The Place of Faith in Religion

“They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee, for Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee.” — Psalm ix. io.

And so faith is not the opposite of reason! I used to think it was. I used to think it was a blind impulse. The Psalmist says it is founded on experience. “They that know Thy name” means “They that know Thy fame” — Thy reputation for cures — the number Thou hast healed in the past. Faith is not credulity. It is built, says the Psalmist, on the law of averages — on a study of the census, “Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee.” We shall never get a living faith until we get back that view. We rest our faith on the command of God; we should rest it on the name of God — on the fame of God. The hypnotist puts a man into a sleep, and says, “Believe whatever I tell you!” And the man does. But we all deem him weak, and few of us would like to be thought that man. Nor should I like to be thought that man, even though the hypnotist were God Almighty! I should be ashamed to be converted so unscientifically, and Christ would justify my shame. I have read of the men on Transfiguration Mount that “when they were awake they saw His glory.” Ah! there it is — when they were awake. He often gives His beloved sleep — often gives them hypnotic sleep — rest by the mere act of gazing. But in no hypnotic sleep does He exact, would He accept, an act oi faith. It is from my waking soul, from my reasoning soul, from my prudent and poising and pondering soul that He values the expression of my faith.

Son of Man, I did not come to Thee by the gate of faith; I came to the gate of faith by Thee. Men said to me, “Believe and live!” said, “Live, and believe!” I learnt at school that faith was the root, and knowledge the flower; I have learned by experience that knowledge is the root and faith the flower. They told me that faith was the spring-time, the seed-time, the stage of the simple beginner. I have found that it is the latest phase of growth — the very sum7ner of the soul. My faith was born of sight — born of experience. I did not first believe and then come; I came and then believed. I kept near Thee before I knew Thee; I knew Thee before I believed in Thee. It was first the look, then the learning, last of all, the love, and faith the wing of love. Not in the darkness have I soared to Thee, O Christ! Not by a blind impulse of the heart have I flown to Thy bosom! Mine has been not only the wdng, but the eye, of an eagle; I have seen where I was going, I have known in whom I have believed. My wing has been love’s wing. My flight has not been in the winter; it has been prompted by green leaves. My soaring has not been in the midnight; it has been tempted by the morning sky. My faith is born of love, and my love is born of light, and my light is born of experience, and my experience is born of nearness; these are the golden steps on which I mount to Thee.