THERE are two extremes in religion, equally false and equally fatal. And there are two classes of hypocrites that occupy these two extremes. The first class make religion consist altogether in the belief of certain abstract doctrines, or what they call faith, and lay little or no stress on good works. The other class make religion to consist altogether in good works, (I mean dead works,) and lay little or no stress on faith in Jesus Christ, but hope for salvation by their own deeds. The Jews belonged generally to the last mentioned class. Their religious teachers taught them that they would be saved by obedience to the ceremonial law. And therefore, when Paul began to preach, he seems to have attacked more especially this error of the Jews. He was determined to carry the main question, that men are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, in opposition to the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees, that salvation is by obedience to law. And he pressed this point so earnestly, in his preaching and in his epistles, that he carried it, and settled the faith of the church in the great doctrine of justification by faith. And then certain individuals in the church laid hold of this doctrine and carried it to the opposite extreme, and maintained that men are saved by faith altogether, irrespective of works of any kind. They overlooked the plain principle, that genuine faith always results in good works, and is itself a good work. -Charles G. Finney GET MORE BOOKS AT REVIVALPRESS.NET

Excerpt from Lectures to Professing Christians I said that these two extremes, that which makes relig ion to consist altogether m Outward works and that which makes it consist altogether in faith, are equally false and equally fatal. Those who make religion consist altogethei' in good works, overlook the fact that works themselves are not acceptable to God unless they proceed from faith. For without faith it is impossible to please him. And those who make, religion consist altogether in faith, overlook the fact that true faith always works by love, and invariably produces the works of love. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

LECTURES TO PROFESSING CHRISTIANS. Originally Presented by CHARLES G FINNEY (1878)DR. ROBERT K. TESKE, JR., D.D.Edited and Annotated byDr. Robert K. Teske, Jr., D.D.