The Golden Series.
I. It is no one grace which makes a Christian. A man may have great knowledge, but if he wants charity, it profits nothing, or if he be a man of courage, but without godliness, he is an hero, but he is not a saint.
II. Nor does any number of excellences united make a Christian, unless they be excellences added to faith. It is faith which makes the dead soul a living one, and so susceptible of every excellence. It is faith which joins the worldling to the Lord Jesus, and so makes him concordant with the Saviour, and inclined toward all good. Whatever courses there may be in the structure, faith is the foundation; whatever tints of splendour may variegate the robe of many colours, faith is the mordant which absorbs and fixes them all; whatever graces may move in the harmonious choir, faith occupies the forefront, and is the leader of them all.
III. But where there is faith all that is needful in order to possess any other grace is diligence. Give all diligence, and add. On the one hand, diligence is needful. These graces will not come without effort, nor remain without culture, and there are some of them in which particular Christians never become conspicuous; but, with God's blessing and the help of His Holy Spirit, diligence is sure to succeed. Moral worth may be compared to one of those lofty mountains up the sides of which there is only one path practicable, in other words, which you can only scale if you set out from the proper starting-point. Other slopes may look more gentle and inviting, but they end in impassable chasms or impassable precipices. But the man who takes the Gospel for his starting-point, who sets out in the name and in the strength of the Lord Jesus there is no ascent of temperance, brotherly kindness, or godliness so steep but he may one day find himself on the summit. And with half the effort which some expend on growing rich or learned all of us might become holy, devout, and heavenly-minded.
J. Hamilton, Works,vol. v., p. 329.