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which Boaz welcomes Euth, when he prays for her that the God of Israel may reward her, " under whose wings thou art come to trust."
Such a figure as that is worth tomes of theological lectures about the true nature of faith, telling us, as it does, by means of a picture which says a great deal more than many a treatise, that faith is something very different from a cold-blooded act of believing in the truth of certain propositions ; that it is the flight of the soul — knowing itself to be in peril, and naked, and un- armed— into the strong Fortress.
What is it that keeps a man safe when he thus has around him the walls of some citadel ? Is it himself, is it the act by which he took refuge, or is it the battlements behind which he crouches ? So in faith — which is more than a process of a man's understanding, and is not merely the saying, " Yes, I believe all that is in the Bible is true ; at any rate, it is not for me to con- tradict it," but is the running of the man, when he knows himself to be in danger, into the very arms of God — it is not the running that makes him safe, but it is the arms to which he runs.
^ The man that stands with his back against an oak-tree is held fism, not because of his own strength, but because of that on which he leans. There is a beautiful story of a heathen convert who said to a missionary's wife, who had felt faint and asked that she might lean for a space on her stronger arm, " If you love me, lean hard." That is what God says to us, " If you love Me, lean hard." And if you do, because He is at your right hand, you will not be moved. It is not insanity ; it is not arrogance ; it is simple faith, to look our enemies in the eyes, and to feel sure that they cannot touch us. " Trust in Jehovah ; so shall ye be established." Eest on the Lord, and ye shall rest indeed.^
^ Dr. Cochran became the great character of Urumia and of western Persia. A Moslem lady of high rank in the town once remarked, as he was starting away, "We always feel that the city is perfectly safe when Dr. Cochran is here." In 1887 Mrs. Cochran wrote : " It is wonderful what confidence these people have in us, and even in our people. The Governor gave Joe (Dr. Cochran) his gold watch to send to Europe to be repaired. Joe told him there was no chance to send it unless by some of our Nestorians as far as Constantinople, and there would be several changes of hands, and perhaps it would not be safe. ' Oh yes,' said he, ' the hands of all your people are good.' " ^
^ A. Maclaren. ^ R. E. Speer, The Foreign Doctor, 298.
PSALM IX. lo 253
There is no unbelief ! Whoever plants a seed beneath a sod, And waits to see it push away the clod, He trusts in God,
Whoever says, when clouds are in the sky — "Be patient, heart: light breaketh by-and-bye," Trusts the Most High.
Whoever sees, 'neath winter's field of snow, The silent harvest of the future grow, God's power must know.
Whoever lies down on his couch to sleep, Content to lock each sense in slumber deep, Knows God will keep.
There is no unbelief! And day by day, and night, unconsciously. The heart lives by that faith the lips deny — God knoweth why.^
2. The more fully we know God, the more implicitly shall we trust Him. He will draw out our affection and confidence if we really know and understand Him. Trust is from the same root as truth — true, truer, truest — trust. It is repose upon God's truth. Faith rests on His faithfulness. Hence the more we know of His truth and faithfulness the more perfectly do we rest and repose upon them. Trust is the response to His attraction, but we need to come within the range of that attraction. His Word He has magnified above all His name as the grand mirror of Himself. Having the written and living Word together, we have no reason to ask, " Show us the Father." In the Scriptures and in the Lord Jesus Christ we have a complete exhibition of God's Being.
^ Man, whilst ignorant of God, is always leaning on an arm of flesh. See God's ancient people, how continually were even they, notwithstanding all their advantages, trusting in the creature, rather than in God. To Egypt or Assyria they looked in their troubles, rather than to their heavenly Protector. Indeed, there was not any thing on which they would not rely
^ Lytton.
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rather than on God. But, when they were made sensible of their folly, and had discovered the real character of God, they instantly renounced all these false confidences, saying, "Asshur shall not save us ; we will not ride upon horses ; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. Ye are our gods : for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." The same proneness to creature-con- fidence is found amongst ourselves. Who does not, at first, rely on his own wisdom to guide him, his own strength to support him, and his own goodness to procure for him acceptance with God ? But in conversion we learn where alone our hope is to be placed, even in " God, who worketh all our works in us," and " in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." This was the effect of conversion in St. Paul, who accounted all his former attainments to be but " loss for Christ, and desired to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which was of the law, but the righteousness which was of God by faith in Christ." And the same effect in- variably follows from a discovery of God as reconciled to us in Christ Jesus.^