OLD MR. WELLS YOU CAN (LELAND)

In my travels, and among my acquaintances, I have heard much said about a Saviour, by the name of Well’s you can; but have never yet seen him,
the house where he lives, nor the man who entertains him: and I am almost in despair of ever finding him below the sun. His accounts of him are these: “If I do as well as I can, I believe the Lord will accept me, and if you do as well as you can, you will be saved.” If the salvation of the soul depends upon our doing as well as we can, who then can be saved?

If a man faults once in his life from doing as well as he can, the chance is over with him; and where is the man to be found, who can lay his hand upon his breast and conscientiously declare, that he has at all times, and in all cases done as well as he could? If such a man cannot be found, it follows that well as you can, is only an ideal, not a real Saviour.

It is a saying replete with truth that those men who place the greatest hope for heaven on doing as well as they can are more negligent in good works than those who detest themselves as the vilest of the vile and trust alone in the mercy of God through the blood of the cross. Pharisees may boast of good works, but humble penitents perform them. Men, who are taught of God, instead of doing one good work to make atonement for a bad deed, see so much pollution in their best works that they implore the pardoning blood of Christ to wash their works as well as their souls.

John Leland