The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1883-05-02

| - IL
Tent-2 Cor.v.s
| We walk by faith, said Paul. And we DO
Paul meant il in particular sense. He was
thinking Of religion, the Lord, and the life 70
| como But It is true in his sense, because it
is first true in a wider sense. We are walk
ing BY faith everywhere, and in all things.
Religion, the Lord, and Immortality, are quite
| Of a kind with other matters, So far as relates
to our apprehension Of them, and the mode OF
| becoming assured Of them l do not discover
that there is any heavier draft made on faith
in the matter Of religion, than in other spheres
Of thinking, living, and working. We, all Of
US, in everything believe great deal more
than We know. We arc all Of US believers. l
DO not say believers in Christ, believers in
Immortality, but believers. We are believers
constitutionally. Belief is about the first
instinct that shows itself in US. Most, at any
rate, Of the knowledge we have was belief
before il was knowledge.
Il seems strange that men should find SO
much difficulty with the faith element in the
Gospel. seeing We are in such hourly familiar
| ity with it on other ground. l have thought
| that perhaps by considering the matter to-
gether a little, relief might come to some Of us
who are prejudiced against religion because il
taxes faith SO heavily. We have got to deal
1
| work alike. Believing is more natural 10
some than 10 others, Some men wish they
could believe more than they see their way
clear to believe Christ never hurried nor
crowded mems faith Let HIS manner be to
Us always an example. The Catholic Church
| offers to take charge Of mems faiths. Some
enter that communion as an escape from per-
| plexity: like Alexander at Gordium. do not
see how to unite the knot, and SO cut it.
trust we shall be guided here to the utterancc
Of words that shall prove helpful to them that
are in sincere need Of help.
| We walk by faith not by sight We walk
not seeing where we are going. We can think
things little ways, but cannot think them to
the end. We cannot tell it all cannot prove
it all. 1t is so in matters of religion; equally
SO in other matters. We run presently against
an interrogation point, in whatever direction
VIC 60. These interrogation points stand in
thick circuit around about US, and that circuit
we call our horizon. There was a veil in the
| old Hebrew tabernacle. That veil We now
call horizon. 1t is the same thing. There is
| something outside of your horizon? You
judge that there is; you act as If there were
| Something bcaiHd the curtain We expect 50;
we act as If there were so. We cannot think
things to the end, but what lies between our
farthest thought and the end really makes cut
large part Of hio's wcisht-in other matters
at any rate even if not in religious ones.
When the sun is sliding up over our hor
ION, we blieve the half Of It we cannot see.
Faith and knowledge touch, almost touch
only the horizon line between. The world
moves q little on its axis, and the line slides
along the suns disk and faith flashes into
knowledge. That is faith: supposing, feeling,
resting in what we cannot see. The Bibles
definition Of it is that almost the only defni-
ton the Bible gives and that not Of a kind
to mean much to US till the New Revision put
| upon it its rctouch: "Faith is the assurance
Of things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen; living in the confidence OF things
We cannot prove. That we DO so much Of
that in religion is made an argument against
religion. We cannot see a soul We have no
| premises large enough to yield us God in the
| third term. We cannot demonstrate immOr-
| tality. And men with whom It is not natural
to feel ahead Of their thinking get troubled by
this. When you have entered an unlighted
room in the night, and have groped your way
about in 1t, as you approached the wall you
probably felt its neauess to you even before
your hand reached it. 1t is a singular kind
Of intuition. Most men have it. Il is in the
physical realm good deal like what faith is
in the mental and spiritual, feeling running
ahead Of thought. and resting in what cannot
be seen. \ part of our inidelity and atheism
is mental habit. Certain occupations and pro-
| fcssions embarrass faith Dealing with men
iuclines rs toward faith. Dealing with things
| inclines US away from faith. And So while
| William Humboldt was believer, his brother
| Alexander wrote the Cosmos, and left God ont
Of it.
To any thinking man here, then, whose
sharp thinking does not bring him nearer God
and the Bible, but away from it, want to
illustrate that while faith is an important fac
| tor in religion, it is Just the same important
factor in everything else. We live in all re-
spccts by our convictions Of the things We
\ cannot see. Every step we take anywhere we
take in faith. We step down upon unknown
ground with no knowledge of what lies an
inch under the surface. Not . football but
takes much for granted. That is near and
| Just picture Of what holds everywhere We
see one per cent. and assume ninety-nine. We
/ 60 but little ways before we bring up against
| the unknown. We treat the unknown as
though It were known. That is faith, treat
ing tie unknown as though it was known. We
are continually cracking the shell to get at the
hidden meat When YOU step aboard a train.
how much do you know of the man whose
hand is on the valve2 thousand lives 20
speeding along the track, forty mills an hour,
and that one man holds those lives in his hand.
Do we as Christians live by faith in the Son Of
God? Yes; and so on the railway train you
live by faith in the engineer: and so on the
steamer you live by faith in the man on the
| bridge. IL is one thing. We walk by faith.
We ride by faith And all along the line are
men whom you do not know; hagmen, road
repaircrs, yet in whose hand you put your
life. You ride by faith On the fidelity Of
the man at the switch depend q hundred lives
and million interests. But somebody
knows him." o yes. But y0u don't That
IS the point. You travel by faith. You walk
by your conviction of the things you cannot
see. We take men at their word Are men
false? Not nearly so much as they are true.
Otherwise society would he impossible. No
faith, no society; no faith, no trade Faith is
among men what gravity is among planets and
suns. Count CavOur said that the man who
trusted men would make fewer mistakes than
the man who distrusted them.
We should never get a single DAYS work
done if we stopped to prove every step. The
element Of faith and of daring enters into
every successful life. Business can 20 on on
the street because men believe in each other.
That is why you will not deal with a man on
Change whose word is not as good as his
bond. II the business men Of this city should
commence tomorrow morning to walk only by
sight, there is not business interest in the
country that would not be fiat before night
fall. Shaken confidence in men has always
beenlthe prolific mother Of mercantile disaster.
And SO when Paul says eve walk by faith, "
we will remember that faith plays in religion
only the same part as that with which we arc
made daily familiar In the concerns Of society.
the home, and the street.
] might say a word about science in this
connection. Science is like society and trade.
in resting at bottom upon basis Of faith.
There are some things here, too, that We can
not prove, otherwise there would be nothing
that we could prove. Science is busy with
the lnther-end Of things, not the thither-end.
1t is a mistake to contrast religion and science
in tins respect. and to think Of religion as
taking everything for granted, and science as
doing only clean work, and having all the
loose ends gathered up and tucked in. We
never reach the roots Of things in science more
than in religion. To begin with, What do you
know about yourself? / am Just as much Of
4 mystery to myself as God is a mystery to
me. You can tell me what ygu d0, and what
yoN MiEk, and what y1u feel: but about the |
you that does, and thinks, and feels, you |