hus must he cast
himself upon Christ, and trust in Him with a childlike confidence,
knowing that there is now, therefore, no condemnation. Having this
faith, he is justified, and "_being justified by faith, he has peace
with God_."

True penitence always grows into faith, and true faith always
presupposes penitence. Where one is, there the other is, and where
both are, there is conversion. Penitence, therefore, is not something
that goes before conversion, and faith something that follows after,
and conversion an indefinable something sandwiched in between, as some
seem to imagine; but penitence and faith are the constituent elements
that make up conversion.

In the next place we would inquire: Who need this change? We
answer, first, all who are not in a state of loving obedience to God;
that is, all who are not turned away from and against sin and Satan,
and turned toward holiness and God. On the other hand, all who really
hate sin, mourn over it, strive against it, trust in and cling to
Christ as their personal Redeemer, need no conversion. No matter
whether they can tell where and when and how they were converted or
not. All who know by blessed experience that they now have in their
hearts the elements of penitence and faith, are in a state of
conversion, and if they earnestly ask God, may have the assurance that
their sins are forgiven and they are accepted in the Beloved. True,
this assurance may sometimes be dimmed by doubt or under the strain of
strong temptation, but as long as there is real hatred of sin and an
earnest desire to rest in Christ alone, there is Grace and acceptance
with Christ.

To the class of those who are in a converted state belong those
baptized children of the Church who have kept their baptismal
covenant. Given to Christ in holy baptism, the seeds of the new life
implanted through that divine ordinance, reared and trained by
Christian parents or guardians, they have belonged to Christ from
their childhood. From their earliest years they have hated sin,
repented of it, trusted in Christ, and loved Him. They are "_turned
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God_." They need
only that daily dying to sin, and daily turning to Christ, which all
Christians need on account of the sins and infirmities of the flesh
which still cleave to them. Such were Joseph, and Samuel, and Daniel,
and Jeremiah, and John the Baptist, and Timothy, and others of whom we
read in