The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-04-13
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. CHARLES W.. MCCORMICK.
Thence: Faith.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-Dr. Charles W:
Mccormick, pastor of the Nostrand
Avenue M. E. Church. preached Sun
day morning the sixth in a series of
notable sermons on "The Fruits OF
the Spirit" The special subject was
Faith" The text vas from Gala
tians 5:22: Now the fruit Of the
Spirit is faith" DR.. Mccormick said:
What is faith? Perhaps no one
can answer. Certainly no Il will
be able to give a scientific definition.
For faith is one of those ultimate i'm
pulses of the soul which defes ac-
curate metes and bounds. Like love,
it is so wrought into the fiber OF per-
sonality that 1t cannot be separated
and viewed apart. Yet faith Is one
of the most kingly of all human quail
ties. The old question, which is
greater, faith or love, may never find
its answer. Each Is great and n GER
tain aspects supremely so, and each
conditions the other. Without faith
there can be no love, and without
love there can be no faith. Yet 1t
would seem as II faith has a certain
priority In that it holds up the light
for love to walk by. If love and faith
are one in their initial manifestation,
they travel but little way hand in
hand. Soon faith takes a step ahead
and becomes the guide Of love,
though sometimes faith falls back on
love when 1t Is itself men.ced. Like
wise the question, which Is E;Le+er,
faith or reason, may be difficult s.,
answer. Reason in its low ranges
has to do with facts and phenomena
and their arrangement. But reason
in its high ranges draws mighty in
ferences, makes great congratulations
and reaches conclusions that may de-
fy demonstration for generations, II
not forever. Here reason merges into
faith and faith finds its foothold In
reason. It seems that faith Is after
all hardly other than the highest Mt
terance of reason. Especially does
this seem true when we remember
that reason in the large meaning al
ways assumes some great and indie
monstrable principle. 1t seems easy
to say that a grain of wheat will pro-
duce its thirty or sixty fold Of wheat
when planted In congenial soil, but
the great assumption underlying this
simple statement Is that the laws OF
nature are uniform in their operation
and this Is demonstrable only to
faith.
But what Is faith? Can we get any
nearer to an understanding of it2 At
any rate, we may clarity our thought
by determining the use we will make
of the word. The term faith Is ap-
piled either to the act Of believing or
to the content of belief; that Is, to
belief as a function of the soul or to
what the individual believes. The
latter meaning is found in the phrase,
'the faith once delivered to the
saints" Here Paul has in mind the
great body of Christian doctrine re.
ceived from Christ and generally &C
copied by the church Of that day. on
the other hand, when Paul exhorted
the Philippian jailer to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, he referred to
an act on the part of the jailer though
he did not forget that the Christ upon
whom the jailer was to believe was
the Christ Of the Gospels, and there.
fore possessed well-known and &C.
cepted characteristics. We have
taken a short step toward under.
standing what faith Is when we make
this distinction and limit ourselves to
faith as an action Of the soul. But
we need to make clear also that faith
is not the action Of some special soul
power. It Is nothing less than the
act of the whole spiritual nature
This conception excludes any de1ni-
ton Of faith which makes it a mere
intellectual process. Pure intellect
is only a theoretical concept. 1t Is
not found in reality. All intellectual
processes are the outgrowth Of the in
diyidual soul as it Is, and no soul can
be separated for a single instant from
its feeling, its trend and it's accumu-
lated volitions or habits. Faith, then.
can be nothing less than the action OF
the whole nature of man. In like
manner, a distinction must be drawn
between a transient and a permanent
activity. Faith in the New Testament
ems Is not a single act complete IN
itself. It is a constant and enduring
movement or trend Of the soul.
In the interest of further clearness,
it may be noted also that faith as an
action may relate either to facts or
persons. We may believe either that
certain statements are true, or we
may believe in a person. Faith IN
the Christian sense involves both
facts and a person. Here we must
speak very g%uardedly. There Is much
in the present trend of theological
thinking, which finds its echo in pop
ular thought, that tends to looseness,
and, it would seem, to vagueness.
When we are told that faith has to do
with God as a person, or with Jesus
Christ as a person without regard to
n definition or clear historic set
ting, we are asked to do either the
impossible or the absurd; perhaps
both. 1t is hard to think of God
without giving to Him some definite
qualities. If we know Him at all, we
must know Him as WI know our fell
lows, through His manifestations.
That is, through the display of His
qualities. The "unknowable" OF Her
bert Spencer may be a fine refuge for
intellectual incompetence when the
mind has failed in its vain endeavor
to account for the universe and ex-
plain it's processes. 1t Is worth some
thing to fall back upon the assertion
that there is an unknown and per-
haps unknowable power working
everywhere and always in nature,