Read without ads and support Scribd by becoming a Scribd Premium Reader.
See Premium Plans
 
REALITY AD RAGE I FAITH
BY W. L. WATKISO
And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.And the Lord said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustardseed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up,and be thou planted in the sea; and it would have obeyed you. — Luke xvii. 5, 6.AS a rule we are more anxious about the range/of our faith than about its reality. We aremost concerned that faith should be commen-surate with the great creeds ; and if we find ourselvesunable to receive this article or that, we regard our-selves as excluded from the household of faith. Doesnot our Lord in the text teach that the matter of firstimport is not the comprehensiveness or intensity of faith, but its reality ? Faith, however limited or feeble,if only genuine and vital, is full of efficacy. A grainof genuine trust in the righteous God, in the super-natural universe, in the divine government, in the vir-tue of the Cross, in the power of grace, in the lifeeverlasting, contains within itself all virtue and prom-ise. A hundred guineas were recently refused for amicroscopic speck of the pollen of a rare orchid, soprecious is the dust of beauty. The fact is, that micro-scopic speck of pollen would have enabled its pur-210REALITY AD RAGE I FAITH 211chaser to produce no one knows what abundance of hybrid and original orchids ; to have adorned his own
 
and a thousand other conservatories with new anddehghtful flowers. So our Lord teaches that out of a microscopic speck of genuine faith in God, in Hismost holy Word, in His eternal promise in GiristJesus, will spring purity and peace, strength and vic-tory, high character and heroic service — in this worldall the graces of the Spirit, and in the next all theflowers and fruits of paradise. A vague, passive faiththat is neither belief nor disbelief is worth little ;a sterling faith, however weak and hesitating, holdsthe potency and promise of universal grace andglory.A religious faith that is as a grain of mustard seedgreatly distinguishes its possessor, and invests himwith a glorious moral mastery. How wonderful it iswhen a man is born with a grain of poetry in hisbrain ! That fact dififerentiates him from the vast ma- jority of men, and gives to his words and work charmand power. In his imagination common things aremysteriously enhanced, the splendour of nature unseenby other eyes dazzles his, and human life, so prosaicto the mass, is romantic to one in whose soul shinesthe poetic gleam. We may inherit only a grain of poetry, yet that mystic atom makes an almost infinitedifiference; the world that otherwise were a dust-heapis a jewel-heap, and life that otherwise were dark anddull is sprinkled with azure and gold. And this meredust of poetry in the brain creates the picture, themusic, the song, the oration about which men talk andwhich they do not willingly let die. What a wonderful212 REALITY AD RAGE I FAITHgift is a spark of genius! It is indefinable, elusive,incalculable, yet the difference that it establishes be-tween men is immense; they who possess it are seerslooking straight into the secret of things, and by their
 
knowledge of the laws and forces of nature they makeus masters of the situation. A spark of genius con-stitutes a unique personality, one gifted with visionand sovereign skill, a miracle-worker in the naturalsphere.So our Lord declares it to be with the believer whosefaith is "as a grain of mustard seed." It is far frombeing a completed faculty or exercise, but the least inthe kingdom of God have in their actual, sympathetic,transforming confidence in a higher world a most pre-cious source of vision and energy. What the grain of poetry or the spark of genius is in the mental world,the gleam of spiritual faith is in all that pertains to thehigher life of man. One vivid vision of God — Hisgoodness, holiness, nearness ; one real sight of theSaviour's all-sufficing merit and love ; one heartfeltexperience of the virtue of heavenly grace ; one flashof the eternity which awaits us and which is so surelyours, — these, or any of these, inspire a power whichcan remove mountains, reveal all life in a new light,and bring into the soul consolations and hopes farbeyond anything known to the natural man. The mainthing is not to believe in many propositions faintly anddoubtfully, but to get a fast grip upon the truths bywhich men live. All the great doctrines of salvationare related, and hang together by secret bonds ; andif we once get hold of any of these, we may be surethat the Spirit of truth will in due season lead us intoREALITY AD RAGE I FAITH 213the whole truth. Having seen "His star," all fainterstars and nebulas on the far horizon may be trusted indue time to resolve themselves into bright constella-tions. We have only to be afraid when we hold noone saving truth with any clearness or sincerity.
Search
Search History:
Searching...
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
  • p.
    • Notes
    Load more