Concerning Faith

I have recently started reading through Being Born Again by John Angell James. This book was a little hard to find, it was originally titled The Anxious Inquirer. This book was given to soldiers in the Confederate Army along with many other tracks and books. This book is meant to be used to point someone who is anxious about their soul to the Scriptures. I have found many things the author points out are good for someone who has already placed their hope in Christ as well. Here are a few lines starting with some words on faith. James writes:

"See then the importance, the tremendous importance, of faith in Christ. It is the hinge on which salvation turns; it is that, without which all knowledge, and all impressions, and all convictions, and all duties, will leave us short of heaven at last. Fix it deeply in your mind, therefore, that FAITH IS THE SAVING GRACE, or in other words, it is that state of mind with which salvation is connected; being brought into this state, you would be saved though you died the next hour, and without this you would not be saved, even had you been for years under the deepest concern."

"Faith is not a belief in your own personal religion--this is the assurance of hope--but it is a belief that God loves sinners, and that Christ died for sinners, and for you among the rest; it is not a belief that you are a real Christian, but that Christ is willing to give you all the blessings included in that term; it is the belief of something out of yourself, but still of something concerning yourself. The object of faith is the work of Christ for you, not the work of the Spirit in you. It is of great consequence that you should attend to this, because many are apt to confound these things. If I promise a man alms, and he really believes what I say, and expects relief, I, in the act of promising him, am the object of his faith, and not the state of his own mind in the act of believing. If therefore you would have faith, or possessing it, would have it strengthened, you must fix and keep your eye on the testimony of Christ which you find in the gospel."

Lastly James writes about prayer:

"Prayer is the first step in the divine life, prayer the second, prayer the third, and indeed it is necessary through the whole Christian course."