wise enough, but which, like
other plans of man's wisdom, has not succeeded too well, to judge by
the number of sinners who are already too comfortable though they
hear the Bible misused, and God's grace narrowed in this way every
Sunday of their lives.

But, my friends, we call ourselves Englishmen and churchmen; let us
be honest Englishmen and plain churchmen, and take our Catechism as
it stands. For rightly or wrongly, truly or falsely, it does teach
every christened child to thank God, not merely that it has some
chance of being saved, when it dies, but that it is saved already,
now, here on earth.

Whether that is true or false is another question. I believe it to
be true. I believe the text to be true; I believe that why people
shrink from it is, that they have got into their minds a wrong,
unscriptural, superstitious notion of what being saved, and saving
one's soul alive, and salvation mean. And I beg all of you who read
your Bibles to search the Scriptures from beginning to end, and try
to find out what these words mean, and whether the Catechism has not
kept close, after all, to the words of Scripture. It will be better
for you, my friends; it will be worth your while, to know exactly
what being saved means; for to judge by the signs of the times,
there are, very probably, days coming in which it will be as needful
for you and for your children to save your souls alive lest you die,
as ever it was for the Jews in Isaiah's or Jeremiah's time, or for
the Romans in St. Paul's time; and that in that day you will find
the Catechism wider, and deeper, and sounder than you have ever
suspected it to be, and see, I trust, that in these very words it
preaches to you, and me, and our children after us, the one true
Gospel and good news, which will stand, and grow, and shine brighter
and brighter for ever, when all the paltry, narrow, counterfeit
gospels which man invents in its place have been burnt up by the
unquenchable fire with which the merciful Lord purges the chaff from
His floor.

I told you this morning what I believe that salvation was,--to know
God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. To know God's likeness,
God's character, what God has shown of His own character, what He
has done for us. To know His boundless love, and mercy, and knowing
that, to trust in Him utterly, and submit to Him utterly, and obey
Him utterly, sure that He loves us, that His will to us is goodwill,
that His commandments mus