I have known persons who have long since given up all idea of being justified by _works_, who still have a secret clinging to some idea of being justified by _feelings_. If they could but feel more—more love, more repentance, more warmth—then they think they could trust Christ for their acceptance. They have learned, they think, to trust Him if they have the feelings, but they would not venture to do so without them. Now, before they can be happy in Christ they will have to go a step deeper, and learn to trust Him when they have not the feelings as well as when they have. They must remember that our justification is entirely dependent on His atonement and His righteousness, and so it is His free gift, freely given to those that are dead in sin. Now a dead man has no feelings. If, therefore, we wait for our justification until we have the feelings we must wait till we are alive. But the language of Scripture is, “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.” {26} Your only hope, therefore, is to trust Him as you are, without waiting till you are one atom warmer than you are at this present moment. With your heart as cold as you now feel it to be, you must throw yourself at once before His feet, and cry, “Lord, save me, I perish.” Closely connected with this suggestion is another, namely this— II. IF YOU WANT TO BE MADE TO FEEL, YOU MUST LOSE NO TIME IN GOING NEAR TO A FATHER’S THRONE. You will never feel warm while you stand shivering outside the city. You must go inside, even while you are cold, and there have your heart warmed by the Lord Himself. Remember that the great heart-warming subject is the tender love of God as displayed in Christ Jesus. If the love of Christ does not make you feel, nothing else will. Do not, therefore, stand afar off gazing on your own coldness, but turn at once to the Cross of Christ. Study Him in the garden bowed down under the heavy burden of sin; study Him on the cross forsaken even of the Father, and remember that all that was borne for you, even for you. Remember there was a personal connection between Him and you in the whole of that great transaction, and so abide, as it were, gazing on the Lord Jesus, on His life, on His meekness, on His burden, on His cry. Pray God that you may realize your part in the whole matter. Confess before Him your own cold, dead, lifeless condition. Trust Him, as He died for you, to save you from it; and so you may hope that, though you feel so cold as you approach Him, you may experience something of His love when you gaze on Him, and know something even of His joy when you go on your way justified through His grace. III. REMEMBER WELL THAT FEELING IS THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THAT YOU CANNOT WORK YOURSELF UP TO IT.