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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
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