Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-03-04
&eadimg fur the Sabbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHA AN.
(Orlginal.
IOrIS
FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.

InC WOruS ldlIll anu Ucllel Hdfc u CUlIllHOll
origin. However different they may look,
they mean identically the same thing. The
word belief occurs only once, so far as is re-
membered, in the English translation of the
Scriptures. This will be found in II Thes-
salonians, 2:13. In the Greek it is the same
word that is translated two hundred and
thirty-four times, faith. TO believe means
the same thing as to exercise faith.
Faith is sometimes said to be belief in
testimony. This is a very good definition
of faith, but it is not definition of what
faith in Jesus Christ is. All men believe
testimony. 1t is impossible for them to do
otherwise. All men have faith. A man
without faith would be man without even
the intellectual powers ola brute. Without
faith no transaction of any kind or char
acter could be effected. There could be no
planting, no cultivating, and no reaping.
Faith isan important factor in every human
effort.
There are two kinds of faith. The one
may be called natural faith, the other re-
| ligious faith. They have some things in
common, or, more correctly, they resemble
each other in some respects. Wherever
there is an intellect there is natural faith,
and wherever there is u moral nature there
is religious faith. 1t is very little of the
! little that any one knows which he has
learned by means of his senses, or thought
out by his own powers of reasoning. Only
comparatively few Of the human family
have ever investigated, or are able to inves-
tigate one of thousand principles which
they believe as firmly as they believe the
testimony of their senses. All men are
moral beings and all men have religious
faith-they believe some things which may
be classed under the head of the religious.
Those persons who worship stones have re-
ligious faith, and the fact that they worship
stones is an evidence Of their faith. We
may say that it is absurd to suppose that
any person can exercise faith in stones, but
we should reflect that there are multitudes,
even in Christian lands, and who lay some
claim to be Christians, who place horse
shoes above their doors. These persons
certainly have faith in something for some
thing. The thing may be absurd, and real
| ly is absurd, but still it proves that faith eX-
| lists, and that it is religious faith. Such
|
so they are, but superstition cannot exist in
| mind destitute Of religion.
When it is said that all men have faith
| religious faith-it is not said that all men
| have faith in Jesus Christ. This we know
| is not the case. A large number of the hu-
| man family never heard of Jesus Christ.
These cannot believe on him, because neith-
er natural nor religious faith can be exer-
cised without knowledge. All faith comes
| by hearing. Many who have heard of Je-
sus Christ, positively reject him. These do
not have faith in him, for although faith
cometh by hearing, we may hear and not
believe. Again, many who profess to have
faith in Jesus Christ have no correct Scrip
tural knowledge of his person or his offices.
| They believe in Jesus Christ, but not in
the Jesus Christ who is revealed in the Scrip
lures. These hope to be saved, but their
hopes are not we'll founded. In a sense they
desire to be saved, and in a sense they eX-
| pect to be saved, but their desires and
eXpectatiOns--and these constitute their
hopes-are only apparently better founded
than are the hopes of those who worship
gods Of their own make. In fact all those
who adore Jesus Christ who is not reveal
ed in the Scriptures, no matter how strong
may be their faith, and no matter how de-
vout may be their religious services, are
idolaters.
All men believe-all men must believe.
They cannot avoid believing, but all men
are not capable of believing in Jesus Christ
No man can believe savingly in Jesus
Christ, until he has been "born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh nor Of the will
of man, but Of God."
Faith in Jesus Christ may be viewed as a
power, and as that power in exercise.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into our
world, manifest in the flesh, to save sinners.
This is matter of pure revelation. Nelth-
er creation nor providence make any dis
coveres on this subject. Notwithstanding
the ruinous effects of the fall there remains
in man enough of intellect to understand
that the revelation is from Heaven, and
that it makes an offer of salvation to all who
will believe on Jesus Christ. That there
lived near nineteen centuries ago, a person.
age who bore, while living, and still bears,
the name Jesus Christ, is a historic fact es-
tablished on historic evidence, no sane man
will deny, and consequently all who know
the history of Jesus Christ believe that there
was such a person. This, however, is not
faith in Jesus Christ. Further, an indiVid-
ual may believe that Jesus Christ is the Sa-
viour, and only Saviour of sinners, but de-
terminedly refuse to accept him as his Sa-
viour. Such a person has no faith in Jesus
Christ. He has not the power to accept OF
him. The power to believe in Jesus Christ
is clearly revealed in the Scriptures to be
the gift of God Natural faith is the gift of
God and so is the power to believe savingly
in Jesus Christ. Natural faith is a gift of
creation, or it is gift bestowed upon man
in creation. Faith in Jesus Christ as the
saviour of sinners is gift bestowed by the
Holy Spirit in regeneration. All men by
nature are dead in trespasses and SINS
Those who are quickened into life, or those
who are born again, or those who are born
of God are given the power to believe in
Jesus Christ.
In its exercise, faith in Jesus Christis the
receiving and resting on him, and on him
alone, for salvation, as he is offered to us in
the gospel. The object of faith in Jesus
Christ is always Jesus Christ himself. We
are not commanded, or eXhorted, or entreat-
ed to believe that our sins are pardoned and
that when we die we will 60 to Heaven
We are simply commanded to believe in
Jesus Christ and agracious promise is made
to us that if we will we shall be saved.
! \ life Of faith in Jesus Christ is a life OF
continual dependence on Jesus Christ. 1t
is not a life of inactivity, but one Of cOntin-
uous effort in obedience to the revealed will
Of God.
It is manifest, on q moments reflection,
that faith in Jesus Christ is preceded by a
knowledge of him. 1t is in the nature of
things impossible to accept of him as a sa-
vior, and to rely on him entirely for saliva
ton, until he has been revealed to US by his
word and spirit. He is clearly revealed in
the Bible, but without the enlghtening in
fuences of the Holy Spirit, he cannot be dis
covered, by the unaided intellect, as the
chiefest among ten thousand, the one alto