FAITH AND ITS FRUITS by C. A. Osgood

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 15, 1877

FAITH AND ITS FRUITS.

By C. A. Osgood

Faith is more precious than gold. It brings to its possessor rich blessings—all the soul needs. He that diligently seeks God by faith gains a glorious reward. The children of God live by faith. They walk by faith, and so walk with God. The fruits of faith appeared in the lives and actions of saints who lived in ancient times.

Noah had this living, active faith. He believed that what God said, was true. What God told him about the future, he expected would take place. He lived in an age of great wickedness. God revealed to him his purpose to drown the world. He commanded him to build an ark for the saving of his house. Had he been like many now-a-days, he would have thought like this:—

I am a child of God. I have walked with God many years. I feel that I am accepted of him. This old-fashioned religion is good enough for me. I will go on preaching and praying as I have done. I need no new truth. As to building this ark, I cannot think of it. The cost will be very great. It will exhaust my entire fortune. I cannot afford the time. I cannot think of enduring the reproach and ridicule that would be heaped upon me. No, I will not be so unpopular. Perhaps the flood may not come in my day or in my children’s day. Then there may be some mistake about it; and if it does come, it will not hurt me if I am only prepared for it.

But Noah did not think or talk so. What would have been the result if he had? No doubt he would have perished with the world of the ungodly, notwithstanding his piety and faithfulness in the former part of his life. But he believed and obeyed God, and was saved. So if we have this living faith, when God reveals to us new truths, directly we shall act them out in our lives, and this faith will have an important bearing upon our future destiny.

Moses, too, was a bright example of the wondrous power of faith. Before him in prospect was the throne of Egypt, with all its wealth and worldly glory. But God called him to identify himself with his people, a nation of slaves; and to labor for their emancipation, and to lead them to a land which he had promised them. He believed, and felt in his inmost soul that it was best to obey God, and leave the glory of Egypt behind. He “chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” “He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” His faith looked forward with confident expectation to “the recompense of reward,” which God would bestow upon him.

When a young man in the present age pursues a like course, he is counted a fool by the world, and even by nominal Christians. But the time will come when Moses and all others, who, like him, have chosen to endure the trials of “the people of God,” and to leave the wealth, honors, and luxuries of this world behind them, will be seen to have been the wisest of men. They will possess an eternal inheritance. They “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.” They shall enjoy the purest pleasures forevermore. May true faith in us be mighty to “overcome the world.”

C. A. OSGOOD.