Now turn to the Scripture,--read the descriptions given in the holy writings of what constitutes a full-fledged Christian, and holding up the picture before your spiritual eyes, begin to compare the modern Christian with the Scriptural one, the real one with the nominal. For what is a Christian? A Christian is, first of all, a person who has been justified by faith in Christ; that is his real character and standing, and as long as he remains true in his faith and to his Savior, he remains a Christian. But this does not offset, but rather involves, that the faith by which we are justified and saved must be a live, an active and vigorous principle, which draws after it a train of noble virtues and good works; we must not only be Christians, but show it; we must not only have justifying grace, but also sanctifying grace, leading us forward in our Christian profession. We Christians must not be like mill-wheels which move indeed, but always stand in the same place, or like mill-horses which go round and round, but never get beyond the one narrow circle. Nay, we must advance in Christian holiness, go forward to the full measure of our stature as a Christian. This is the principal thought that the various Sundays of Trinity urge upon us, and again in harmony with which we find our text. These words point out to us: _I. The additions we are to make to our faith_; _II. the manner in which we must make these additions_. May God bless our meditations upon them!
The Apostle begins: "Add to your faith virtue." You will observe he does not want his readers to seek after faith,--that he supposes them to possess already,--he addresses them as believers, and calls upon them to add to their belief, as if he would say: You claim to have faith (it is a good thing to have), but you seem to forget that faith without works is dead, that Christianity is not only a spiritual religion, but a practical one. What does a foundation amount to if the superstructure be not reared? Nothing; it is a beginning without a progress. Just so with faith,--it is _the_ chief requisite of Christian religion, and must not be a scheme of doctrine which lies asleep in the mind and never stimulates.