The Great Ventures

“By faith Abraham went out, not knowing whither he went.” — HEns. xi. 8.

TuIs word embodies the very essence of faith. Faith is the embarkation on unknown seas. It is the action in faith which distinguishes it from mere opinion or even from riper conviction. Faith is more than a mental conclusion: it involves decision and movement. That is to Say, it necessitates the co-operation of an active will. Faith is more than a verdict; it is the verdict carried out. It is here that many people fail to recognise the vital difference between a theological creed and a religious life, between a mental assent and a consent of the will, between belief and faith. The difference is something like the difference between the legislative and administrative functions in national government, In legislation laws are formulated, in administration they are carried out. Legislation is an abstraction, it is a matter of so many words. Administration takes the law into the common affairs of men, and determines their direction and destiny. Administration is law in action. Legislation is like a pattern, and it may be a very useless thing. Administration is the same pattern placed in the loom, governing all its movements, and determining all the threads in the finished fabric. And that is something like the difference between mere belief, in the sense of mental conclusion, and faith, which is belief mixing with life and controlling and colouring all its affairs. The vital element in faith is movement of the will, a venturing forth under the leadership of some great assumption, and experimenting with it on the wide, open seas of actual life. “He that hath My commandments and keepeth them.” That is the combination which comprises a vital faith, and that is vital religion. In faith there is always the element of obedience; it is a great venture.

And so the real proofs in spiritual things can only be found in experience. We cannot find them in books, we meet them in life. They are not handed to us by others, we discover them for ourselves. A man ventures forth at the bidding of the Lord, and as he goes along he begins to have “the evidence of things not seen.”’ These things do not come to the door of the lounger, they join the pilgrim as he trudges along his way. The living light of assurance is not given to Sloth or Sluggard, it is given to Faithful, and Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, and Mr. Great-heart, who are on the road early and late. And so we have the Master’s word: ‘‘ He that believeth in Me shail not walk in darkness, he shall have the light of life.” But note that this belief is walking, not merely talking; it is belief in process of movement, which is faith, and it is to this kind of valorous action that the light of life ig promised. The vital proofs are given in experience. ‘‘It came to pass that as he went he received his sight.” A man set out, at Christ’s bidding, on a very strange journey, and some folk laughed at his simplicity as he groped along his way.

But he found his eyes, and he found his sight, and he looked upon his Lord. And so we must not wait for our proofs, we must go forth to meet them. In these regions, too, it is true that ‘‘ faint heart never won fair lady.” Here, too, it is all-ventured, all-won,

And thus it is that the Christian life, because it is a splendid venture, is also a bracing exploration and a magnificent discovery.