The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-07-28

Without faith it LEI impossible ia
please Him With faith sall things
are possible .tAccOrdfng to thy faith
be It unto thee" Proper faith, Of
course, Is meant, not creduIity, not re.
lance upon the words OF men, but inn.
plicit faith in the Lord for all that He
has promised to them who love Him
supremely.-Hebrew II Is: Mark 9:2s.
so important a grace must OF ne.
cessity require many lessons for It's
proper development, and therefore we
find that in our individual experiences
as Christians we have those core.
spending to the experiences of the
Apostles, as recorded In this lesson.
How suddenly the Adversary may OF
times bring against us a whirlwind of
temptation or of opposition or Of per-
secution! How overcast. how dark, our
sky seems at such times! How the
waves OF adversely or Of af1iction have
almost overwhelmed us! And how the
Lord has seemed asleep, needless of
our distressl
Such experiences are tests Of faith.
II u faith be strong, we would keep
on with our proper endeavors to ad.
just matters, corresponding to the eff
forts of the Apostles to keep the ship
afoat, but with implicit faith In the
Lords promise that FALL things work
together for good to them that, love
God, to them who are the called ac-
cording to His purpose" So accord
ing to our faith shall we be able to
rejoice even in t%ribulation. Not that
we enjoy the sufferings; but we enjoy
the thought which faith attaches. to
them-that these are only light aflic-
tons, intended to work out for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight
Of glory."-Romans 1928; 2 Corinthians
AIT.
The Boat and the Storm In Antitype.
We may regard the incidents Of our
lesson from a typical viewpoint. Thus
the boat would seem to be the Gospel
Dispensation, or Gods provision for
carrying Messiah and His followers to
the other side. The Master asleep
would seem to prefgure the apparent
Indifference Of the Lord. the Head Of
the Church, to the storms Of persecu-
ton and suffering assailing His Church.
The disciples awakening Him would
seem to imply the prayers Of the
Church throughout the Age, crying
unto the Lord, "Carest Thou not that
we perishF"
{ What a tempestuous storm broke up
on the Lords people after Jesus had
gone from them! Prosecutions from
the Jews, then from the Gentiles, fol.
lowed one another until the entire his.
tory Of the true Church has been mark
ed by severe trials, disciplines, test
ings Of patience and of faith. Many
q time have the Lords people won
dered at the amount of affection and
opposition from the world, the flesh
and the Devil that their glorified Head
permits to come upon them. Verify, it
seemed as though He were asleep, as
though He cared not for their welfarel
The storm on the Sea of Galilee may
have arisen in some ordinary way, for
aught we know to the contrary. 1t
must have been a very severe storm;
for the disciples were expert, expert
.enced fishermen. We might reason
that surely God would not specially
raise up such a storm; and that lie He
had Jesus would have submitted to it,
and would not have worked contrary
to the Divine arrangement
On Tho nthar- hon1 8 ruo prfrshA ranson
that, since Satan is Scripturally term
ed the prince Of the power of the
air." it would be quite in line with his
disposition to seek to destroy Jesus
and the Church. represented by the
Apostles. He might have thought thus
to nip In the bud the Divine arrange
ment which Jesus had outlined; name
~, His crucifxion in fulfilment Of the
Scriptures. At all events. Jesus when
awakened did not hesitate to use the
power He possessed from the Father
to quell the storm-to turn aside the
mischievous designs of Satan.
"And There Was a Great CaIm.p
We read that when awakened, Jesus
first reproved His disciples for insult
ficiency of faith, as manifested In their
doubling that with Him present with
them they would be entirely safe from
Eli powers of wind and water and the
Adversary. Then He rebuked the
storm, and it quickly subsidized; and
there was q great calm.
What could these things mean anti
typtcally? What lesson could we gain
from them along spiritual lines? The
lesson is that the storms of life which
have. beset Gods people throughout
this Gospel Age have undoubtedly been
chiefly under the administration of the
Evil One. He was unsuccessful as re-
spects the Lord, whose faith triumph
ed, loyal unto death. Satan has since
tried, however, to wage a bitter war
fare against the followers Of Jesus.
through persecution. SANDER, misrepre-
s%entation and falsehood. But in all of
these he has only fulfilled the Lords
prediction. saying, Marvel not If the
world hate you; We know that it hated
Me before 1t hated you. re We were OF
the world. the world would love its
own. Dus now We are not ~ tle II ul y.
because ! have chosen you out Of the
world; therefore the world hateth you.''
Throughout the Gospel Age It has
been sought to keep the Church pure
by keeping the world out OF tt, even
though wave after wave sought to fill
the boat with the undesirable qualities
and to swamp 1T. Throughout the Age