HAVE FAITH IN GOD

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 24, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 45.

HAVE FAITH IN GOD.

HEARTY trust in the Most High is desirable every way. It yields sweetness to the soul, and efficiency to the life. The believers are the doers, and the doers are always happy. Vigorous Christianity is healthful Christianity, and no Christianity is vigorous without faith. If you doubt the success of a scheme, half your heart is taken out of your effort to accomplish it. Get your faith strong, and your arm will be powerful to strike hard blows for God. God will help you, too. According to your faith be it unto you. The normal condition of the Christian mind is that of unfaltering trust. Doubt is unchristian; it does not spring from religious experience, but from the want of it. The nearer you are to God, the more fully will you believe in him. Place your own throbbing heart against his, until the intimate pulsations bring you into closest sympathy, and until you can almost audibly hear the comforting whispers of your divine Friend, and your doubts and fears will all vanish like ice and snow before the face of the summer sun.

We follow Christ at too great a distance. The enemy steps in betwixt us and him. Quicken your religious pace. Get so near the compassionate Redeemer that none can come between you. The church needs more loving Johns who will keep ever near and lay their heads confidingly upon the bosom of Jesus and show how our divine Lord is equal to the task of befriending a world. "I have called you friends." This friendship is never exhausted, and it never changes. Let us rely upon it. Trusting in this succor, let us venture greater things in our private and public work for Him whom we serve.—Selected.