Confidence in God by J. Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 29, 1873

Confidence in God.

By J. Clarke

“Trust in the Lord and do good.” Ps. 37: 3.

FAITH is the foundation of Christianity. A sincere, rational, and unshaken confidence in the Creator of all things, as the author of all that is good, must underlie the whole system of practical godliness: for doubt on this subject causes just such a catastrophe here as happens to a building when the foundation is defective or decayed, or is wholly removed.

A man who doubts the Bible, or its author, has already, not only renounced Christianity, but, ranked himself with Paine and Voltaire, and the infidelity of the age.

The persons to whom the text is addressed, are supposed not only to have a faith in theory, but they are supposed to have a practical faith, that can trust God in emergencies, when difficulties arise, when want or misfortune lay a heavy hand upon the trusting saint.

When all the artillery of Satan is let loose upon the child of God, he may be in want, or sorrow, persecuted by enemies, and forsaken of friends; he may be friendless and alone, or he may be the victim of a Herod or a Nero, or a victim of the more refined cruelty of councils and edicts, yet faith and confidence in God never fail him; but, like the strong arm of Omnipotence, it lifts him above the earth. He seems to breathe the atmosphere of Paradise; and the greater his suffering, the stronger his faith, and love, and joy.

J. CLARKE.