Do I, then, discourage good works? Has man no part to play in his own
deliverance? Is he, after all, only an animal--the mere creature of
circumstance and natural law? Have I forgotten that "faith without works
is dead"? No, I think not. I have but remembered that _works without
faith are dead also_. The one extreme is as dangerous as the other. The
legal, mechanical observance of the rules of a right life, apart from a
living faith in Christ, can no more renew the heart in holiness and
righteousness, than can a mere intellectual belief of certain facts about
Christ, apart from working out His will, save the soul, or make it meet
for the inheritance of the saints. In both cases the verdict will be the
same. The faith in the one is "_dead_"; the works in the other are
also "_dead_."
The fact is, Salvation is a two-fold work. It is of God--it is of man. Did
God not will man's Salvation he could not be saved. Unless man will his
own Salvation he cannot be saved. God is free. Man also is free. He may
set up a plan for saving himself; but, no matter how perfect, it will fail
unless it have God for its centre. And God, though He has devised the most
infinitely complete and beautiful and costly scheme of redemption for man,
will none the less fail unless the individual man wills to co-operate with
Him. Man is not a piece of clay which God can fashion as He likes. He is
not even a harp out of which He can get what strains He will without
regard to its strings. There is in man something--a force--an
energy--which must act in union with God, and with which God must act in
wonderful partnership, if His will is to be accomplished.