I. THz possrpruitixs oF FaITH If not wholly dependent upon the actual ex- perience of the power of faith, the confidence of the believer is nevertheless greatly sustained and strengthened by it. Resting in the first instance upon the consciousness of One mighty to save, whose help is promised and assured, and concerning whom it may be said, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” the man of faith will also prize every indication that God has been with man. For he is assured from within and from without that the possibilities of faith are: 1. Unlimited—because it identifies itself with the power of God. Faith is the union of the spirit of the believer with him in whom he trusts. It ensures nothing less than his interest and help. The weakest child of God can secure his aid. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” 2. Unlimited—save that it subjects ttself to the will of God. Just as God is omnipotent and yet incapable of unrighteousness, so the faith of the believer will only avail for things pleasing to his heavenly Father. But, then, it never desires any other. The promises of God, however, declare the direction in which Divine help may be certainly expected; and there are countless instances in which the believer can plainly discern the lawfulness and propriety of the objects for which he pleads. (1) The work of faith is ever blessed, (2) The prayer of faith is never denied; for if the answer do not assume the form expected, it will nevertheless prove to be substantially, and under the best form, the blessing that is required. And fervent, earnest, repeated prayer is unmistakably encouraged by the teaching of Christ. It is for Christians not to pray less, but more and more importunately, only leaving the particular mode in which the answer is to come to the wisdom and love of God. 3. Unlimited—as illustrated in Seripture and the biographies of godly men. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a magnificent confirmation of the promises of the Lord; and there can be no better exercise than the study of the answers to prayer recorded in the Word of God and the lives of saints.—M.
oa, rm, 1—50.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. : 28
Ver. 29.—“ And he said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer.” The work of the Christian Church essentially the same from age to age, although the external phase of it may change and pass away. “ Casting out devils ” sounds strangely on modern ears ; its associations, whilst they are weird and picturesque, are too far away to seriously engage our attention. We are in the habit of dismissing it in an offhand fashion, as a form of religious activity necessarily confined to a transitional period of the development of Christianity, and having no relation to our own or any other age. But that is only a superficial view of the work of the gospel which will lead to such s judgment. “ Casting out devils” is a task which belongs as much to the servant of Christ to-day as in the apostolicage. The particular form assumed by the “ possession ” may not be the same, but the fact of “ possession” still continues ; and the mission of the Son of God to “ destroy the works of the devil” must be fulfilled, until human souls are freed from the thraldom to which Satan subjects them. In every sinful wish or thought Satan gains a foothold; in every sinful habit formed he may be said te * possess ” the nature in which it exists. Until we regard sinful habits as not mere habits, but as involving the presence and power of the evil one, we need not expect to grasp or deal with the problem of evil in our world. In the work of converting human souls, we are contending not merely with those who are the immediate objects of our solicitude, but with a supernatural antagonist, holding them in subjection, and deeply skilled in the arts requisite for the maintenance of his influence. “ For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. vi. 12). It is due to this permanent characteristio of evil in human nature that such difficulties are met with as the text explains,
I, EXoEPTIONAL DIFFICULTIES IN SPIRITUAL WORK. 1. Occasioned by (1) a peculiar intensity of indwelling evil. We cannot explain it, but it is full of stubbornness, subtlety, and power of resistance. There is a mysterious sympathy, it may be, between the sinner and the special sin that besets him, or prevents his yielding himself to Divine
. And this may go the length of (2) total enslavement of the nature. Like the epileptic of the story, not only the body but the spirit may be enthralled. The will is so weak that it is practically powerless. The external ministries of the Church are insufficient to deliver, unaccompanied as they are by any strong desire for salvation on the part of the sinner. It sometimes happens, too, in more general work, that a spirit of opposition displays itself, or circumstances are persistently unfavourable. ‘The Christian toils on, but his efforts are like the dashing of himself against a rock, or the ploughing of the sand. There are none of God’s people who are strangers to such experiences, which are: 2. From their very nature unexpected. The spiritual worker
oes on with comparative or even brilliant success for a time, and then encounters sudden teakiows The reason of this in most instances is, that a great proportion of Christian work is all but mechanical. It consists in a routine of duties; its results represent a sum total of indirect and sometimes unconscious agencies; religious institutions are originated perhaps in an impulse once imparted but not repeated, and are carried on thus far by “their own momentum.” There occurs all at once a check, and a sense of helplessness and humiliation ensues, involving the baffled worker in spiritual perplexity. Such difficulties are: 8. Not an unmitigated calamity. They have their uses in the Divine economy. When searching of heart is induced, and hidden sins are revealed, or absence of direct communion with God is made manifest, or pride and self-sufficiency are brought low, they have accomplished a good and necessary work.