Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1904-10-15
THE VENTURE OF FAITH.
elements of True Faith and What
the Soul Loses with
out Them.

The simplest words are the most I'M
fsthomable, the most impossible of def
milton. They have the simplicity of the
sea and of the sky. which bound each
sther at the horizon. but are not 20 be
scored and marked by any boundary
line of ours. One such word is faith
which Christ aud Paul agree in putting
soto he forefront of the working virtues
but = hioh the theologies have more OBJ
secured than explained TO US. We are
getting bach 10 the discovery that faith
IN not so much a mental operation as a
personal relation in which the will is en-
hsted. It's proper object is not a creed
but person-Our GOO and our Saviour
We ade learning that he is not justified
by faith who merely holds a right con
esption OF that doctrine, and who can di-
-tc p the Imp Vicctiop of rival defni-
lions vi it, bGt &c who from his heart can
say that he has put himself for sal
walton into the hands of that Christ
~ho is made justification unto us.
Not that creeds are useless things, but
their use is to embody our convictions
rather than our faith. When the
apostles say: Il know whom / have
believed" he combines both.
Equally faui,,=T is the confusion of
faith with sight, which Phillips
Brooks says he found very common
srror. IL is not unusual to find people
who have been greatly bereaved by the
death OF their friends show unwilling
ness to trust God in the matter the
least bit They insist on knowing on
actly why this should have befallen
Them, and array their arguments
against its wisdom as though they
were in just as good position as their
Maker TO judge of the matter
Though He Stay me, yet will l trust
IN Him." is not what they even wish
30 be able TO say.
Ii is probably less common TO find
those who ask TO see rather than to
know in the matter of their own sal
cation. Il cannot believe" an in
Quirer said TO Mr.. Moody. Whom
ran you not believer" was his pene-
trating answer Faith means trust
ing God in that matter 1t is going be-
yond what sight and knowledge make
possible 10 us. Ii is the child's leap
into his fathers arms, made in the
dark often, and met by his fathers
6rm grasp.
Faith means venture What We
have learned by experience to he true
is no longer matter of faith, but OF
sight, of conviction, Of certainty. 1t
is not a matter of faith with us that
the earth will sustain us as we walk
upon it, bat il may once have been
IN inf
ness of thought sufficient to deal with
that problem. When boy has learned
TO swim, it ceases to be a matter of
faith with him that the water will
bear him up, but it was so at the
outset of his learning. And as the
baby trusts itself to the ground and
the boy to the wafer, the believer
trusts himself to God, by an act of
volition, by an act of courage, at a
venture. Eliminate these elements.
and you have eliminated the essentials
or faith. You may have left a cal
culatine prudence. or a doctrinal spec
ulation, or pious emotion. but nos
faith.
And as the Christian life begins in
faith, in trusting and believing God
so II goes on in faith, says the SUNDAY
School Times We are sanctified bv
faith, not less than justified by il.
Our Saviour cannot do many miehtv
works in US if our unbelief binders
Him In working. We have TO trust
Him as hating our sins, desiring to
set us free from our sins, and able
TO cleanse US from them. It is in
this faith that we pray for greater
holiness, for growth in likeness to His
own holiness, for the grace Of charac-
ter which shall displace our habitual
wrong-doings. For these things we
are authorized to pray without any re-
serves, as they are declared to be the
Will of God for US. 1t is this which
forbids us to rest in our imperfection
as though that were a law of life for
US instead Of being just an agly fact
OF life. Whether sinless perfection a,
some think, is atJainaJle in this life
or. as others believe Is 70 he ~,