The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-08-17
UNIVERSAL NEED OF FAITH
REV. DE. WOODROW ATTHE CONC RE- GATI0NAL CHURCH, NORTH HAVEN.

GATI0N4L GIT UROH, NORTH HAVEN. Faith Necessary in All Affairs of Life Truths of the Bible Only Acquired by Faith and Trust-A Fine Sermon and a Large Congregation.
 In the absence of the regular pastor, the Rev, Dr. Lathrop, who is taking his vacation, the Rev, pr. Woodrow preach ed at the Congregational church in North Haven yesterday morning. Dr. Woodrow Is classmate of the Rev. pr, Lathrop, graduating from the Yale the ological seminary in 1892, and at pres ent is pastor of Plymouth church in Providence, R. I. He spoke in part as follows, from the text John 1:46, And Nathaniel said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?' Philip saith unto him, Come and see:'"
 ''The Bible is book which teaches to men transcendant truths. From its pages men may learn the existence of God, the Creator and controller of all the material universe which men see around them; the fall of man through the exercise of his right of free choice; the plan of his justification. salvation and ultimate sanctification; the final end of man in the dust of the grave and the hope of a life beyond which reaches out into all eternity.
 All of these truths we can learn from the Bible and nowhere else. It is revelation of the divine plan which we cannot acquire by our sense or by any of the other methods by which we usually acquire Knowledge. In order to get the truth which the book con- tains 1t is necessary to have faith, and it is precisely this lack of faith which is troubling the people of our age Peo- pie used to say that what the Bible said was not so, but now they say very like ly all that is said in the book is true, but we have no means of deciding whether it is true or not, and so we don't know.
 Now, the faith that is necessary to know the truths of the Bible is the same that is required to know the truths of science, history, society or business. If every one should believe only what he had himself tried and proved the limit of his knowledge, that knowledge would be small indeed.
 ssBut we all of us take things as be- ' ing true on the faith of what other peo- pie say about them. When I was a boy I learned that the earth was s2,000,0o miles distant from the sun, trusting to the figures of the scientists Since then the scientists have revised their esti- mates and say that it is 90000,000 miles distant, and we accept the revised fig 5ures and do not lose our faith in scien- tific knowledge.
 s'The same is true of the composition of the air, which scientists formerly taught us was composed of oxygen and nitrogen, but now scientists inform us that there is third constituent, and we accept the statement as true and do not lose our faith in the teachings of science. This same faith is neces- sary also in our social relations Let the devil of doubt once enter the door of home and the angel of peace flies out at the window.
 sThe same law of faith holds in the business world The present hard times, probably, the hardest that this country has ever felt originated in the failure of the Barring Brothers of Eng land, followed by the general loss of confidence among business men in this country in the ability and honesty of other men.
 There is a difference between faith and trust. Faith is the belief in a state Inent; trust Is the belief in a person. Both of these are necessary to get the greatest good out of the Bible. The question put to Philip by Nathaniel in the text Philip could not answer, but he did the best thing there was to do, and that was to tell Nathaniel to come and see Christ for himself This is d. ways the best way for us to do. We can learn more by seeing for ourselves than in any other way. We need to see Christ as He is to see the sacrifices and sufferings of His life; to see Him i'll the hall of judgment with the crown of thorns on His head; to see Him bleeding on the cross; to see Him at His resurrection and ascension. It is ever necessary for us to sec Him if we are to truly know Him and be like Him"