The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1857-07-22
FAITH.

And the Lord said, if ye had Faith rs
a grain of mustard seed, We mipht say
unto this Sy canine tree, BE thou nIurt.
ed up by The roots, and he thou cast into
The Sea-; and it should obey you. Luke
II, 9.
Our Divine Lord is hera taachinr his
disciples, whose faith was weak and i'm.
perfect what lis the nature of faith. and
that in its exercise, feeble man could pcr
form an act requiring Ommpotent pow.
er.
We believe that some Christians IN
the eXuberance Of their zeal, have fallen
into great errors, not distinguishing be
tween that faith which God has estow-
cd where he was about to produce an ex.
traordlnary event-called the faith Of
MIRACLES" and that Gospel faith which
he bestows in order to promote the sane.
tIilcatlon Of his people called Evanpel.
cal faith. Both are derived from the
same s"urce-Faith is the gift of God
Preceding the time of the apostles the
faith ofmiracIes was impaired. Iron was
made to swim, the dead were raised, the
sun and moon were made to stand still
the mouths OF hons were stopped, and Is
rael passed through the Red sea and in
the Sine of Christ and the Apostles, signs
and wonders were wrought also but the
object OF those miracles, in the time of
the Prophets was to display the power
and government of God to the Jews and
those in the time of Christ and the apos
ties were to establish his Mesiahship. and
that the ministry Of the apostles was de
rived from him.
The faith which uni.es the Believer 10
Christ in these days is equally powerful
as that which dried mp the Sea, and rails
ed the dead, and is derived from the same
source; but it is not bestowed for the
same parposes or ends. Those ends have
been attained, and those purposes accom-
plished. The object Of faith now is to
sanctify produce a godly life. no Chris
tIan can now pray in faith that God
would enable him to remove a mountain.
Such prayer would be profane.
We would not be understood TO hold
that faith is less prevalent with God in
these latter days than formerly, The
prayer of faith always prevails. But we
must not mistake prayer for such things
as We will uninfuenced by the Spirit OF
God, for those which he wills and purpo
Ses to accomplish. II the question is ask
Ell how can we know what is his will p
We answer; we cannot always know
What he has revealed in his word we do
not know-as for instance-that il is his
purpose to establish Christs Kingdom in
the world, For that, therefore, we may
pray without limitation to our desires
but when we pray for special NANTES.
ia'ion Of his grace, in n particular church.
or a revival Of religion at particular
time, we must offer up our desires in sub.
lection to the Divine will. So if we have
sick friend, in praying for his recovery
we must say "not my Will, but .hne be
DONE" In those cases, as God has not
revealed his will we can know that it is
only bg the event and our best evidence
that we ara heard is, that we desire
from the heart, that his CiH should be
done,
We think the above accords with the
experience of Christians and with the
belief that we can pray in faith only for
such things as are agreeable to the will
Of God, aud that then his Spirit works in
the heart of the believer te ask for them.
Such VIC understand TO be the prayer of
faith,