The Brandon news., 1903-04-30
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"lNcREASE OF FAITH" n

The Rev. Quincy Ewing Shows How This
Becomes tho Prayer of Our Souls
When the Worlds Perplexities Bear
Down Upon Us.
New York Cry. - The Rev. Quincy
Ewing, of st. James Episcopal Church,
der consideration for one of the important
pulpits of Brooklyn, recently preached q
thoughtful sermon on Increase of Faith"
Mr.. Ewing took his text from Luke xvii:
5: Lord, increase our faith" In the
course of the sermon he said:
We do not know why precisely the disci-
pies Should have made this request at this
particular time. Jesus had just said to
them: If thy brother trespass against thee
rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive HIM,
and If he trespass against thee seven times
in day, and seven times in a day turn to
thee. saying, I repent thou shalt forgive
him" Then very abruptly comes. from
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
themselves; and they may have felt that
there was no need for them to bear this
old teaching over again from 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 l1now-something hid from the
prophets and wise men of old times; tell
of n q.
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 Deliverer. Make us more certain
that we were justified in breaking away
Pharisees, in forsaking all to follow You.
Do not be simply repeating to us what we
may read ourselves in an ancient book;
say 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 tone of
selfdistrust, of unfeigned humility and
supplication. 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
long the divine law of duty toward their
neighbors, yet never had they or their
fathers been able to live up to it, to real
ize in their human life the divine ideal, and
accompanying the consciousness of past
failure may have been the reflection that
divine ideal, to expel from their human
hearts all hatreds, all resentments, all con-
tempts. all unforgivingness 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 di-
vine purpose and build with You the king
have it builded." But whatever may have
been the character of the disciples re-
quest, whether of impatient criticism or
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 us 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 unnumbered millions; the vast failures
of justice and triumphs of injustice; the
tragic defeat of right and victories of
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 refecting, 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
no outward sign; hopelessness, that a
deathless heart of good does, indeed, throb
on to victory in things evil; hopelessness,
that the to-morrows of humanity will be
gladder and nobler than it's yesterdays;
hopelessness, that the wrongs we know will
body itsen in fact; hopelessness, that our
individual efforts, all that we can say, all
that we can do, are not mere vain, tran
sfent strivings against eternal fate, power
less, as the wings of insects huttering 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 81
lent, unsyllabled cry for rescue to the In
visible Power that made us and the world !;
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 Danish
from us all doubt that the world intelligi-
uI ST 'qqS!I 10 gIep ssTq!S1Ie4u!un 10 seIq
His keeping; all suspicion. that any good
dies, that any right fails, that any throned
and crowned power of iniquity can swing
this earth outside the circle Of His Faith
er's purpose and His Fathers love.
But it 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 frmer
grasp Of God, 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
necessary. for us to pray fervently that
prayer, Increase our faith," in the sea-
sons of opS greatest JOY than in the days of
our deepest anguish; more necessary at
times when the world shines bright about
us and we are conscious of the burden of
no perplexity and no misgiving, and dis
posed to be thoroughly satisfied with our