Item - True Salvation

(source: NIU Libraries)

Online Full Text:	Northern Illinois University
Series:	New York Weekly — v. 31 no. 30 — page 7
Subject / Tag:	Poem
Part of:	New York Weekly, v. XXXI, no. 30, June 12, 1876 (Issue)
Author:	Kidder, M. A. (Mary Ann), 1820-1905
Date:	June 12, 1876
Edition Description:	Very often, when you go to preach to people, they begin to draw their filthy rags of self-righteousness about them, and they say: "Oh yes; that is very good for drunkards and thieves, but not for us. We are educated people; we are refined; we go to church every Sunday; we say our prayers." But that is all. They have all the forms, but not the living Christ. Here is a poor, miserable, fallen one, who takes salvation as a gift, and she is saved, just because she takes it as a gift. That is the lesson taught to us here-one of the hardest lessons for us to learn. A great many are trying to work their way into the kingdom of God. A man said he had been forty-two years learning three things- first, that he could do nothing toward his salvation; second, that God did not require him to do anything; and, third, that Christ had done it all Himself. The greatest enemy we have is this miserable self-righteousness. I would to God He would strip us of every rag of it to-day. Yes, but you say, What about the passage where it says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling?" Well, you must have it before you can work it out. If I say to my boy, "You are going to Paris; here are $1,000 for you; see that you take care of it." He would say, "But I must have it before I can take care of it." Or if I ask him to work out of a piece of land, and to till it, and care for it, I must first give him the piece of land. - Mr. Moody's London Sermon