p. 517 | Faith and Feeling

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 33.

Faith and Feeling.

ANY Christian who has had even a slight experience in leading inquirers into the way of salvation, can readily understand how important it is to guard against the tendency to pay more attention to what is called feeling than to the promises of God. At the outset nearly every one makes the mistake of supposing that emotional feeling must precede faith, and hence when urged to believe and rest upon God's sure word of promise, the penitent seeker is nearly always ready with the answer that he cannot believe, that his heart is too hard, or his guilt too great, or that wicked thoughts and inclinations rise up to darken his sky, and make trust in God impossible. In dealing with such cases every teacher knows that the inquirer must be persuaded to accept God's word, not because he feels like doing so, but because it is God's word, and because the word of the living God can be trusted, no matter what the mental or emotional state of a poor child of mortality may be. When at last this point is cleared up, and the earnest seeker believes what God says, stops thinking of his own subjective emotions, and looks away from self and unto God, he quickly learns that the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, and peace—result from faith, but do not precede it. This is according to the scriptural rule. The gift of the Spirit is consequent upon, but does not precede faith. "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Eph. 1: 13.

No Christian need expect to be signally owned of God unless he can learn how to walk by faith, even without a faint glimmer of sight. It is in the vineyard of the Master where we are most prone to lose heart, and give up all as lost, as soon as we are left to toil with only the support which the promise of God gives. In the midst of visible success it is not hard to persuade ordinary Christians to believe, or at least it is not hard for them to persuade themselves that they believe. But when fruit does not appear, when opposition becomes bold and active, when the heavens no longer seem to drop down dews of grace, and the earth no longer blooms in freshness and beauty, the ranks of the laborers begin to be thinned, and the hands of many hang down in languid hopelessness. The cause of this is not hard to find. The people do not study the terms of their call, do not keep their eyes fixed upon the word of God, but merely trust in and follow after the tokens of visible success which God may give them. They have not the faith that accomplishes great things. They grow weary long before the set time for the overthrow of the frowning walls before them has come, and they have no heart to wait through three years and a half of drought for God's set time of answering by fire.

God cares little for our feeling, but highly esteems our faith. Love is greater than faith in its intrinsic qualities, but love never springs up in the heart until faith has prepared a way for it. God seeks our love, no doubt; but as the condition of love in the heart is faith, we find that our Saviour above all things sought for trustful hearts, and recognized and rewarded faith wherever he found it. He seeks still. He has great treasures in store for him that believeth. He has great victories in reserve for those who learn the secret of trusting him. To thousands of weak and lowly ones he waits to speak the word of approval and comfort, "Great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

We sometimes feel almost disheartened when we think of the low ebb of Christian faith which is witnessed on every hand. There are so few, so very few, who seem to know what it is to take God at his word, or what an awful thing it is to decline to take him at his word. We talk about miracles and wonders, and send to the ends of the earth to have Dr. Cullis or Dr. Boardman tell us what can be done, or what has been done, in answer to the prayer of faith; while all the time, on every shelf, and every table, and every desk, a book may be seen in which God has written the words, "Only believe; all things are possible to him that believeth." But such is the power of habit, or the perverseness of our poor human nature, that most men would rather believe Dr. Boardman than accept the simple promise of the Lord Jehovah. The heart of man does not like to believe God's word apart from all human corroboration. Here we discover the plague of the evil heart of unbelief. When this is taken away, and the heart made all pure within, it becomes a second nature to us to accept God's every word as true.—Indian Witness.