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Faith and Volition

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 23, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 20.

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Faith and Volition.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

THERE is a question of human rights which may be stated in the words of a lad which I chanced to hear a few days since. He was in earnest conversation with a man as they passed near me. Said he, “I think a man has a right to believe just what he is a mind to; and probably will too.”
True faith, or faith in the truth of revelation, depends upon evidence. We may choose to search for the truth by carefully and candidly examining the evidences, or not. Here is where volition is exercised. But if we do thus examine the evidences on which truth rests, having an earnest desire to know the truth, faith is the certain result. We cannot truly be said to believe that of which there is no evidence. Men say they believe this or that, things for which they cannot produce the least evidence; but it is false; that is not faith which has no evidence to support it; and that which is supported by evidence is the truth.
I do not believe as I do because I have a right to. I believe the Bible to be a divine revelation, as the necessary and unavoidable result of examining the evidences, willing only that truth should be truth. And I believe the particular doctrines taught in the Bible, because the record affirms them. That for which I have no “thus saith the Lord” is not a part of my faith.
As to the right; men will search for truth, or they will not. Not desiring the truth, they may believe a lie, and consequently be condemned; because they received not the love of the truth. If this is right, then men have a right to believe as they please. But we accord to all the right we claim for ourselves. R. F. COTTRELL.