Both history and our personal observation show that nothing can change the life and make men moral, like the gospel of free pardon in Jesus Christ. Mere preaching of morality will effect nothing of consequence. There never has been more insistence upon morality than in the most immoral times, like those of Seneca, and of the English deists. As to their moral fruits, we can safely compare Protestant with Roman Catholic systems and leaders and countries. We do not become right by doing right, for only those can do right who have become right. The prodigal son is forgiven before he actually confesses and amends (_Luke 15:20, 21_). Justification is always accompanied by regeneration, and is followed by sanctification; and all three are results of the death of Christ. But the sin‐offering must precede the thank‐offering. We must first be accepted ourselves before we can offer gifts; _Heb. 11:4_—“_By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts._” Hence we read in _Eph. 5:25, 26_—“_Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed_ = [after he had cleansed] _it by the washing of water with the word_” [= regeneration]; _1 Pet. 1:1, 2_—“_elect ... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit_ [regeneration], _unto obedience_ [conversion] _and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ_ [justification]”; _1 John 1:7_—“_if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin_”—here the “cleansing” refers primarily and mainly to justification, not to sanctification; for the apostle himself declares in _verse 8_—“_If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us._” Quenstedt says well, that “justification, since it is an act, outside of man, in God, cannot produce an intrinsic change in us.” And yet, he says, “although faith alone justifies, yet faith is not alone.” Melanchthon: “Sola fides justificat; sed fides non est sola.” With faith go all manner of gifts of the Spirit and internal graces of character. But we should let go all the doctrinal gains of the Reformation if we did not insist that these gifts and graces are accompaniments and consequences of justification, instead of being a part or a ground of justification. See Girdlestone, O. T. Synonyms, 104, note—“Justification is God’s declaration that the individual sinner, on account of the faith which unites him to Christ, is taken up into the relation which Christ holds to the Father, and has applied to him personally the objective work accomplished for humanity by Christ.”