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 v^wiii rcJiii i^iiiu ffOVO 
 
 ifififiiiiii 
 
No. 03. 
 
 WHAT IS IT 
 
 TO BELIEVE OX CHRIST? 
 
 Header, did you ever ask this question ? 
 Is it your sincere and earnest wish to have 
 it answered ? If so, thi» Tract is intended 
 for you. May God make it a blessing to 
 your soul. 
 
 I will suppose that you have at some 
 time felt alarnaed in view of your sins, and 
 inquired in your thoughts, if not in words, 
 "What must I do to be saved T' You have 
 the same answer that Paul gave to the jai- 
 lor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 Still you hesitate. You ask what this 
 language^ means. You desire to know 
 what it is \o believe on Christ, 
 
Your wishj fellow-sinner, is a very rea- 
 Boiiable one. The wonder and the sin is, 
 that yon have not asked snch a question 
 before. It is a most important and sol- 
 emn question. It has much to do with 
 your salvation ; for the Bible declares, 
 "He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
 lasting life ; and he that believeth not the 
 Son, shall not see life : kit the iDvath of 
 Goi) ahideth on him.*' 
 
 *' WHiat is it to believe on Christ V It is. 
 
 To FEEL YOUR NEED OF HiM ; 
 To BELIEVE THAT Hs IS ABLE AND WIL- 
 LING TO SAVE YOU J AND TO SAVE YOU NOW J 
 
 and 
 
 To CAST YOURSELF UNRESERVEDLY ON HIS 
 
 MFRCY, and TRUST IN Him alone for sal- 
 vation. 
 
 To feel yon need of him. Till you do this, 
 you will never seek him earnestly, or trust 
 him wholly. You do not send for a phv- 
 sician till yon feel yourself to be ill. It 
 w*as only^hen Peter found he was begin- 
 ning to sinkj that he cried, **Lord, save 
 me." So the sinner never goes to Christ 
 in a light manner, till he feels himself to 
 be a lost, wretched being. It is not 
 enough to hi(yw thia : you must/ee? it. 
 
Do you say you cannot? O, then, hoio 
 lost, how wretched you must be ! Your 
 very language ought to fill you with shame 
 and fear. Whose fault is it that you do 
 not feel ? How long, need it be before 
 you feel ? You can feel alarm when a mur- 
 derer holds you in his grasp ; you can feel 
 sorrow when a friend is dying in agony 
 before your eyes ; and can you feel no sor- 
 row when you think of a suffering, Sa- 
 viour, whose love you have abused — no 
 alarm, when you call to mind that fearful 
 judgment to which you are hastening? — 
 Will you dare tell your Judge, at the great 
 day, that you could not feel your need of a 
 Saviour ? 
 
 But you 'say, " I do feel, at least in some 
 degree, that 1 am a poor, guilty, undone 
 sinner; but this will not save me." iVb, 
 it loill not. Thousands have felt this and 
 perished. You must also, 
 
 Believe that Christ is able a7id loilling to 
 save you, and to save yoic^ow^ He is able, 
 tor he is almighty. You are a great sin- 
 ner, but ChriBt is a great Saviour. Satan 
 has been trying to persuade you that 
 Christ is not able to save so great a sinner 
 AS you are. It is false. He is able, and 
 
unless yon IcUeve this in all it3 glorious 
 extent, you will no more be willing to 
 trust him, than a man on the roof of a 
 burning house will step upon a weak lad- 
 der which he knows will give away be- 
 neath him. 
 
 You must believe that he is willing. He 
 has in many ways shown himself to be will- 
 ing. If you doubt it, you disbelieve and 
 ofl'end him. Does it please him, think 
 you, w^hen he utters this kind welcome, 
 *' Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in 
 nowise cast out y' to hear you reply, "O 
 [tprdj I cannot think that thou wouldst re- 
 ceive sucli an one as me, if I should 
 come?" Yet you do in efiect say this, 
 every moment you cherish the feeling 
 that you are too sinful to hope of pardon. 
 You mistake this for humility ; but it is 
 ^unbeliet, and sin. 
 
 You must believe that he is willing w(?2?;. 
 Perhaps you have thought hQ loould be 
 willing, after a few more days or weeks 
 spent in praying and weeping and grow- 
 ing better. Be assured your worst enemy 
 wants no more than than you should con- 
 tinue to think so. You ore growing no bet- 
 ter. You are doing nothing to gain 
 
Christ's favor while you refuse to yield to 
 his invitations. Until you belive that he 
 i? able and willing to save you, an.d to do 
 it NOW, you never will be saved. The 
 great enemy of your soul does not wish 
 you to set a tinne far distant when you eaii 
 go to Christ, and when he will be willing 
 to receive you. If you will continue io 
 place that time at the distance of a week, 
 or an hour, or a minute, his object is gain- 
 ed, and your soul is lost. 
 
 But jou ask, "Does not a sinner, at the mo- 
 ment of his actual submission to the Saviour, feel 
 more fit to be pardoned ; and is not Christ more 
 willing to pardon him, than ever before ?" No, 
 dear friend, no! He was Itss fit to be pardoned, 
 for his sins had been increasing every moment up 
 to that very time ; and Christ was no more willing 
 to pardon him than he had always been. Every 
 Christian will tell you that, so far as Christ's wil- 
 lingness was concerned, he might as well have 
 found peace in him months or years sooner, as 
 when he hopes he was pardoned. The next thing 
 required of you is, 
 
 To cast yourself unreservedly upon his viercy, 
 and trust in him alone for salvation. This implies 
 that you renounce aJl expectations of saving 
 yourself, or of being saved any other way than 
 through the righteousness and redemption of 
 Christ. Did you ever feel as if you had done all 
 
you could ? Have you tried to think of some- 
 thiag more to do to obtain hope and forgiveness? 
 You have done too 'nixich in this way already. 
 
 Just stop domsr. and begin to trust Christ to do 
 all, and you are safe. A man is rowing a boat on 
 a river juat above a dreadful cataract. The cur- 
 rent begins to bear him downward, the spectators 
 on the banks give him up for lost, ^* He is gone," 
 they all exclaim. But in another moment a rope 
 .is thrown towards the wretched man, it strikes the 
 water near the boat; now how does the case 
 stand ? Do all the spectators call upon him to row, 
 to row stronger, to try harder to reach the shore, 
 when with every stroke of his arm the boat is 
 evidently floating towards the falls ? no, the 
 eager and united cry is, " Droj) your oars ! Give 
 up your desperate attempt! Take hold of the 
 ROPE ! But he chooses to row, and in a few 
 minutes he disappears and perishes. All his hope 
 lay, not in rowing, but in ceasing to row; for 
 •while he was rowing he could not grasp the rope. 
 So all the sinner's hope lies not in struggling to 
 save himself, but in ceasing to struggle; for while 
 .he expects soon to accomplish the work of salva- 
 tion, he- will not look to Christ to do it for hira. 
 It is noi doing, but yielding, that is required. 
 
 But you say, " If all I have to do is to cease 
 from attempting to save myself, and to be willing 
 that Christ should do the work of my salvation, 
 why do you \irge me to become a Christian, or to 
 
do avy thing '{ Wjiy not let me sit still, and 
 wait till Christ shall come and pardon me ?" And 
 what i( the man in the boat dropped his oar, and 
 then folded his hands and waited for the rope to 
 save him ? He might as well have died rowing 
 as sitting still, and would as certainly have died in 
 the latter cas*^ as in the former. But he must 
 grasp the rope. So the sinner must lay hold upon 
 the cross— ^not by waiting till he is better, but by 
 fir^t concluding that he shall never be any better 
 in the way he is going on, and then looking to 
 Christ. As he perceives the ground smk»ng be- 
 . neath him, and feels how lost and wretched he is, 
 filled with mingled despair and hope — despair in 
 himself, and hope[ in the pbwer and mercy of 
 Christ — he says, 
 
 ** I stand upon a mountaiVa edge, 
 O save uie, lest 1 fall 1" 
 
 His prayer is heard — the heart of the compassion- 
 ate Saviour is ready to welcome hijn — the arms 
 .of "mercy are stretched out to receive him — a 
 word of kind welcome reaches his ear, " So7i, 
 be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee" He 
 believes that word — he trusts that heart — he falls 
 into those arms, a7id he is safe. 
 
 Now, dear reader, your question is answered. 
 Is not the answer true ? Is it not plain ? Do 
 you no^see your mistake? Since all things are 
 
8 , 
 
 now ready, and the Holy Spirit not quite grieved 
 away from your heart by your delay, will you 
 wait any longer ? 
 
 Does your heart now say, " Lord, I believe : 
 help thou mine unbelief?" "Will you take the 
 Saviour at his word? Are you willing to trust 
 him to do the whole work of your salvation ? 
 
 If so, lay down this tract ; prostrate yourselt 
 before this waiting, insulted, and still compassion- 
 ate Redeemer ; tell him all your heart, and he 
 will pardon, accept, and save you. 
 
 TEE ACCEPTED TIME. 
 
 1 Now' is the accepted dme, 
 
 Now is the day of grace ; 
 Now, sinner, come without delay 
 And seek' the Saviours face. 
 
 2 Now is the accepted time, 
 
 The Saviour calls to-day ; 
 To-morrow it may be too late- 
 Then why should yoii delay ? 
 
 3 Now is the accepted Imie, 
 
 The Gospel bids you come ; 
 
 And every promise in his word 
 
 Declare? there yet is room. 
 
pcnmalife* 
 
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