Unbelief

Unbeliever, what will you do without faith? Faith gives eyes to the soul; it gives us to see things not seen; it is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The Christian, when he dies, will enter the land of death with his eyes open; by means of which goodly hosts of angels shall cheer his vision; but you must die a blind and eyeless spirit.

Unbelief is the parent of every other iniquity. There is no crime unbelief will not beget. It was in this point that the devil tempted Eve. He said to her, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden 1 He whispered and insinuated a doubt:” Yea, hath God said so? “u Are you quite sure he said so?” It was by means of unbelief — that thin part of the wedge — that the other sin entered; curiosity and the rest followed; she touched the fruit, and destruction came into this world.

Once take away faith, the reins are broken; and who can ride an unbroken steed without rein or bridle? Like the chariot of the sun, with Phaeton for its driver, such should we be without faith. Unbelief is the mother of vice; it is the parent of sin; and, therefore, I say it is a pestilent evil — a master sin.

Every other crime touches God’s territory; but unbelief aims a blow at his divinity, impeaches his veracity, denies his goodness, blasphemes his attributes, maligns his character. Therefore God, of all things, hates unbelief wherever it is.

Unbelief hath become of full stature, when, quitting the mask and laying aside disguise, it profanely stalks the earth, uttering the rebellious cry, “No God,” striving in vain to shake the throne of divinity, by lifting up its arm against Jehovah.

There is an atonement made for the unbelief of a Christian, because it is temporary; but the final unbelief — the unbelief with which men die — never was atoned for.

Unbelief hath more phases than the moon, and more colours than the chameleon.

While we have faith, the Eed Sea may flow before us, as deep and dark as it pleases; for, like leviathan, we trust we can snuff up Jordan at a draught. But if we have no faith, then at the most insignificant streamlet, which Faith could take up in her hands and drink, like Gideon’s men, poor Unbelief stands quivering and crying, “Ah! I shall be drowned in the floods; there is no hope for me.”

A fearful form of unbelief is that doubt which keeps men from coming to Christ; which leads the sinner to distrust the ability of Chiist to save him, to doubt the willingness of Jesus to accept so great a transgressor.

Unbelief in the Christian is of the self-same nature as unbelief in the sinner; not the same in its final issue, for it will be pardoned in the Christian. Yea, it is pardoned; it was laid upon the scape-goat’s head of old; it was blotted out and atoned for; but it is of the same sinful nature. If there can be one sin more heinous than the unbelief of a sinner, it is the unbelief of a saint.

Thousands of prayers have been strangled in their infancy by unbelief. Many a song of praise that would have swelled the chorus of the skies has been stifled by an unbelieving murmur; many a noble enterprise conceived in the heart has been blighted, ere it could come forth, by unbelief.