h the world
can neither give nor take away. The following are but specimens of many
remarks which he let fall from time to time on this subject:--

"I may say that I have died suddenly over a hundred times; but in
these deaths I have never felt the least doubt of my salvation."

"I would that all had the full assurance of life. It is precisely
because we are despicable and worthless that we are accepted. Till
we throw over that idea that we are better than others, we can
never have that assurance."

Nor must it be thought that the joy and happiness he experienced in
religion arose from any inward sense of self-satisfaction. Never had a
man a humbler estimate of himself than Gordon, but his faith in this
respect took a very healthy form. Instead of morbidly looking into his
own heart for evidences of his union with Christ, he ever kept his eye
on the precious work of his Saviour for him. Space will not permit many
quotations from his writings, so the two following must suffice. The
one was written soon after his conversion, the other near the end of
his life.

"_May 3, 1867._--We are _born_ corrupt, and, if the devil had his
way, we should be kept in ignorance of it; our permitted
transgressions show us our state; it is the root that is evil, and
evil must be its emanations, yet we feel much more oppressed by the
outward sin than by the inward corruption."

"_May 7, 1883._--Give me a ream of foolscap and I will sign it: it
may be filled with my demerits and unworthiness, which I agree to;
but my so doing is a proof of how much I accept the free gift of
God. Unless our Lord's sufferings were in vain, it is just that
sheet of demerits that I have signed which gives me my right to
Him; had I a clean sheet I should have no right to Him."

Gordon's, however, was not a faith which contents its possessor merely
with a sense of the forgiveness of sins. That he possessed this happy
assurance, is evident. But no sooner had he entered into possession of
some of his privileges as a child of God, than he pressed on to obtain
more spiritual advantages. The indwelling of God in his heart was a
truth to which he attached much importance, and the following extracts
are but specimens of much that might be quoted showing that he held the
same truth from a period very soon after his father's death to the year
which preceded his own death.

"_July 31, 1867._--I h