Sweet cares for love or friend Which ever heavenward tend, Too deep and true and tender to have on earth their end.
These in the soul do breed Thoughts which, at last, shall lead To some clear, firm assurance of a satisfying creed.^
2. If our faith is dim and variable, so was that of those who walked with Christ when He was on earth. " 0 ye of little faith," " 0 faithless generation," " If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed," said our Lord. But to whom ? To the self- complacent Scribes and Pharisees ? To the thoughtless, ignorant crowd ? No ; He thus spoke to His disciples. His nearest of kin " believed not on him." The apostles " as yet believed not
^ Lewis Morris, Poems (The Muses' Library), 114.
214 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
the Scriptures." It was not only the two on the road to Emmaus who were " slow to believe." We will hope, then, though our faith be almost nothing, that the light will grow. The perfect day will not be here, but it will be hereafter.
For deep in many a brave, though bleeding heart, There lurks a yearning for the Healer's face — A yearning to be free from hint and guess. To take the blessings Christ is fain to give : To all who dare not with their conscience strive, To all who burn for this most dear success, Faith shall be born !
3. Many are the times in our own lives, in the lives of our friends, when we cannot tell scoffers or even ourselves where God is. Perhaps it is bodily pain or moral guilt that clouds our vision ; or the sin and suffering everywhere visible ask us, " Where is now thy God ? " At such times we make a great mistake if we look for comfort in ourselves ; for this is just the quarter whence the mists and clouds spring which hide God from us. Nor should we too much blame ourselves, as if mourning after an absent God always indicated want of love in us ; for a man may think more of God and be more anxious to serve Him while doubting His existence, and in the anguish of his soul crying for light, than while resting comfortably in a taken-for-granted creed and coldly serving Him. We know that even to Him whose meat it was to do God's will, and who loved His father as only He could, there came in His dying agony a moment of mysterious forsakenness — " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? "
^ A conscientious, intelligent woman, who had been in deep distress for many weeks, at last said to the clergyman who visited her, "Peace with God I know nothing about, but I have done quarrelling with Him. I have resolved to submit to God and serve Him, and do all the good I can while I live, and then go to hell as I deserve." The clergyman smiled and quietly remarked, "You will find it hard to go to hell in that way." The poor woman soon found that her willing submission to God brought her lasting peace. She had found the true religion, which is to know Christ's will and to do it without stopping to bargain for the ready pay of joy and happiness.^
1 E. J. Hardy.
ST. MARK 215
ii. His Faith. " I believe."
1. In this particular instance, as in all instances, a man's belief is of vastly greater significance than his unbelief ; and, besides that, it is only by one's distinct possession of belief that one is ever able to get the letter of unbelief. So that clearly it is the first of the two clauses rather than the second that makes prior claim to our thought and interest. It is to the moral and intellectual credit of the man in question that he was thoughtful enough to be able to state his case in a manner at once so simple and thorough.
^ One of the outstanding characteristics of the present age is the extent to which believers doubt, and doubters believe. This strange blending of earnest faith and honest doubt is a great puzzle to some thinkers, and a source of painful anxiety to others. To those who love truth above everything, and believe in its final victory, it is a welcome sign of the times, inasmuch as it proves that men think on these problems; and the Christian faith is never in danger when men exercise their mind upon it. Such men will often find themselves among shadows, and some of their discoveries during the progress of their research will startle and even frighten them ; but if they think on, and continue the quest, every step they advance will bring them nearer the clarified and revealing light which surrounds the Person and the presence of the Christ, and farther from the shadows where He is only dimly known.^ We should not deprecate thoughtful doubt ; we should say with Browning :
Eather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without. Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.
2. What is Faith in its essence — this mysterious power which brought the man an answer to his prayer ? Faith in its essence is the power by which we grasp the future, the unseen, the infinite, the eternal ; and in its application it is a principle of knowledge, a principle of power, a principle of action. (1) It is a principle of knowledge. Kevelation tells us what we can know of the invisible and eternal world, and faith makes