
be a change of mind and will, producing a change of actions, which are
done in order to pacify conscience, and to obtain God's favour in
return; but this is not enough. It is like preparing the Found without
sowing seed, and then being disappointed that there is no harvest. A
garden is not complete or successful unless the Found has been properly
prepared, nor unless flourishing plants are growing in it.

Repentance with Faith, the two together, constitute the fullness of
God's religion. We have to believe, not in the fact that we have given
ourselves--we know this in our own consciousness--but in the fact that
God, who is more willing to take than we to give, has accepted us. We
rejoice and work, not as persons who have surrendered ourselves to God,
but out of loving gratitude, as those who have been changed by Him to
this end.

I will go on now to tell how I was brought at this critical period of my
life to real faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. This was done in a way
I knew not, and moreover, in a way I little expected. I had promised a
visit to Mr. Aitken, of Pendeen, to advise him about his church, which
was then building; and now, in order to divert my thoughts, I made up my
mind to go to him at once. Soon after my arrival, as we were seated
comfortably by the fire, he asked me (as he very commonly did) how the
parish prospered. He said, "I often take shame to myself when I think of
all your work. But, my brother, are you satisfied?"

I said, "No, I am not satisfied."*

"Why not?"

"Because I am making a rope of sand, which looks very well till I pull,
and then, when I expect it to hold, it gives way."

"What do you mean?"

"Why," I replied, "these Cornish people are ingrained schismatics."

I then told him of my gardener's conversion, and my great
disappointment.

"Well," he said, "if I were taken ill, I certainly would not send for
you. I am sure you could not do me any good, for you are not converted
yourself."

"Not converted!" I exclaimed. "How can you tell?"

He said, quietly, "I am sure of it, or you would not have come here to
complain of your gardener. If you had been converted, you would have
remained at home to rejoice with him. It is very clear you are not
converted!"

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