Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-02-15
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAITH.
Faith is a Contact Point Between the
Human and the Divine.

begins where knowledge ends.
IennySOn gives expression to this
idea in the opening lines to I'm Me-
moriam.'
We have but faith we cannot know;
For knowledge is of things we see;'
He regards faith as having TO do
with what is beyond knowledge-as
the acceptance OF truth we cannot
understands this gives the impression
that faith and sight are OppoSiteS, or
if not OppOSites, that faith is blind; we
begin to trust when we can no longer
see.
This view of faith has always been
unacceptable to thinking people, they
have never been able to see bow such
Il faith could be poSsible-how the
mind could act without some know
ledge to guide it.
The teaching that there were truths
which could not be known but must be
believed on authority has tended to a
loss Of interest in those truths, the
idea Of an authority which made no
appeal to mans reason has gradually
lost its power, until men have grown
Indifferent to truths which demand a
faith which has no eye to help
them to see what they are doing.
The result has been that the reli-
giOuS use of the word faith has been
perpleXing and has helped to turn men
away from it: they cannot feel an
interest in such view of faith-it is
unlike the faith Of practical life, and
therefore, has no power to command
attention. The separation of reason
and faith is fatal to the life of faith,
il is natural for men to say they can
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the understanding, that would be to
90 outside Of themselves to act, which
is lmpOSSible: we can only act through
the mind and in harmony with its
laws if truth has no relation to the
mInd-tOO great or mysterious for it's
power OF apprehension, then we can
not step outside ourselves to touch it
by another power or commit ourselves
to ii by a different act: our faith cam
not be power or action distinct from
our rational life, which we can eXer-
else apart from it. 1t is the reason
That makes us men and whatever we
dO must be consistent with it-nay,
more than that, every act must have
reason i'm it. or it would be a denial
If nationality.
\ true faith. therefore, must be
rational; knowing and believing must
be activities of the one intelligent life
working together to sustain ito
lead it on in the path of progress. 1t
is impossible to believe in what has no
relation to our intelligence, what is
altogether outside the mind has no
power to stir a response, there could
be no movement toward it. And this
IS the reason for the rejection of
authOrity-tha it has been external
nHf Nj 70, hn1f /
a command which could not be obeyed
because nothing was done to create
faith.
We are familiar with the expression
Seeing is Believing" we regard it as
the attitude of a mind which diStruStS
everything that does not appeal to the
senses, and yet there is more in it than
the demand for evidence which con-
NlncCS the eye or Car-there is the
unconscious expression of the need
That sight must be Il part of faith
1T Is against every law of the mind
To believe in what we cannot see; the
way must be open before we can move
III any direction; we cannot biindly
commit ourselves, there is always q
glimpse of the way we choose to goa
hint, or an intuition of the truth, it
makes an impression upon us and so
DcgetS trust: the element of uncer-
tainty does not enter into it: we do
not say, we'll, it may be true, or it may
not, / Will accept what the authority
says, here is a claim to be a divine
revelation, ! will believe because it
asserts the right, and demands sub
mission. We cannot will to believe
IN any such way. When we believe in
Il man--in theOry-an enterprise, it
IG n,
merit in them, it is that perception of
WorthincSS which inspires the trust.
And it is the same with the truths of
religion. whenever we are convinced
Of their reality it is by the same
methods which beget faith in other
truths. the faith we exercise in the
practical affairs of every day life is the
same aS religious faith, it underlieS all
our intellectual activitieS-it is the
creative power in all our movements
the impulse Of all search and discovery:
1t does not come into play when reason
tallS, all reasoning is based upon it: we
do not take refuge in faith when we
can know no more, il is there in the
very beginning Of knowledge, we can
not take single step in its progress
without
The trusting disposition is the
deepest fact of mans nature, it takes
us down to the roots of his life and
reveals the sources of its nOuriShment
and maintenance.
There is no deeper fact than that of
our dependence: if we trace our acti-
EitleS and achievements to their cause
we lind it in Il life greater than our
own. knowledge and thought do not
begin with man; we do not create those
intellectual forces which make for
progress. they come to IS through
faith: and here we get at it's real
meaning-i is the unity of our life
With the infinite life-the point of
contact between the human and the
dlyine--it is mar going beyond him
Sel1-beyond the present moment
knowledge. and eXperience-reaching
cut into 4 bOundleSS realm, and bring
ing is truths into the actual expert
ence of life.
Faith is the inspiration of every
activity-it links the present with the
future-the known with the unknown;
1t is there in ambitiOn-in outlook, in
prophecy, in anticipation, it is the
Soul'S vision, by which we first see
every truth intuitively before we rea-
son it out and make it part of our
rational life.
Let lis now make Il study of actual
lite-of its knowledge and experience
and see how everything rests on faith
how knowledge grows. and how faith
grows with it.
Ii we go to the roots of knowledge
we find that we have to rely on teSti-
mony for it-either on the testimony
Of others, or on that of our own
faculties. Take our knowledge of