almost of necessity, must be the influence of mere fear in reforming It is impossible to make them exercise faith in Christ from any such motive. It does not imply nor admit the idea of submission to the law as a holy law. Saving faith implies heart surrender. It is yielding absolutely to Christ's method of cure. We are told that Dr. John McClintock once fell seriously ill in Paris. He summoned an eminent physician, who, after careful examination, convinced him that he was about to be very sick, but by submitting implicitly to treatment, would be carried safely through. "Are you willing to commit your case to my hands?" inquired the physician. "I am," was the doctor's response. "Very well, then," said the physician, "hand over your purse!" The doctor was startled, wondered whether he had not fallen into the hands of a robber. His faith for the moment was severely tried, but seeing no alternative, he complied. His money, watch, and all valuables passed into the physician's hands, and then, calmly and trustfully settling down, he composed himself for protracted sickness and careful treatment. Erelong he lapsed into unconsciousness, remaining so for many days, but was brought in due time to perfect health and strength. Behold an illustration of saving faith! It means absolute surrender of every thing that hinders peaceful trust in Christ. It is a willingness to be spiritually cured at the hands of the Great Physician. It is trust— trust in Christ as a Savior, trust of ourselves to Christ for salvation— trust for grace to do his will, strength to perform his work, and a spirit of obedience unto the end. Saving faith implies obedience. "If a disciple," says Bishop F. D. Huntingdon, "thinks he can have faith, and rest in it, stopping short of obedience, what he has is not faith.' It is a fiction. If a disciple thinks he can practice obedience' without faith, it is not God that he is obeying. Christ lays as much stress on obedience as Moses does, only it is a higher and purer obedience, having more love in it and less fear." This is what disarms the skeptic in his objection that Christianity makes salvation depend upon a bare intellectual act, without reference to character or conduct. The very opposite is the No faith saves which does not involve submission to the highest authority in the universe, and the establishment in the heart of those moral principles which produce perfect rectitude of life. Faith shuts us up into Christ; it enthrones Christ within us. It makes Christ and the believer one. Through this oneness there is righteousness. In union and communion with the righteous One, the soul walks in all the commandments of the Lord blameless. It obeys the divine case. calls, and gladly heeds the Divine commands. Sin is its burden, Christ its desire. The blessed law is written on the heart, implanted deep within. It is "The law of liberty from sin, The perfect law of love." VARIOUS TESTIMONIES. The substance of faith is not a fact which we can not explain away, or a conclusion which we can not escape, but the personal apprehension of a living, loving Friend. Christ makes himself known in each believer's heart by words of peace. (Prof. Brooke Foss Westcott, D. D., D. C. L.) With the Old Testament saints faith was a firm reliance on God, and confidence in the fulfillment of his promises." (Gen. xv, 6; Hab. ii, 4; Heb. xi, 1, 6.) It was a spirit of uprightness, constancy, fidelity, or trustworthiness. In the New Testament believers are called "the faithful," but the word faith has "the active meaning, trust" (John xiv, 1), or "hovers between" the active and passive senses, "the frame of mind which relies on another, and the frame of mind which can be relied on." (Lightfoot.) The object of this faith is not a mere proposition, but a personthe God of the promises, or the promised One-Jesus Christ. Those who credit what he says, or what is said about him, must have faith in him. To believe a saying is to accept it as true, to believe a person is to accept him as true; that is, as trustworthy. Our Lord offers himself as the object of faith, first, perhaps, directly to the man restored to sight (John ix, 35), but indirectly often, and in various ways (John iii, 16, 36; iv, 26; vi, 29, 40). It is not enough to believe in his word, or miracles, or Messiahship, or teachings (John ii, 22, 23), except as this implies belief in his name or himself (John i, 12; iii, 18; viii, 30; 1 John v, 13). "Jesus Christ created the gospel by his work: he preached the gospel by his words: but he is the gospel himself." (Prof. James T. Hyde.) Faith is trust in a person. But we are not to exact that he in whom it exists should have satisfied himself minutely as to every part of the object toward which his faith is directed. It is much more important that faith should be sincere than that it should be fully informed. (Fremantle.) He who will not believe in the God whom he can not understand-let him inquire what he understands of himself. Is he not here also like a child, who can ask more questions than can be answered? Born but as yesterday, he knows not whence; existing, he knows not how; feeling a life within him, which he can neither prolong nor protect from danger, nor even know, but in its effects: he may imagine himself, if he will, to be an empty bubble on the ocean of unbounded Being; and may fancy the winds of that ocean to be the iron breath of unfeeling, unpitying fate. But in all the ignorance which is common to man, in all the arrogance of theories, he never doubts that he exists, nor hesitates to regard himself as a personal being. The world of phenomena convinces him of this truth: let him look again to that world, and study it; for it tells him no less clearly there is a living and a personal God. (R. A. Thompson.) There is a God, holy and changeless. He is. From eternity to eternity, he is. On this Rock will I rest. On this Rock will I rest. (Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss.) Christian faith is the faith of a transaction. It is not the committing of one's thought in assent to any proposition, but the trusting of one's being to a being, there to be rested, kept, guided, molded, governed, and possessed forever. (Bushnell.) Is it not indeed the distinguishing feature of the Christian system, that it places the foundation of salvation in living relations with a living person, rather than in the adoption of opinions or habits? that under it the believer is, not the man who maintains the doctrine of the Trinity, or holds justification by faith, but the man who has "come to" Christ, and "abides in" him? "Our faith is not in a name which we learn, but in a person whom we know; not in a scheme of salvation, but in a living Savior." (Bernard.) If faith were to have no fruition, it would still possess a measureless value. If it were only a dream, it would afford us a higher motive than doubt. To believe in heaven, whether there be a heaven or no, is to enjoy a heavenly frame of mind to the last moment of life, when our belief shall fade away and we shall fade with it. If the Christian's trust is not well founded, then it is undeniably true that the best of characters can be built without any foundation at all, and we are like the starving soldier who dreamed that he sat at a well-laden banquet-board, and who, on waking, found himself really nourished by imaginary food. If agnosticism be true, then the truth logically produces a life which can not be compared with another life which is the logical outcome of an error. Real greatness of soul is naturally developed by faith in Christ. No one has ever denied this statement. (Geo. H. Hepworth, D. D.) Saving faith is that confiding and affectionate belief in the person and work of Christ, which affects the character and life, and makes a man a true Christian. It is not works. It is a constant act of the mind and heart of the saint. Abraham's going out not knowing whither he went, or the offering of his son, was not his faith, but the result of faith, the fruit of faith. Walking with God was not Enoch's faith. Placing the little ark in the flags of the Nile was not the faith of Moses' parents. The surrender of Egypt was not Moses' faith. The building of the ark was not Noah's faith. The same thing holds true of every worthy of all dispensations. It was a living, active reliance in Christ, in the hearts of the apostles, that led them to follow and obey him. (H. F. A. Patterson.) They do not "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," was Paul's answer to the most important question that human lips can utter. Not in Christianity, observe, but on Christ. It is not enough to believe in the Christ described in the New Testament. Millions of unconverted people do this, just as they believe in Wilberforce as a noble philanthropist, or in Lincoln as an unselfish patriot. But these, whose judgments assent to Christ's wonderful beauty of character, do not intrust their souls to him as an atoning Redeemer. rely on what he has done for them, or promises to do. put themselves into such spiritual connection with him that they draw from his Divine life their own inner life, as a grape cluster draws its substance from the vine. When the miner looks at the rope which is to lower him into the deep mine, he may coolly say to himself: “I have faith in that rope. It looks well-made and strong." That is his opinion; but when he grasps it and swings down by it into the dark, yawning chasm, then he is believing on the rope. This is more than opinion; it is a voluntary transaction. The miner just lets go of his old foothold, and bears his entire weight on those well-braided strands of hemp. Faith is the cling to the rope, but it is the rope itself which supports him. When a human soul lets go of every other reliance in the wide universe, and hangs entirely upon what Jesus has done and can do for him, then that soul "believes on Christ." To him the believer intrusts hinself for guidance, for pardon, for strength, and for ultimate admission into the exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (Theodore L. Cuyler.) The faith that saves, that claims the promise, that relies and walks out on God's word, must precede the consciousness or interior witness of possession. There can be no room for saving faith after visible or tangible manifestations, or after the blessing is received. It is a matter of knowledge then. Mr. Fletcher says: "Beware of looking for any peace or joy previous to your believing, and let this be uppermost in your mind." You say: "I do not see any evidence, I do not feel any evidence that I receive the blessing." If you have completely committed yourself to God, you are to believe, and have no right to doubt God's word because of any absence of feeling. Your faith for salvation is not to rest upon sight or feeling. Seeing, feeling, and possessing the evidences of salvation must be subsequent to its reception. The blessing is conditioned on faith, and this faith must rest on the truth of God, as the evidences of possessing the blessing can not exist before the blessing is received. Dr. True says: "I know of no way to obtain this salvation, but to follow the exact directions given: Believe that ye receive, and you shall have."" Again, he says: "You need not be afraid to believe that you receive while you pray; for, according to the testimony of thousands, you will thereupon receive the direct witness of the Spirit. This is what you have hoped to receive first, in order to believe; but it comes, if it comes at all, as the confirmation of your faith." We We can obtain salvation only by believing and trusting God. And an evangelical belief and trust in God can be exercised only in connection with complete submission to him. FAITH. "Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief." (Mark ix, 21.) Lord, teach me how to trust in thee, And how less unbelieving be— To place on thine unerring care Those most I love, and leave them there. For Faith is not a mere belief "T is grasping thee, when all are gone; "T is calm assurance, "All is well!" |