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who lived only for the glory of God and the good of souls. There is something in their history
that compels us to feel that they were ministers of Christ—true watchmen. How cheering
to read of Baxter and his labors at Kidderminster ! How solemn to hear of Venn and
his preaching, in regard to which it is said that men "fell before him like slaked lime"! And in
the much-blest labors of that man of God, the apostolic Whitefield, is there not much to
humble us, as well as to stimulate? Of Tanner, who was himself awakened under
Whitefield, we read that he "seldom preached one sermon in vain." Of Berridge and Hicks
we are told that in their missionary tours throughout England they were blessed in one year to
awaken four thousand souls. Oh, for these days again! Oh, for one day of Whitefield again!

Thus one has written: "The language we have been accustomed to adopt is this; we must use
the means, and leave the event to God; we can do no more than employ the means; this is our
duty and having done this we must leave the rest to Him who is the disposer of all
things." Such

language sounds well, for it seems to be an acknowledgment of our own nothingness, and to
savor of submission to God's sovereignty; but it is only sound—it has not really any
substance in it, for though there is truth stamped on the face of it, there is falsehood at the
root of it. To talk of submission to God's sovereignty is one thing, but really to submit to it is
another and quite different thing. Really to submit to God's sovereign disposal does
always necessarily involve the deep renunciation of our own will in the matter
concerned, and such a renunciation of the will can never be effected without a soul being
brought through very severe and trying exercises of an inward and most humbling
nature. Therefore, whilst we are quietly satisfied in using the means without obtaining the
end, and this costs us no such painful inward exercise and deep humbling as that alluded to, if
we think that we are leaving the affair to God's disposal—we deceive ourselves, and the truth
in this matter is not in us. No; really to give anything to God, implies that the will, which is
emphatically the heart, has been set on that thing; and if the heart has indeed been set on the
salvation of sinners as the end to be answered by the means we use, we can not possibly give
up that end without, as was before observed, the heart being severely exercised and deeply
pained by the renunciation of the will involved in it. When, therefore, we can be quietly
content to use the means for saving souls without seeing them saved thereby, it is because
there is no renunciation of the will—that is, no real giving up to God in the affair. The fact
is, the will—that is, the heart—had never really been set upon this end; if it had, it could
not possibly give up such an end without being broken by the sacrifice. When we can thus be
satisfied to use the means without obtaining the end, and speak of it as though we were
submitting to the Lord's disposal, we use a truth to hide a falsehood, exactly in the same way
that those formalists in religion do, who continue in forms and duties without going beyond
them, though they know they will not save them, and who, when they are warned of their
danger and earnestly entreated to seek the Lord with all the heart, reply by telling us they
know they must repent and believe but that they can not do either the one or the other of
themselves and that they must wait till God gives them grace to do so. Now, this is a truth,
absolutely considered; yet most of us can see that they are using it as a falsehood to cover and
excuse a great insincerity of heart. We can readily perceive that if their hearts were really set
upon salvation, they could not