and despair.

Some have written me this week that they had believed. They had been
persuaded into a profession of faith, but no fruits followed. Ah! it
was not the faith of the heart: it was the faith of the head--like
that of Simon's--and it left you worse than it found you, and you
have been groping and grovelling, ever since. But do not think that
was real faith, and that therefore real faith has failed, but be
encouraged to begin again, and _repent_. Try the real thing, for
Satan always gets up a counterfeit. Therefore, don't go down in
despair because the wrong kind of faith did not succeed. That shall
not make the real faith of God of none effect--God forbid!

Look at one or two other cases--the three thousand in a day. Surely
this is a scriptural illustration. Surely no one will call that
anti-Gospel or legal. What was the first work Peter did? He drove the
knife of God's convincing truth into their hearts, and made them
_cry out_. He awoke them to the truth of their almost lost and
damned condition, till they said, "What must we do to be saved?" They
were so concerned, they were so pricked in their hearts, their eyes
were so opened to the terrible consequences of their sin, that they
cried aloud before the vast multitude, "Men and brethren, what must
we do to be saved?" He convinced them of sin, and thus followed the
order of God.

Again, the eunuch is often quoted as an illustration of faith; but
what state of mind was he in? Was he a careless, unconvicted sinner?
There he was--an Ethiopian, a heathen; but where had he been? To
Jerusalem, to worship the true and living God, in the best way he
knew, and as far as he understood; and then, what was he doing when