How is the growth of faith to be fostered? By increase of knowledge, by enlargement of experience, by the example of others, by prayer, and by the practice of the presence of God.
1. Knowledge.—The question of how much knowledge or intellectual understanding of Divine things is indispensable to an effective faith is one that we cannot answer. Experience shows that a very slight knowledge may often be a sufficient intellectual foundation for a strong and efficient faith. Discernment of truth is one thing, and willingness to accept truth is another; and strength of faith is governed more by willingness of heart than by intellectual discernment. Often we find clear perception with little faith, and faint perception with strong faith. Since faith belongs more to the heart than to the intellect, intellectual understanding often avails less than we expect. Knowledge of theories concerning salvation helps but little, and explanations regarding Divine things often prove disappointing. Efforts to clear the way for personal faith by imparting such knowledge fail as often as they are successful. There is a simplicity in Divine things, by virtue of which the gospel of God’s love needs little explanation; and the perception of this simplicity is the knowledge that is most helpful in the encouraging of faith. Faith is most helped at its beginning by seeing that God gives and man has but to receive. Even this may be intellectually apprehended without spiritual profit, but faith springs up as soon as the heart perceives this with its own peculiar insight.
Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church? Faith consists not in ignorance, but in knowledge—knowledge not of God merely, but of the divine will. We do not obtain salvation either because we are prepared to embrace every dictate of the Church as true, or leave to the Church the province of inquiring and determining; but when we recognize God as a propitious Father through the reconciliation made by Christ, and Christ as given to us for righteousness, sanctification, and life. By this knowledge, I say, not by the submission of our understanding, we obtain an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. For When the Apostle says, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom_10:10), he intimates, that it is not enough to believe implicitly without understanding, or even inquiring. The thing requisite is an explicit recognition of the divine goodness, in which our righteousness consists. [Note: Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ii. 97.]
2. Experience.—Faith grows as it is nourished by the events and crises of life. Anything that stirs us out of the monotonies of life and lifts us from grooves, throws us out more consciously upon the support of the Divine arms. Whenever we find ourselves suddenly confronting the unknown, faith is stirred within us. When we part with our friends for a season we say “goodbye,” and perhaps think into the words all the meaning they properly contain—”God be with you.” And when we bid our friends a long farewell—how our hearts reach up unto God, and with what earnest looking unto Him we follow them as they move through the swinging gate and go to be with them that have gone on before and wait to bid us welcome when we shall follow.
May we who rest so cosily in the comforts and amenities of life, and who lean so heavily upon the enriching friendships of the good and the strong and the beloved, discover, when disappointments strike and bereavements overtake, that our leaning, even more than we suspected, was after all upon the arm of the Lord. As the light becomes paler and paler in the west may the stars glow with a steadier and cheerier splendour. And when we come at last to the night-fall of life, like Eliezer out amid the evening lights of Mesopotamia, may our faith assert itself in the gloaming, and may there be the revealing to us of the Divine arm mighty to save, the Divine hand gentle to shelter and to guide.
If a man really love truth, if he be a disciple of progress, he will not permit himself to state his belief in the same terms year after year. As every year brings new experiences, so should it offer fresh interpretation of life. The genuine truth-seeker is more eager to keep the mind open than to arrive at some established conclusion. He hopes never to have any permanently settled beliefs, for he contemplates an eternity of intellectual progress. What a glorious prospect—the everlasting pursuit of truth! [Note: H. W. Dresser, in Underneath the Bough, 58.]
The words he uttered shall not pass away
Dispersed, like music that the wind takes up
By snatches, and lets fall, to be forgotten;
No—they sank into me, the bounteous gift
Of one whom time and nature had made wise,
Gracing his doctrine with authority
Which hostile spirits silently allow;
Of one accustomed to desires that feed
On fruitage gathered from the tree of life;
To hopes on knowledge and experience built;
Of one in whom persuasion and belief
Had ripened into faith, and faith become
A passionate intuition; whence the Soul,
Though bound to earth by ties of pity and love,
From all injurious servitude was free. [Note: Wordsworth, “The Excursion,” bk. iv.]
3. Example.—If there is a duty to press forward there is also encouragement, a stimulating inducement, to do so. For other people are to be seen or known who have risen far towards the condition which man ought to exhibit, and the sight of them is invigorating. Their mind is clear and radiant; their faith, their principles and character are mature and settled; their step is firm and sure. They exert a powerful influence for good on the downcast spirit. Observation of them, or brief contact with them, restores to inward health and hope. They embody the nature we fondly desire; they show it to be attainable by beings of flesh and blood, living in the same times and amid the same surroundings as ourselves. By them the seeker for the highest good is convinced that he is on the right way; he is insensibly restored to hopefulness, and even enthusiasm. The truest, bravest, and most unselfish lives discovered in modern days call forth the sincere and delighted approbation of the person who has begun to keep close to God and to choose His will. He singles them out without difficulty from the general mass, accords them all honour for the worth which is exhibited, sees them to be guiding-stars for his own thought and practice. They stand high, so as to attract with power; they are not so eminent as to discourage by seeming to be of another order of being than oneself. They are what “every man in arms should wish to be.” There is a common stamp impressed upon them, notwithstanding their individual characteristics. They have steadfast faith in God and His goodness, a faculty of self-control, a certain sense of superiority to the judgments that may be passed on them in the world, a passion for righteousness, a sincere love for mankind, and as the leading aim in life the purpose and endeavour to promote righteousness and charity on earth. And as a result, they give proof of a restfulness and a sunny serenity of soul in themselves, a clearness of conviction even in perplexing circumstances, weight of character, a fulness of the inner nature that is unfathomable, a mystery of the formed personality that exerts a ceaseless charm on others.
It has been said that reverence of great names is the secular side of the ecclesiastical doctrine of the communion of saints, but it is necessary to remember that such reverence, if it is to elevate and ennoble us, must be directed aright, must be bestowed on what is really worthy of it. We must see that, when we let ourselves be inspired by the luminous idea of a great character, we take it in its purest form, free from the details, exaggerations, and prejudices of its historic setting. It would be as grossly unfair to judge Oliver Cromwell as merely or mainly the executioner of Charles I. as it would be to honour Nelson merely or mainly as the hero of Trafalgar. What we are morally bound to look for in a great man is, first, that he shall have worked for principles which we believe to be fruitful, and which are our own by virtue of that belief; and, next, that he shall have been the inspirer of his own action in virtue of character and therefore worthy of admiration and imitation. It is because Nelson answers these two conditions that we are able to accept him as a national hero. He worked for great principles—for fruitful principles, the value of which we realize even more now than they did a century ago.
The great victory of Trafalgar, which secured for us the undisputed sovereignty of the sea, meant the liberty of our land, the extension of our empire, the development of our commerce, and the opportunity of moulding and building up our national character on nobler Christian lines, independent of continental corruptions. Captain Mahan writes of Nelson’s “humble and sincere gratitude to God for rendering him the chief instrument of deliverance to his native land,” and how, “by his devout recollection of his indebtedness to God, he sought continually to keep himself in hand.” His last prayer, offered up on the morn of battle in sight of the opposing fleet, tells us why they buried him in the centre of St. Paul’s, immediately under the very cross itself which surmounts the dome. “May the great God whom I worship grant to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general a great and glorious victory, and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it; may humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His blessings alight on my endeavours to serve my country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen! Amen! Amen!” Here is a prayer which breathes throughout the simplest, purest, highest faith of all—it is in truth that victory which overcometh the world? [Note: Church Pulpit Year Book, vi. 112.]
4. Prayer.—Prayer may very well come first and stay last. And that not merely because it is a commonplace to say that prayer is the best way to get any blessing, notably any spiritual blessing; but because, in fact, a great many Christian people have found that, when by reading sceptical books, or associating much with worldly society, or being greatly engrossed by worldly business, they have of a sudden discerned that their grasp of the truth they live by is weakened, there has come, God be thanked, through making it matter of prayer for several days, continually, a wonderful strengthening and brightening of their belief, a taking away of doubts, a setting firm upon the One Foundation.
Prayer does for faith what the soil does for the seed. The growth of a seed depends upon its response to its environment. It is the result of its acceptance of certain conditions. Some seeds are never put into conditions of growth; they may lie in a box or a packet, or as loose grain in a granary. But let the seed be put in the earth, and at once it is in its element. The chymic properties of the earth and the air co-operate with it; rain, dew, wind, sunshine all come to play upon it; by and by it appears in tender beauty above the ground and lives the life natural to its kind. It is not otherwise with the faith of men. It must be set in conditions of growth; it must respond to its environment. In many men faith lies hidden and dormant like the seed in the box; the capacity is there, the force is there, but it has never been used. It needs to be drawn out by a power akin to it. If we could endow a seed with personality and speech, we might imagine it to declare, “I believe in the sunshine; I believe in the great powers that cause the life to stir so mightily within me; I believe in the influence that draws me out of myself, changing the character of my whole life, giving me a new outlook, bringing me out of the dark ground into the sweet air and the living light of day: there is a force in me that moves towards the sun; I feel it; if I respond to it and yield myself to it I shall fulfil my proper function and realize my native destiny.” And so, according to its faith, the seed yields itself up, pushes through the mould, and is rewarded by seeing the sunshine it believed in, and by being clothed upon in its native beauty.
A young artist once complained to William Blake that the power of invention had forsaken him. To his astonishment, Blake turned to his wife suddenly, and said, “It is just so with us, is it not, for weeks together, when the visions forsake us? What do we then do?” asked he. “We kneel down and pray,” said she. [Note: G. H. Dick, The Yoke and the Anointing, 98.]
King’s Daughter!
Would’st thou be all fair,
Without—within—
Peerless and beautiful,
A very Queen?
Know then:—
Not as men build unto the Silent One,—
With clang and clamour,
Traffic of rude voices,
Clink of steel on stone,
And din of hammer;—
Not so the temple of thy grace is reared.
But,—in the inmost shrine
Must thou begin,
And build with care
A Holy Place,
A place unseen,
Each stone a prayer.
Then, having built,
Thy shrine sweep bare
Of self and sin,
And all that might demean ;
And, with endeavour,
Watching ever, praying ever,
Keep it fragrant-sweet, and clean :
So, by God’s grace, it be fit place,—
His Christ shall enter and shall dwell therein.
Not as in earthly fane—where chase
Of steel on stone may strive to win
Some outward grace,—
Thy temple face is chiselled from within. [Note:J. Oxenham, “Everymaid.”]
5. Presence of God.—Many know that memorable narrative, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” the record of the experience of one Lawrence, the “lay-brother” of a French monastery in the seventeenth century, who developed to a noble degree and to great results of holiness the habit of recollection that “the Lord is near.” Always, everywhere, as much in work-time as in the hour of prayer, as truly in the kitchen as in the chapel, he “remembered God” as present. His experience is for us also, if we also will seek it in humility and with practical resolution.
Let that habit be formed, and we shall already be far on the way to a developed habit of faith exercised under the real needs of life. To recollect the neighbourhood of God, of our God, of the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, brought to be not only near us but in our hearts by His Spirit—this is already to stand habitually ready to trust Him, and to speak to Him as those who trust. And this habituation of the soul to speak to Him, anywhere, at any moment, about anything, will be the natural process towards the habit of faith in its mature and beautiful fulness.
Let us converse with God, till the habit to tell Him everything and to trust Him in everything becomes inveterate. Let us take the very next opportunity to begin; the difficult work, the troublesome letter, the apparent conflict of duties, the narrowness of means, the death of the beloved, the isolation, the growing old and tired. A hundred difficulties are around us; but Faith, that is to say, God trusted, is a master-key for the prison-doors of life. Solvitur ambulando, it was said of old—the problem is solved by walking. We will extend the saying by two words: Solvitur ambulando cum Deo—the problem is solved by the walk of Faith with God. [Note: H. C. G. Moule, Faith, 90.]
No, when the fight begins within himself,
A man’s worth something. God stoops o’er his head,
Satan looks up between his feet—both tug—
He’s left, himself, in the middle: the soul wakes
And grows. Prolong that battle through his life!
Never leave growing till the life to come! [Note: Browning, “Bishop Blougram’s Apology.”]
