The Progress of Faith

LrxE xvii. 5. — “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.”

When the disciples of our Lord and Master prayed him to increase their faith, there was implied in their request a truth which continually reappears in our discussion, namely, that faith has degrees. There is a weak faith, like a grain of mustard seed, and there is a strong faith, like a great tree of the forest. And all that makes faith valuable goes to awaken the desire that our own faith should grow in strength. The subject now before us is this very growth of the believing principle, considered in its source and manner.

While evano-elical faith is not without a constant blending with the emotional and voluntary part of our nature, it is not so within reach of command, as that we can effectually tell our minds to believe, or not believe. Even though a man does not believe against his will, he cannot ensure belief or disbelief of a given truth by the putting forth of a direct volition. This is too plain to need proof or elucidation. So far as evangelical faith is concerned, it is God who is its author, and we may regard the point as no longer open for debate. We have already seen that at the moment when the heavenly call brings a soul out of darkness into light, God implants in it a j)rinciple of believing, and so acts upon the faculties previously existing, as to secure the due reception of the truth which he reveals. All our terms on this point are figurative. The words renewal and regeneration are themselves such. We are not competent to define precisely what that is, which God does in regard to the soul, at its effectual calling. The very throwing in of light into the dark chamber is under divine efficiency the cause of faith. The nature shows its first sign of renovation, by actual believing. It lives, and the proof of this is, that it sees. This is the beginning of faith.

God gives both the vision and the object of vision, and in this twofold manner he continues to operate, during all the Christian career. He gives vision at the regenerating call out of darkness into marvellous light. The new creature is not blind. It is of its very nature to turn towards the light and to enjoy it. This is the specific way in which it acts, and this mode of action conditions all its subsequent life. As natural life is kept up by nourishment, so spiritual life is kept up by perpetual repetition of believing acts, all flowing from the inward principle of divine habitude, communicated at renewal, and predisposing the mind to receive di vine communications with persuasion of their truth and excellency. This is the true theory of growth; thus is faith increased. The soul has an affinity for divine truth, and turns to it, just as the young plant in your greenhouse looks, and bends, and clambers towards the sunny window. Or the Heavenly Father may be said continually to hold up the infant believer, to look out upon the processions and prospects which are afforded by the Word. But we have seen that God gives not only the vision, but the objects. That this holds good in regard to the original revelation of the truths revealed, it is hardly needful to say; but we go further. The Father of Lights is perpetually bringing before the mind the great spiritual realities upon which faith seizes. This manifestation of heavenly things begins, as we have already seen, at regeneration. Especially the great central object is then revealed to the wondering eye of the awakening sinner, even God, in Christ, reconciling the ungodly to himself This illumination is coincident with the beginning of the new life. But the series of divine objects has only begun, and all through the religious life, he who affords the faith furnishes that upon which it shall feed. The newborn babes who desire the sincere milk of the Word, find supplies continually replenished from these breasts of consolation. As long as we are in this world we may be said to be walking through a gallery of marvels, to each of which the Great Master who holds us by the hand directs our attention.

When we speak of God as maintaining the increase of faith by reneved and perpetual exhibition of that which shall be the object and pabulum of faith, we include both outward presentation and inward influence. The. outward presentation of truth, falls under the domain of Providence, which perfectly concurs with grace. The believer, in his state of pupilage, is ]3laced under an economy of merciful instruction. He is now in Christ’s school. By parents, teachers, friends, ministers, and holy books, he has offered to his view the facts and doctrines of religion; and this external instrumentality is indispensable. But something is needed nearer the centre. The inward influence of the Holy Spirit prints the rays on the table of the heart, and faith here finds its precious materials. This is the secret source from which all graces are iiTigated. In the ordinary work of sanctification we know not that God ever operates on the soul with an entire independence of the truth. He answers the intercession of the Son, when he sanctifies them by the truth, his “Word is truth.” But we dare not, with some, confine these influences to a bare presentation of objective truth. All observation and all Christian consciousness show that this is utterly ineffectual, unless something be added; which is the clarifying, directive, and swaying potency of God put forth upon the thinking principle; which now not merely has an object presented, but actually sees it in something of its reality and excellence. By this double favour, in which we have both the exterior truth as something to be received, and the interior faculty of receiving it, God is day by day carrying forward the process of assimilation, nutrition, and strength.

What we are now considering belongs to what may be called spiritual physiology; it becomes known to us only by experience. But the biographies of all Christians harmonize here in a surprising degree. The disciple will find it useful to look back on his own. You were once an infant in faith. If there has been any increase you perceive it has been by a never-ceasing engagement of your mind upon the communications of ScrijDture. Having begun with milk, you have been gently led on to partake of strong meat, as you were able to bear it. Happy was it for you, if you early learned to covet an experience more robust than that which consists of flights, and frames, and moods; flashes of joy, chills of fear, effusions of grief; good days and bad days, independent of Christian doctrine. You entered yourself upon the study of the Scripture with method and perseverance; you hearkened to the preached Word with modest expectation. These truths had a savour which made you come again. Not content with the mellow fruits which lay on the ground, you were taught to search for others among the branches. From that which was easy you advanced to the keener relishes of that which was difficult. The Master met you where you did not expect him, and you tasted honey in the open field, and your eyes were enlightened. Sometimes that which had once made youi pride revolt, became the soiu’ce of edification: “out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” Passages, and even whole books of Scripture, which had lain by you ‘as lumbering unopened caskets, were in time brou2:ht forth and made to reveal their “hid treasure.” You were taken in twilight hours into the “House of Mourning,” and there taught lessons ^^’hich you would never have learned by day. Comparing Scripture with Scrij)ture, and summing up scattered expressions into great comprehensive Leads, you have risen to schemes of theolos-ical method, and have discerned the beautiful consistency of truth. These lessons have not been speculative; they have exercised the heart. While knowledge has been pouring out the heavenly wine of evangelical doctrine, faith has carried it round to all the sisterhood of graces, till each has been revived. The work of the understanding and the work of the affections so run into one another, that happy souls are never more a glow, never more melted, than while they are in contact with some good word of God; just as on a fair autumnal day we walk abroad, and while we bask in the gentle ray, receive from it silently both light and heat. Did you ever see the array of clouds at sunrise show the same colors on two occasions? Just as diverse are the lessons of truth which Christ has taught you out of the Bible; day by day changing the instruction, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” Is. 1. 4.

In all the departments and families of animal nature, we find analogies, and these are not to be despised, partly because of the laws pervadino; the universe wliicli sustain these analogies, and partly because they are made use of in the teachings of Scripture. However high and however low we go in our range, we find every creature which lives depending on nourishment. Whatever be wanting, some organ or faculty receptive of aliment is always present. Now, I say this very analogy is used in the lessons of faith, when we are taught that the soul is nourished by truth. That this is implied in the milk and strong meat, to which we have alluded, is exceedingly plain. But in addition, and with yet more impressive figure, the similitude of this vital law is brought before us in regard to our reception of the truth concerning Christ. We receive Christ, when we fully believe the truth concerning him. And as all truth centres in him and faith accepts not only his Word, but his person, we are represented as receiving himself; and this not only in a general way, but particularly as to his flesh and blood; that is, his sacrificial body, as representative of his redeeming work, which centres in the Cross. Nay, to make the correspondence more complete, the mode by which our faith receives the Lord Jesus is set forth by the particular figure of eating and drinking; and the Lord Jesus is exhibited as the bread which came down from heaven. After the miracle of the loaves, which gave occasion to our Lord’s most remarkable Capernaum discourse, he said to his hearers, in words connecting the whole subject with his atonement, John vi. 51: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Concerning this sixth chapter of John, it is disputed in the schools whether it relates to the Lord’s Suj)per. Roman Catholics affirm this, founding on it their monstrous dogma of a real bodily presence. Protestants usually deny. The true solution seems to be that these words do not primarily relate to this sacrament, not instituted as yet, but that they do relate to that great truth which underlies it and on which it is founded. For we are not to suppose that the Lord’s Supper is an arbitrary ordinance, or that one emblem would have answered as well as another for a commemorative sign. On the contrary, the ordinance has its essence, vivifying form, or idea, which is the resemblance between the taking of food and drink for bodily sustenance, and the receiving of Christ by faith. To return, then, the varieties of truth revealed in the Scripture yield increase to faith, as so many different sorts of nourishment. The actings of faith are modified by the nature of the communication made. Thus the believer receives historical teaching with instruction and reverence, as on the authority of God speaking in the Word. He bows in obedience to that which is communicated in the shape of command. He trembles at divine threat enings, and rejoices at divine promises. While his capital acts of believing are his accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for salvation, by virtue of the covenant of grace.

In giving increase to faith, it may be observed that God adds to its greatness in two respects, first as to its extent, and secondly as to its intensity; its extent meaning here the range and number of truths discovered and believed, and its intensity the degree of certainty to which the persuasion arises. The difference among true believers, as to clearness of apjDrehension and multitude of objects, is immeasurable. Here is a babe in religion, whose mind just twinkles with the smallest, feeblest ray that can save a soul, and whose creed contains only this: “I am a sinner, but Christ has died;” and yonder, near the founts of light, is a Paul, who from that source of illumination beholds worlds and systems of revealed knowledge. Between these the scale has innumerable degrees, which we are unable to graduate. From the lowest to the highest, in regard to knowledge of the objects, God did actually conduct such a saint as Paul. Every addition which we make to our stock of divine communications gives so much increase to the field of vision, and so to the amplitude of faith.

But growth equally concerns the intensity of believing, and this was doubtless the chief thing meant by that prayer of the twelve, “Increase our faith.” One man believes more strongly than another, and some truths more strongly than other truths. It is of great practical moment for us to recos-nize this law of mental action, that faith has degrees. Its fainter measures just glimmer above the point of incredulity and doubt; its higher soarings are among the certainties of assurance. The same man may believe the same truth with very sincere degrees of strength at one time and at another. The advanced Christian, who has the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, looks back on the early beginnings of his persuasion as scarcely any faith at all. One of the most precious gifts which God ever vouchsafes us, is a clear, unwavering insight of the soul into future and unseen things, which on God’s authority become so sure to us, that they stand out palpable and real before us, and though not by the same evidence, become as influential upon our affections and will, as the material objects of our senses. Such faith is no fancy, but self evidence. He who is strong in faith is as certain that God made the worlds as if he had seen it done; as certain that they shall be dissolved as if he heard the final trumpet. Though humble and illiterate, and though he may have followed out the branches of truth to few of their inferential conclusions, ho has a precedence over the pliilosoplier in virtue of this his intensity of believing. Brethren, we only need greater faith to transport lis at once into a new world. This Abram had, when, against all appearances, he took the wife of his youth by the hand, and went out, not knowing whither he went. This Isaac had, when his prophetic eye looked down throucrh ao-es on the fortunes of Israel and Edom. This Jacob had when he, in like manner, became a seer, in regard to Ephraim and Manasseh. This Joseph had, when, amidst the mausoleums and pyramids of Egypt, he ordered that his burial should be in the land of his birth. This Moses had, when, contrary to every human probability, he gave up ^’ the treasures in Egypt,” gave up the learned pride of the Court, gave up “the pleasures of sin,” gave up the honour of being son to Pharaoh’s daughter, and “chose rather to suflfer affliction with the people of God” in sure and certain faith in “the recompense of the reward.” In conducting his children forwards, God is pleased to work step by step, and sometimes slowly. The progress, however, in such hands, is certain. Hard winters may make the tree leafless and seem to congeal its juices, but there is life, uay, there is growth, though comparison must be at long -intervals to make it apparent. There are many ways in which it may be assailed and weakened, and there are times when even a true Christian may think of himself that he is a rejected hypocrite. How, you will be ready to ask, can this be? Can a man have so remarkable and heavenly a prize within him and yet not know any thing about it? No, indeed, he cannot. If faith is in exercise, he knows it, that is, he is conscious of believing; but it by no means follows that he knows this believing to be saving faith. In like manner, when other exercises, peculiar to the new creature, are present in the mind and heart, he is conscious of them; but the knowledge that these are gracious affections, is altoccether a different matter. As this is true of early religion, it is likewise true of religion in progress. There may be advancement, where the reigning experience is so shaded by sadness, self-reproach, lowly views of inward sin, and apprehension of chastisement, that the soul may seem to itself to be drifting in a direction away fi’om

God. More serious maladies of the mind and heart may, for a time, not only seemingly, but really, put back the religious movement, causing painful but temporary decays. Temptations may harass and even defile, the world may come in like a spring-flood, inbred sin may reassert its sway, clouds of error may overshadow, despondency may impair the comforts of believing; but amidst all, and through all, God carries on the good work and “will perform it unto the day of redemjotion.’’ The case of Peter, about the period of his dreadful denial, is full of instruction. Some think his faith then utterly failed, but if this were so, Christ’s prayer was never answered. “Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you [disciples] that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee [Simon] that thy faith fail not.” Luke xxii. 31. Faith at length gets the victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ.

From first to last that which waters and refreshes inward faith is the river of divine truth, constantly kept in its channel and directed to the roots by the Holy Spirit. Truth is at once means and object. By looking at the truth, faith is clierislied and increased. And this is so important that we may profitably spend a little time in considerino; the manner in which this work of increase is conducted.

1. God increases faith by presenting new truths to the mind, or by shedding new light on truths already presented. In addition to what has been akeady ofi*ered on this topic, we may remark that Christian knowledge is continually carrying forward its frontier into contiguous territories. The field of discovery is the Word of God itself This is to the believer what the starry heavens are to the astronomer. It is a noxious error to suppose that we have found out all that is in the Bible. There are seals yet to be broken and interpretations yet in the hand of Providence, which may surpass in glory all that has shone upon the church since Pentecost. In the individual believer there is a perpetual conquest by believing. He may have known before, but this was only surveying the domain which he is to possess. His progress is towards the acquisition of all truth, but this end he shall not reach, till that state where he shall know even as also he is known. But every proposition of the Word wMdi is taken up by genuine faith becomes a source of new strength. Some of these are never whispered out of doors, being communications from the Heavenly Spouse within the curtains of the heart’s tabernacle, concerning the person and grace of Jesus. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and He will show them his covenant.” Every one of these blessed experiences, often little flowers of heaven, will be found, on examination, to have proceeded from some bud of distinct revealed truth. The more, therefore, truth is added, the more does faith advance.

2. God increases faith by presenting known truths in new relations. In all knowledge, whether of divine or human science, this is a principal part. The knowledge of simple objects, in a given circle, would soon be exhausted, if it were not for the knowledge of relations between -their objects. How few are the original and elementary objects from which geometry takes its departure; yet at length it reaches the extraordinary and to common minds inconceivable heights of analysis which lead to the weighing of planets and the mensuration of unseen orbits. The relations of divine truth afford an endless study. The ramifications of these truths never terminate, and connected as they are with the highest and purest enjoyments of the soul, they furnish the best occupation of the human mind. This is one of the greatest differences between Christians. Compare a pious but naiTow believer, whose whole theology is contained in a few precious propositions, seldom compared with one another, and never made to produce important deductions, with an Augustine, whose width of view, fertility of comparison, keenness of insight, and subtlety of logic, rendered the most abstruse theology a delightful play; or with Calvin, whose mind, even in youth, had cast all religious tenets into a crystalline regularity of method, whose judgment, by a sort of dialectic instinct, separated truth from falsehood, and whose never surpassed elegance of diction rendered him the master of his period; or with Owen, who, with all his inelegance, is equal to these in learning, in comprehensiveness, in subtlety, in wisdom, and in piety, and who traced out the lines of orthodox theologv to lengths never reached by any pre-

10+ vious inquirer. These are marvellous instances of the “diversity of operations” in the great Master. By such processes, He is pleased, according to his own pleasure, to exercise and augment the faith of his people, leading them, especially in devotional hours, to think deeply and profitably on common topics, which, to less observant or less patient minds, might seem to have nothing left for inquiry. Here it is that solemn and continued meditation brings in rich spoils.

3. God increases faith by gradually purgino- the mind of its errors. In some this is a work of vast extent, in others comparatively small. Religious education and the absence of seducing causes give some minds a signal advantage. There are none, however, in whom this purification does not become necessary. Some errors are j)oisons, and others are like indigestible or noxious matter taken into the system. There is no religious error which does not impede sanctification. The tendency of increasing truth is to thrust out and at length entirely eliminate contrary falsities. The process is like that which takes place when, as we say, a child outgrows some deformity, or as when an ulcer tends to healing with sound flesh. The law of a suj)erior nature ^yorks towards the establishment of symmetry and the casting off of temporary irregularities. This is the more successful where it is not mere knowledge, but religious faith, which is the reformatory agent. Growth in grace and holiness of heart, beyond all other means, give the soul a repugnance to falsehood, and tend to unity in the truth. Hence, as differing Christians approach nearer to the heavenly state, they are found to be nearer to one another in opinion. The secret but uncontrollable affinity of the soul for God’s pure truth tends more and more to eject remnants of falsehood.

4. Above all, God increases faith by strengthening the inward habit of believing. This habit may be viewed from two different sides; either as the principle, infused with the new nature, to be the origin of all acts of believing, or as the faculty of believing called up by frequent practice and rendering all subsequent acts of believing more easy. Of course, we regard this as respecting chiefly the intensity of faith. As a man advances in religion it is more easy for him to believe. Habitual intercourse enables us to recognize the voice of a dear friend; so the sheep know the voice of the shepherd. A single whisper from God becomes effectual and ensures persuasion. To which we must add that as faith is an immediate product of the life of God in the soul, whatever adds to the vigour of that life, that is, whatever increases inward piety, gives strength to the habitude of faith. All the means of grace, therefore, and all that elevates, purifies, and comforts the soul, go to help forward the disposition to believe; so that, however little we may know of it by our own experience, Vve have reason to think that there are persons, especially in the quietude of a Christian old age, who have reached a state in which questionings have ceased, and in which the abiding disposition of the soul is to rest upon God’s truth, faith beino* brought into close resemblance to vision. It is the more necessary to dwell on this mode of increasing faith, lest any should suppose it is due to any natural course of learning or process of reasoning. There may be much knowledge where there is no faith, and powerful believing where there is little science. But the more we believe, the more we are able to believe. And with this will come clearer views of the object, and more profound, immovable, and intense persuasion. All accompanying and resulting graces or holy affections react on faith and increase its streno;th.

Since these things are so, we see at once how wise was the resort of the apostles to Him who is the Author and the Finisher of faith. Some of us here present, I am quite sure, are convinced that the very greatest -blessing we could receive this moment would be a mighty and immediate lifting up of our souls to great faith, such as should realize to us and make present to us God, and Christ, and the eternal world. We err by seeking this too much from our own efforts. There is unbelief in the very endeavour. This is a case in which no man can receive any thing unless it be given him from above. An hour of prayer will do more than a week of study. The very posture of the soul in prayer is favorable to believing. Prayer ascends to the very source of the good which we most need. Do we believe that God, by one almighty touch, can create in us the faith which would so bless us? Then why not ask him? why not ask him now? why not ask him importunately, jointly, and for one another, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith? One look in that heavenward direction, of a longing, aspiring heaii:, will accomplish more for us than a lifetime of unaided reasonings. And let us remember that in praying for faith we pray for all good things at once. There is a sound sense in which still “all things are possible to him that believeth.” Faith is the chief of sister graces, and she leads in all the rest. He who is the Author, is at the same time the object of faith. While we look towards him praying, let us also look believing. Lord, increase our faith; Lord, increase our faith! Methinks I hear it coming up, as an irrepressible sigh, from various parts of our church! And if so, then I know that a general blessing is nigh, which will be felt in our hearts, in our children, in every assemblage of worshipping people.