Saving faith

(J. A. James, "The Young Man's Friend
and Guide Through Life to Immortality")

Saving faith expresses itself not only in worship,
in religious zeal, in charity to the poor--but in a
systematic and strong restraint upon the passions,
imagination, temper, and appetites.

Saving faith will ensure you . . .
  the protection of omnipotence;
  the guidance of omniscience;
  the companionship of omnipresence;
  the supplies of all-sufficiency.

Saving faith will fill your intellect with the thoughts
of God's own mind, and your soul with the joy of
God's own heart--and thus furnish you at once with
the supreme truth, and the chief good.

Saving faith will mingle its own heavenly
pleasures with the pure delights of earth.

Saving faith will preserve you equally from the snares
of prosperity, and the withering blasts of adversity.

Saving faith will be . . .
  your nurse in sickness,
  your companion in solitude, and
  your preserver amid the corruptions of society.

Saving faith will be your shield against
temptations to sin, and the insidious
attacks of infidelity and false philosophy.

Saving faith will be . . .
  the guide of your youth,
  the protector of your matured life,
  and the prop of your old age.

Saving faith will prepare you for early death, or
for living until old age. It will smooth the pillow
of death, by giving you immortal hopes amid the
dissolution of nature. It will rise with you from the
grave in that day when death shall be swallowed
up in victory, and will put you in possession of
glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life!