our con

before it has shone. Only, however, let faith come forth among men, and it needs merely to show itself in its actings, and without disputation all who are of the truth fall on their knees before it, so undeniably does the fact that there lies a world unrevealed behind the one we see bear witness of itself to the human heart. How gradually the plants which the heavenly Father has taken under His protective care grow and progress through wind and rain! There was once a time when the invisible country, which is the home of faith, seemed to my view far away across the wide ocean, and with thick mists resting upon its shores, but by little and little my soul has become domiciled in it. The apostle tells us that " versation is in heaven," and again, that "our life is hid with Christ in God ;" and dark and mysterious must these words be to one who is unacquainted with faith; but to him who lives by it they are a simple and unmistakable testimony to the truth. There have been philosophers who doubted whether the material world which moves before our eyes has a real existence, and they were laughed at for doing so; but with much greater reason might a believer laugh at those who doubt the existence of that invisible world in which we live, but which we do not see. Ought we not, however, rather to weep for them? It is said of the blind, to whom the visible world is shut out, that they are half a world poorer than those who possess the sense of sight; but of you who are spiritually blind it may truly be averred that you are poorer by a whole world than we. How irresistible is the power which the word of truth acquires, if it have once been firmly apprehended by faith! All created things in the visible world, yea, even our own hearts, may set themselves against it

But though the creatures great and small,

And though this vast terrestrial ball,
And though my heart itself say No,
I'll trust Thy word before them all.

No doubt the struggle is always hard when the creatures and the visible world take the field against faith. Paul could

challenge to the conflict tribulation, and distress, and persecution, and famine, and nakedness, and peril, and sword, as if they were all blunt weapons when wielded against faith; and was enabled by faith to exclaim, "Who shall separate us from the love of God?"1 For as Luther says, "Faith is a lively daring confidence in the mercy of God, so sure that a man would die for it a thousand times. And such confidence in and knowledge of the divine mercy makes him cheerful and bold and happy in his relation to God and all the other creatures." But however severe may be the struggle with the creatures, far worse is that which ensues when a man's own heart and conscience begin to gainsay the divine word. Oh, how hot the fire of tribulation when the conscience awakes to a sense of sin, and when the sinner rushes from the approach of God as if he would fly through a hundred worlds! When God's Word has told me that I have experienced His mercy through Christ, and have been by grace made an heir of eternal glory, and when my heart begins to complain that it sees and feels only the contrary of all this, then more than in any other temptation do I become rightly conscious how keen is the heat of the battle. And yet at last God's Word through faith remains master of the field, and to it the trembling heart and conscience must needs surrender; for it is not the sense of sight or taste that is here concerned-not what thou seest with thine eye or feelest in thy heart-but solely that which stands written in the heart of God, and is re-echoed in His Word,―viz., that without doubt thou art now by grace, and shalt eternally continue to be, His child. Yes, verily faith can do far greater things than "remove mountains." It can lull to peace the clamours of conscience. On all this my mind is now made up; and they who marvel how so poor a child as I am yet so happy, while like others I pursue my way in great infirmity and manifold afflictions, must just be suffered to marvel on at what is the effect of faith.

"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;

1 Rom. viii. 35.

but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform." Here it is written that he became strong in faith; and a blessed experience it is when, exerting its influence through the Holy Spirit, faith enables a man who by nature is shy, weak, and inconstant, to marshal his energies, as a general does his troops, beneath the banner inscribed with Christ, and only He, and engages them to serve in no other cause than His. His war-cry then becomes: "I have but one passion, and it is He." Of all who have received the pardon of sin, is there one who any longer complains of being weak? No; for they have a Captain to lead them on "who giveth power to the faint; and to them who have no might increased strength." And how can faith possibly fail to give strength? In making me one with Christ, it makes that which is His to be also mine, and the whole world subservient to my will. It is related of a holy man, and he one on whom the light of the Gospel had never shone, that being asked the question

"Tell me how comes it, friend, that thee
So happy all day long we see?"

He answered

What else than happy can I be? for know
That just as I would have them all things go;
And whether earth or heaven my eye surveys,

I nothing see but what my will obeys.

For when God stooped in love to be my Friend,

I in return my will to His resigned;

But He forthwith gave back the boon again,

And said, 'Why should thy lot and mine be twain ?'

So from that hour no questions ever rise

'Twixt Him and me of what is mine or His."

"All is yours," saith the apostle; "and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." 2 Yes; to him who through faith has become Christ's, and through Christ God's, there is nothing in heaven or earth but must minister for good. Believers are the true freemen; and if power be always the accompaniment of

1 Isa. xl. 29.

2

I Cor. iii. 23.

liberty, how can it fail to belong to those whom Christ has made free? Thus it was that Abraham was made strong by his faith. He stood childless beside his wife when he counted the stars in the heaven, and the word of God said to him, "So shall thy seed be."1 But so strong did he become by faith, that even then he beheld around him in thousands and millions the seed of his spiritual offspring who through him were to receive the blessing.

And in that he believed, the patriarch gave God the glory. What greater glory can man give to himself than what he gives by believing? Is not faith the hand which he stretches out, and in which God places all celestial things? It is the rainbow which connects heaven with earth-the Jacob's ladder on which the angels ascend and descend. We repeat, how can a man give greater glory to himself than by believing? or how can he lower himself more deeply than when he contemns faith, and thereby makes himself nothing but a poor worm of the dust? Moreover, on the other hand, how great the honour which he gives to God by his faith! If it be by the confidence we repose in them that we honour men, far more must we honour God when we accredit him with the ability to do things so much greater than our blind reason ever imagined. No true love can coexist with distrust; so that there can be no love at all without faith and if distrust be the symptom of a heart unreconciled, so likewise is faith the bond and cement which reconciles God and man, and knits them to each other. For this reason no anthem sounds so beautiful in the ear of God, and no incense sheds so sweet a fragrance before His throne, as faith when it is the oblation made from a childlike heart.

"And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” Can any one still wonder that God was pleased above measure with such a faith as Abraham's? Is not faith a work more excellent than every other? Were it not to be too bold, one might say, in the language of the old teachers of piety, that

1 Gen. xv. 5.

by it a man is thoroughly deified. For as water when heated by fire is no longer mere water, but water and fire combined, so is it with the soul of man when by faith it accepts and appropriates all that belongs to the diving Being. For this reason St Paul says, "It is no more I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." In this way it is that the believer grows up into heaven. Though he still sojourns here on earth, his life is hidden with Christ in God; for such is the language in which the apostle describes the mystery of the marriage of the soul with God through faith.

My Lord and my God, how high the honour Thou hast conferred upon me in making me, by faith, a partaker of all Thy good things, and enabling me to live with Thee in heaven, even while sojourning here on earth! Never more will I despise that precious boon; but as Thou hast judged me worthy of it, I, on my part, will honour Thee, and present to Thee the oblation of that incense which Thou lovest best, and which is a strong faith out of a childlike heart. This will I do at all times: in the morning when I rise, and in the evening when I lay me down; in the night of temptation, and likewise also, if it must be, in the bitter conflict of death. So help me by Thy grace to do. Amen.

49.

The Faith availeth which worketh by Love.

GAL. v. 6.

Of faith you have a low esteem

As of some poor and hapless wight.

Not such true faith; but if you deem

Your own is such, no doubt you're right.

"In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."