Want of Faith
The Baptist Missionary Society was raised upon two simple ideas, suggested by Dr. Carey, in a sermon upon Isaiah liv. 2, 3j shortly before his embarkation for India — Expect great things; attempt great things.’ This expectation is the life of faith — the vitality of the Ministry — that which honours God, and is honoured by God. All our failures may be ultimately traced to a defect of faith. We ask but for little, we expect but little, we are satisfied with little; and therefore we gain and do but little.* Our Saviour called this principle into exercise in almost all his miracles, and his almighty power appeared (so to speak) to be fettered by the influence of unbelief.’ This power of faith in outward miracles seems intended to encourage its exercise with respect to the greatest of all miracles — the conversion of the soul. Indeed no limit, except the
’ 1 Tim. iii. 2. Matt. xiii. 53. An American divine encouraged his son to these familiar exercises with the assurance, that he had found as much advantai;e by tlicm aa by most of his other studies in divinity: adding, that he looked upon it as the Lord’s gracious accomplishment of that word — “Shall I hide any thing from Abraham 1 For I know Abraham, that he will command,” &.c. Mather’s New England, iii. 150.
2 1 Tim. iv. 14. 2 Tim. i. 6. 3 Alluding to Hos. xiv, 7.
* Philip Henry’s Life, p. 192.
5 Mr. Scott remarks, in a letter to his son — ‘I must be allowed to think, that we hate not success, because we ask not, and do not stir up others to expect and ask the blessing from God only.’ Life, p. 393.
Comp. Matt. viii. 2, 3. ix. 2. Mark xi. 22, 23, with Matt. xiii. 58. Mark vi. 5, 6.
sovereign will of God, bounds the warranted expectation of believing prayer.’ The dispensations of grace are established upon this rule — “According to your faith be it unto you.”^ The life of faith, therefore, is the life of the Minister’s work, and the spring of his success.
A confidence, indeed, that has no foundation in the Divine prcnise, is not faith, but fancy. But the ground of Ministerial faith is the engagement, purpose, and promise of God —” The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall iterfonn this.’’^ Much would be expected from this determined and fervid principle in huinan hearts, though so often misguided, disproportionate, and uncertain. But how overwhelming is the thought of this affection possessing the heart of God — of the deep interest of his infinite mind in the progress of the kingdom of his dear Son — his thoughts engaged in it — his unsearchable plans embracing it, and controlling all the mighty movements of the world to subserve this main design! How solid therefore is the rock, on which the Christian Ministry rests as the grand engine for the accomplishment of the purposes and promises of God !^
The extreme difficulty of the exercise of faith is not however readily apprehended. Sometimes we see a faint and sinking heart, where better things might have been expected. Jeremiah’s case is most instructive to young Ministers — bold in public, but giving way in secret; full of compassionate weepings over the misery of his people, but “pressed above measure” under the power of his unbelief.^
Self-dependence is the grand hindrance to our efficiency. Our glorious Head “hath the residue of the Spirit,” as the fountain and grand repository for his Ministers.* But, apart from the constant supply from his fulness, who are we, to call the dead to arise to a new and spiritual life? Where is the quickening virtue innate in our agency? To lean upon human instrumentality, instead of the Almighty power — is like Elisha trusting in his staflj instead of his Master — presumption, which will bring us under the humbling rebuke of our jealous God. Again, a lack of godly simplicity shews itself in a trust to hopeful appearances, rather than to the full and faithful promises of our God. We are ready to say of some bright momentary prospect —” This same shall
Comp. Matt. xxi. 22. 1 John v. 14, 1,5. 2 ibid. ix. 29. 3 Isaiah ix. 7.
Calvin remarks on this ground, that Ministers should go up into the pulpit to preach the word of God in his name, with that strength of faith as to be assured, that their doctrine can no more be overthrown than God himself. Comment on 2 Cor. iii.
6 Compare Jer. ix. with xx. &c.
* M*l. ii. 15. Compare Col. i. 19, with John i. 14, 16. iii. 34. 7 See 2 King» it. 31.
comfort us concerning our work:“^ so that, when “we see not our signs:”’=* or when, “as the morning cloud and the early dew,” they have “gone away,” we are on the verge of despondency. Now if the promises were the ground, and favourable appearances only the encouragements of our hope, our minds would be preserved in an equipoise of faith; dependent and sustained under every variation of circumstance: “rejoicing in hope”’ amid the withering blasts of disappointment; and even “against hope believing in hope, strong in faith, giving glory to God.” But the want of a due recollection makes it more easy to exercise a personal than a Ministerial faith, though the warrant in both cases is the same; though the principle of faith is of equal power of application to every exigency; and though the training for the discipline of the Ministerial warfare is the fruitful result of our personal trials.
The main difficulty, therefore, is not in our work, but in ourselves; in the conflict with our own unbelief, in the form either of indolence or of self-dependence. When faith is really brought into action, the extent and aggravation of the difficulty (even were it increased an hundred-fold) is a matter of little comparative moment. Difficulties heaped upon difficulties can never rise to the level of the promise of God. To meet the trembling apprehensions — “Who is sufficient for these things V the answer is ready — “Our sufficiency is of God.”^ There is a link in the chain of moral causes and effects, which connects the helplessness of the creature with the Omnipotence of God, and encourages the creature to attempt every thing in the conscious inability to do any thing: and thus “in weakness” thoroughly felt, Divine “strength is made perfect.”* It is equally important to feel our abasement, and to maintain it with a corresponding and proportionate exercise of faith. Let us lie low, but let us look high; let us realize our weakness and strength at the same moment; let there be a remembrance, as well as a present exercise of faith. The Apostle supported his mind under the pressure of his responsibilities, not merely by his general interest in his Master’s all-sumciency, but by the recollection of what it had wrought in him.’ This recollection will assure us of the sufficiency of Almighty grace; and that, though the work immensely exceeds all human resources, the power and promise of God are fully equal, and faithfully pledged, to the exigency. No difficulty is therefore insurmountable. Our Lord has
‘Gen. V. 29. 2 Psalm lxxiv. 9. 3 2 Cor. ii. 16. iii. 4.
* 2 Cor. xii. 9 6 ibid. iii. 5, 6 — “who also hath made us,” &c.
invested the principle of faith with his own Omnipotence. ‘The least grain will remove a mountain from its place.’ What then would not a large grain — what would not many grains — do? If the weakest exercise is so mighty, what might not be expected from the habit of faith? May we be always sending up the disciples’ prayer — “Increase our faith “^
But to apply its operations to the different departments of our work — If the Ministry be a spiritual employment, it must be conducted on spiritual principles. Faith, therefore, belongs to every part of it. It is the mainspring and the regulator: it enters into every wheel and pivot of the machine. The power or the want of it is felt at every single point, enhvening or paralyzing the work. Thus in preaching — how encouraging are the recollections, that we are nothing, but we hold the rod of God’s power in our hand — that his presence is pledged to bless our word — and that our poor Ministrations of his all-powerful Gospel are the appointed means of gathering and edifying his Church !* It is faith also, that gives a tone of boldness to our public addresses.^ We cease to fear the face of man, when we realize the power and presence of God. Men of faith are the most successful preachers. Whitfield is said to have seldom preached without the seal of conversion to his message — Such is the effect of a simple reliance on the power of God! On the other hand, a formal preaching of Evangelical truth, being without faith, is wholly unproductive. And may we not also trace the barrenness even of an earnest Ministry to the same source — a want of practical conviction that the work is of God? Does not sometimes a dependence upon our accurate expositions, forcible illustrations, or powerful and persuasive arguments, lead us to forget, “that the excellency of the power is of God, and not of us?”* Do we never feel as if our light must open our people’s eyes — as if they must see, be convinced, and persuaded 1 The 2ise of means honours the work of the Spirit. But dependance upon m,eans obscures his glory, and therefore issues in unprofitableness. Again — in our parochial visitation — how much more natuial is it to speak from our own mouth than from God’s! How hard to maintain the habitual simplicity of faith — looking for the “wisdom that is profitable to direct;” for the word of seasonable doctrine, reproof, or consolation to the several cases of our
1 Mark ix. 23.
2 Compare Matt. xvii. 20. ‘There are perhaps, but few Ministers of Christ,’ (observes Q,u»snel on this verse) ’ to whom, on their addresses to him in prayer, he might not an- •rwer: that the weakness of their faith is an hindrance to the conversion and improvement of souls.’ 3 Luke xvii. 5. See 1 Cor. i. 21.
5 Compare 2 Peter ii. 5. with Heb. xi. 27. Acts iv. 24, 31. 6 2 Cor. iv. 7.
people! In our Sunday Schools also — how soon do our hands hang down “in the work!” We “cast our bread upon the waters,” with but faint hope of ‘^ finding it after many days.“* We are ready to think, that nothing is done, because we do not see all that we want — in immediate fruit, visible progress, or thankful returns. In discouraging iyistances in our visitation of the sick — how grievously do we fail in the recollection of the sovereign freeness of Divine grace, to resist despondency, and keep alive expectation; to go on waiting — pleading — hoping to the last! And is not here the secret of our want of sut -^ss? As we “walk” — so must we work, — “by faith, not by sight;” in diligence improving what is already given, in expectation looking for a larger blessing.
Of some departments of our work, however, (such as the visiting of the sick, or the instruction of the young) we are apt to say — ‘I have no gift, no talent for it.’ But surely dependance upon the promise of heavenly wisdom would obtain a competent measure to meet the demand. Or should it even be withheld, how profitable would be that humbling exercise of faith — “most gladly to glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us l”^ But nothing is more paralyzing to faith — nothing more clogs the wheels of exertion, than repining indolence indulged under the cover of humility. Sometimes in seasons of despondency we feel, as if we had been of no use in the work, because no present fruit springs up before us. But does not the promise of God warrant us to make the greatest attempts with the fullest assurance of ultimate success? The thought of the breath of a worm instrumentally saving an immortal soul, (a work of far higher consideration in the eye of God than the temporal welfare of the universe) proves the Divinely-appointed means (independent of Almighty agency) to be as inadequate to the proposed effect, as were the rod of Moses, the brazen serpent, the trumpets of Joshua, the pitchers of Gideon, or the prophesying of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones. But their very weakness was the display of the power of God, and the excitement to the exercise of faith: and the neglect of the means in the cases referred to, would have been fatal to their effects. The Scripture therefore speaks of discouragements as “the trials of faith.” And when has God ever put honour upon the faith which he has not first tried? Or when has he failed to honour it in, or after the trial.* And thus — as mementos of our weakness, and excitements
Ecclcs. xi. 1. 2 Jiimes i. 5. 3 2 Cor. xii. 9.
* It i>) specially ‘’the trial of faith” that will be “found to praise, and honour, and glory at the appea, ng of Christ.” — 1 Peter i. 7. of our faith — discouragements properly sustained, proved the channels of spiritual strength to ourselves, and of abundant spiritual blessings to our people.
It is most important habitually to contemplate our work in its proper character as a “work of faith.” As such, it can only be sustained by the active and persevering exercise of this principle. This it is that makes it a means of grace to our own souls, as well as a grand medium of exalting our Divine Master.
It is faith that enlivens our work with perpetual cheerfulness. It commits every part of it to God, in the hope, that even mistakes shall be overruled for his glory; and thus reheves us from an oppressive anxiety, often attendant upon a deep sense of our responsibility. The shortest way to peace will be found in casting ourselves upon God for daily pardon of deficiencies and supplies of grace, without looking too eagerly for present fruit. Hence our course of effort is unvarying, but more tranquil. It is peace — not slumber, rest in the work — not from it. Faith also supports us under the trials of our Ministerial warfare with the clear view of the faithfulness of the covenant, and the stability of the church. And indeed, as all the promises are made to faith, or to the grace springing from it, this is the only spring of Christian courage, and Christian hope. Unbelief looks at the difficulty. Faith regards the promise. Unbelief therefore makes our work a service of bondage. Faith realizes it as a “labour of love.” Unbelief drags on in sullen despondency. Faith makes the patience, with which it is content to wait for success, ‘• the patience of hope.”’ As every difficulty (as we have hinted,) is the fruit of unbelief; so will they all ultimately be overcome by the perseverance of faith. To gain therefore an active and powerful spring of renewed exertion, we must strike our roots deeper into the soil of faith. For the work will ever prosper or decline, as we depend upon an Almighty arm, or an arm of flesh .^ Few, probably, even of the most devoted servants of God, had dull, counted the cost before they put their hand to the plough.; and from the want of these preparatory exercises of faith, arises that oppressive faintness which gives the enemy
1 1 Thcss. i. 3.
2 Many of us can feelingly enter into Brainerd’s experience, both in his depressions and subsequent elevations. — ‘Oh! how heavy’ (says he) ‘is my work, when Jaith cannot take hold of an Almighty arm for the performance of it! Many times have I been ready to sink in this case. Blessed be God, that I may repair to a full fountain.’ ‘I stagger along under the burden’ — writes another exercised Minister — ‘like the poor travellers cast away in the desert, ready every step to sink under it. But when it seems as if I could not take another step, but must lie down and die, some spring opens to my view, and I get strength and courage to drag on a little further.’ Memoir of Dr. Payson of America.
such an advantage in distressing our peace, and enfeebling our exertions. But after all, the grand secret is habitually to have our eye upon Christ. Peter — looking at the waves instead of the Saviour — “began to sink.’’^ We too — if we look at the difficulties of our work, and forget the upholding arm of our ever-present Head — shall sink in despondency. Believe — wait — work — are the watchwords of the Ministry. Believing the promise, gives the power to wait. Waiting supplies strength for work, and such working “is not in vain in the Lord.”
We remark also the supreme importance of the Ministerial exercise of faith in its own character and office as substantiating unseen reahties to the mind. The grand subjects of our commission have an immediate connection with the eternal world. The soul derives its value from its relation to eternity.^ The gift of the Saviour opens and assures to the Christian a blissful prospect of eternity.’ The sufferings of this present time are supported by an habitual contemplation of “things not seen,”* and by an estimate of the preponderating “glory that shall be revealed in us.”* We realize the vanity of this transitory scene only by an accurate comparison with the enduring character of the heavenly state.* Daily experience reminds us of the extreme difficulty of maintaining spiritual perceptions of eternal things. The surrounding objects of time and sense spread a thick film over the organs of spiritual vision, and the indistinct haziness, in which they often appear, is as if they were not. Now a vivid apprehension of truth is the spring of a “full assurance of faith.” such as will infuse a tenderness, seriousness, and dignity into our discourses, far beyond the power of the highest unassisted talents. ‘Faith is the master-spring of a Minister. Hell is before me, and thousands of souls are shut up there in everlasting agonies. Jesus Christ stands forth to save men from rushing into this bottomless abyss. He sends me to proclaim his ability and his love. I want no fourth idea! Every fourth idea is contemptible. Every fourth idea is a grand impertinence.’’
We must also remark the personal assurance of faith as a
1 Matt. xiv. .30. 2 Matt. xvi. 2G. 3 John iii. 16.
4 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. s Rom. viii. 18. 6 i John ii. 15 — 17.
‘Cecil’s Remains. ‘He spake,’ (observes Dr. Bates and Dr. Manton) ’ as one, that had a living faith within him of divine truth.” We are so weak in the faith — is the greatest impediment of all. Hence it is, that, when we should set upon a man fcr his conversion with all our mitrht, if there b(f not the stirrinn;s of unbelief within us, whether there be a heaven and a hell — yet at le;ust the belief of them is so feeble, that it will scarcely excite in us a kindly, resolute, constant zeal; so that our whole motion will be but weak, because the spring of t’aith is so weak. O what need therefore have Ministers for themselves and their work, to look well to their faith; especially that their assent to the truth of Scripture, about the joys and torments of the life to come, be sound and lively.’ — Reformed Pastor.
spring of our effectiveness. “We are confident” (says the Apostle); ‘•’■ wherefore we labour.“^ The assured” knowledge “of Him, “whom he had believed,” was at once his support under sufferings, and his principle of perseverance. The persuasion “whose he was “— enabled him to confess with greater confidence —” Whom 1 serve.“^ And who does not find, that” the joy of the Lord “— the joy of pardon, of acceptance, of communion, and of expectation —” is our strength “^ for our work in simple, affectionate, and devoted faith? The” spirit of adoption “converts toil into pleasure. What to a slave would be drudgery, to a child is privilege. Instead of being goaded by conscience, he is acted upon by faith, and constrained by love.” Labor ipse voluptasP Thus faith is the principle, love is the enjoyment, and active devotedness is the habit of the work.
Upon the whole, then, we may conclude this subject with the consolatory remembrance of the character of our gracious an;l faithful Master. Every faithful Minister has fellowship with Polycarp’s ground of support — ’ that he, who was constituted an overseer of the church, was himself overlooked by Jesus Christ.’ Our Blessed Master will make us sensible of our weakness; but he will not suffer us to faint under it. Our store of sufficiency is treasured up in his inexhaustible fulness; while our insufficiency is covered in his compassionate acceptance. He engages to supply not only rules and directions, but abiUty and grace, for our momentous work. And if he enables us with a dependent spirit, a single eye, and a single heart, to make an unreserved surrender of ourselves and our talents to his service, he will overcome for us every apprehended difficulty, and we shall “go on our way rejoicing” in our work. But the power of unbelief will be matter of daily conflict to the end. We shall probably find it our chief hindrance. It will induce a faintness under want of success, or self-confidence under apparent usefulness; in either case inverting the Scripture order of life and comfort, and leading us to “walk” by sight, not “by faith;” so that the Saviour, (as we before hinted) cannot do many mighty works among us, because of our unbelief.’’’
The Writer submits this extended detail to his brethren, with painful self-conviction, and with a deep sense of the injury resulting from the hindrances which have been specified. The most Scriptural church is materially weakened by mal-administraiion.
2 Cor. V. 8, 9. 2 2 Tim. i. 12. 3 Acts xxvii. 2a
* Neh. viii. 10. 5 Matt. xii. 58. Mark vi. 5, 6. ut supra.
Even the Jewish church, though framed by the hands of God, was paralyzed by the unfaithfulness of its Ministers. And who can tell the injury that our own admirable Establishment may sustain, from hirelings entering into her service, as the way to respectability or emolument, instead of being inwardly “moved by the Holy Ghost,” and supremely seeking the honour of their Master, and the interests of his church? The main secret of success doubtless is, to bring the spirit and unction of the Gospel into our public and private Ministrations. Let each of us, therefore, follow the excellent advice of Bishop Burnet — ’ more particularly to examine himsfelf, whether he has that soft and gentle, that meek and humble, and that charitable and compassionate temper, which the Gospel does so much press upon all Christians; that shined so eminently through the whole life of the blessed Author of it; and which he has so singularly recommended to all his followers; and that has in it so many charms and attractives, which do not only commend those who have these amiable virtues; but (which is much more to be regarded) they give them vast advantages in recommending the doctrine of om* Saviour to their people.’^ Indeed the want of this Christian consistency obscures to our people the credentials of our commission. It is of little avail confidently and successfully to vindicate to them the lawfulness of our ecclesiastical call; except our faithfulness, humility, constancy, self-denial, and tenderness, lead them “50 to account of us, as the Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the mysteries of God.”^ It is vain to insist upon the Apostolic succession of our Ministry; except we enlighten it with the combined glory of Apostolical doctrine and example. In this uniform consistency, not in any sacred antiquity, independent of this confirming seal — lies our spiritual power. The Bodies of Dissent, making no pretensions to Apostolical descent — yet preaching Apostolical doctrines, will maintain a moral influence in the land, which we can never hope to acquire, except our public and private work is cast into the same Scriptural mould. The church cannot now accredit “the blind, and the halt, and the lame.” The lives of her ministers must have the moral weight of holiness.
‘Pastoral Care, chap. vii.
2 1 Cor. iv. 1. Bishop Burnet montions tho wise counsel given to him at an early period of his Ministry — to combine with the Ecclesiastieal study of the primitive church, a view of the solemn sense of Ministerial obligation, almost universally entertiined at that time; conceiving, ’ that the argument in tiivourof the Church, however clearly made out, would never have its full effect upon the world, till we could show a primitive spirit in our administration, as well as a primitive pattern for our constitution.’ ‘This advice’ (adds the Bishop) ‘made even then a deep iiniprcssionon me; and I thank God the sentt of it has liever left me in the whole coarse of my studies,
Our people naturally “seek this proof of Christ speaking in us,”» to draw them to us with the impression, with which “A Master in Israel” approached his Divine Teacher — “We knoio that thou art a Teacher come from God.”*^ Those Ministers whom we observe specially honoured in their work, we shall mark generally to be distinguished by a consistent standard of profession and conduct. And doubtless with more spiritualized affections, with greater abstraction from the world, with more fervent love to the Saviour and zeal for his cause, with a higher estimate of the value of souls, and with a more habitual determination to live with and for God — we shall have a clearer and more effective testimony in the hearts of our people. We shall “magnify our office “^ among them; and they will gladly “receive us as angels of God, even as Christ Jesus.”*
1 Pastoral Care, chap. iv. Conip. Preface. Nearly to the same purpose he remarks in another place — ‘Maintaining arguments for more power than we have, will have no effect unless the world see, that we make a good use of the authority already in our hands. It is with the Clergy as with Princes. The only way to keep the prerogative from being uneasy to their subjects, and being disputed, is to manage it wholly for their good and advantage. Then all will be for it, when they find it is for them. Let the Clergy live and labour well, and they will feel as much authority will follow, as they will know how to manage well. They will never be secured or recovered from contempt, but by living and labouring as they ought.’ Conclusion of the History of his own times. 2 Cor. xiii. 3.
2 John ui. 2. 3 Rom. xi. 13. * Gal. iv. 14.