|
E.J. Waggoner
|
The Full Assurance
of Faith
The Bible Student's
Library #64
June 16, 1890
The Christian's
faith in something that cannot be seen is the source of wonder to the
unbeliever, and is often the object of ridicule and contempt. The
worldling regards the simple faith of the Christian as an evidence of
weakness of mind, and with a complacent smile at the thought of the
superiority of his own intellect, he declares that he never believes a
thing without evidence; he never jumps at conclusions, and doesn't
believe anything that he cannot see and understand.
The saying that
the man who believes nothing that he cannot understand will have a very
short creed, is as true as it is trite. There is not a philosopher
living who can understand the one-hundredth part of the simple phenomena
that he sees every day. Scientists have found out by observation that
certain kinds of soil are specially adapted to certain kinds of produce;
but nobody can tell why. They know that under certain conditions we may
expect rain or snow; but they cannot produce those conditions, nor tell
how they are produced. Indeed, of all the phenomena about which
philosophers reason so learnedly, there is not one of which they can
explain the ultimate cause.
As a matter of
fact, faith is one of the commonest things. There is no skeptic who does
not have faith to a greater or less degree; and in many cases they go
even farther, and manifest simple credulity. But the element of faith
underlies all business transactions, and all the affairs of life. Two
men make an appointment to meet at a certain time and place, to transact
certain business; each has to trust the other's word. The merchant has
to exercise faith in his employees and his customers. Yea, more, he has
to, unconsciously it may be, exercise faith in God; for he will send his
ships across the ocean, with confidence that they will return again
loaded with merchandise, and yet he must know that their safe return
depends on the winds and the waves, which are beyond human control. And
even though he never once thinks of the Power that controls the
elements, he puts confidence in the officers and crew. He will even
trust himself on board of one of the ships, whose captain and crew he
never saw, and confidently expect that he will be brought in safety to
the desired haven.
One of these
men thinks that it is foolish to trust in a God "whom no man hath
seen, neither can see," will go to a little window and lay down a
twenty dollar gold piece, and in return will receive from a man whom he
never saw before, and whose name he does not know, only a little strip
of paper which says that he is entitled to ride to a distant city. He
perhaps has never seen that city, and knows of its existence only by the
reports of others, yet he steps aboard the cars, gives his bit of paper
to another total stranger, and settles down in comfort. He has never
seen the engineer, and does not know but that he may be incapable or
malicious; yet he is perfectly unconcerned, and confidently expects to
be carried safely to the place, the existence of which he knows only by
hearsay. More than this, he holds in his hand a piece of paper prepared
by some men whom he never saw, which states that these strangers, to
whose care he has entrusted himself, will land him at his destination at
a certain hour; and so implicitly does this skeptic believe this
statement, that he sends word ahead to some other person whom he has
never seen, making arrangements to meet him at that specified time.
Still further,
his faith is drawn upon in the sending of the message announcing his
coming. He steps into a little room, writes a few words on a slip of
paper, which he hands to a stranger sitting by a little machine, pays
that man half a dollar, and then goes his way believing that in less
than half an hour his unknown friend a thousand miles away will be
reading the message which he left in the station behind him.
When he reaches
the city, his faith is still further manifested. While on the cars he
has written a letter to his family, whom he has left at home. As soon as
he reaches the city, he spies a little iron box fastened to a post in
the street, and straightway he goes and drops his letter into it, and
walks off without giving the matter a second thought. He confidently
expects that the letter which he has dropped into that box without
saying a word to anybody, will reach his wife within two days. And yet
this man thinks that it is extremely foolish to talk to God with the
expectation that any attention will be paid to the words.
The
Skeptic Replies
|