Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Matt. 3.12.
WHEAT OR CHAFF?
J. C. Ryle
“Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matt. 3.12.
You see a question at the head of this page. For whom do you think it is meant? Is it for corn merchants and fanners only and for none else? If you think so you are much mistaken. It is meant for every man, woman and child in the world. And among others it is meant for you.
The question is drawn from a verse of Scripture which is now before your eyes. The words of that verse were spoken by John the
Baptist. They are a prophecy about our Lord Jesus Christ and a prophecy which has not yet been fulfilled. They are a prophecy which we shall all see fulfilled one day and God alone knows how soon.
Reader, I invite you this day to consider the great truths which this verse contains. I invite you to listen to me while I unfold them and set them before you in order. Who knows but this text may move a word in season to your soul? Who knows but my question may help to make this day the happiest day in your life?
Listen, before you begin once more your appointed path of duty. listen, before you start once more on some round of business. Listen, before you plunge once more into some course of useless idleness and folly. Listen to one who loves your soul and would fain draw it nearer to Christ. Who knows what a day may bring forth? Who can tell whether you will live to see to-morrow. Be still and listen to me a few minutes while I show you something out of the Word of God.
I. Let me show you in the first place, the two great classes into which the world may be divided.
There are only two classes of people in the world and both are mentioned in the text which begins this tract. There are those who are called the wheat and there are those who are called the chaff.
Viewed with the eye of man the earth contains many different sorts of inhabitants. Viewed with the eye of God it only contains two. Man’s eye looks at the outward appearance: this is all he thinks of. The eye of God looks at the heart: this is the only part of which He takes any account. And tried by the state of their hearts there are but two classes into which people can be divided; either they are wheat or they are chaff.
Who are the wheat in the world? Listen to me and I will tell you.
The wheat means all men and women who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; all who are led by the Holy Spirit; all who have felt themselves sinners, and fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them; all who love the Lord Jesus, and live to the Lord Jesus, and serve the Lord Jesus; all who know Christ for their only confidence, and the Bible for their only guide, and regard sin as their deadliest enemy, and look to heaven as their only home. All such, of every church, name, nation, people, and tongue; of every rank, station, condition, and degree; all such are God’s wheat.
Show me men of this kind anywhere and I know what they are. I know not that they and I may agree in all particulars but I see in them the handiwork of the King of kings and I ask no more. I know not whence they came and where they found their religion; but I know where they are going and that is enough for me. They are the children of my Father in heaven. They are part of His wheat.
All such, though sinful and vile and unworthy in their own eyes are the precious part of mankind. They are the sons and daughters of God the Father. They are the delight of God the Son. They are the habitation of God the Spirit. The Father beholds no iniquity in them. They are the members of His dear Son’s body, in Him He sees them and is well pleased. The Lord Jesus discerns in them the fruit of His own travail and work upon the cross and is well satisfied. The Holy Ghost regards them as spiritual temples which He Himself has reared and rejoices over them. In a word, they are the wheat of the earth.
Who are the chaff in the world? Listen to me once more and I will tell you this also.
The chaff means all men and women who have no saving faith in Christ and no sanctification of the Spirit, whosoever they may be. Some of them perhaps are infidels and some are formal Christians. Some are sneering Sadducees and some self-righteous Pharisees. Some of them make a point of keeping up a kind of Sunday religion and others are utterly careless of everything except their own pleasure and the world. But all alike, who have the two great marks already mentioned; no faith and no sanctification; all such are chaff. From Paine and Voltaire to the dead churchman who can think of nothing but outward ceremonies; from Julian and Porphyry to the unconverted admirer of sermons in the present day; all, all are standing in one rank before God; all, all are chaff.
They bring no glory to God the Father. They honour not the Son and so do not honour the Father that sent Him. They neglect that mighty salvation which countless millions of angels admire. They disobey that Word which was graciously written for their learning. They listen not to the voice of Him who condescended to leave heaven and die for sinners. They pay no tribute of service and affection to Him who gave them life and breath and all things. And therefore God takes no pleasure in them. He pities them but He reckons them no better than chaff.
Yes: you may have rare intellectual gifts and high mental
attainments; you may sway kingdoms by your counsel, move millions by your pen, or keep crowds in breathless attention by your tongue, but if you have never submitted yourself to the yoke of Christ and never honoured His Gospel by heartfelt reception of it, you are nothing in His sight. Natural gifts without grace are like a row of noughts without a one before them: they look big but they are of no value. The meanest insect that crawls is a nobler being than you are. It fills its place in creation and glorifies its Maker with all its power and you do not. You do not honour God with heart, and will, and intellect, and members, which are all His. You invert His order and arrangement and live as if time was of more importance than eternity and body better than soul. You dare to neglect God’s greatest gift, His own incarnate Son. You are cold about that subject which fills all heaven with hallelujahs. And so long as this is the case, you belong to the worthless part of mankind. You are the chaff of the earth.
Reader, let this thought be graven deeply in your mind, whatever else you forget. Remember there are only two sorts of people in the world. There are wheat and there are chaff.
There are many nations in Europe. Each differs from the rest. Each has its own language, its own laws, its own peculiar customs. But God’s eye divides Europe into two great parties; the wheat and the chaff.
There are many classes in England. There are peers and commoners; farmers and shopkeepers; masters and servants; rich and poor. But God’s eye only takes account of two orders, the wheat and the chaff.
There are many and various minds in every congregation that meets for religious worship. There are some who attend for a mere form, and some who really desire to meet Christ, some who come there to please others, and some who come to please God, some who bring their hearts with them and are not soon tired, and some who leave their hearts behind them and reckon the whole service weary work. But the eye of Jesus only sees two divisions in the congregation, the wheat and the chaff.
I know well the world dislikes this way of dividing professing Christians. The world tries hard to fancy there are three sorts of people and not two. To be very good and very strict does not suit the world: they cannot, will not be saints. To have no religion at all does not suit the world: it would not be respectable; “Thank God,” they will say, “we are not so bad as that.” But to have religion enough to be saved, and yet not go into extremes; to be sufficiently good, and yet not be peculiar; to have a quiet, easy-going, moderate kind of Christianity, and go comfortably to heaven after all, this is the world’s favourite idea. There is a third class, a safe middle class, the world fancies; and in this middle class the majority of men persuade themselves they will be found.
I denounce this notion of a middle class as an immense and soul-ruining delusion. I warn you strongly not to be carried away by it. It is as vain an invention as the Pope’s purgatory. It is a refuge of lies, a
castle in the air, a vast unreality, an empty dream. This middle class is a class of Christians nowhere spoken of in the Bible.
There were two classes in the day of Noah’s flood; those who were inside the ark, and those who were without: two in the parable of the Gospel net; those who are called the good fish, and those who are called the bad: two in the parable of the ten virgins; those who are described as wise, and those who are described as foolish: two in the account of the judgment day; the sheep and the goats: two sides of the throne; the right hand and the left: two abodes when the last sentence has been passed; heaven and hell.
And just so there are only two classes in the visible Church on earth; those who are in the state of nature, and those who are in the state of grace; those who are in the narrow way, and those who are in the broad; those who have faith, and those who have not faith;
those who have been converted, and those who have not been converted; those who are with Christ, and those who are against Him; those who gather with Him, and those who scatter abroad;
those who are wheat and those who are chaff. Into these two classes the whole professing Church of Christ may be divided. Beside these two classes there is none.
Reader, dear reader, see now what cause there is for self-inquiry. Are you among the wheat, or among the chaff? Neutrality is impossible. Either you are in one class or in the other. Which is it of the two?
You attend church perhaps. You go to the Lord’s table. You like good people. You can distinguish between good preaching and bad. You think Popery false and oppose it warmly. You think Protestantism true and support it cordially. You subscribe to religious societies. You attend religious meetings. You sometimes read religious books. It is well: it is very well. It is good: it is all very good. It is more than can be said of many. But still this is not a straightforward answer to my question; Are you wheat, or are you chaff?
Have you been born again? Are you a new creature? Have you put off the old man, and put on the new? Have you ever felt your sins and repented of them? Are you looking simply to Christ for pardon and life eternal. Do you love Christ? Do you serve Christ? Do you loathe heart-sins and fight against them? Do you long for perfect holiness and follow hard after it? Have you come out from the world? Do you delight in the Bible? Do you wrestle in prayer? Do you love Christ’s people? Do you try to do good to the world? Are you vile in your own eyes and willing to take the lowest place? Are you a Christian in business, on week days and by your own fireside? Oh, think, think, think on these things and then perhaps you will be better able to tell the state of your soul!
I beseech you not to turn away from my question however unpleasant it may be. Answer it, though it may prick your conscience and cut you to the heart. Answer it, though it may prove you in the wrong and expose your fearful danger. Rest not, rest not, till you know how it is between you and God. Better a thousand
times find out that you are in an evil case, and repent betimes, than live on in uncertainty, and be lost eternally.
Reader, remember my question.—Begin to meditate on it this very day. Are you wheat or chaff?
II. Let me show you, in the second place, the time when the two great classes of mankind shall be separated.
The text at the beginning foretells a separation. It says that Christ shall one day do to His professing Church what the farmer does to his corn. He shall winnow and sift it. He “shall throughly purge His floor.” And then the wheat and the chaff shall be divided.
There is no separation yet. Good and bad are now all mingled together in the visible Church of Christ. Believers and unbelievers;
converted and unconverted; holy and unholy; all are to be found now among those who call themselves Christians. They sit side by side in our assemblies. They kneel side by side in our pews. They listen side by side to our sermons. They sometimes come up side by side to the Lord’s table and receive the same bread and wine from our hands.
But it shall not always be so. Christ shall come the second time with His fan in His hand. He shall purge His Church, even as He purified the temple. And then the wheat and the chaff shall be separated and each go to its own place.
Before Christ comes separation is impossible. It is not in man’s power to effect it. There lives not the minister on earth who can read the hearts of every one in his congregation. About some he may speak decidedly; he cannot about all. Who have oil in their lamps, and who have not; who have grace as well as profession, and who have profession only, and no grace; who are children of God, and who of the devil; all these are questions which, in many cases, we cannot accurately decide. The fan is not put into our hands.
Grace is sometimes so weak and feeble that it looks like nature. Nature is sometimes so plausible and well-dressed that it looks like grace. I believe we should many of us have said that Judas was as good as any of the apostles and yet he proved a traitor. I believe we should have said that Peter was a reprobate when he denied his Lord and yet he repented immediately. We are but fallible men. We know in part and prophecy in part. We scarcely understand our own hearts. It is no great wonder if we cannot read the hearts of others.
But it will not always be so. There is One coming who never errs in judgment and is perfect in knowledge. Jesus shall purge His floor. Jesus shall sift the chaff from the wheat. I wait for this. Till then I will lean to the side of charity in my judgments. I would rather tolerate much chaff in the Church than cast out one grain of wheat. He shall soon come who has His fan in His hand and then the certainty about every one shall be known.
Before Christ comes / do not expect to see a perfect Church. There cannot be such a thing. The wheat and the chaff, in the present state of things, will always be found together. I pity those who leave one church and join another because of a few faults and unsound
members. I pity them, because they are fostering ideas which never can be realized. I pity them, because they are seeking that which cannot be found. I see chaff everywhere. I see imperfection and infirmities of some kind in every communion on earth. I believe there are few tables of the Lord, if any, where all the communicants are converted. I often see loud-talking professors exalted as saints. I often see holy and contrite believers set down as having no grace at all. I am satisfied if men are too scrupulous, they may go fluttering about like Noah’s dove all their days and never find rest.
Do you desire a perfect Church? You must wait for the day of Christ’s appearing. Then, and not till then, you will see a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Then, and not till then, the floor will be purged.
Before Christ comes I do not look for the conversion of the world. How can it be, if He is to find wheat and chaff side by side in the day of His second coming? I believe some Christians expect that missions will fill the earth with the knowledge of Christ, and that little by little, sin will disappear, and a state of perfect holiness gradually glide in. I cannot see with their eyes. I think they are mistaking God’s purposes and sowing for themselves bitter disappointment. I expect nothing of the kind. I see nothing in the Bible or in the world around me to make me expect it. I have never heard of a single parish entirely converted to God, in England or Scotland, or of anything like it. And why am I to look for a different result from the preaching of the Gospel in other lands? I only expect to see a few raised up as witnesses to Christ in every nation: some in one place, and some in another. Then I expect the Lord Jesus will come in glory with His fan in His hand. And when He has purged His floor, and not till then. His perfect kingdom will be seen.
No separation and no perfection till Christ comes! This is my creed. I am not moved when the infidel asks me why all the world is not converted, if Christianity is really true? I answer. It was never promised that it would be so in the present order of things. The Bible tells me that believers will always be few,—that corruptions, and divisions, and heresies, will always abound, and that when my Lord returns to earth He will find plenty of chaff.
No perfection till Christ comes! I am not disturbed when men say, “Make all the people good Christians at home before you send missionaries to the heathen abroad.” I answer, If I am to wait for that, I may wait for ever. When we have done all at home, the Church will be a mixed body,—it will contain some wheat and much chaff.
But Christ will come again. Sooner or later there shall be a separation of the visible Church into two companies, and fearful shall that separation be. The wheat shall make up one company. The chaff shall make up another. The one company will be all godly. The other company will be all ungodly. Each shall be by themselves, and a great gulf between, that none can pass. Blessed indeed shall the righteous be in that day! They shall shine like stars, no longer obscured with clouds. They shall be beautiful as the lily, no longer
choked with thorns. Wretched indeed will the ungodly be! How corrupt will corruption be when left without one grain of salt to season it! How dark will darkness be when left without one spark of light! Ah, reader, it is not enough to respect and admire the Lord’s people; you must belong to them or you will one day be parted from them for ever. There will be no chaff in heaven. Many, many are the families where one will be taken and another left.
Who is there now among the readers of these pages that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity? If I know anything of the heart of a Christian, your greatest trials are in the company of worldly people, your greatest Joys in the company of the saints. Yes, there are many weary days when your spirit feels broken and crushed by the earthly tone of all around you, days when you could cry with David, “Woe is me that I dwell in Mesech, and have my habitation in the tents of Kedar.” And yet there are hours when your soul is so refreshed and revived by meeting some of God’s dear children that it seems like heaven on earth. Do I not speak to your heart? Are not these things true? See then how you should long for the time when Christ shall come again. See how you should pray daily that the Lord would hasten His kingdom, and say to Him, “Come quickly. Lord Jesus.” Then, and not till then, shall be a pure unmixed communion. Then, and not till then, the saints shall all be together, and shall go out from one another’s presence no more. Wait a little. Wait a little. Scorn and contempt will soon be over. Laughter and ridicule shall soon have an end. Slander and misrepresentation will soon cease. Your Saviour shall come and plead your cause. And then, as Moses said to Korah, “The Lord will show who are His.”*
Who is there among the readers of these pages that knows his heart is not right in the sight of God? See how you should fear and tremble at the thought of Christ’s appearing. Alas, indeed, for the man that lives and dies with nothing better than a cloak of religion! In the day when Christ shall purge His floor, you will be shown up and exposed in your true colours. You may deceive ministers, and friends, and neighbours,—but you cannot deceive Christ. The paint and varnish of a heartless Christianity will never stand the fire of that day. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. You will find that the eye which saw Achan and Gehazi, has read your secrets, and searched out your hidden things. You will hear those awful words, “Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?” Oh, tremble at the thought of the day of sifting and separation! Surely hypocrisy is a most losing game. Surely it never answers to act a part. Surely it never answers, like Ananias and Sapphira, to pretend to give God something, and yet to keep back your heart. It all fails at last. Your joy is but for a moment. Your hopes are no better than a dream. Oh, tremble:
tremble, and repent.
Reader, think on these things. Remember my question. Begin to meditate on it this very day. Are you wheat or chaff?
III. Let me show you, in the third place, the portion which Christ’s people shall receive, when He comes to purge His floor.
The text at the beginning tells us this in good and comfortable words. It tells us that Christ shall “gather His wheat into His garner.”
When the Lord Jesus comes the second time. He shall collect His believing people into a place of safety. He will send His angels and gather them from every quarter. The sea shall give up the dead that are in it and the graves the dead that are in them, and the living shall be changed. Not one poor sinner of mankind who has ever laid hold on Christ by faith shall be wanting in that company. Not one single grain of wheat shall be missing, and left outside when judgments fall upon a wicked world. There shall be a garner for the wheat of the earth and into that garner all the wheat shall be brought.
Ah, reader, it is a sweet and comfortable thought that “the Lord careth for the righteous.” But how much the Lord cares for them, I fear is little known, and dimly seen. They have their trials, beyond question, and these both many and great. The flesh is weak. The world is full of snares. The cross is heavy. The way is narrow. The companions are few. But still they have strong consolations, if their eyes were but open to see them. Like Hagar, they have a well of water near them, even in the wilderness, though they often do not find it out. Like Mary, they have Jesus standing by their side, though often they are not aware of it for very tears.
Bear with me, while I try to tell you something about Christ’s care for poor sinners that believe in Him. Alas, indeed, that it should be needful! But we live in a day of weak and feeble statements. The danger of the state of nature is feebly exposed. The privileges of the state of grace are feebly set forth. Hesitating souls are not encouraged. Disciples are not established and confirmed. The man out of Christ is not rightly alarmed. The man in Christ is not rightly built up. The one sleeps on, and seldom has his conscience pricked. The other creeps and crawls all his days, and never thoroughly understands the riches of his inheritance. Truly this is a sore disease and one that I would gladly help to cure. Truly it is a melancholy thing that the people of God should never go up to mount Pisgah and never know the length and breadth of their possessions. To be brethren of Christ and sons of God by adoption, to have full and perfect forgiveness and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, to have a place in the book of life and a name on the breast-plate of the Great High Priest in heaven; all these are glorious things indeed. But still they are not the whole of a believer’s portion. They are upper springs indeed but still there are nether springs beside.
The Lord takes pleasure in His believing people. Though black in their own eyes, they are comely and honourable in His. They are all fair. He sees no spot in them. Their weaknesses and shortcomings do not break off the union between Him and them. He chose them,
knowing all their hearts. He took them for His own with a perfect understanding of all their debts, liabilities, and infirmities, and He will never break His covenant and cast them off. When they fall. He will raise them again. When they wander. He will bring them back. Their prayers are pleasant to Him. As a father loves the first stammering efforts of his child to speak, so the Lord loves the poor feeble petitions of His people. He endorses them with His own mighty intercession, and gives them power on high. Their services are pleasant to Him. As a father delights in the first daisy that his child picks and brings him, even so the Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of His people to serve Him. Not a cup of cold water shall lose its reward. Not a word spoken in love shall ever be forgotten. He told the Hebrews of Noah’s faith, but not of his drunkenness; of Rahab’s faith, but not of her lie. Oh, reader, it is a blessed thing to be God’s wheat!
The Lord cares for His believing people in their lives. Their dwelling place is well known. The street, “called strait,” where Judas dwelt, and Paul lodged; the house by the sea-side, where Peter prayed, were all familiar to their Lord. None have such attendants as they have; angels rejoice when they are born again, angels ministers to them, and angels encamp around them. None have such food; their bread is given them, and their water sure, and they have meat to eat of which the world knows nothing. None have such company as they have; the Spirit dwelleth with them. The Father and the Son come to them and make their abode with them. Their steps are all ordered from grace to glory. They that persecute them persecute Christ Himself, and they that hurt them hurt the apple of the Lord’s eye. Their trials and temptations are all measured out by a wise Physician; not a grain of bitterness is ever mingled in their cup which is not good for the health of their souls. Their temptations, like Job’s, are all under God’s control; Satan cannot touch a hair of their head without their Lord’s permission, nor even tempt them above that which they shall be able to bear. As a father pitieth his own children, so does the Lord pity them that fear Him. He never afflicts them willingly. He leads them by the right way. He withholds nothing that is really for their good. Come what will, there is always a needs-be. When they are placed in the furnace, it is that they may be purified. When they are chastened, it is that they may become more holy. When they are pruned, it is to make them more fruitful. When they are transplanted from place to place, it is that they may bloom more brightly. All things are continually working together for their good. Like the bee they extract sweetness even out of the bitterest flowers. Ah, reader, it is a blessed thing to be Christ’s wheat!
The Lord cares for His believing people in their deaths. Their times are all in the Lord’s hand. The hairs of their heads are all lumbered and not one can ever fall to the ground without their Father. They are kept on earth till they are ripe and ready for glory and not one moment longer. When they have had sun and rain enough, wind and storm enough, cold and heat enough; when the
ear is perfected; then, and not till then, the sickle is put in. They are all immortal till their work is done. There is not a disease that can loosen the pins of their tabernacle, until the Lord gives the word. A thousand may fall at their right hand but there is not a plague that can touch them till the Lord sees good. There is not a physician that can keep them alive when the Lord gives the word. When they come to their death-bed, the Everlasting Arms are round about them and make all their bed in their sickness. When they die, they die like Moses, according to the word of the Lord, at the right time and in the right way. And when they breathe their last, they fall asleep in Christ and are at once carried, like Lazarus, into Abraham’s bosom. Ah, reader, it is a blessed thing to be Christ’s wheat! When the sun of other men is setting, the sun of the believer is rising. When other men are laying aside their honours, he is putting his on. Death locks the door on the unbeliever, and shuts him out from hope. But death opens the door to the believers, and lets him into paradise.
And the Lord will care for His believing people in the dreadful day of His appearing. The flaming fire shall not come nigh them. The voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall proclaim no terrors to their ears. Sleeping or waking, quick or dead, mouldering in the coffin, or standing at the post of daily duty; believers shall be secure and unmoved. They shall lift up their heads with joy when they see redemption drawing nigh. They shall be changed and put on their beautiful garments in the twinkling of an eye. They shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Jesus will do nothing to a sin-laden world till all His people are safe. There was an ark for Noah when the flood began. There was a Zoar for Lot when the fire fell on Sodom. There was a Pella for early Christians when Jerusalem was besieged. There was a Zurich for English Reformers when Popish Mary came to the throne. And there will be a garner for all the wheat of the earth in the last day. Ah, reader, it is a blessed thing to be Christ’s wheat!
I often wonder at the miserable faithlessness of those among us who are believers. Next to the hardness of the unconverted heart, I call it one of the greatest wonders in the world. I wonder that with such mighty reasons for confidence we can still be so full of doubts. I marvel, above all things, how any can deny the doctrine that Christ’s people persevere unto the end, and can fancy that He who loved them so as to die for them upon the cross, will ever let them be cast away. I cannot think so. I do not believe the Lord Jesus will ever lose one of His flock. He will not let Satan pluck away from Him so much as one sick lamb. He will not allow one bone of His mystical body to be broken. He will not suffer one jewel to fall from His crown. He and His bride have been once joined in an everlasting covenant and they shall never, never be put asunder. The trophies won by earthly conquerors have often been wrested from them and carried off; but this shall never be said of the trophies of Him who triumphed for us on the cross. “My sheep,” He says, “shall never perish.” (John 10.28.) I take my stand on that text. I know not how it can be evaded. If words have any meaning, the perseverance of Christ’s people is there.
I do not believe when David had rescued the lamb from the paws of the lion, that he left it weak and wounded to perish in the wilderness. I cannot believe when the Lord Jesus has delivered a soul from the snare of the devil that He will ever leave that soul to take his chance, and wrestle on in his own feebleness against sin, the devil, and the world.
I dare be sure, if you were present at a shipwreck, and seeing some helpless child tossing on the waves, were to plunge into the sea, and save him at the risk of your own life; I dare be sure you would not be content with merely bringing that child safe to shore. You would not lay him down when you had reached the land and say, “I will do no more. He is weak, he is insensible, he is cold: it matters not; I have done enough. I have delivered him from the waters, he is not drowned.” You would not do it. You would not say so. You would not treat that child in such a manner. You would lift him in your arms. You would carry him to the nearest house. You would try to bring back warmth and animation. You would use every means to restore health and vigour. You would never leave him till his recovery was a certain thing.
And can you suppose the Lord Jesus Christ is less merciful or less compassionate? Can you think He would suffer on the cross and die and yet leave it uncertain whether believers in Him would be saved? Can you think He would wrestle with death and hell and go down to the grave for our sakes, and yet allow our eternal life to hang on such a thread as our poor miserable endeavours.
Oh no! He does not do so. He is a perfect and complete Saviour. Those whom He loves. He loves unto the end. Those whom He washes in His blood. He never leaves nor forsakes. He puts His fear into their hearts so that they shall not depart from Him. Where He begins a work, there He also finishes. All whom He transplants into His garden on earth. He transplants sooner or later into paradise. All whom He quickens by His spirit, He wi