Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Faith: 50. The Signs Of Progress

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Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Faith: 50. The Signs Of Progress



TOPIC: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Faith (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 50. The Signs Of Progress

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III.

THE SIGNS OF PROGRESS.

How is progress in faith to be known? There are at least three good signs of it.

1. A keener sense of sin.—If there be genuine progress, while the power of sin will grow less, the sense of sinfulness will grow greater; for, as sin blinds and dulls the conscience, when sin grows weaker, conscience becomes more keen and tender. The deepest contrition of heart for sin is found, not in the newly-saved sinner, but in the fully-grown saint.

Faith grows upon the soil of felt sin. [Note: Reminiscences of Andrew A. Bonar, D.D., 137.]

2. Greater dependence on Christ.—Faith will seek and find an ever fuller measure—the inexhaustible grace of God in Christ. As the sense of need grows in the consciousness of the fulness that can meet it, the receptivity and responsiveness of the human personality to the Divine communion and communication will develop. The end of this growth is not self-sufficiency, but larger appropriation of and deeper satisfaction in the sufficiency which is of God in Christ.

Thou knowest, Lord, the weariness and sorrow

Of the sad heart that comes to Thee for rest ;

Cares of today, and burdens for tomorrow,

Blessings implored, and sins to be confessed,—

I come before Thee at Thy gracious word,

And lay them at Thy feet: Thou knowest, Lord.



Thou knowest all the past: how long and blindly

On the dark mountains the lost wanderer strayed;

How the Good Shepherd followed, and how kindly

He bore it home, upon His shoulders laid,

And healed the bleeding wounds, and soothed the pain,

And brought back life and hope and strength again.



Thou knowest all the present: each temptation,

Each toilsome duty, each foreboding fear;

All to myself assigned of tribulation,

Or to beloved ones than self more dear;

All pensive memories, as I journey on,

Longings for vanished smiles and voices gone.



Thou knowest all the future: gleams of gladness

By stormy clouds too quickly overcast;

Hours of sweet fellowship, and parting sadness,

And the dark river to be crossed at last;

O what could confidence and hope afford

To tread that path, but this: “Thou knowest, Lord”? [Note: Jane L. Borthwick.]

3. Singleness of vision and of aim.—It was the whole-hearted, unreserved, persistent, unfailing committal of themselves to the will of God that Jesus asked from the men around Him when He asked for faith in God. They were, though sentimentally religious, living a poor, broken, compromising life. They hoped for the Divine kingdom of their prophets’ visions and prayers, but their eyes were also fixed on the glittering seductions of worldly and selfish ambition. They were eager for both the earthly and the heavenly things, but they had neither as ruling motive or purpose. They were divided against themselves, irresolute and unstable. Their confidence in the higher things was constantly yielding to fears, jealousies, and rivalries inspired by their love of the lower things. They tried to pursue a middle course, to serve two masters, to divide their allegiance between God and the world at war with the will of God. The call of Jesus was “Have faith in God! Free yourselves from this dualism of the moral life Break the tyranny of this double-mindedness! Do not conduct half of your life on one principle and the other half on a different principle! Let one great principle, one great affection, one great purpose, have full control of your life from centre to circumference in all its relations and parts! Deliver yourselves to follow the will of God! Let the will of God be your one all-comprehending allegiance!” It was this utter singleness of motive and aim, this sole devotion and service, this absolute surrender to the absolutely true and right, which Jesus called faith in God and to which He committed Himself and His cause.

Whatever Lord Radstock thought right he did and said, and one noticed that he seemed to grow, as he grew older, in the graces of humility and liberality and to become one of the broadest Christians one ever met. He always reminded one of the words “This one thing I do”—his great and absorbing desire being to bring others to know Christ as a personal Saviour. [Note: Mrs. E. Trotter, Lord Radstock,: A Interpretation and a Record, 134]