believe that and to deny that when He died He died for our sins, or that when He rose He

rose because of our justifying. So far as the "faith" is concerned there is no difference,

but so far as the subject of faith is concerned there is.

No gospel of salvation attaches to "1066 William the Conqueror", therefore though

my faith in the accuracy of that date leaves nothing to be desired, it produces nothing.

Salvation from sin and death was the very purpose of the death and resurrection of the

Son of God, and it is quite impossible for anyone to believe the historic fact of the death

and resurrection and deny the purpose and the results of that death and resurrection. This

it is that makes "historic faith" "saving faith", and not anything attaching to faith itself.

A.--Do we not read that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for they

are foolishness unto him? Does not this statement overturn yours?

B.--Whether it is within the power of natural man to overcome the bias and enmity of his

unregenerate heart is one thing, and whether the faith exercised in believing the testimony

of God which is said to be "greater than the testimony of man" is different in its nature

from believing any accredited testimony is another.

A.--I think I begin to see where we have differed. You do not deny the inability of the

natural man to believe God, you agree that apart from grace he never will, but what you

do deny is that when by grace a man does believe the testimony of God, it is only what

any reasonable creature should have done long before.

B.--When Scripture affirms that the natural man cannot receive the things of God, it does

not mean that the natural man cannot understand, read, hear, ponder or think, but that

seeing that his understanding is darkened, his heart hardened, his intelligence subjected

to vanity, he can no more believe the testimony of God than he can perform the right acts

that even his own conscience indicates. The very simplicity of faith is the severest

condemnation of sin and natural man.

We must pursue the subject further, however, so that we may obtain an all-round view

of this important subject.