The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-04-23
INCREASE OF FAITH"
Sunday Sermon By The Rev. DR.. Quincy
Ewing.
Shows How This Becomes the Prayer OF ca
Souls When the Worlds Fer. I:xities
Bear Down Upon Us.


Mr.. Ewing took his text from Luke xvii:
s: Lord. increase our faith" In the
course of the sermon he said
We do not know why precisely the disci-
ples should have made this request at this
particular time. Jesus had just said to
them: "If thy brother trespass against thee
rebnke him, and If he repent, forgive him,
and il he trespass against thee seven times
in a day. and seven times in day turn to
thee. saving. Il repent thou shalt forgive
him" Then very abruptly comes from
them the request, Increase our faith"
Possibly there was some tone OF impatience
in their voices as they spoke. They may
have recalled that in the old book of Le-
viticus was to be found practically the
same commandment that He was giving
them: that in the book of Leviticus they
were taught not to hate their brethren,
nor to bear grudge against the children of
their people, but to love their neighbor as
themselves; and they may have felt that
there was no need for them to bear this
old teaching over apain IRON the lips of
the Master; that He was but wasting
time in telling them what they already
knew so well.
So their request. Increase our faith may
have meant "Tell us something that we do
not already know-something hid from the
prophets and wise men of old times; tell
us something, show us something, do some
thing which will make us surer that you
are indeed the Messiah we and our fathers
have looked for; that our hope in You is
not misplaced; that You are truly the
promised Deiiverer. Make us more certain
that we were justified in breaking away
from the authority of the Scribes and
Pharisees, in forsaking all to follow You.
Do not be simply repeating to us what we
nav read ourselves in an ancient book;
saw something, do something, reveal some
thing which will certify our faith in You
as the Messiah
Or the request may have had profound.
er import and been uttered in a tone OF
selfdistrust, OF unfeigned humility and
suppication. Suddenly while Jesus was
speaking there may have awakened in the
souls of His hearers the accusing conscious
ness that. though they had known for so
neghbors, yet never had they or their
fathers been able to live uD to it. to real.
ze in their human life the divine ideal, and
accompanying the consciousness OF past
failure may have been the reflection that
never should they be able to realize that
divine ideal. to eXpel from their human
hearts all hatreds, all resentments. all con-
tempts. all unforgivngness and look upon
their fellow-men with the steady Christ
vision of redemptive charity.
And so their request may have meant,
"Open wider our spiritual eyes, that we
may see with You; lead us, draw us up to
Your spiritual height; let us share with
You Your vision OF God and man; let us
drink from the invisible fountain of Your
vast strength and goodness; let us know
the secret of Your Christliness, that we
may rise to full sympathy with Your d
vine purpose and build with You the king.
dom of God among men as You would
have it builded." But whatever may have
been the character of the disciples re.
hoth Nf
humble speculation in the words that came
from their lips. Increase our faith, we
may all utter the deepest and devoutest
PRAYER OF the most needful moments OF
our human life, Increase our faith" How
inevitably that becomes the prayer of our
souls at times when the infinite problems
and perplexities of this problematical, per.
picking world bear down upon lis and
threaten to weigh us down; when we are
forced to give ourselves to reflection upon
the long and cruel and apparently, unend-
ing suffering of good and evil the suffering
of lnnumbered millions; the vast failures
of justice and triumphs of injustice; the
wrong; the bitter battles of uplifting truth
for recognition by the. mind and heart OF
humanity; the painful, questionable pro-
gress of indubitable good everywhere upon
earth; and, so rejecting, are tempted to
cry out in loud despair, or in danger of
being mastered by that deep hopelessness
which utters no sound and shows itself in
deathless heart of good does, indeed. throb
on to victory in things evil; hope.essness,
that the to-morrows of humanity will be
gladler and nob,er than its yesterdays:
hopelessness. that the wrongs we know will
be done away, and the good we dream en-
body itseu in fact; hoDelessness, that our
individual efforts, all that we can say. all
that we can do, are not mere vain. tran
sient strvings against eternal fate, power
less rs the wings of insects fluttering in
the storm. to effect any betterment of
things that are! How much that prayer
of the apostles, Increase. our faith, may
mean then, to our individual souls! A s-
lent. unsylabled cry for rescue to the In
visible Power that made us and the world;
a pleading with that Power Invisible,
whose name we cannot then utter, whose
attributes we hesitate then to declare, that
again we may be privileged to pray, Our
Father" that again we may feel ourselves
His children; that real enough may be-
come His presence in our lives; to banish
from us all doubt that the world intelligi-
III 81 'lqSH 10 NIpp 'orq!SWslu!un 10 'ola
His keeping; all slisnicion. that anv good
dies, that any right fails. that any throned
and crowned power of iniduity can swing
this earth outside the circle of His Faith
ers purpose and His Fathers love.
But il is not only in times of sorrow, sad
ness, perplexity that the request of the
apostles should be our prayer, for that re;
quest OF theirs points to an eternal and
universal need of the human soul, the need
to-day, tomorrow and forever OF a tirmer
grasp OF Cod, clearer vision of His pur-
poses, deeper reading Of His will, in or
Der that we may live and save ourselves in
the way divine. Perhaps from the stand
point OF the need of some of us it is more
iprVpntly
prayer, Increase our faith" in the sea.
sons OF our greatest joy than in the days OF
our deepest angnth; more necessary at
times when the world shines bright about
lis ana we are conscious of the burden OF
no perpieXity and no misgiving, and dis
posed TO be thoroughly satisfied with our
serves, our performances and with things
as they are; for then, it may be, we are in
greatest danger OF forgetting God, of grow
ing unmlndful OF our personal dependence
upon. Him, of crowding Him out OF our life,
OF Swimming gayly the gay surface OF things
with eyes and ears blind and deaf to their
eternal aspect, their profound and supreme
under the, stress of deep personal anguish,
we may think God far from us, all out OF
.ouch with our lives and their needs. But
70 thlnk God at all. however far we put
nm from us, however grimly we deny our
serves all consoling faith in His wisdom
ana goodness-to think God at all is inf
hlte'y better than to forget, TO ignore Him
utterly, as If our goodness and our happi-
ness did not need Him; as if the world
ABOUT us were fair enough and bright
enough, and altogether satisfactory enough
with or without His presencel
Do you ask what sort of faith this is we
need to pray for to have increased? Is IL
mental comprehension of Some series Of
metaphysical proDosit tions-faith Il, tha ;n