All who build their hope of eternal life on their prayers, reading the Scriptures, and other outward works of righteousness, come short of the rest that is in Christ, and the salvation that is in Him. The sinner's hands must be emptied of all such recommendations: it is with his poverty, and his poverty only, that he must come to the crucified Son of God. The sinner that comes with his own good works to God for eternal life, is a debtor who brings a bag of base coin of his own forging, to pay his creditor withal. The good works of the flesh, though so well-pleasing to the carnal mind, tested by God's justice, are at the King's mint adjudged base coin. Salvation, Justification, Pardon The salvation of God delivers a man, not only from the guilt, but the dominion of sin, and brings him into fellowship with God. This salvation is preached to "every creature" under heaven; and it leaves without excuse every one who does not receive it. "What shall I do?" says the sinner. Alas! man _has done_ his work completely—the work of self-destruction. Christ has wrought a perfect work—the work of redemption for the salvation of the inexcusably guilty, the utterly lost. God justifies the sinner believing. When God pardons, He justifies. Man may pardon; he cannot blot out. God alone can justify; and He justifies by Christ, who was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Had the Lord waited ere He came into this world till men knew their own sickness, then would pride and ignorance have shut Him out for ever. God, in self-moved love, sent His own Son to save the lost. The poor sinner, fleeing to Christ for salvation, cannot possibly be overtaken by the sword of the avenger, because that poor sinner is taught by the Spirit of God, and is drawn by God's loving kindness to the Saviour Christ. Great may be his fear and perplexity; but he is safe from curse in Christ the City of Refuge. God sees him already there, while he himself doubts of reaching it. "How can I be pardoned?" says the poor self-condemned sinner. "How can I not pardon?" says God. The sinner looks at his sins; but God looks at His Son's atoning blood. Sinner, do thou likewise. I was slain and hanged on the cross eighteen hundred years ago with Christ. (Gal. 2:20.) Did He rise? Yes. Therefore I am risen. The Christian is a dead and buried man, and also risen. As a child of Adam, dead and buried; as a child of God, risen with Christ: the world is crucified to him, and he is crucified to the world. Satan ever aims to raise the dead, and bury the living. God's Wise and Gracious Dealings If we have especially trusted God in any matter, He will "after these things" (Gen. 22) prove our faith: and though He may seem not to regard us, and that for a long time; yet, in the end, He will show that His way of performing His promise is worthy of Him—good for us. God's discipline of His children always bears the mark of long-suffering.