the faith which knits me to God is my act, and I am responsible for
it.

But yet it is not a work, just because it is a ceasing from my own
works, and going out from myself that He may enter in. Only remember,
when we say, 'Not by works of righteousness, but by the faith of
Christ,' we are but proclaiming that the inward man must exercise that
act of self-abnegation and confession of its own impotence, and
ceasing from all reliance on anything which it does, whereby, and
whereby alone, it can be knit to God. 'Labour not for the meat that
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto eternal life.... This
is the work of God, that ye believe.' You are responsible for doing
that, or for not doing it.

II. Secondly, faith, and not a multitude of separate acts, is what
pleases God.

Mark the difference between the form of the question and that of the
answer. The people say, 'What are we to do that we may work the
_works_ of God?' Christ answers in the singular: 'This is the _work_.'
They thought of a great variety of observances and deeds. He gathers
them all up into one. They thought of a pile, and that the higher it
rose the more likely they were to be accepted. He unified the
requirement, and He brought it all down to this one act, in which all
other acts are included, and on which alone the whole weight of a
man's salvation is to rest. 'What shall we do that we might work the
works of God?' is a question asked in all sorts of ways, by the hearts
of men all round about us; and what a babble of answers comes! The
priest says, 'Rites and ceremonies.' The thinker says, 'Culture,
education.' The moralist says, 'Do this, that, and the other thing,'