Faith building

Front matter

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Contents

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I. Dealing with Doubt. . . 7

II. The One Foundation. . . 25.

I. Dealing With Doubt

I HERE was a man who built a house for himself. He paid careful attention to every detail of it. He saw that the rubbish and earth were cleared away till a solid foundation could be laid; then he watched the stones as they were put in place ; he studied the plans and saw that they were carried out. And so at last he had a house that was safe, convenient and satisfactory. He was a wise man.

There was another man who had a house to live in, which belonged to him as truly as the house first mentioned belonged to the man who built it. And yet he did not build it, or see it erected. His father had lived in it, and his father's father. It was well-built, substantial ; it had stood the test of time. The man who owned it was thoroughly satisfied with it; he felt sure it was in good condition. Sometimes when he saw a new house going up, he would wonder whether that old dwelling of his was all right, whether it might not be better to build a

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new one. But such thoughts would quickly go, for he knew what his house was, and he would not tear it down just because it was old. He said often to himself, "I would rather have that than one of the new dwellings, for it has been tested thoroughly.' ' He, too, was a wise man.

Then there was a third man. He also had a house to live in which was his. And yet he never felt that it was his. His father and grandfather had lived in it ; it was well-built, substantial ; it was almost exactly like his neighbor's house. And yet he never felt sure of it; he did not know just how it had stood the test of time. And so at last he had a thorough inspection made. He went down and saw what the foundations were, and how they were laid. He saw how the house was built upon the foundation. Parts of the structure he had torn down and built up again. It was not so very different when he finished; it was really no safer and no better, but it suited him better, it was more truly his own, and he was now sure that it was safe and secure. He too was a wise man.

All this is a parable about faith. Does it need interpretation ? Some men build their own belief. Most of us get our faith ready made. It meets our needs, it satisfies

Dealing with Doubt.

our intellects and our hearts. And some inherit their faith, yet are not quite satisfied with it. They want to test the foundations, and see how the rest is built. They cannot be quite secure till they know for themselves. Each class is wise. If the faith you have inherited can satisfy you, then rest in it and be happy ; if it does not, then do not hesitate to question it, test it, and find out whether it is really secure.

These words are not for the large number who are in the second class; they are for those who are seeking to form, or to re-form, their faith. They are not for the ninety and nine who are secure in their faith, but for the one who is wandering in doubt. How can we form a Christian faith? Many earnest souls are asking that question. Many who would not let others know it are asking themselves, " How can I make for myself a belief that shall be real and substantial to me, to which I can trust because I know it is trustworthy?" There are not a few earnest souls who are unsettled. That is not altogether bad. In an unsettled liquid, all the material is present. It only has not as yet taken shape and solidified. But the liquid is cloudy till its contents do settle ; and the sooner this happens the sooner it will be clear and bright. It may be well for one

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who has been through that very experience in which faith and unfaith strangely struggle together, and old thoughts and beliefs are put to severe tests, in which the old structure is almost altogether torn down and then slowly rebuilt, to be at last not so very different in form from what it was before, yet mightily different in reality to the man who has seen it built and so can trust it, it may be well for one who has gone through that experience, and has grown from the condition in which many things were half-certain, to the state in which some things are sure as life itself, to tell some of the simple things that he learned, and how he built up a faith which, whatever its defects may be, is at any rate securely founded and real. There are many Christians in doubt. They have a practical faith, but they are uncertain about it. They believe and yet they do not believe. This is a state of mind that is hard to endure. If everything were black or white, it would be easy for us to discriminate ; but the trouble is there are so many shades of gray. We cannot always say, this man, this thing, is good, and that bad. There is some good in the bad, and some bad in the good. So with our belief. We cannot always say positively, " I believe this," and, just as positively, " I do not be-

Dealing with Doubt.

lieve that." Often we do not know. We believe, and yet we cry out for help in our unbelief. We are sure enough to act, and yet, after all, the questions come up, " How am I sure?" "What does my faith really rest upon ?" " Do I believe just because I have been told to?" " This point and that I accept as true, but does it really mean anything to me?" Such questions arise again and again. What shall we do with them?

Now I think there is a tendency in our minds to teach others, and to say to ourselves, that such doubts are sinful ; that we ought to put them out of the way as dangerous ; that they are suggestions of the devil.

« You say, but with no touch of scorn, Sweet-hearted you, whose light blue eyes Are tender over drowning flies, You tell me doubt is devil-born."

Is this the way in which we should treat these questionings ? No, there is a better way. Let those who are well-satisfied with their faith rest in it, and be happy. We are glad they can be. But some of us cannot be happy in a faith of which we are not personally certain, any more than we could be at peace in a house of the strength and se-

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curity of which we felt doubtful. Let us first of all look this matter of doubt squarely in the face, see what it is, and what we ought to do with it.

There are three varieties of doubt, corresponding to the three great parts of our nature. We may have a clear faith in one part of our nature combined with a cloudy faith in another.

First of all is Moral Doubt. Not many men fall into that, at least not many earnest men. It is the worst and hardest of all the kinds of unbelief. I mean by it the doubt that right is right, and wrong wrong, the losing of moral distinctions; the belief that practically right and wrong are matters of little consequence. To put it in the strong words of Frederick Robertson, the first article of faith is that it must be right to do right. If a man doubts that, it is hard for any truth to reach him. A man who does not cling to the right as the thing for him to do whatever comes, cannot even start to build a character.

This kind of doubt is almost always the result of sin, of some sin that defies the conscience and hardens it. Tennyson gives a wonderful example of it in the " Vision of Sin." The youth whom he there describes sees no virtue in any one or anything ; he

Dealing with Doubt.

sneers at the thought of there being anything really good, or really worth struggling for. Pilate is an example of this moral doubt. "What is truth?" he asked. He had lived such a life of untruth that he did not believe there was such a thing as truth, or if there was, he did not think it of any importance. He had a half-pity, halfcontempt for this young Galilean country teacher who was ready to give his life for the truth.

This moral doubt may be combined with an intellectual faith ; but there is no value in the clearest mental faith where this moral unbelief goes along with it. One whose life is willfully dishonest towards his own conscience cannot build a true strong faith, any more than one can build a true and strong house, if he holds his line persistently out of plumb and then builds by that.

If you have such doubt as that, you must learn and realize the tremendous fact that moral doubt kills the soul. The only hope of safety and progress in your faith and life lies in your getting rid of moral doubt through getting full of moral faith. But most of those to whom these words are given are morally in earnest ; they believe in right living ; they mean to live rightly ; they earnestly try to live rightly, even though they 13

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are in the dark about many things. And so I speak of this first form of doubt chiefly to give a word of cheer. For I believe it is the only kind that is permanently hurtful, the only kind that is always evil, the only kind against which we ought to shut our nature tightly. If ever the suggestion comes to you to ignore the difference between right and wrong, kill it as you would a poisonous snake. But any one who persistently clings to his moral faith has a right to hope for the full light.

The second form of uncertainty is Intellectual Doubt. This is where many find trouble. I mean uncertainty as to what is true, and as to how we know what is true. Our time affords good soil for such doubt to flourish in. There are many new theories abroad ; it is a time of study and discovery. New light has broken upon men's minds, and it takes time for the old faith and the new truth to adjust themselves the one to the other. There are new ideas, possibly true, possibly false, certainly persistent, about God, about the Bible, about Christ and his mission. Every great fact of the Christian religion is thus questioned and debated, and it is but natural that those who think should be in a state of uncertainty on one point and another. Perhaps their life is just as 14

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good as ever, perhaps God sees that their faith is as real ; but to them their faith seemsinsecure ; they do not know upon what it rests, and they want to know. " What shall I believe ? I used to receive all that was said about all these points with implicit faith. I cannot do that now. I want to believe because I see the truth." More men and women are thinking for themselves now than there have ever been before ; and yet they have perhaps less time to do their thinking than ever before. That means uncertainty and darkness to some of them, quite often to the most earnest and honest of them.

Now this intellectual doubt may be combined with a real earnest, practical faith. The one who is thus unsettled about the truth often goes on and works for what he does know ; works for Christ, even while he is wondering about his claims ; works for the kingdom of God, even while uncertain about the reality of it. Some of the most faithful church workers I have ever known have confessed to me that they had this kind of doubt, that they felt sure of little of what they were supposed to believe. That is not strange. Among the twelve whom Jesus selected to be his apostles, there was one who had this intellectual doubt, who suffered *5

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from it all through his history, so far as we can trace it. When Jesus was about to go to raise Lazarus from the dead, Thomas said : " Let us also go, that we may die with him." He was faithful to Jesus, ready to die with him ; and yet he was very doubtful about the wisdom of Jesus' going to that place. He was in the dark mentally, even though his practical faith was stronger than that of any other of the twelve. This combination is not hopeless by any means. Often the man who is full of practical trust, and almost in despair intellectually, if he only goes on, will reach a clearer faith. Thomas did. Intellectual doubt, if honest and sincere, is often only a step towards a better and higher faith. One who is on a peak of the mountain has to go down first, if lie would stand at last upon a higher peak. Every step may lead him into a thicker fog, at first, but every step also brings him nearer to the greater height and the clearer air.

And yet, granting all this, while mental doubt is not hopeless, while it is often a step towards the light, we ought to make it truly a step ; we ought earnestly to desire to get rid of it, to get a firm, simple, strong, mental faith, that shall give us security and happiness in our religious thinking. Intellectual faith is not the main thing, but it is a thing

Dealing with Doubt.

that means much. To have a simple, strong creed, that is really your own, made your own by conquest, which you believe with all your mind, is an element of power and of peace the value of which it would be hard to overestimate. Find some truths which are as sure as life itself, and live by them ; then you will find peace.

There is one more kind of doubt of which to speak. We may call it Spiritual Uncertainty. I mean by this, the experience of one who finds it hard to make his faith real and living. He believes strongly enough, perhaps ; he lives practically by what he believes. Yet spiritually he is dead. He does not feel the presence of God as a real help and a real fact in his life. God is not real to him, as his friends are. There is not much use or value in prayer for him, for he does not feel that it takes him into the presence of any real person. He knows that spiritual realities are in the world, but he cannot realize them. There are many Christians in this day who are in something of that condition. They believe the truths of the Christian religion when they think about them ; their reason accepts them ; they work earnestly for the right : but God and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and the eternal life, are thoughts to them, not realities*, 17

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Their spiritual side is cold, almost dead. It is not hard to see why this is so. Our time has seen a great cultivation of the powers that deal with the world of matter. Charles Darwin, who is more than any other man responsible for the new impulse given to thought, confessed that he had never had time to give to the spiritual side of his nature. The realistic tendency is strong, in science, in fiction, in philosophy, in preaching. All this emphasis on the seen makes it hard to realize the unseen, the ideal, the eternal.

It hurts us to have such doubt as this, even when with it there goes a mental correctness and moral earnestness. The one who lacks spiritual faith misses the great inspiration to true and noble living. One whose spiritual vision is weak and poor may get along, and live a true, honest, manly life. But it will be a hard task ; his life will miss much of the happiness and inspiration which Christ came to bring into the religious life of man. We ought to want, to cry out for, earnestly to work for, a strong, true spiritual faith.

What shall we do with such doubts ? The way to get rid of doubt is to get full of faith. As we try, step by step, to see the foundations of a solid belief, we shall be, at the same time, showing the way to get rid of uncertainty.

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Dealing with Doubt.

But it is necessary to dig down and clear away before we begin to lay the stones of our building. So let us give a thought to the first steps from doubt to faith, the way to deal with doubt at the outset. Three simple things are to be said here.

First, face your doubts squarely ; look them in the face

I believe most of those who are unsettled need this advice. They tend to hide their doubt away, and try not to think of it. But that is the worst possible thing to do with it. It may be wrong sometimes to doubt ; but it is certainly wrong to keep your doubt always in the dark because you are afraid to look at it. It may be hard to face some questions ; it certainly is hard and wearing and insecure to dodge and avoid these questions because they are troublesome. It is true that ugly things show just as they are in the light, but it is just as true that they are worse in the dark, because they do not show what they are. To try to get rid of doubt by hiding it away, is like trying to get rid of sorrow, or of hunger, by not thinking of it. This may do for a while, but sooner or later the feeling comes back again, with redoubled energy.

Tennyson gives an inspiring thought in the stanzas which follow the one quoted a few pages back :

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" I know not. — One at least I knew, In many a subtle question versed, Who touched a jarring lyre at first,

But ever strove to make it true.

Perplexed in faith, but pure in deeds, At last he beat his music out. There lives more faith in honest doubt,

Believe me, than in half the creeds.

He fought his doubts and gathered strength, He would not make his judgment blind, He faced the spectres of the mind,

And laid them ; thus he came at length

To find a stronger faith his own."

Yes, there is a faith in honest doubt, a faith that will some time lead to God if it be followed. But it must be honest doubt, manfully met, fought and struggled with as an enemy ; not kept in secret and enjoyed; not kept to indulge as an intellectual dissipation ; not avoided or locked up for fear of facing it ; but met as the manly man always meets hard facts and hard questions, with strength, and courage, and honesty. Do not try to deceive yourself into faith. Face your doubt, and see just what it is.

A second step towards faith is a desire to believe. Perhaps you cannot have a true, strong faith. But do you want to have it ? That is one of the first things. Would you like to believe strongly and truly ? Would

Dealing with Doubt.

you like to have a positive faith and a working realization of the unseen and eternal ? If you do want this, there is the greatest hope and help for you. For intellectual and spiritual faith is one of those things of which the promise is sure, "Ask and ye shall receive.* ' The man who really wants it will get it, if he wants it enough to work and wait. Think what faith is, what it has done, what it can do. What a power it is! What a security it brings ! What happiness it secures ! Do you not want it ?

The third step towards the beginning of a true faith is that you bring your very unbelief to God, if you can. You know there is some great Power without you. Bring your mental or spiritual doubt to him. Do not try to pray to him as a man of faith ought to pray. If you do not believe this or that about God, it is not right to pray to him as if you did believe it. If you do not feel him as a Reality, as a Friend, it is wrong to pray to him as if you did, because you think that you ought to feel in that way ; but come to him honestly. Bring your mental doubts to him and your spiritual coldness. Cry to him, " O God, I do not believe this or that part of what men tell me is the truth ; I am not sure of thy presence, not sure of thy love, not sure of thy response to me; I do not

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feel that thou art real to me as earthlythings are. But, O God, I want to know these things and to feel in this way. I bring my unbelief to thee ; help me, O God." Do you remember the prayer of the man who had gotten down into the depths of doubt, " O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul ?" Even that prayer is better than trying to pray as one ought to if he had a full faith.

" This is my creed ; This be my deed : Faith, or a doubt, I shall speak out, And hide not my heart."

Be honest with yourself, with your doubt, with God. That is the prerequisite to any true and real faith, mental or spiritual. If you thus face your doubts, you will be walking towards a true, real and secure faith. Stand up to your questionings and uncertainties, find out what they really are, earnestly want to get rid of them, and then bring them to God with a cry for help, and you will be helped, slowly but surely, out of the darkness into his marvelous light. Faith and unfaith may be struggling together in you. Do not bring the one to God and hide the other away. Bring them both. Cry, "Lord,

Dealing with Doubt.

I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." Then even though you have gone so short a way towards the true faith, into your darkness will come a little ray of that light from God that shines for the just man, the honest man, and makes his path like the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

II. The One Foundation

IN OT long ago I passed a place where men had dug down deep in preparation for putting up a large building. But they did not begin work at once when they had reached the required depth. They first drove great piles into the ground, till they had filled up the space with them. Then sometime after, as I went by, they were placing in position the masses of steel and stone ; and the building was rising, slowly but firmly, because there was something below that would hold. That is what we want in our faith, something beneath that will hold. What one fact are we to place at the bottom of our religious thinking and feeling on which to base a true faith ? The famous French philosopher started with one fact of consciousness, and on that he constructed a rational philosophy of the universe. If there is one fact we can find, not a mere theory, but something we accept just because " we know not something which is fact as much," then 25

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we have a firm foundation for belief. Is there such a foundation for Christian faith? Yes ; we find it in the Person and Character of Jesus of Nazareth. There is the one fact upon which all true Christian faith rests.

It may at first be disappointing to those who are eagerly wanting to find something for faith to rest upon, to be told that that something is found in the character of Jesus as given in the gospels. You may answer me, "You are calling for faith in that basis which you lay. Here am I, trying to find a starting-point for believing something, and you call upon me to believe in two things at the very outset : in Jesus Christ and in the gospels. Of course, if I could have faith in them, I would have a sound Christian belief. But it is not fair to make me accept them at the start, when what I am seeking is the way whereby I can come to accept them at the end."

But natural as this objection may seem, it will disappear when you understand what it is that I am really urging. When I say that you can find the one fact upon which Christian faith may rest in the Character and Person of Jesus of Nazareth, I am not asking you to believe that he was divine ; I am not asking that you should believe anything at all about him. Still less am I demanding 26

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that you should accept the gospels as inspired. I am not urging you to believe anything at all about him or about the books that present him to you. I am merely asking you to look at him just as he was and ask yourself what his life means. It is not faith I am calling for ; it is the simple consideration of a fact.

It is a simple matter of history that there was a man once in Syria, whose name was Jesus of Nazareth. All that after-ages have made of him, all the books that have been written, and the creeds that have been formed and the thoughts that have been developed about him, his Person and his work, cannot alter that fact in the least particle. It is a mere matter of history that Jesus lived and died there in Palestine many years ago. It does not take any faith to see that; you cannot help seeing it. Actually there was a man once of that name who lived the same kind of life that I live. He knew hunger and want, sorrow and joy, disappointment and anticipation, peace and trouble, success and failure, as I know them. He ate and drank and talked and worked as I do, as my neighbor does, as every son of man has to do. Can we not realize that fact?

But simple matter of fact that it is, we find

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it hard to realize, though we cannot help seeing, that it is true. The thoughts of men about that life of Jesus have been such as tend to take it away from the sphere in which your life and mine are lived and thus to impart an unreality to it. There was once a saw-mill that was placed on the topj of a very steep hill. It caught the breeze magnificently, but they could not get the logs up to it to be trimmed. We often elevate religion till men cannot get at it. The church has sometimes lifted up Jesus in such a way as to put him out of men's reach. If we could only pick up the gospels and read them as new ! If we had never heard of Jesus, and suddenly this account of his life appeared, how it would appeal to us, how we would read and reread the book and wonder at the beauty and charm of its story. Now we want to do something of that kind for ourselves by taking up the gospels simply as a record of a life that a man actually lived. Think what you may about the wonderful parts of the gospel story; leave them out for a while and simply read the life of Jesus of Nazareth. For whatever may be true or false about him, whatever may be doubtful or mystical, this is certain : there was such a man as Jesus, and he lived, and loved, and died, as all men do., 28

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Another fact: He made a great impression upon his friends. They loved him passionately, they looked up to him, they followed him with eager devotion. After death had taken him from them, they still loved him and his thoughts and messages, and they went about telling others of the Teacher they loved. One of those who had been with him, made a collection of his sayings, which was afterwards made into a book; another, his most intimate friend, told his own thoughts about "the Master,*' as they loved to call him ; told them with loving insight and mystic tenderness. Two others, who had not known him personally, found out what they could from those who had seen him and then drew up narratives of his life based on what his friends thought about him and said of him. And thus it came to pass that four little pamphlets have come to us which tell of the life of that man Jesus who made our era. They are all of them incomplete, these four little booklets ; they are fragmentary, there is much in one which is in another. They do not profess to give his life logically or perfectly ; they simply give some facts about him and some thoughts which he spoke and taught. That is all ; and yet they give a wonderfully satisfactory view of him. I do not believe there 29