1. THERE are degrees of faith. This is due to the nature of man and to the nature of faith.
I believe there are degrees in faith, and that a man may have some degree of it before all things in him are become new—before he has the full assurance of faith, the abiding witness of the Spirit, or the clear perception that Christ dwelleth in him. [Note: The Journal of the Rev. John, Wesley, ii. 329.]
That there are degrees I take for granted, tho’ I shall afterwards have occasion to prove it in a Divine Faith; and these depend perfectly upon the capacity of the person that believes, or is persuaded. Now the capacity or incapacity of persons are infinitely various, and not to be reduced to theory; but supposing a competent capacity in the person, then the degrees of faith or persuasion take their difference from the arguments, or motives, or inducements which are used to persuade. Where sense is the argument, there is the highest and firmest degree of faith, or persuasion. Next to that is experience, which is beyond any argument or reason from the thing. The faith, or persuasion which is wrought in us by reasons drawn from the thing, the degrees of it are, as the reasons are: if they be necessary and concluding, it is firm and certain in its kind; if only probable, according to the degrees of probability, it bath more or less of doubting mixed with it. Lastly, the faith which is wrought in us by testimony or authority of a person, takes its degrees from the credit of the person, that is, his ability, and integrity. Now because all men are liars, that is, either may deceive, or be deceived, their testimony partakes of their infirmity, and so doth the degree of persuasion wrought by it: but God being both infallible, and true, and consequently it being impossible that he should either deceive, or be deceived, his testimony begets the firmest persuasion, and the highest degree of faith in its kind. But then it is to be considered, that there not being a revelation of a revelation in infinitum; that this is a Divine Testimony and Revelation, we can only have rational assurance; and the degree of the faith, or persuasion which is wrought by a Divine Testimony will be according to the strength of the arguments which we have to persuade us that such a testimony is Divine. [Note: Tillotson, Sermons, xii. 23.]
(1) It is due to the nature of man.—The world of men is a world of variety. This inexhaustible variety it is which distinguishes God’s workmanship from man’s. And if there are not two blades of grass, no two faces, no two minds alike, would it not be wonderful if there should be so strange a departure from the general rule in spiritual things, and if, in the case of faith, there should be but one type and habitude of character and life, one measure and mode of confidence towards God? Observation teaches us exactly the reverse. For whatever our preconceived theories may be, it is certain that, in actual fact, all spiritual life is not fashioned alike, all souls are not cast in one mould. There is great faith; there is little faith; and there are all the grades between. And our Lord recognizes these differences when, while certainly not commending little faith for its littleness, He nevertheless declares that, though small, it has results; the little faith is not fruitless.
What is the great gospel command? what is the Christian condition, of life and of service? “Believe.” No measure of faith is prescribed, but only faith. If we believe, whether boldly or timidly, we obey the command, we fulfil the condition. Just as the soldier fights, whether his hand trembles as he grasps the sword, or he is served with a courage that makes him forget to fear; and just as a racer runs, whether he gasps for breath, or is full of freshness and vigour; so we keep the faith, whether timorously or boldly. [Note: T. F. Lcckyer, The inspirations of the Christian Life, 65.]
(2) It is due to the nature of faith.—The mind in believing reaches its object, whatever that object may be, mediately, not immediately. There is, in other words, something in the middle between the mind and the object. This something in the middle may be more or less complex: whether simple or complex, it requires to be interrogated and interpreted. Hence it may be more or less thoroughly mastered: and thus the faith that reaches its object through the intervening medium may be more or less coincident with absolute knowledge on the one hand, or mere opinion on the other.
If faith were founded on only a single passage of the Bible, it might stand indeed, but it could not be very secure. But if faith in the gospel, and in the Saviour as exhibited in the gospel, be grounded on a large induction of passages, carefully tested, sifted, and interpreted; and on a comprehensive consideration of the entire scope of the written revelation, there will belong to the faith a very different degree of stability and security. If there be added to this the experience in one’s self, and the observation in the case of others, of the moral power of the object of faith then there will be great confirmation of the faith.
If one’s faith in the Trinity were founded solely on 1Jn_5:7, “there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one,” it would be very insecure. The verse is unauthentic. It is apocryphal, as has been admitted for long by all competent critics. It is not found in the critical editions of the New Testament. It was not found in the first and second editions of Erasmus’s text. It is not found in any of the old manuscripts. It could not be found in any real revision of our Authorized English Version. It should never have been at all in any copy of the Bible. But what then? Is the doctrine of the Trinity in peril? Is it rendered uncertain, when this passage is withdrawn? Not in the least. But if any one’s faith in the doctrine rested singly and exclusively on the testimony of this passage, it would falter and totter and collapse as soon as he found himself compelled to surrender the text. [Note: J. Morison, Saving Faith, 50.]
2. There is a difference in the range of faith as well as in its firmness. Very few persons either indiscriminately receive or indiscriminately reject each and every dogmatic assertion put forth in the name of the Christian religion. Even among acknowledged believers, there are doctrines—such, e.g., as the doctrines of Baptismal Regeneration, Indefectible Grace, Verbal Inspiration, Final Perseverance—which are surely believed by some, and severely questioned by others.
This lack of unanimity in belief which is so conspicuous among individual Christians is equally conspicuous in collective Christian communities. The Christian Churches are by no means of one mind in regard to Christian doctrine. The gulf between an orthodox Christian and a spiritually minded doubter is often less deep and fixed than the gulf between two Christian Churches both alike claiming to be orthodox. For the differences which divide the Churches styling themselves orthodox are by no means, or generally, mere differences of detail either in doctrine or in discipline. They are often differences lying at the very foundations of faith.
The Greek Church is not divided from the Latin Church merely by such questions as the marriage of the priesthood, and the worship of images, and the form of the tonsure, and the leavening of Sacramental Bread, and the time of keeping Easter; their differences reach down to the very nature of the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the Procession of the Holy Ghost. The questions on which the Reformed branches of the Latin Church are in conflict with the Papacy are questions not of words but of fundamental principles, such as the Canon of Scripture and its authority in relation to tradition: the powers of the priesthood and the operation of a Sacrament, the manner and condition of the forgiveness of sins, and the like. Nor even among the Reformed Churches can there be found anything like unanimity of religious opinion. The very conception of the Christian Church among Episcopalians is fundamentally different from that of Congregationalists; while the difference dividing Calvinistic Christians from Arminians is a difference reaching down to the roots of the religious responsibilities of men, and up to the summit of the predestinating sovereignty of the Eternal God.
The main thing is not to believe in many propositions faintly and doubtfully, but to get a fast grip upon the truths by which men live. All the great doctrines of salvation are related, and hang together by secret bonds; and if we once get hold of any of these, we may be sure that the Spirit of truth will in due season lead us into the whole truth. Having seen “His star,” all fainter stars and nebulae on the far horizon may be trusted in due time to resolve themselves into bright constellations. We have to be afraid only when we hold no one saving truth with any clearness or sincerity.
The scientist is often content to study a single branch of knowledge, to apprehend and illustrate one great principle of nature. Ordinary men regard such extremely limited specialism as quite unworthy and of little value, but the thinker knows better. He knows that to really master a fragment is to get hold of universal truth. As Sir James Paget writes: “If the field of any speciality in science be narrow, it can be dug deeply. In science, as in mining, a very narrow shaft, if only it be carried deep enough, may reach the richest stores of wealth, and find use for all the appliances of scientific art.” [Note:W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, 217.]
3. Such differences in the degree, as well as in the range, of faith, and, moreover, the difficulty of knowing what any one person really believes in the deeper sense, make it a very hazardous task to strike the average of intelligent Christian faith.
Wordsworth’s magnificent lines upon the sea-shell express the eternal idealism of countless minds which can frame to themselves no definite belief:—
“I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell ;
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely; and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy; for from within were heard
Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea.
Even such a shell the universe itself
Is to the ear of Faith; and there are times,
I doubt not, when to you it doth impart
Authentic tidings of invisible things;
Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power;
And central peace, subsisting at the heart
Of endless agitation.”
Yes, but listen to the reply from a more modern poet of less note—the very cry of unwilling belief:—
“The hollow sea-shell which for years hath stood
On dusty shelves, when held against the ear
Proclaims its stormy parent; and we hear
The faint, far murmur of the breaking flood.
We hear the sea. The sea? It is the blood
In our own veins, impetuous and near,
And pulse keeping pace with hope and fear,
And with our feelings’ ever-shifting mood.
Lo! in my heart I hear, as in a shell,
The murmur of a world beyond the grave,
Distinct, distinct, though faint and far it be.
Thou fool! this echo is a cheat as well—
The hum of earthly instincts; and we crave
A world unreal as the shell-heard sea.”
Take either of these views, for either is intellectually tenable, and modern men will choose the majestic declaration, the despairing answer, according to the temperament they are born into or the happiness they have found. But both are sincere attempts to face the fundamental issue of belief. [Note: Oxoniensis,” in Do We Believe? 31.]
Weakness of faith is partly constitutional, and partly the result of education and other circumstances; and this may go intellectually almost as far as scepticism; that is to say, a man may be perfectly unable to acquire a firm and undoubting belief of the great truths of religion, whether natural or revealed. He may be perplexed with doubts all his days, nay, his fears lest the Gospel should not be true may be stronger than his hopes that it will. And this is a state of great pain, and of most severe trial, to be pitied heartily, but not to be condemned. I am satisfied that a good man can never get further than this; for his goodness will save him from unbelief, though not from the misery of scanty faith. I call it unbelief, when a man deliberately renounces his obedience to God, and his sense of responsibility to Him: and this never can be without something of an evil heart rebelling against a yoke, which it does not like to bear. [Note: The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, D.D., i. 321.]
The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world. [Note: Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach.”]
4. While, then, we are to consider what Christian faith should be, and is, in its highest representatives, we must remember that it may exist, and yet be real faith, at a lower level. For as long as faith is not sight, it will need not only to be acquired but to be maintained by an effort, whose strenuousness cannot but fluctuate in the majority of men; while the very method of its education is through trials and temptations that few can hope to surmount with their serenity entirely unscathed. Hence, while the secure faith of those whom we regard as saints must always be the Christian ideal, many lives which fall far short of this may yet be lives of faith, and bear fruit whereby they can be recognized as such.
The more of doubt, the stronger faith, I say,
If faith o’ercomes doubt. How I know it does?
By life and man’s free will, God gave for that!
To mould life as we choose it, shows our choice.
What matter though I doubt at every pore,
Head-doubts, heart-doubts, doubts at my fingers’ ends,
Doubts in the trivial work of every day,
Doubts at the very bases of my soul
In the grand moments when she probes herself—
If finally I have a life to show,
The thing I did, brought out in evidence
Against the thing done to me underground
By hell and all its brood, for aught I know?
I say, whence sprang this? shows it faith or doubt?
With me, faith means perpetual unbelief
Kept quiet like the snake ‘neath Michael’s foot
Who stands calm just because he feels it writhe.
The condition thus described by Browning is hardly that of those who “declare plainly that they seek a country,” (Heb_11:14) “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb_11:38); it is not the royal confidence that inspires martyrdom. But, in an age like our own, when men are often tried by intellectual distress as severely as were their forefathers by physical persecution, it is a state that must appeal to many Christians; and they need not doubt that it is a state of faith, and of very real faith, since it continues true throughout, at least to the aspiration for things hoped for; and out of that aspiration assurance ultimately comes, and satisfies the practical test of St. James, “Show me thy faith by thy works.” (Jam_2:18)
5. In harmony with these views, we find in Scripture a recognition of very different degrees of faith. Our Saviour said to His disciples, on the Sea of Galilee, when they were alarmed by the rising storm, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” (Mat_8:26). He said to Peter at another time, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Mat_14:31). He said, on the other side of things, to the Syrophenician woman, “O woman, great is thy faith” (Mat_15:28). He said too, in reference to the Roman centurion at Capernaum, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (Luk_7:9).
There may then be “little faith,” and there may be “great faith.” And hence there may not only be “assurance,” there may likewise be “the full assurance of faith” (Heb_10:22). The disciples had reason to say to the Lord, “Increase our faith” (Luk_17:5). And the Lord had good reason to say to the disciples, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luk_17:6). The least real faith will do wonders. It will effect marvellous changes. It will root up and transplant. It will remove even “mountains” that would otherwise be immovable and obstructions for ever (Mat_17:20).
