(1) It is the act of personal trust in Jesus as a living Person, in Jesus as the personal Manifestation of God the Father to the soul of Man. It is not believing this or that about Him — the in- tellectual side of Faith; it is casting ourselves upon Him, the Unseen, as a Eeality, as the Eeality, as the Eeality of God.
^ Never shall I forget how in my early years I was distressed as to the meaning of the word " believe " as used in Scripture. It seemed to me to have a mysterious significance, associated with experiences that no ordinary youth could possibly have. I felt that if I myself should ever believe on Jesus Christ it must be through some strange inworking whereby I should be lifted into special ecstasies, and given special visions. But one day I came upon the statement that the word '* believe " is made up of two old words " by " and " live," that to believe on a person is to " by-live " or " live-by " that person, that if I believe in Washington I live by the spirit that animated Washington, and that if I believe in Jesus Christ I live by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Whether or not this statement concerning the origin of the word stands the test of linguistic criticism is of minor significance; the fact remains, and ever will remain, whatever linguistic criticism may say, that any man who lives by another })elieves in that other. And when I realized this fact and I simply started out to do what I thought Jesus Christ would have me do in my place and in my time, I am sure that I began to answer to God's desire, and that then in those earliest moments, whether I lived or whether I died, I was in God's sight a believer.^
(2) To trust Christ is not merely to believe with the intellect the truth about Him, but to commit our hearts to His keeping. What all that is going to mean we cannot know at first, but there is in the life of every Christian one moment, which may or may not be remembered, when the turn is taken. In the life of every one who has really tried to make a high use of the years, there is always a point where the road ceases to descend and begins to climb upward. What has happened ? Perhaps some fervent and
1 J. G. K. McClure, Suprerne Things, 23.
ST. JOHN III. i6 215
rousing word has been carried home by the Holy Spirit. There has been a bereavement — perhaps some one has died who is so cruelly missed that the rest of life seems dark and cold as the later hours of a winter day. There has been a disappointment, perhaps, in something on which the heart has been fixed, and for consolation it has turned to the Eefuge and the Lover of souls. To one who sat dreaming in her garden, repeating the old enigmas, " Was He ? Was He not ? If He was not, from whence came I ? If He is, what am I, and what am I doing with my life ? " a voice seemed to speak. The voice spoke and said, " Act as if I were, and thou shalt know I Am ! " She obeyed, and soon He revealed Himself. In this way and that is the story told, is the experience passed through; but in essence it is always the same. It is a committal for time and for eternity, for life and for death, to the Lord of all worlds. Then is the channel opened between the poor, narrow, needy life and the great lake of love. Then the Divine Lover has His way with the soul.
^ You believe God ; that is good. You believe the Gospel ; that is good too. Believe all that ; but that is not the point. It is not believing the Bible, it is not even believing God, it is not believing the Gospel that gives the Everlasting Life that is spoken of. It is the definite act of self-committal to Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life, as the Manifestation of the saving Power and Love of God to you. It is that definite committal of yourself — an act of the soul — a going out, a reaching forth, a casting of yourself on Him. It is that act of faith, that believing in Him, that gives the fellowship with God which is Eternal Life.^
^ I sometimes wish we had never heard that word " faith." For as' soon as we begin to talk about " faith," people begin to think that we are away up in some theological region far above everyday life. Suppose we try to bring it down a little nearer to our businesses and bosoms, and instead of using a word that is kept sacred for employment in religious matters, and saying " faith," we say " trust." That is what you give to your wives and husbands, is it not ? And that is exactly what you have to give to Jesus Christ, simply to lay hold of Him as a man lays hold of the heart that loves him, and leans his whole weight upon it. Lean hard on Him, hang on Him, or, to take the other metaphor that is one of the Old Testament words for trust, " flee for refuge " to Him. Fancy a man with the avenger of blood at his back, and the point