But the real beauty of the Gospel consists in the _freedom of its terms_, as expressed in the latter part of the text:—“to every one that believeth.” These words show that salvation is granted freely without any preparatory qualification in the sinner; and if this one feature in it were changed, it would at once be stripped of all its excellence and power. Suppose, for example, that the text were otherwise expressed, and that it were said, “The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that _repenteth_:” we could never then have laid hold on a Saviour’s love, until we had ascertained a clear evidence, in our own soul, of a repentance so perfect as to be satisfactory before God; or, in other words, we should have been for ever cut off from mercy. Or suppose it had been written, “to every one that loves:” we must then have turned our thoughts inwards for a strict scrutiny of our own affections, and although we desired with the whole heart to love the Lord, we should have found there so much of cold apathy, that we should have been compelled to the conclusion that the great salvation could never be for us. Or suppose that the common low standard of the world had been adopted, and the text had been written, “to every one that does all in his power to deserve it:” where, we ask, is that man who has even fulfilled this low requirement, and who would not through his manifold defects and deficiencies, be for ever excluded from the covenant? But thanks be to God, the text says, “to every one that believeth!” Now faith is the act of the lost soul in laying hold on Christ. The Gospel therefore requires no preparatory fitness, it does not bid us wait till we repent enough, or till we love enough, or till we have endeavoured enough; but it does bid us trust, as we are, to the Saviour who died for us; and it does assure us, because He made a perfect atonement for the whole of our sin, that “whosoever believeth on Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” This one great truth is the very key-stone of the Gospel; and let any poor, guilty, brokenhearted sinner only learn through God’s grace what it is to accept that free pardon in faith, and then it will be strange, indeed, if he cannot enter into the spirit of the apostle, when he declares, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation.”