Mr. M'Laren and Mr. Gustard were both noted preachers in Edinburgh. When Mr. M'Laren was dying, Mr. Gustard paid him a visit and put the question to him: "What are you doing, brother?”
M'Laren's answer was, "I'll tell you what I'm doing, brother! I am gathering together all my prayers, all my sermons, all my good deeds, all my ill deeds. I am going to throw them all overboard, and swim to glory on the plank of free grace!”
Sermons, prayers and good works, are all well in the place which God intended they should occupy; but they are worse than worthless, they are actually ruinous, as a foundation to rest our eternal hopes upon. It is one of the most important doctrines of the Bible that "by grace are ye saved, through faith." Then, when this salvation is ours, "faith worketh by love.”