Who Will Reach Heaven? I

Man Can Have Strength Of Character Only As He Is Capable Of Controlling His Faculties; Of Choosing A Rational End; And, In Its Pursuit, Of Holding Fast To His Integrity Against Al! The Might Of External Nature.

The Very Act Of Faith By Which We Receive Christ Is An Act Of The Utter Renunciation Of Self, And All Its Works, As A Ground Of Salvation. It Is Really A Denial Of Self, And A Grounding Of Its Arms In The Last Citadel Into Which It Can Be Driven, And Is, In Its Principle, Inclusive Of Every Subsequent Act Of Self-denial By Which Sin Is Forsaken Or Overcome.

Faith, Then, Generically, Is Confidence In A Personal Being. Specifically, Religious Faith Is Confidence In God, In Every Respect And Office In Which He Reveals Himself. As That Love Of Which God Is The Object Is Religious Love, So That Confidence In Him As A Father, A Moral Governor, A Redeemer, A Sanctifier, In All The Modes Of His Manifestation, By Which We Believe Whatever He Says Because He Says It, And Commit Ourselves And All Our Interests Cheerfully And Entirely Into His Hands, Is Religious Faith.

We Are To Regard The Mind, Not As A Piece Of Iron To Be Laid Upon The Anvil And Hammered Into Any Shape, Nor As A Block Of Marble In Which We Are To Find The Statue By Removing The Rubbish, Nor As A Receptacle Into Which Knowledge May Be Poured; But As A Flame That Is To Be Fed, As An Active Being That Must Be Strengthened To Think And To Feel -- And To Dare, To Do, And To Suffer.

Let The Church Come To God In The Strength Of A Perfect Weakness, In The Power Of A Felt Helplessness And A Child-like Confidence, And Then, Either She Has No Strength, And Has No Right To Be, Or She Has A Strength That Is Infinite. Then And Thus, Will She Stretch Out The Rod Over The Seas Of Difficulty That Lie Before Her, And The Waters Shall Divide, And She Shall Pass Through, And Sing The Song Of Deliverance.