Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers/F
FAITH.
Faith is the subtle chain
That binds us to the Infinite.
Faith is the key that unlocks the cabinet of God's treasures; the king's messenger from the celestial world, to bring all the supplies we need out of the fullness that there is in Christ.
Faith makes the discords of the present, the harmonies of the future.
Faith converses with the angels, and antedates the hymns of glory.
Faith draws the poison from every grief, takes the sting from every loss, and quenches the fire of every pain; and only faith can do it.
Faith is the backbone of the social and the foundation of the commercial fabric; remove faith between man and man, and society and commerce fall to pieces. There is not a happy home on earth but stands on faith; our heads are pillowed on it, we sleep at night in its arms with greater security for the safety of our lives, peace, and prosperity than bolts and bars can give.
Faith is a practical habit, which, like every other, is strengthened and increased by continual exercise. It is nourished by meditation, by prayer, and the devout perusal of the Scriptures; and the light which it diffuses becomes stronger and clearer by an uninterrupted converse with its object, and a faithful compliance with its dictates.
No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.
Never yet did there exist a full faith in the Divine word which did not expand the intellect, while it purified the heart; which did not multiply the aims and objects of the understanding, while it fixed and simplified those of the desires and feelings.
Faith is seated in the understanding as well as in the will. It has an eye to see Christ as well as a wing to fly to Christ.
—Watson.
In reviewing the most mysterious doctrines of revelation, the ultimate appeal is to reason, not to determine whether she could have discovered these truths; not to declare whether, considered in themselves, they appear probable; but to decide whether it is not more reasonable to believe what God speaks than to confide in our own crude and feeble conceptions. No doctrine can be a proper object of our faith, which is not more reasonable to believe than to reject.
There is a boundary to the understanding, and when it is reached, faith is the continuation of reason.
Faith is the revealer of knowledge; it is the office of reason to defend that knowledge and to preserve it pure. Independent knowledge—the knowledge that comes not through faith—whether it be of things earthly or things heavenly, never can be ours.
—Sunday-School Times.
There is a power in the soul, quite separate from the intellect, which sweeps away or recognizes the marvelous, by which God is felt. Faith stands serenely far above the reach of the atheism of science. It does not rest on the wonderful, but on the eternal wisdom and goodness of God. The revelation of the Son was to proclaim a Father, not a mystery. No science can sweep away the everlasting love which the heart feels, and which the intellect does not even pretend to judge or recognize.
Faith is the inspiration of nobleness, it is the strength of integrity; it is the life of love, and is everlasting growth for it; it is courage of soul, and bridges over for our crossing the gulf between worldliness and heavenly-mindedness; and it is the sense of the unseen, without which we could not feel God nor hope for heaven.
Faith, like light, should ever be simple and unbending; while love, like warmth, should beam forth on every side, and bend to every necessity of our brethren.
Given a man full of faith, you will have a man tenacious in purpose, absorbed in one grand object, simple in his motives, in whom selfishness has been driven out by the power of a mightier love, and indolence stirred into unwearied energy.
Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
A man who is not poor nor ill, nor about to be stoned to death, must not distress himself if he does not feel all through his life what faith Stephen had only in his last moments.
Faith, though it hath sometimes a trembling hand, it must not have a withered hand, but must stretch.
—Watson.
Not prayer without faith, nor faith without prayer, but prayer in faith, is the cost of spiritual gifts and graces.
Faith looks to the word and the promise; that is, to the truth. But hope looks to that which the word has promised, to the gift.
Faith is the champion of grace, and love the nurse; but humility is the beauty of grace.
There is a grand fearlessness in faith. He who in his heart of hearts reverences the good, the true, the holy—that is, reverences God—does not tremble at the apparent success of attacks upon the outworks of faith. They may shake those who rest on those outworks—they do not move him whose soul reposes on the truth itself. He needs no prop or crutches to support his faith. Founded on a Rock, Faith can afford to gaze undismayed at the approaches of Infidelity.
The faith of immortality gives to every mind that cherishes it a certain firmness of texture.
All the strength and force of man comes from his faith in things unseen. He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions. The man strongly possessed of an idea is the master of all who are uncertain and wavering. Clear, deep, living convictions rule the world.
Our Lord does not praise the centurion for his amiable care of his servants, nor for his generosity to the Jews, nor for his public spirit, nor for his humility, but for his faith.
Ye children of promise, who are awaiting your call to glory, take possession of the inheritance that now is yours. By faith take the promises. Live upon them, not upon emotions. Remember feeling is not faith. Faith grasps and clings to the promises. Faith says, "I am certain, not because feeling testifies to it, but because God says it."
Never more than to-day were needed the men of calm and resolute faith. Brothers, to your knees and to your ranks! To your knees in humblest supplication; to your ranks in steadfast bravery which no foe can cause to quail. Stand forth in courage and in gentleness for the truth which you believe to be allied to Freedom and Progress and God. Be so strong that you are not afraid to be just. Cherish a tender humanity and a catholic heart. Then take your stand, calm and moveless as the stars.
If you have any faith, give me, for heaven's sake, a share of it! Your doubts you may keep to yourself, for I have a plenty of my own.
—Goethe.
FAITH IN CHRIST.
Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel.
—Westminster Catechism.
True faith is not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His word, but also an assured confidence, which the Holy Ghost works by the gospel, in my heart; that not only to others but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits.
—Heidelberg Catechism.
Faith is the gift of God, wrought by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, in the heart of every penitent and seeking sinner; who faithfully uses them.
—Evangelical Lutheran Catechism.
This saving faith is the perceiving, believing, and resting upon a fact—the atoning death of Jesus Christ. The failure to understand this is one fruitful cause of the confusion in many minds about this subject. For not unfrequently persons are looking into their own hearts, and trying to discover whether they have faith or not, instead of looking away from themselves altogether at the object of faith.
We believe that the very beginning and end of salvation, and the sum of Christianity, consists of faith in Christ, who by His blood alone, and not by any works of ours, has put away sin, and destroyed the power of death.
Let it be borne in mind, however, that the merit or efficiency of all this is not in us, or in faith itself. All blessing, all power, all efficiency belong to God alone. These He may communicate in manner and measure as seems best to His sovereign will; but He has constituted faith the nexus, or electric wire, by which we may be brought into connection with His inexhaustible fullness. The tree planted in rich soil, surrounded with a genial atmosphere, and basking under the light and heat of the sun, possesses an appropriating principle of life, by which it appropriates from all these surrounding elements, and assimilates to its own nature whatever is adapted to its healthy growth and fruitfulness. These things do not dwell in the tree, nor in the appropriating principle itself. They may abound in all their fullness and richness; but let the tree be without this appropriating principle, and it stands in the midst of them all, bare, barren, dead. So faith is the appropriating principle of spiritual life, by which, if properly exercised, we may appropriate to ourselves out of the Divine fullness. And, as in proportion to the healthy exercise of the appropriating principle in the tree, so will be its growth and fruitfulness, so in proportion as faith is in healthy, spiritual exercise, will be our spiritual growth, fruitfulness, and triumphs. The fullness of blessing is in God; we become partakers by faith.
Faith is a simple trust in a personal Redeemer. The simpler our trust in Christ for all things, the surer our peace.
Faith—saving faith—whatever other definition may be framed—is best described as that act of the soul by which the whole man is given over to the guardianship of the Mediator. He who thus resigns himself to Jesus avouches two things: first, his belief that he needs a protector; secondly, his belief that Christ is just that protector which his necessities require.
Saving faith is confidence in Jesus; a direct, confidential transaction with Him.
When a miner looks at the rope that is to lower him into the deep mine, he may coolly say, "I have faith in that rope as well made and strong." But when he lays hold of it, and swings down by it into the tremendous chasm, then he is believing on the rope. Then he is trusting himself to the rope. It is not a mere opinion—it is an act. The miner lets go of every thing else, and bears his whole weight on those well braided strands of hemp. Now that is faith.
The true confidence which is faith in Christ, and the true diffidence which is utter distrust of myself—are identical.
Faith then, in its relation to salvation, is that confidence by which we accept it as a free gift from the Saviour, and is the only possible way in which the gift of God could be appropriated.
We have nothing to do but to receive, resting absolutely upon the merit, power, and love of our Redeemer.
Faith is the act of trust by which one being, a sinner, commits himself to another being, a Saviour.
We are not saved by nations or by churches or by families, but as individuals, through a personal interest in a personal Saviour.
There are three acts of faith, assent, acceptance, and assurance.
The act of the soul, in surrendering itself into the hands of Christ, forms a connecting bond between Him as the Vine and the soul as the branches, which communicates life, strength, nourishment, and beauty. In a word, with a just view of the character, and a supreme attachment to the person of Christ, the believer yields himself into His hands as a full and complete Saviour. Him he receives; upon Him he rests, and rests for time and eternity.
When there is a clear reception of truth as revealed, declared, or testified to, the soul believes in that truth. There is here the idea of transfer. The truth has been received through or from an accredited witness. "It is revealed from faith to faith." When the soul, conscious of weakness or want, looks to, trusts in, or waits upon, another for help and strength, this is resting on, relying on, acting faith on, that other for the desired blessing. And when the soul believes or acts faith into another, there is an entire self-surrender to the authority and sovereign will of that other to rule. There is here the idea of the soul going out to rest on the power, and to be subordinate to, the authority of another. Thus the Israelites "were all baptized unto or into Moses in the cloud and in the sea."
When the sinner is brought to a consciousness of his lost condition, and realizes that there is no hope for him except in Christ Jesus, then is it that the soul believes "into" Christ. There is an entire self-surrender, to be saved by the Saviour, just as He will, and a complete subordination of the will to the supreme authority and sovereign will of his Lord and Master. Here is the true involution of the soul, the deepest root and highest reach of faith, whence spring its true life and fruitfulness and glory. It is the finite and subdued will of the renewed man rolled inside the infinite will of the redeeming Lord, to be governed by, and to beat in unison with His will. Its nestling prayer is, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
Its very essence is trust upon Him and His sin-expiating and life-purchasing merits. Its very essence consists in its self-emptying, self-denying, Christ-grasping energy.
Faith is trusting Jesus to lead us and going where He leads. What avails it to me to analyze Saratoga water, and to believe in its virtues? I must drink the water if I want its purifying power. And the soul that has not actually drunk of Christ can never be purged from sin.
This is faith, receiving the truth of Christ; first knowing it to be true, and then acting upon that belief.
The first thing in faith is knowledge. What we know we must also agree unto. What we agree unto we must rest upon alone for salvation. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust Him to be my Saviour.
Faith refers to Christ. Holiness depends on faith. Heaven depends on holiness.
If faith, then new birth; if new birth, then sonship; if sonship, then "an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ." But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of the ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face of Him who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at this moment, saying to you, "My child, wilt thou not at this time cry unto me, 'Abba, Father?'"
Faith is the vital artery of the soul. When we begin to believe, we begin to love. Faith grafts the soul into Christ, as the scion into the stock, and fetches all its nutriment from the blessed Vine.
—Watson.
Faith is the bond of union, the instrument of justification, the spring of spiritual peace and joy, the means of spiritual peace and subsistence.
Faith has a saving connection with Christ. Christ is on the shore, so to speak, holding the rope, and as we lay hold of it with the hand of our confidence, He pulls us to shore; but all good works having no connection with Christ are drifted along down the gulf of fell despair.
That is faith, cleaving to Christ, twining round Him with all the tendrils of our heart, as the vine does round its support.
Faith is the nail which fastens the soul to Christ; and love is that grace that drives the nail to the head. Faith takes hold of Him, and love helps to keep the grip. Christ dwells in the heart by faith, and He burns in the heart by love, like a fire melting the breast. Faith casts the knot, and love draws it fast.
—Erskine.
Faith in Christ is not an exercise of the understanding merely; it is an affection of the heart. "With the heart man believeth." To those who believe Christ is precious.
True faith, by a mighty effort of the will, fixes its gaze on our Divine Helper, and there finds it possible and wise to lose its fears. It is madness to say, "I will not be afraid;" it is wisdom and peace to say, "I will trust and not be afraid."
Faith that trusts on Jesus alone for salvation, and not on your respectable life, and the obedience that follows Him, are the indispensable steps to salvation. You admit that you have not taken these decisive steps. Then, however near you are, you are not in Christ.
Faith has in it the recognition of the certainty and the justice of a judgment that is coming down crashing on every human head; and then from the midst of these fears and sorrows and the tempest of that great darkness there rises up in the night of terrors the shining of one perhaps pale, quivering, distant, but divinely given hope, "My Saviour! My Saviour! He is righteous; He has died; He lives! I will stay no longer; I will cast myself upon Him!"
Faith is a Christian's right eye, without which he cannot look for Christ; right hand, without which he cannot do for Christ; it is his tongue, without which he cannot speak for Christ; it is his vital spirit, without which he cannot act for Christ.
Faith does not first ask what the bread is made of, but eats it. It does not analyze the components of the living stream, but with joy draws water from the "wells of salvation."
These poor people had never heard the distinctions between intellectual faith, historic faith, and saving faith; but they did as they were taught,—reached out their dirty hands to take Christ, and attended to the washing of their hands afterwards.
The righteousness which is by faith in Christ is a loving heart and a loving life, which every man will long to lead who believes really in Jesus Christ.
The only qualification for knowing Divine things is to love them; to know Christ and to see the light of His revelation, we have only to aspire after a filial temper.
There can be no faith so feeble that Christ does not respond to it.
One look outward to Jesus and you are saved; not a look inward to a feeling that can give nothing but despair to the conscientious soul.
Sensible of his ill-desert and helplessness, persuaded of the all-sufficiency of the Redeemer, the believer therefore makes a voluntary surrender of himself into the hands of Christ, to be saved upon His own terms. He relinquishes his vain confidences, and places all his hopes on Christ. He casts himself into His arms. "Lord, to whom shall I go but to Thee?"
I expect eternal life, not as a reward of merit, but a pure act of bounty. Detesting myself in every view I can take, I fly to the righteousness and atonement of my great Redeemer for pardon and salvation; this is my only consolation and hope. "Enter not into judgment, O Lord, with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no flesh be justified."
Relying on the atonement which Christ has made, and desiring to be saved in no other way, I commit myself into Thy hands, O God, my Father! Take me, and do with me as Thou seest to be for Thy glory. I consecrate myself forever to Thy service, and trust for acceptance in the merits of Thy Son.
Just as I am—Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Able to save to the uttermost, "Lord to whom shall we go; Thou hast the words of eternal life?" Thou who hast abolished death, upon whom else shall we suspend our immortality?
If you feel sincerely sorry on account of your sins, and believe that Christ is able and willing to forgive you, the work is done. You may trust with all the confidence of a child who confesses his fault, and casts himself into his father's arms. This is faith; a simple trust in the power and willingness of the Father to forgive, for the sake of what Christ the Son has done.
Go to the cross, and meet there God in sacrifice. Behold Him as Jesus bearing your sin, receiving the shafts of your enmity! Embrace Him, believe in Him, take Him to your inmost heart. Do this, and you shall feel sin die within you, and a glorious quickening, Christ the power of God, Christ in you the hope of glory, shall be consciously risen upon you, as the morn of your new creation.
Virtuous or vile, decent or indecent, rich or poor, receive and rest upon Christ now as He is so freely offered you; and then you may believe (not feel) that your sins are in the depths of the sea.
I am a sinner and a debtor to God. The law has a claim against me; but the gospel says Christ paid that claim on the cross. I believe that. I take that death as good for my claim, and I say boldly, "It is paid." I am tired of sin. Christ bids me rest on Him. I do rest on Him. He tells me that if I will put myself, sins and all, with all my weakness—put my stained past, the guidance of the present, the whole matter of the future, into His hands, and leave it with Him, He will take care of the whole. I do put it all into His hands. I lay my sins on Jesus. I rest my whole life on Him.
To trust God, as seen in the face of His Son, and to believe that He loves us, that is faith, that is what we must do to be saved. And to love God, as seen in the face of His Son, and to seek to testify our love by our whole life,—that is Christian duty; that is all we have to do.
Faith from its essential nature implies the fallen state of man, while it recognizes the principles of the covenant of grace. It is itself the condition of that covenant. It is a grace which is alike distinguished from the love of angels and the faith of devils. It is peculiar to the returning sinner. None but a lost sinner needs it; none but a humbled sinner relishes it.
Now I saw in my dream, that the highway, up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.
I have taken my good deeds and bad deeds, and thrown them together into a heap, and fled from them both to Christ, and in Him I have peace.
O, for a living faith in a living Redeemer!
When you have given yourself to Christ, leave yourself there, and go about your work as a child in His household.
Child of God, if you would have your thought of God something beyond a cold feeling of His presence, let faith appropriate Christ.
When you sincerely embrace Jesus as your Saviour, and rest on His atonement for pardon, when you look to Him for daily direction, lean on Him for support, and are joined to Him in heart union, then you may be sure that you have got the everlasting rock bed underneath you.
Here then is man's duty. It is to receive that free and full salvation that Christ has provided. It is to stretch forth the hand of faith, and with it take the proffered salvation. It is to cling to the cross as the only hope of everlasting life. Will you do it? Weary, working, plodding one, will you, ceasing all this vain attempt to save yourself, receive Christ, and Christ alone as your Saviour?
From that time Mr. Moody ceased to urge people to begin their religious life by finding something to do for Christ; but insisted that, first of all, they should let Christ do something for them. If they would only believe, Christ would help them to be and to do.
With Mary and Thomas, with the millions who have lived and died triumphant in the blessed assurance of the infinite love and omnipotence of Christ, we can stand by that middle cross, and say adoringly, lovingly, joyfully, "My Brother! my Lord! my God!"
Dear seeker of salvation, doubting, fearing Christian, you are beaten by the billows of sin and fear, swept by the gusts of doubt. Look through the mists, and behold the pilot! Christ comes to you to take every thing in charge. Will you let Him come? Will you give Him charge? Will you just throw off the whole load of sin, doubt, and fear on Him, and rest?
If you could once get away, my friends, from that sense of mediocrity and nothingness to which you are shut up, under the stupor of your self-seeking and your sin, how easy would it be for you to believe! Nay, if but some faintest suspicion could steal into you of what your soul is, and the tremendous evils working in it, nothing but the mystery of Christ's death and passion would be sufficient for you.
Nothing but Christian faith gives to the furthest future the solidity and definiteness which it must have if it is to be a breakwater for us against the fluctuating sea of present cares and thoughts.
Above all things I entreat you to preserve your faith in Christ. It is my wealth in poverty, my joy in sorrow, my peace amid tumult. For all the evil I have committed, my gracious pardon; and for every effort, my exceeding great reward. I have found it to be so. I can smile with pity at the infidel whose vanity makes him dream that I should barter such a blessing for the few subtleties from the school of the cold-blooded sophists.
This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.
Oh, my soul! why art thou so often disquieted within thee? How is it that thou hast so little faith? Wilt thou never learn that Jesus has even the least of His little boats always under His watchful eye, and all the winds and the waves obey Him?
Seek for a fresh invoice of grace. Unbelief can scoff or growl; faith is the nightingale that sings in the darkest hour. Faith can draw honey out of the rock and oil out of the flint. With Christ in possession and heaven in reversion, it marches to the time of the One-hundred-and-third Psalm over the roughest road, and against the most cutting blast.
We must not think that faith itself is the soul's rest; it is only the means of it. We cannot find rest in any work or duty of our own, but we may find it in Christ, whom faith apprehends for justification and salvation.
Faith, considered as a habit, is no more precious than other gracious habits are; but considered as an instrument to receive Christ and His righteousness, it excels them all; and this instrumentality of faith is noted in the phrases, "by faith," and "through faith."
If we bear an inward enmity to all sins because they are offensive to God, if we can say that it is the desire of our souls to love Christ above all things, and to be eternal debtors to free grace, reigning through His righteousness, then we may warrantably conclude, that our faith, however weak, is yet of a saving nature.
—Fisher's Catechism.
No man's salvation depends on his believing that he believes, but it does depend on his seeing and receiving Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
We shall never recover the true apostolic energy, and be endued with power from on high, as the first disciples were, till we recover the lost faith.
It appears to me that, even within the recollection of living men, the Christian faith has come to be less and less regarded as a commanding and mighty power from heaven, a voice of authority, a law of holy life, but more and more as an easy going guide to future enjoyment, to a universal happiness and an indiscriminate salvation.
The act of faith, which separates us from all men, unites us for the first time in real brotherhood; and they who, one by one, come to Jesus and meet Him alone, next find that they are come to the city of God "and to an innumerable company."
It avails nothing that the ocean stretches shoreless to the horizon; a jar can hold only a jarful. The receiver's capacity determines the amount received, and the receiver's desire determines his capacity. The law has ever been, "According to your faith be it unto you."
Logically, faith comes first, and love next; but in life they will spring up together in the soul; the interval which separates them is impalpable, and in every act of trust, love is present; and fundamental to every emotion of love to Christ is trust in Christ.
When in your last hour (think of this) all faculty in the broken spirit shall fade away, and sink into inanity—imagination, thought, effort, enjoyment—then will the flower of belief, which blossoms even in the night, remain to refresh you with its fragrance in the last darkness.
In faith and hope
Earth I resign;
Secure of heaven,
For I am Thine!
—Zwingle.
FAITH IN GOD.
Faith, then, generically, is confidence in a personal being. Specifically, religious faith is confidence in God, in every respect and office in which He reveals Himself. As that love of which God is the object, is religious love, so that confidence in Him as a Father, a Moral Governor, a Redeemer, a Sanctifier, in all the modes of His manifestation, by which we believe whatever He says because He says it, and commit ourselves and all our interests cheerfully and entirely into His hands, is religious faith.
Faith is letting down our nets into the transparent deeps at the Divine command, not knowing what we shall take.
Faith is a grasping of Almighty power;
The hand of man laid on the arm of God;—
The grand and blessed hour in which the things impossible to me
Become the possible, O Lord, through Thee.
Let us aspire towards this living confidence, that it is the will of God to unfold and exalt without end the spirit that entrusts itself to Him in well-doing as to a faithful Creator.
So for us, the condition and preparation on and by which we are sheltered by that great hand, is the faith that asks, and the asking of faith. We must forsake the earthly props, but we must also believingly desire to be upheld by the heavenly arms. We make God responsible for our safety when we abandon other defense, and commit ourselves to Him.
Orthodoxy can be learnt from others; living faith must be a matter of personal experience.
—Büchsel.
The last decisive energy of a rational courage which confides in the Supreme Power, is very sublime. It makes a man who intrepidly dares every thing that can oppose or attack him within the sphere of mortality—who will press toward his object while death is impending over him—who would retain his purpose unshaken amidst the ruins of the world.
God does not give us ready money. He issues promissory notes, and then pays them when faith presents them at the throne. Each one of us has a check-book.
He that buildeth his nest upon a Divine promise shall find it abide and remain until he shall fly away to the land where promises are lost in fulfillments.
God cannot lie; and if, fleeing for refuge, you have run to the hope set before you in the gospel—if, nestling in some invitation or promise of God's changeless word, you are resolved that Death and the Judgment shall find you there, you are safe. The way to honor God is to trust His truth, and hidden in His word you are also hidden in His love. Rest there.
If we had strength and faith enough to trust ourselves entirely to God, and follow Him simply wherever He should lead us, we should have no need of any great effort of mind to reach perfection.
—Fenelon.
The soul seeks God by faith, not by the reasonings of the mind and labored efforts, but by the drawings of love; to which inclinations God responds, and instructs the soul, which co-operates actively. God then puts the soul in a passive state where He accomplishes all, causing great progress, first by way of enjoyment, then by privation, and finally by pure love.
If our faith in God is not the veriest sham, it demands, and will produce, the abandonment sometimes, the subordination always, of external helps and material good.
We would walk with Thee when Thou smitest us, and we would walk with Thee when Thou smilest upon us; for, smiling or smiting, it is in love. We take chastisement because we are sons, and Thou art Father. O grant that we may never feel Thy hand as Judge! Restrain us with Thy love. Wean us from our sin, and from the love of it, and bring us back to Thine own self.
I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, nor fancy; but, if I could choose what would be most delightful, and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing.
Serve God, and God will take care of you. Submit to His will, trust in His grace, and resign yourself into His hands with the assurance that the Lord is well pleased with those "that hope in His mercy."
You cannot be too active as regards your own efforts; you cannot be too dependent as regards Divine grace. Do every thing as if God did nothing; depend upon God as if He did every thing.
Large asking and large expectation on our part honor God.
Faith ever says, "If Thou wilt," not "If Thou canst."
An active faith can give thanks for a promise even though it be not yet performed, knowing that God's bonds are as good as ready money.
FALSEHOOD.
Wisdom and truth, the offspring of the sky, are immortal; while cunning and deception, the meteors of the earth, after glittering for a moment, must pass away.
Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood; it is the crime of cowards.
Lie not, neither to thyself nor men nor God. Let mouth and heart be one—beat and speak together, and make both felt in action. It is for cowards to lie.
I have seldom known any one who deserted truth in trifles that could be trusted in matters of importance.
—Paley.
Dissimulation in youth is the forerunner of perfidy in old age; its first appearance is the fatal omen of growing depravity and future shame.
—Blair.
FAME.
No true and permanent fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.
The highest greatness, surviving time and stone, is that which proceeds from the soul of man. Monarchs and cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of court and the circumstance of war, in the lapse of time disappear from sight; but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose example elevates human nature, and teaches the rights of man, so that "a government of the people, by the people, for the people, may not perish from the earth;" such a harbinger can never be forgotten, and their renown spreads co-extensive with the cause they served so well.
Live for something! Do good and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with, year by year, and you will never be forgotten. Your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as the stars of heaven.
—Chalmers.
I have learned to prize the quiet, lightning deed, not the applauding thunder at its heels that men call fame.
—A. Smith.
How idle a boast, after all, is the immortality of a name! Time is ever silently turning over his pages; we are too much engrossed by the story of the present to think of the character and anecdotes that gave interest to the past; and each age is a volume thrown aside and forgotten.
FEAR. Fear is entirely based on a consideration of some possible, personal, evil consequence coming down upon me from the clear sky above me. Love is based upon the forgetfulness of self altogether. The very essence of love is that it looks away from itself, and to another.
Nothing so demoralizes the forces of the soul as fear. Only as we realize the presence of the Lord does fear give place to faith.
It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man.
There is a virtuous fear, which is the effect of faith; and there is a vicious fear, which is the product of doubt. The former leads to hope, as relying on God, in whom we believe; the latter inclines to despair, as not relying on God, in whom we do not believe. Persons of the one character fear to lose God; persons of the other character fear to find Him.
—Pascal.
He has but one great fear that fears to do wrong.
—Bovee.
Fear is the preface to love; and if it be in thy soul, my brother, let it lead thee to the place where there shall dawn upon thy heart that great and Divine vision of a face all full of mercy, of a heart all full of love, of a Christ that hath died for thee, of a Father that bends down to bless thee:—and then cast thyself down there and say, "I trembled because I hated. Thou hast loved me, and I am overcome. I love, and am glad. Father, Thy side is my home. Thou art the portion of my heart and my joy forever."
FEELING.
"Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." My friend, that is worth more than all the feeling you can have in a life-time.
Tears never yet saved a soul. Hell is full of weepers weeping over lost opportunities, perhaps over the rejection of an offered Saviour. Your Bible does not say "Weep, and be saved." It says, "Believe, and be saved." Faith is better than feeling.
My friends, does God invite you? If He does, why don't you accept the invitation? If you want to come, just come along, and don't be talking about feeling. Do you think Lazarus had any feeling when Christ called him out of the sepulchre?
Still dost thou wait for feeling? Dost thou say,
"Fain would I love and trust, but hope is dead;
I have no faith, and without faith, who may
Rest in the blessing which is only shed
Upon the faithful? I must stand and wait."
Not so. The Shepherd does not ask of thee
Faith in thy faith, but only faith in Him.
And this He meant in saying, "Come to me!"
In light or darkness seek to do His will,
And leave the work of faith to Jesus still.
Though there is nothing more dangerous, yet there is nothing more ordinary, than for weak saints to make their sense and feeling the judge of their condition. We must strive to walk by faith.
FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST AND GOD.
The Christian's fellowship with God is rather a habit than a rapture.
The greatest truths are ever known through the heart; and this sublimest of all truths, the amazing sacrifice which Eternal Love has made for guilty man, can be comprehended only by the heart,—by communion with that Love in its sorrows, sacrifices, triumphs, joys.
Fellowship with Jesus lies not alone in pleasurable emotions; you must learn it in suffering and in service.
The oblation of the cross is perpetuated, carried on—not materially, but spiritually—in every heart, in every life which is consecrated to a crucified Jesus and to His suffering cause.
Happy the heart to whom God has given enough strength and courage to suffer for Him, to find happiness in simplicity and the happiness of others.
—Lavater.
In our weakness, His strength is ours. In our conflicts, His victories are ours. In our bereavements and sorrows, His grace is ours. He had not where to lay His weary head, that we might have His bosom on which to lean our fevered brows. He endured the cross, and despised the shame, that, instead of weeping and wailing, we might share His immortal blessedness.
To know Jesus Christ for ourselves is to make Him a consolation, delight, strength, righteousness, companion, and end.
He came down even to the grave, and became the dead One for me. I believe in Him, and, as one with Him, I leap at one bound straight out of my grave up to His throne. "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." This is not a matter of feeling, but all a matter of faith, merely apprehending the grace of God, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Just in proportion as the soul is in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, in communion with His will, shall we trace His leadings, hear His voice, and understand in part.
Though you are weak and frail, though you are poor and helpless, God does not despise you; but would glorify your being with His own, and raise you to fellowship with Himself.
Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet,
From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low,
Lest I should fear, and fall, and miss Thee so,
Who art not missed by any that entreat.
FIDELITY.
Be but faithful, that is all;
Go right on, and close behind thee
There shall follow still and find thee
Help, sure help.
Let it be ours to be self-reliant amidst hosts of the vacillating—real in a generation of triflers—true amongst a multitude of shams; when tempted to swerve from principle, sturdy as an oak in its maintenance; when solicited by the enticement of sinners, firm as a rock in our denial.
A certain sober judgment ought to mark Christians. They should be like the needle in the mariner's compass, not like the pendulum which within its limited range is always going from one extreme to another.
Oh! it irradiates all our days with lofty beauty, and it makes them all hallowed and divine, when we feel that not the apparent greatness, not the prominence nor noise with which it is done, nor the external consequences which flow from it, but the motive from which it flowed, determines the worth of our deed in God's eyes. Faithfulness is faithfulness, on whatsoever scale it be set forth.
When the fight thickens the captain says, "Steady, boys;" and it is their steadiness which pulls the soldiers through. Fitful soldiers are rarely useful ones. That is our great need to-day, steady Christians—men and women you can count on. Many Christians are like intermittent springs. They flow to-day—to-morrow you cannot get a thimbleful of religious activity out of the dried channel of their lives.
—Wayland.
Only be steadfast, never waver,
Nor seek earth's favor,
But rest;
Thou knowest what God wills must be
For all His creatures—so for thee—
The best.
The root of all steadfastness is in consecration to God.
If, after an absolute consecration to Him, and a conviction in conscience that He requires something of us, we hesitate, delay, lose courage, dilute what He would have us do, indulge fear for our comfort or safety, desire to shield ourselves from suffering and obloquy, or seek to find some excuse for not performing a difficult or painful duty, we are truly guilty in His sight.
—Fenelon.
And Heaven is kind to the faithful heart;
And if we are patient and brave and calm,
Our fruits will last though our flowers depart.
FOLLOWING JESUS.
We must follow Jesus Christ, step by step, and not open up a path for ourselves. We can only follow Him by denying ourselves. "Ye are not your own."
—Fenelon.
The true Christian, who has the spirit of Jesus, will say, as Ruth said to Naomi, "Whither thou goest, I will go;" whatever difficulties and dangers may be in the way.
Under the banner of the Saviour's dying love, I feel it to be the most precious privilege in the universe to deny myself, to take up my cross, and to follow the Lord whithersoever He goeth.
Follow after Him though it may be at an immeasurable distance. Follow Him in His long endurance and His great humility. Follow Him with a bold and cheerful spirit in the happy and glorious victory which He won over sin and over death, and in the end thou shalt find in Him the true communion and fellowship which He only can give.
We must imitate Jesus; live as He lived, think as He thought, and be conformed to His image, which is the seal of our sanctification.
—Fenelon.
{{nop} Believing on Christ, learning of Christ, following Christ,—this is what it is to be a Christian. You must believe on Him that you may learn of Him. You must learn of Him that you may follow Him. But believing is nothing, and learning is less than nothing, if they do not result in faithful following.
The secret of all our dryness, the root of all our weakness, our want of fruit and progress, our dearth and desolation, is, that we do not follow Christ. First, we do not believe that He has any particular care of us, or personal interest in our lives, and then, falling away at that point from His lead, we drop into ourselves, to do a few casual works of duty, in which neither we nor others are greatly blessed.
There are two paths in which the Christian follows Christ in this world,—paths which are always parallel, and which often merge into one,—the path of integrity, and the path of benevolence. In doing right and in doing good the Christian is a follower of Christ.
It sweetens every bit of work to think that I am doing it in humble, far-off, yet real imitation of Jesus.
Get into sympathy with Jesus. Seek His presence, seek His help. And walking through the world in His company, you will be as balm in the bleakest weather, a benediction in the wildest scene.
God never gave a man a thing to do concerning which it were irreverent to ponder how the Son of God would have done it.
It is a good thing to follow Jesus with our eyes open. That is walking both by sight and faith. But it is better to follow Jesus blindly than not to follow at all.
Never do what you cannot ask Christ to bless; and never go into any place or any pursuit in which you cannot ask Christ Jesus to go with you.
If washed in Jesus' blood,
Then bear His likeness too,
And as you onward press
Ask, "What would Jesus do?"
Precious Saviour! glorious Forerunner! oh, give us grace to follow Thee; and whenever tempted to relax our efforts, or loiter on our journey, or complain of the way, may we remember that Thou hast traveled every step of the way before us, and art now waiting to welcome us into Thy presence and glory.
FORGIVENESS.
To do evil for good is human corruption; to do good for good is civil retribution; but to do good for evil is Christian perfection. Though this be not the grace of nature, it is the nature of grace.
Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge, and dares to forgive an injury.
By experience; by a sense of human frailty; by a perception of "the soul of goodness in things evil;" by a cheerful trust in human nature; by a strong sense of God's love; by long and disciplined realization of the atoning love of Christ; only thus can we get a free, manly, large, princely spirit of forgiveness.
In what a delightful communion with God does that man live who habitually seeketh love! With the same mantle thrown over him from the cross—with the same act of amnesty, by which we hope to be saved—injuries the most provoked, and transgressions the most aggravated, are covered in eternal forgetfulness.
Behold affronts and indignities which the world thinks it right never to pardon, which the Son of God endures with a Divine meekness! Let us cast at the feet of Jesus that false honor, that quick sense of affronts, which exaggerates every thing, and pardons nothing, and, above all, that devilish determination in resenting injuries.
—Quesnel.
A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.
For still in mutual sufferance lies
The secret of true living;
Love scarce is love that never knows
The sweetness of forgiving.
FORTITUDE.
A Christian builds his fortitude on a better foundation than stoicism; he is pleased with every thing that happens, because he knows it could not happen unless it first pleased God, and that which pleases Him must be best.
Every man must bear his own burden, and it is a fine thing to see any one trying to do it manfully; carrying his cross bravely, silently, patiently, and in a way which makes you hope that he has taken for his pattern the greatest of all sufferers.
Providence has clearly ordained that the only path fit and salutary for man on earth is the path of persevering fortitude—the unremitting struggle of deliberate self-preparation and humble but active reliance on Divine aid.
Be not cast down. If ye saw Him who is standing on the shore, holding out His arms to welcome you to land, ye would wade, not only through a sea of wrongs, but through hell itself to be with Him.
Bear your burden manfully. Boys at school, young men who have exchanged boyish liberty for serious business,—all who have got a task to do, a work to finish—bear the burden till God gives the signal for repose—till the work is done, and the holiday is fairly earned.
Gird your hearts with silent fortitude,
Suffering, yet hoping all things.
FRETTING.
Most men call fretting a minor fault, a foible, and not a vice. There is no vice except drunkenness which can so utterly destroy the peace, the happiness of a home.
However nervous, depressed, and despairing may be the tone of any one, the Lord leaves him no excuse for fretting; for there is enough in God's promise to overbalance all these natural difficulties. In the measure in which the Christian enjoys his privileges, rises above the things that are seen, hides himself in the refuge provided for him, will he be able to voice the confession of Paul, and say, "None of these things move me."
FRIENDSHIP.
The friendship of high and sanctified spirits loses nothing by death but its alloy; failings disappear, and the virtues of those whose faces we shall behold no more appear greater and more sacred when beheld through the shades of the sepulchre.
A good man is the best friend, and therefore soonest to be chosen, longest to be retained, and indeed never to be parted with, unless he cease to be that for which he was chosen.
I consider beyond all wealth, honor, or even health, is the attachment due to noble souls; because to become one with the good, generous, and true, is to be, in a manner, good, generous, and true yourself.
Friendship is a cadence of divine melody melting through the heart.
—Mildway.
Character is so largely affected by associations that we cannot afford to be indifferent as to who and what our friends are. They write their names in our albums, but they do more, they help make us what we are. Be therefore careful in selecting them; and when wisely selected, never sacrifice them.
FRIVOLITY.
Frivolity, under whatever form it appears, takes from attention its strength, from thought its originality, from feeling its earnestness.
Alas! that Christians should stand at the door of eternity having more work upon their hands than their time is sufficient for, and yet be filling their heads and hearts with trifles.