Words Old and New #5

Believing the gospel and absolute despair of salvation are plainly incompatible states of mind. A man may believe what men falsely call the gospel and what he mistakenly thinks the gospel, and yet remain a stranger to the hope of eternal life. A man may think that he believes what is really the gospel, while he only speculates about it, and remain a stranger to the hope of eternal life. But the real gospel cannot be really believed without, in the degree in which it is believed, producing hope.

Dr. John Brown (1785-1858), Words Old and New ~ Horatius Bonar, Banner of Truth, page 330.