The Fruit of Faith

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Assurance is rather the fruit of faith than faith itself; it is in faith, as the flower is in the root. Faith in time, after much communion with God, acquaintance with the Lord, and experience of His dealings with the soul, may flourish into assurance; but as the root truly lives before the flower appears, and continues when the flower has shed its beautiful leaves and is gone again, so does true justifying faith live before assurance comes and after it disappears. Assurance is, as it were, the cream of faith. Now there is milk before cream; this cream does not appear until after the milk has stood for some time; and there remains milk after the cream is skimmed off. How many of the precious saints of God might one shut out from being believers if their faith did not reach to that which amounts to assurance!

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