Have Faith in God by Parker

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 25, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 45.

"Have Faith in God."

By Parker

You believe in God; that is to say, he has a place in your intellectual notions; you could not on any consideration allow his name to be blotted out of your creed; you are intellectually sure that he lives. Now be true to your own creed and trust in him. You believe that the river runs to the sea, and that the sea is large enough to sustain your ship—then act upon your faith and launch the vessel. If you keep your vessel on the stocks when she is finished, then all your praises of the ocean go for nothing; better never have built the ship than leave her unlaunched—a monument of your scientific belief, but also a testimony of your practical infidelity.

This figure will serve us still further. This faith in God is truly as a sea-going ship. It is not a little craft meant for river uses, nor a toy-boat to play upon the shore even of the sea, when the sun is shining and the south wind is as the sweet breath of a sleeping child; this faith is meant for the wide waters of the great deep, where storms have scope for their fury, where the stars are as guide-posts, and where the sun tells the voyager where he is and gives him the time of heaven. You have this great ship; she is well built; you know her preciousness—but there you are, hesitating on the river, running down to the harbor-bar and coming back again aghast as if you had seen a ghost.

Have faith; pass the bar; leave the headlands behind; make the stars your counselors, and ride upon the great sea by the guidance of the greater Sun. This is faith; not a mere nodding of the assenting head, but the reverent risking of the loving, clinging heart. To have a God in your belief is to sit in a ship which is chained upon the stocks; but to have a God in the heart, ruling the understanding, the conscience, and the will, is to sail down the river, enter upon the great ocean, and pass over the infinite waters into the haven of rest. Trust in him at all times. This is a practical religion. "What time I am afraid, I will trust in God." "I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in him will I trust."

Religion is not to be occasional, but continuous. In the day-time our faith is to shine as the sun; in the night-time it is to fill the darkness with stars; at the wedding feast it is to turn the water into wine; in the hour of privation it is to surround the impoverished life with angels of hope and promise; it reaches beyond death and takes the sword from the destroyer and gives the victory to him who is apparently worsted in the fight. It is not easy to do this. All this holy and happy issue does not come in uninterrupted sequence; great fights of affliction have to be endured, daily discipline has to be undergone, but, blessed be God, the issue is not a mere conjecture, a shining possibility which may or may not be attained; it has actually been realized by countless numbers of holy men, and upon their testimony we build the doctrine, that what the grace of God has once done it can repeat in full and abiding miracles.—Parker.