Norwich bulletin., 1917-07-28
Sunday Morning Talk
RECKLESS FAITH.

President Hadley of Yale used the phrase in recent address to the i graduating class. It was during plea to the young men for a whole might banish doubts and send a soul ! victorious through the difficulties of ] life, singing the while. T will trust, and not be afraid"
 1 faith that sustains one in the crises of experience, that allows him to bear down solidiy on the divine power and love is the only kind worth talking servicea bIe than that is a mere de- corun. to be put on and off, as one wears his Sunday coat for a day and then hangs it up in the closet
 merely conventional belief is about the most disappointing thing in the world. It breaks down just when we need it most. Serving well enough, and prosperity, it makes a sorry re- fuge in storm. A pretty little yacht with glistening spars and white sails does very well for skipping about the harbor on Summer afternoons. When caught offshore, however, in a blow with the hungry, crested waves roll ing, one wants something more solid than a play boat between himself and the bottom. How many of the sons Of men would essay to cross the sea of time, where black tempests are any day possible, in ships designed alone for fair weather! Can we wonder that so often, they sink beneath the waves?
 Faith is complete surrender to a hidden guidance. It is not merely a convenient adjunct of our own skill, enterprise, and industry. It is not merely a supplement to ones own cIeverness, that may be counted on to help some. It is a substitute for our own powers. We walk by faith, and
 
 5he Power not ourselves, when every human resource has failed. Didn't you trust in God?" was asked of woman who had barely escaped seri- GUS injury in a runaway accident. "l did until the breeching broke" was the reply. Reader, did you ever find yourself confusing such reliance on human expedients with faith? Most of us, at some time or another, are guilty of the mistake.
 Faith is required of us in this pres ent earthly experience in a, way never to be duplicated. It is a demand pe- culiar to our life here in the flesh, as it cannot be in the experience that succeeds this We may serve God and enjoy Him in the land that is fairer than day, but we can no longer trust Him. for we shall see Him as He is. Faith shall then have passed into sight.
 Faith is. then, the very essence and genius of the religious life. They know nOIhIng or tnTlSIldH1Ly WHO nave not responded to it's call to faith. To believe, with holy daring, that God rules. that somehow good shall be the final goal of i'll, that sometime, every loss shall be compensated, ev- cry wrong righted, and every tear made dry-tflis is the high privilege i of the Christian traveller along life's | pathway.
 Faith is the one faculty able to | pierce through present gloom to fu l ture brightness. It illumines that vast l unknown beyond the hilltop to which l all the sons of men are hastening- | so many millions of them in these | tragic years of war. At this point un l belief is pathetically impotent to help. i Beyond this place of wrath and tears ! looms but the horror of the shade" sings Henley in his famous, pagan 1 poem of defiance. Ones own heart | should teach him better. In our hap i piest imaginings we have not begun ] to sense the glory that remaineth for the people of God. Let us take the | view of Sir Oliver Lodge: '1 will not believe that it is given to man to have 1 thoughts nobler and loftier than the | truth of things" Their faith is bound | to be reckless whose creed it Is that | 'HThe love of God is broader than the | measure of mans mind, ana the heart | of the Eternal is most wonderfully | kfnd.'
 T3E' PARS0N