om you cannot approach without hearing them
blow their trumpet, saying, "I am a self-made man. I came here a
poor man ten years ago; and now I am rich." It is all I--I--I! They
go on boasting, and telling what wonderful beings they are! There is
one thing that is excluded from the kingdom of heaven; and that
is--boasting. If you and I ever get there it will be by the sovereign
grace of God. There will be no credit due to ourselves.

"Saved by grace alone!
This is all my plea:
Jesus died for all mankind,
And Jesus died for me."

CHAPTER III.

POSSESSING, AND "WORKING OUT."

I CAN imagine some one asking: What does that passage mean--"Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling?" Well, I want you to
emphasize the word _your:_ "Work out _your_ salvation." That is most
important. You hear people talk of working out salvation, when all
the time they have not got it. How can you work out what you do not
possess? Paul is here writing to the Christians at Philippi. They
were already saved by the grace of God. Now that they had got this
wonderful gift, he says: "Go, work it out." When you see a person
working for salvation, you may know that he has got a false idea of
the teaching of the Scripture. We have salvation as a gift; and of
course we cannot get it by working for it. It is our appreciation of
this gift that makes us work.

Many people are working and working, as Rowland Hill says, like
children on a rocking horse--it is a beautiful motion, but there is
no progress. Those who are working for salvation are like men on a
treadmill, going round, and round, and round; toiling, and toiling,
and toiling; but nothing comes of it all. There is no progress, and
there cannot be until you have the motive power within, till the
breath of life comes from God, which can alone give you power to
work for others.

Suppose I say to my son: "You are going away from home; and I want
you to be very careful how you spend that $500." "Well," he says,
"if you will give me $500, I will be careful about it; but how can I
be careful in spending what I have not got?" And so, unless you have
salvation, you cannot work it out.

Take another illustration. One summer my boy asked me to give him a
piece of ground that he might have a garden all to himself. I said I
would give it to him; but that I expected he would keep it clear of
weeds, and use it in some way that would make it pleasant and
profitable to