LIVING BY FAITH | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 12, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 18.

LIVING BY FAITH.

"THE more I live by simple faith," says Lady Maxwell, "the clearer is the witness for purity of heart." But this is not the feeling of most. It is rather, The more I live by rapturous feelings, or emotion, the clearer is the witness for purity of heart. But it will be found in the end that living by faith—simple faith, naked faith—is the most satisfactory life. There are no grounds for doubt when simple faith reigns, while our emotions may mislead us, and often deceive us. If we trust to feelings, we may judge that we possess more piety than we really have, or we may conclude that we have less. It is possible for us, as Lady Maxwell says, to "feel becalmed in the ocean of redeeming love." There is a state where the child of faith pays little attention to the presence or absence of mere emotion. He has passed the rocky headlands of doubt, and has reached the open sea of infinite love, and the goodness of God to him beggars all description. Faith has become to him "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." "Lord, give us such a faith as this!"—Christian Witness.