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FAITH NOT SIGHT

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 17, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 42.

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FAITH NOT SIGHT.

By Ruth Gardner

GOD has not given us to see spiritual things with our natural eyes. He has holden back the face of His throne, and "spread a cloud before it." He has drawn as it were a vail between this material world and the spiritual glories of the eternal world. But because we can not see "the invisible things of Him," they are none the less real and powerful. We do not doubt the reality of the existence of the all-pervading air, or the powerful electric current, because we can not see them.
In great wisdom God has ordained that His children shall walk in this world by simple faith in the word of their heavenly Father, without the witness of their natural senses, for it is written, "The just shall live by faith." "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." "For without faith it is impossible to please God."
God has given abundant testimony to His wonderful goodness and saving power, but a "sign from heaven" He will not give to convince the unbelieving heart. Mark 8:11-13; 1 Cor. 1:22, 23.
God will have a tried and proved people. Deut. 13:3; Rev. 17:14. And so He has required that we walk by faith and not by sight, walking trustingly in the path He has marked out by simple faith in the Word of Him "who can not lie," laying hold on the eternal promises of God, which He has sworn to perform to every soul who will come unto Him by faith in Christ Jesus His Son. Heb. 6:16-20.
And to every soul who will step out in faith on His sure word of promise, and walk with God in the Spirit, He does reveal Himself by abundant manifestations of His love and keeping power, even lifting aside at times the vail of futurity and disclosing glimpses of the glory that is to be revealed. Not only to Daniel at the river Ulai, Ezekiel by the river Chebar (Eze. 1:1), and the beloved John on the lonely isle of Patmos (Revelation 1), does God reveal Himself and His great spiritual realities; but to many a humble pilgrim on life's rugged highway does He vouchsafe most precious manifestations of the invisible presence and power that surround every faithful child of God. These come through the blessed ministration of angels (Ps. 91:11, 12; Heb. 1:14), the unseen spiritual beings that surround our every-day life,—just as real beings as you and I, who live with us, walk with us, and have a part in all our daily struggles and temptations.
But Satan can also lift the vail between the spiritual and the material world; and to those who will not believe the Word of God, who will not take Him by faith only, but who are seeking for some marvelous manifestation of power—"a sign from heaven"—to such he can give ample satisfaction. He can show them a "sign," and a convincing one, and thousands are led into his snare by that strange dark witchcraft—Spiritualism. "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Who is the author of these spiritual manifestations?—"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish."
Why does God permit Satan's followers to be deceived?—"Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." 2 Thess. 2:10-12.
He is that same old "deceiver" spoken of in Rev. 12:9, who was cast out of heaven into the earth, and of whom it is written that he "deceiveth the whole world."
But the time of revelation is coming, when the vail of mystery will be rolled aside, and Christ will be revealed "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."
For it is written: "He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25:7-9.
Who can conceive the unspeakable glory of that hour when "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll," when the voice of God shall shake the heavens and the earth, and when Jesus shall appear in the clouds of heaven "in the glory of His Father with the holy angels"!
What consternation and horror to those who have despised Him will be the fearful revelation of that hour! But what joy and ecstasy and triumph to those who can look up and say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation"!
Where will you stand in that great day, dear reader? RUTH GARDNER.