_Heb. 7:15, 16_--"_another priest, who hath been made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life_"; _Gal. 5:6_--"_For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love_"; _James 2:14, 26_--"_What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? Can that faith save him?... For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead._"
The best evidence that I believe a man's word is that I act upon it. Instance the bank-cashier's assurance to me that a sum of money is deposited with him to my account. If I am a millionaire, the communication may cause me no special joy. My faith in the cashier's word is tested by my going, or not going, for the money. So my faith in Christ is evidenced by my acting upon his commands and promises. We may illustrate also by the lifting of the trolley to the wire, and the resulting light and heat and motion to the car that before stood dark and cold and motionless upon the track. Salvation by works is like getting to one's destination by pushing the car. True faith depends upon God for energy, but it results in activity of all our powers. _Rom. 3:28_--"_We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law._" We are saved only by faith, yet this faith will be sure to bring forth good works; see _Gal. 5:6_--"_faith working through love._" Dead faith might be illustrated by Abraham Lincoln's Mississippi steamboat, whose whistle was so big that, when it sounded, the boat stopped. Confession exhausts the energy, so that none is left for action.
A. J. Gordon, The First Thing in the World, or The Primacy of Faith: "David Brainard speaks with a kind of suppressed astonishment of what he observed among the degraded North American Indians; how, preaching to them the good news of salvation through the atonement of Christ and persuading them to accept it by faith, and then hastening on in his rapid missionary tours, he found, on returning upon his track a year or two later, that the fruits of righteousness and sobriety and virtue and brotherly love were everywhere visible, though it had been possible to impart to them only the slightest moral or ethical teaching."