The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-02-13

OF Belief To-day-Present Not an Age
of UnBeIief. 49,,
Despite the heavy rainstorm and gen.
orally forbidding conditions of weather
last evening, quite large body of stu
dents were present at Trinity church on
the green to hear the Very Rev. Will
ford Robbins, D. D.. dean of the Cen
eral Theological seminary of New York
city, preach the fourth in the series eff
Berkeley sermons. DR.. Robbins preach
ed an earnest sermon from the text in
ST. Mark, Q. "a, Lord, believe; help
Thou my unbelief."
In resume the preacher said: "This
is a cry which breaks from the lips of
every young man who really thinks and
lives deeply. I believe means / long to
believe. There is probably no more dis
tinctively human cry to be found in the
pages of the gospel. 1t finds some echo
in every mans heart. And I do not ac-
cept the statement that this is an age of
unbelief. / believe it is an age of faith.
But it is futile to deny that there are
certain conditions which exist to-day
which make it more difficult to accept
the revelations given to the church than
ever before 1t Is harder than ever be-
fore to believe. Therefore, my topic
this evening is belief, Christian belief.
What is the object of belief? The
first and supreme object of belief is a
person. 1t is to believe in God and
Jesus Christ. The supreme object of
faith in every relation Of life Is a per-
son. Belief in a person must rest on
experienced cannot be a sudden occur
renee. 1t has gradual growth with
the growth of the Individual. do not
know how any one Of you will reach
this belief, but do know that it will
be just little different from the path
that any one else has trod.
.The second object of faith is an his
toric fact. An historic fact rests on
evidence. In the accounts Of the life of
Christ we have to accept the evidence
of secondhand witnesses believe
that believe Of fact must rest on au-
thority. That of a person rests on ex-
perience.
E#5# 4 ne IIllIu UUJECt Vi pCliSL 10 LhSOAicss
There is nothing Of theory in the creed.
It is important what kind of theories
we believe. Theories form an import
ant object Of belief. but not so import
ant as the other two. The theory of
the sacrament of the altar is Of great
Importance If we believe it is but
symbol of human fellowship when we
grow up we will not come often. If, on
the other hand, we believe that we par
take of the very person of our incar-
nate God we shall come often. i do
not attempt to say which is the right
theory.
Absolute conviction Of belief can
only hold in person. This strong con-
viction is a secret between God and the
individual which he cannot impart to
another person.
Many people try to believe in the
resurrection of Christ with the same
thrill that they believe in Him as a
Lord and Master. 1t is impossible.
Historic fact does not allow Of the same
enthusiasm that personal experience
does We never accept 1t with the aban-
don with which we accept God and
Jesus Christ. In historic fact only a
reasonable certainty is required.
Before closing I must say a little
about our unbeliefs 1t is not SO in
spring a subject as our faith. Our un-
beliefs spring from two sources( ID
moral or (2l intellectual II they spring
from the former we cannot be over
anxious about them: If from the latter
don't worry too much If you find that
your unbelief is paralyzing your arm
and robbing life Of its beauty, then stop
thinking Of your unbeliefs. Do some
thing. Stand on your positive convic-
tions, however narrow they may be.
Live up to your present convictions.
Convictions can grow stronger and
multiply. Thus only can your eonvic-
lions grow stronger. And the CRY, Help
Thou my unbelief,, was not unanswer-
ed by Christ, and 1t is never left unan-
swered."