The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-04-06
A Mature Faith
Lesson for April 8, 1862

A man may be embarrassed
to discover that his mother has
saved some of his baby clothes
or he may be pleased that she
did so. Either way, he is moi
going to hunt around in the
mems clothing looking for some.
thing to wear just like what he
sported in his second year Of
life. only bigger. The clothes Of
babyhood do not suit the man
The same should be true of a
mans faith. The faith of a little
child is good. make no mistake
about that. And the baby food
which a small infant guzzles by
the bottleful is good also, at the
right time. But when the boy
goes off to college his mother
does not pack his cute little
teddy bear to go with him, nor
does she look to see if his sup
ply of baby-goo is plentiful.
A Taught Faith
What is good. and sufficient
for a child. may still be good
but not sufficient, for a grown
person. If we are expected tc
become mature in what we eat
and what we wear, not to men.
ton what we read and what we
think about. surely a Christian
can be expected to acquire a
more mature faith as well.
In Paul's letter to his young
friend Timothy. we have some
hints about what mature faith
may be. Those who have studied
these letters to Timothy and
Titus have sometimes concluded
that the two young men were
opposite types. Titus is thought
to have been a rather hard.
boiled, hardhitting type. and
Paul has to urge him to be con.
siderate and gentle: Timothy
was shy and rather boyiSh;
Paul has to urge him to be
manly, to stand up and take it
and not to lean on others.
There are three marks Of the
mature faith which Paul wants
his young former assistant to
develop. First of all it is a
taught" faith: in the best
sense it was handed down to
him. His mother and his grand
mother before him we're women
of faith. Paul evidently
thought it best not to bring ur
the men of the family Now ii
is nc disgrace to have faith
taught us, at first. so to speak
We learn everything else but
breathing and digestion. Why
not faith? Most people Of strong
convictions would tell you they
received those convictions, to
begin with. by contact with
someone they liked or admired
There is nothing wrong with
that, indeed it is necessary
Truth Conferred Faith
But faith that goes through
life dressed in quotation-marks
is not worth much to an
adult; Mamma said," Papa
thought, Grandpa had the
idea - won't do. The whole
family may be right; but if you
believe what you believe just
because they said so, you're
still a spiritual infant. They be-
ieved certain things to be true !;
and mature faith believes MN SO
tar as it can what is true,
not what is said to be true. do
you ask me this of yourself. :"
Jesus said to PLATE. "or did
others tell you about me?" Pi-
late lodged the question: but we
should not. Faith is not worth
much. it is a broken ship in a
storm. if it remains as it be-
gan. heresay faith. When stu
dents learn physics. they have
to perform many experiments
III the laboratory. These test the
truth of what the professor says
IN his lectures. The big question
is not. was the professor force
tul, clear, eloquent? The ques-
ton is rather: was what he said.
true?
a Tested Faith
II is easy to have faith when
everything is coming your way,
when the breaks are with you.
A child finds faith easy; a
grown person does not. The
reader of II Timothy will notice
the various references to trou-
BILE. danger. illness, disappoint-
ments. Indeed when Paul wrote
this letter he was prisoner,
facing death sentence. A ma
t'n-e faith is one that can be as
Joyous as Paul'S was even when
the circumstances of life are
ugly and painful. We pray,
Lord. increase our faith and
then sometimes. instead of the
hesrtwarlning lift we we're ex-
SOME chilling. dreadful
experiences SEXES us. and We
wonder why God did not answer
our prayer. Wei, nothing grows
not a muscle. not a