_John 1:12_—“_as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name_”; _4:14_—“_whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life_”; _6:53_—“_Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves_”; _20:31_—“_these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name_”; _Eph. 3:17_—“_that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith_”; _Heb. 11:1_—“_Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen_”; _Rev. 3:20_—“_Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me._” The three constituents of faith may be illustrated from the thought, feeling, and action of a person who stands by a boat, upon a little island which the rising stream threatens to submerge. He first regards the boat from a purely intellectual point of view,—it is merely an _actually existing boat_. As the stream rises, he looks at it, secondly, with some accession of emotion,—his prospective danger awakens in him the conviction that it is a _good boat for a time of need_, though he is not yet ready to make use of it. But, thirdly, when he feels that the rushing tide must otherwise sweep him away, a volitional element is added,—he gets into the boat, trusts himself to it, accepts it as his _present, and only, means of safety_. Only this last faith in the boat is faith that saves, although this last includes both the preceding. It is equally clear that the getting into the boat may actually save a man, while at the same time he may be full of fears that the boat will never bring him to shore. These fears may be removed by the boatman’s word. So saving faith is not necessarily assurance of faith; but it becomes assurance of faith when the Holy Spirit “_beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God_” (_Rom. 8:16_). On the nature of this assurance, and on the distinction between it and saving faith, see pages 844‐846.