The Use of Faith

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 1, 1877

WHAT is the use of faith? It is to lead a man to work. James 2. Faith that does not lead a man to work is dead. When does God call upon men to have faith? When he has a work to be done among men. In what does he require them to have faith? In that work which he has to be done in their day; for in this they can assist; not in some work in the past which others have already done, and which does not need their help nor sympathy now. The present truth, the present work, and faith in the present work, which leads men to engage in and support the present work—this is what has always been pleasing to God—this is Bible faith.

A dead church and formal professors always have great faith in God's workers of the past, but only contempt and persecution for his work in the present. Reader, be careful. All your talk about faith in Christ and what he did and suffered in the past will avail you nothing if you reject his work for the present time. As we have shown, the coming of the Lord and a special preparation for it is now the present truth. Will you take a part in it?