“I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” Mark 9: 24.

The word of God attaches great value to sincerity. It is on this account that the desire of many to be sincere in their faith is justifiable. And for the fear and disquietude which arise from this desire they have also well-founded reasons, in the consistent testimony of the word of God as well as in experience. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick: who can know it?” (Jer. 17: 9).

Frequently, however, there are great mistakes made, alike with respect to what true sincerity is and the means by which it is obtained and increased. As to the first of these points — what true sincerity is — many think that sincerity consists in a distinct feeling that they have surrendered themselves to the Lord with a strong faith and a fervent love. This is by no means what the word of God intends by sincerity.

Sincerity is that attitude of the soul, in virtue of which we present ourselves to the Lord just as we are, neither better nor worse. A man is insincere who makes himself out to be other than he really is or feels. It is on this account that the words of the father of the possessed child, quoted above, are such a glorious example of sincerity. He wished to believe, but felt unbelief still too strong within him. What, then, shall be done? He presents himself to the Lord just as he is. He knows that his desire is to trust in Jesus; but he does not know whether there be more unbelief than faith in his heart. What shall he do? Shall he mourn over the unbelief that is still in him? Or shall he just wait on until he feels that he has believed well and fully? No: not one of these things; for they will afford him no help. Just as he is, he goes to Jesus, and with childlike sincerity and simplicity he pours out his heart before Him: “Lord, I believe: but, alas, there is still too much unbelief — come, to the help of my distrustfulness.”

And this teaches us further what is the only means of being delivered from insincerity. The father felt that there was still in him an element that was waiting to believe, but he goes with it to Jesus. He makes it known to Him in the expectation that, in spite of his distrust, He will have mercy upon him and rescue him from it. How utterly different is this conduct from that of so many seeking souls. How often they continue year after year mourning over insincerity, longing for sincerity, and yet they make no progress. Ask them if it be not true that they make no advance but rather go on in their misery. And they know not, and they hearken not, when it is said to them that this is genuine sincerity — to present ourselves just as we are, with all our unbelief. They ought to know that this is the only way to healing; to give ourselves to the Savior, with the little beginnings of good, — although they are but a desire to believe, — and that, too, in spite of a great preponderance of double-heartedness and worldly-mindedness and unbelief. Yes: to mourn our unbelief, in dealing actually with Jesus — that is true sincerity.

Poor soul, who hast so long remained apart from the Lord from dread of being insincere, and hast thereby grieved both the Lord and thyself, even although thou shouldest feel that of the hundred elements in you there are ninety and nine of unbelief, and only one of feeble desire to believe, go with it to Jesus: that is sincerity. Continue every day also to pour out your heart before the Lord: fight the good fight against remaining insincerity and distrust at Jesus’ feet. That is the only place where you can overcome. “Lord, I believe; I will believe as well as I can; I do so. I believe at last, that Thou art Jesus, the Helper of the wretched; come to the help of my distrustfulness.” As you thus pray and strive every day, you will soon obtain the victory and the blessing. As for him who does not thus pray, he may be sure at least of this, that, so long as he remains apart from Jesus, no more sincerity shall come. No: sincerity is the outpouring of the heart before the Lord, and is nowhere obtained but in intercourse with Him and through His friendly grace.

“Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Luke 5: 8.

The Savior had unveiled His glory to Peter. He had wonderfully blessed His work of faith, “At Thy word I will let down the net,” and at the same time made Himself known as the mighty Ruler over nature, the beneficent Friend of His disciples. Of all this grace, the fruit and the result was that Peter cast Himself before the Lord with the prayer: “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man.” The glory of the Lord appeared to him so clearly in that light of faith, and his own sinfulness became to him so manifest, that out of dread and self-abasement he uttered this cry: a clear proof that true faith has as its fruit a deeper humiliation for sin and knowledge of it, sincere and inward penitence.

And this lesson is of great importance for many who are in the way of faith. They think that they cannot be believing, because they are not yet deeply enough convinced of sin. And they do not observe that this word has not yet defined how deeply one must feel sin before one may come to Jesus: it has fixed no measure. The first sense of need must bring us to Him. They do not understand that this remaining apart from Jesus is just the way to make their sense of sin less, and, what is especially of importance, that, on the other hand, an incipient faith may become the means of increasing this sense of sin. Always the closer to the light, the more visible the impurity; the nearer to the Holy One, the stronger the sense of unworthiness; the more blessed with grace, the deeper the conviction of sin.

As with Peter, so with all believers. The hour of the revelation ,of Jesus’ grace and love are the times of the deepest abasement. And these times are for the most part not at the beginning, but in the later progress of the life of faith. Consider the case of Peter: he has to attain his true knowledge of sin at his denial of the Lord, well-nigh three years after he had already said: “We have believed and known that Thou art the Christ.” Think also of Jacob: how the Lord made with him at Bethel the covenant of His grace, and yet first brought him to the recognition of his sinfulness twenty years later, in the crisis of the wrestling by night, in which the Lord came to meet him as an antagonist, to break down the old nature and the power of the flesh. Think also of David and the glorious experiences of God’s help and friendship which he as a youth tasted when he was a shepherd and fought against Goliath: it was much later in life that he had to enter into the path of suffering, ere he could see sin unveiled. And so there are still ever so many, in whose case it is manifest that the Lord first leads their souls to faith, and then later on, through faith, to the full knowledge of sin, to genuine penitence.

Accordingly, let the soul who desires to become more humble and to turn back to God as one that is guilty understand that doubt and unbelief will not help him in this but rather hinder him; but that on the contrary faith can bring on the way to obtain all this fruit. Let the soul who doubts if he indeed has faith, and may have it, consider that, while his feeling of unworthiness and guilt causes so much darkness and anxiety in the depths of his spirit, it is only in this poverty of the soul that faith can flourish, and that it is by this means that he will be driven to his Lord. And let the soul who believes never forget that this must be one of the indispensable fruits and proofs of the sincerity of his faith, namely, a constantly growing self-abhorrence and a becoming less in his own eyes, according to the word of the Lord to His people: “I will establish my covenant with you, that ye may be ashamed, when I shall make atonement for you, for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.” (Ezek. 16: 61-63). (Note: Dutch version.)

Reader, why do you not believe? Surely it is not that you will still wait for more penitence and contrition of heart. Ah, no: this last grace, too, is always a fruit of faith. Believe today in the grace of Him who conies to you. All that is lacking in you must stir you up to this. With Him you receive everything that you are going to seek elsewhere in vain .

“By faith, Noah moved with godly fear prepared an ark.” Heb. 11: 7.

There are many who suppose that, when the word of God says, “Blessed is the man that feareth always,” it is commending a disposition that is at variance with the rest and assurance that are given by faith. And they thus regard this unbelief as a sort of virtue: they fear this great and holy God, and they fear their own weakness and unfaithfulness, and they dare not believe. This view is altogether out of harmony with the word of God; for the word teaches us that fear and confidence must go hand in hand with each other. “Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” (Ps. 40: 3). “Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord.” (Ps. 115: 11). “Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy.” (Ps. 33: 18). Fear and confidence go in union: the one increases the other.

Very clearly is this truth set before us in the history of Noah. “By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark.” The fear was partly the fruit of his faith, and partly a motive to make his faith active in the building of the ark. He believed the announcement of the avenging flood, and feared; feared in view of the destruction that was to overtake his fellow-men, and in view of the holy God from whom the judgment was to proceed. He feared, and therefore he cleaved in strong faith to the promise of the ark, and worked at it as the only means of preservation. Fear and trust were with him inseparable, the one indispensable to the other.

Anxious soul, you fear the Lord, you fear His holiness and His judgments, and you say that it is out of veneration for Him that you do not dare to believe. You say that you are too unworthy in the presence of such a holy and dreadful God to appropriate the right of being called His child, and of speaking to Him with confidence. O that you knew how grievously you are mistaken. There is nothing that so much tends to arouse in the Lord the sense of dishonor and anger as unbelief — not believing His word, that He has compassion on all the unworthy. There is nothing on which God so much sets His honor as His free grace and His pity for the ungodly. You wound Him in the most tender point when you doubt if His grace is indeed for you, and so drag its greatness and trustworthiness into doubt. O souls, when you fear the Lord, pray, fear to dishonor Him by unbelief.

But, no: you say that it is not the Lord, but yourselves that you doubt. You fear on account of your unfaithfulness, your insincerity. And do you not then understand that it is just this fear of yourselves that is the strongest argument for your casting yourselves upon the Lord and entrusting yourselves to Him. O soul, pray, seek no longer something in yourselves; for, if you wait until you no longer fear for yourselves, you will never come to Christ at all. God never asks you for an engagement to be faithful on which He can rely. No: He gives you a promise of faithfulness on which you can rely. And just because you fear your own unfaithfulness, you must place your confidence on God’s faithfulness. Herein just lies the glory of free grace, that the sinner, who cannot trust himself, who feels that in everything — in faith, in humility, in earnestness, in sincerity — he comes far short, may yet surrender himself to the Lord as one who is utterly wretched, with confidence in the word that He certainly receives, and will keep such an one. Yea: it is he who fears on his own account that must trust in the Lord. This is the only remedy. He has nothing on which he can hope but the promise of God’s compassion. Every thought of fear must be a new motive to confidence. So shall he learn to fear no more, according to the word of the psalmist: “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord: his heart is established, he shall not be afraid.” (Ps. 112: 1, 8). He shall also learn to experience that the fear of the Lord then becomes through confidence the source, not of anxiety but of peace and growing power, according to that other word: “The Church, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, was multiplied.” (Acts 9: 31).

“Looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, being fully assured that what He had promised He was able also to perform.” Rom. 4: 20, 21.

Abraham did not doubt. Glorious testimony to provoke us to jealousy, and thus to the imitation of his example. Therefore the word also gives us to know what the power was in virtue of which he obtained faith and brought all doubt to silence. The secret lay simply in the conviction: What God has promised, He is able also to perform. On this account he was assured, and whenever reflections and doubtings would arise, he always held before his eyes the incontrovertible argument: That which has been promised, God is able to perform. Hence it is that there stands written: “Without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body now as good as dead before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth the things that are not as though they were.” (Rom. 4: 19, 17, RV.) To every question, “How can these things be?” there was his simple answer: “What God has promised He is able also to perform. For the Lord there is nothing too wonderful. It is not my business to be anxious, and to say how God’s word can be fulfilled. The Lord will see to it.”

My reader, you mourn over the power of your doubts, and say that you cannot overcome them: come, learn of Abraham how you can do this. The first thing that is necessary is that you understand and reflect what promise the Lord has given you. If the Lord has given no promises for you, then it cannot be your duty to believe. But, as surely as the word says “Believe,” is there also a promise which you must believe. To take only one out of the thousands which are in the Scriptures, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” God gives you the gracious promise, and commands you to believe it with all your heart. It is His will that you should receive it as the truth that His Son has come for all that are lost, hence also for you. He desires that you should believe that His Son seeks you and longs for you, and that His Son will save you.

God wills that you should ponder this thought and cherish it in your heart, until your whole soul takes its stand on this truth: Jesus seeks me, lost as I am; there is grace for me. As soon as you believe that, the Savior begins to come in to you.

If now you have reached this first point, if you know that there is a promise also for you, then the second duty is not to look into yourselves to know if there is hope that what you expect will take place. As Abraham did not regard his own body, which was already dead, so must you not regard your own dead soul. Although you feel yourself to be dead, powerless, insincere, very sinful, although you are lacking in penitence, earnestness, and in all else that you know you ought to have, still act like Abraham: believe on God, who maketh the dead alive, and calleth the things that are not as though they were. Act like Abraham, and cast down every doubt with the thought: “What God has promised He is able also to perform.” Keep your mind occupied with this certain truth: He is come to save that which was lost, and there is no lost one so far lost that Jesus cannot find him and cannot save him.

Once again, it comes simply to these two points: know if there is a promise for you, lost sinner; if so, then cleave simply to this fact: What has been promised He is able also to perform. “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. I will no longer dishonor Thee by doubtings: Thy power, Thy love, Thy faithfulness, I will adore and trust. I will venture to surrender my soul to Thee. Although I feel it not, I will believe it. Thou seekest and savest that which is lost. Lord, help: I do believe.”

“He wavered not through unbelief; but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God. Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.” Rom. 4: 20, 22.

The question is frequently asked by those who have not yet come to faith, and who on this account do not yet fully understand it, What, pray, may be the reason why faith is so highly esteemed by the Lord and is capable of such great things? The answer is simple: It gives glory to God. It humbles the sinner in the dust as one who deserves nothing and is capable of nothing, and must on this account present himself to God as dependent on the promises of a free compassion. It glorifies God in the acknowledgment of His power and love which will bestow redemption; of His word and faithfulness also, since these are held to be so strong and glorious that the sinner, although he has nothing else, can commit himself to them. Faith sets God and man in the right relation to one another — God on the throne of His sovereign grace, from whom all must and shall come; man in his misery and nothingness, as one who has nothing in himself but guilt and its curse.

In the other virtues of the Christian life, such as humility and love, there is always something that is wrought in man, that he can feel, and of which he might be able to boast. True faith on the other hand is the confession of utter poverty and helplessness. It says: “I have nothing left, I can also do nothing. I must now simply remain silent to hear what God speaks, to see what He will do, to receive what He will give.” It is truly the attitude of a beggar, by which man is laid in the dust. And yet no angel in heaven can give God so much honor as faith, when out of the surrounding darkness and sin and poverty it still relies on God and expects from Him the certain fulfilment of that which He has promised.

Alas how great is the foolishness of the heart of man. How many are there still, who really imagine that they give glory to God by their unbelief. They fancy that, when they mourn heavily over themselves and their misery, telling how unworthy they are to appropriate such grace because they have so deep a sense of the greatness and holiness of God, this is to the honor of God. On the contrary, it is really to His dishonor: as if He were not sufficiently gracious towards the unworthy, not sufficiently powerful to rescue the utterly wretched, not faithful to perform His word. No: faith alone gives glory to God, for it sets no limits to the Holy One of Israel, It has but one question, What has God said? When it has once known this, then it asks nothing further about possibility or truth or anything else. The word of God is enough for the soul. Like Abraham, it gives glory to God by being strong in faith.

Beloved reader, it is a terrible sin to rob God of His honor. By being unbelieving you make yourself guilty of this offence. As God has revealed Himself in the gospel more gloriously than in the law, so is the sin of unbelief in relation to the promises much more dreadful than that of disobedience to the commandments. For this reason, I entreat you, believe what God says. Ask not what you are or what you have, but if there is anything with respect to which God will have it that you shall now believe, or if there is any promise with which He comes to meet the ungodly. Here is one: “Christ died for the ungodly.” Receive that word, keep it in your heart, ponder and believe it, and rest not until it abides as essential truth with you, even as it is with God: “Christ is for the ungodly.” Yes: this very day, O souls, give glory to the Lord, by going to Him as the gracious, almighty, and faithful Redeemer; commit yourselves to His word, be strong in faith and thereby give glory to God, as you go to Him.

Anxious ones, in God’s name, why do you not believe? This is the only thing that you are to do, the only thing that God will have — only believe.

“By faith even Sarah herself received power since she counted Him faithful who had promised.” Heb. 11: 11.

See here again one of the examples, so simple and intelligible of what faith is: “She counted Him faithful who had promised.” There was a time when Sarah doubted, for she looked to nature, and it said to her that she should no longer bear. Through the repeated promises of the Lord she was nevertheless led to look to Him who had given the promises, and keeping in mind His divine faithfulness she found there was no alternative for her but to believe; and the only account which she could give of the supernatural expectation of faith was this: “He is faithful that promised.” (Heb. 10: 23).

The same way must still be followed by those Christians who desire to be liberated from their doubts and to reach the blessed experiences of the life of faith. We must learn to have done with the reasonings of the understanding; with the questions which nature would have first answered, such as, “How can these things be?”, “Whereby shall I know it?”, with calculations as to whether our own wisdom and power are perchance sufficient to bring us where we must know; and we must hold ourselves content with the view expressed in this sentence: “He is faithful that promised.” The only thing which one has to ask is this, “Is there a promise also for me?” If the word of God gives us the answer: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief,” then that is sufficient to bring us down before the Lord and to make us expect that He will perform the promise to us: “He is faithful that promised.”

O, if souls would only keep themselves occupied with the consideration of God’s faithfulness, how would unbelief be ashamed. Whenever anxious feelings multiply in you, and you fear for yourself and your work, go, O soul, bow down in silent meditation and adoration before your God as the faithful One, until your whole spirit becomes filled with the thoughts and the peace that spring from this attribute. Go over all the assurances in the Scriptures, so glorious and clear, that the unchangeable One Himself shall fulfil His counsel, and that He simply desires of souls the stillness which observes and expects the performance. Take counsel with the believers of the old and new covenants, reflect on their ways and their leadings, and they will tell you with one accord that their strength and their peace have been — the faithfulness of God. O, pray, accustom yourself, every day, with every promise of God that you read, with every prayer that you make for the attainment of what God has spoken to you of, with every fear that arises in you as to whether you shall be indeed partaker of the offered salvation, — pray, accustom yourself to fasten your eye undividedly on that word, to let your whole heart be filled with it: “He is faithful that promised.” And, above all, even when you are not yet able to appropriate everything to yourselves, forget not to praise and to thank God for His faithfulness; praise and adore Him as the Faithful One: adoration will confirm you in faith in Him. Nor must you set your hope on the divine faithfulness only when you are taking the first steps on the way of conversion, seeking for forgiveness and acceptance, but, especially in the midst of the struggle, to be confirmed unto the end and to be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus. It is with his eye fixed on this hope that Paul says “God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 1: 8, 9); just as in that glorious work about sanctification that finds so little belief, “The God of peace sanctify you wholly,” he also immediately adds: “Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it.” (1 Thess. 5: 23, 24).

It was by this faith, this loyal esteem of the faithfulness of her God and reliance upon it, that Sarah received power to bear. So far is this faith also from leading to sluggishness and indifference that it will increase activity. It teaches the soul to wait upon God spiritually and earnestly, that He may point out to it what it must do, and that it may learn by experience to understand the deep significance of that word: “Work, for God worketh in you.” Believing in His faithfulness also to work in it, it has courage to work after Him. “By faith she received power, since she counted Him faithful who had promised.”

“As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name. ” John 1: 12.

The receiving of the Lord Jesus is here said to be the same as believing on His name. One receives Him as soon as one believes, yea through believing on His name. His name is always Jesus, Savior. As soon as the soul believes this, and on this account looks on Him as the man who certainly saves the sinner, it not merely thinks: “He can do this, yet I know not if it will take place with me,” but it regards Him as a Savior given by God also for himself, and thus believes on His name that it essentially expresses what Jesus is, — as soon as, I say, the sinner does this, he receives Him. He acknowledges Him in His grace as Jesus, appropriates Him in the faith which says, “He is also for me”; he receives Him as a gift bestowed by God, set before Him to be appropriated, receives Him as that which His name signifies — Savior, the only and perfect Savior. He acknowledges that in himself there is nothing good nor ever shall be; he foresees manifold unfaithfulness and backsliding; he feels himself to be wholly powerless: but he receives Jesus as a Savior, as one who undertakes the whole work, who from day to day will continue that work and accomplish it in the leading, the keeping, and the sanctification of the soul. And according as he believes further in that name, in the absolute truth, the far-reaching signification, the inexhaustible power of that name, in this same measure does he receive Jesus more perfectly in the riches of His manifold blessings, and experience how true it is: Jesus saves. He gives power to men to become the children of God, enables them also to say, through the Spirit, “Abba, Father,” and with all the dispositions of children — confidence, fear, love, obedience — to rejoice in God’s fatherly love.

Reader, are you seeking salvation? O, then, receive Jesus. He is offered to you by God as a Savior. Receive Him as a gift of the Divine love; acknowledge Him as really also for you; believe that, with His name, it is the full truth that the work of saving a sinner may well be entrusted to Him; receive Him in that faith, coupled with the simple surrender of yourselves, dead and wretched as you are, into His hands, and be assured that you shall not come out deceived. Away with all doubtings. In the name of God I ask you, as upright dealing is for you indispensable to being saved: Do you believe in the name of Jesus, or do you not believe in it? Do you believe in the name JESUS, given by the true God to His Son, in order that you may build your hope upon it? O sinner, pray, believe that the name, Jesus, is divine truth. Come, say today, “Yes: He is the Savior of that which was lost “; no longer shut Him out, but receive Him in the heart, with simple faith in His word, I am Jesus. Begin with this, continue with this, go forward with this, believe evermore in the name JESUS; receive Him with this, and He shall give you power to become a child of God. Here once more what God says to you today, “As many as received Him ” — thousands on earth and in heaven can corroborate the statement that it is really so — “to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

“First they gave their own selves to the Lord.” 2 Cor. 8: 5.

In the word of His promise, through the gracious working of His Spirit, the Lord gives Himself to us; through faith we receive Him, and we know that He is ours. This faith, as the outgoing of the soul to Jesus to meet Him, is at the same time a surrender to Him. We can never receive the Savior and His grace without at the same time surrendering ourselves to Him, to be sealed and filled with salvation. And as faith knows that the Lord is ours, because His word tells us that He gives Himself to us, so it also knows that He receives us as His own, because His word assures us of that.

Faith has thus two sides: the believing reception of the Lord Jesus with all that He gives, and the believing surrender of the soul with all that it has to the Lord. The one cannot be without the other. I take Jesus as my King to rule over me, as a Savior to free me from sin; He cannot perform His work in me, if I do not surrender myself to Him. Confidence in Jesus is thus at the same time a committal of one’s self to Him.

Anxious soul, see here again the simplicity of faith. If you wish to know what you have to do, the answer is, Give yourself to the Lord Jesus.

Give yourself to the Lord Jesus, just as you are. You have to give yourself to Him, not as an offering that is worthy of Him, as one who is already His friend and on whom He can look down with complacency. No: you have to surrender yourself to Him as one that is dead, whom He has to make alive, as an enemy whom He must reconcile and forgive, as a sinner whom He must save. The multitude of your sins, the corruption which you feel struggling within you, the very insincerity of your coming to Him, are thus no reason why you should not venture to give yourself to Him. No: just the reverse: these are the proofs that you stand in need of a Savior; they are at the same time the tokens given by the word of God of those in whose behalf Jesus came. O sinner, just as you are, surrender yourself to Jesus.

Surrender yourself also to Him wholly and undividedly. Keep nothing back of what is yours. Think not that He is to do one part of the work and you the rest. No: submit entirely to His estimate of you. Although you do not yet feel the power to make a separation from all sins, although you still feel that the heart is attached to one thing and another, and will cleave to them, make confession of all this before Him; for it is also through the confession of sins that we surrender ourselves to Him. Understand that the more you surrender yourself entirely to Him, the more completely is He able to accomplish His work for you. Think of His complete surrender for you and to you; think of the claim of His love upon you and the complete salvation with which He will fill you, and let your surrender to Him be complete and undivided.

And, above all, surrender yourself to Him in faith. You have perchance given yourself to Him ere this, but it brought you no peace, for you did not know if the surrender was accepted by Him. You would have a token from heaven, a divine inspiration in your heart to tell you that He had accepted you. And this was wrong. He has said: “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” God has said: “Return ye, and I will receive you.” When you surrender yourself to Jesus, you must believe that; in that word you must have sufficient. You are to take your stand upon it, because God speaks the truth. However wretched you are, however imperfect your surrender is, it must be a surrender of faith, of faith that He receives you, because He has said it. Although you find it difficult to believe that so firmly, although it seems to you very hazardous for so great a sinner, it is, nevertheless, your duty to believe that, when you surrender yourself to the Lord, He receives you. Do not set yourself above God. Do not say, I have done my part but I know not if God will do His. No: think of the word; say to the Lord that it is on His promise that you surrender yourself; day after day be occupied with the faithfulness of God’s promise and you shall gradually come to the blessed certainty: He receives me. Yes: you, shall even be able to say, He has received me.

“O woman, great is thy faith; be it done unto thee even as thou wilt.” Matt. 15: 28.

A great faith: all should know that there is nothing on earth so desirable. Many may wish to have it and may pray for it, and yet there are but few that come to it. And why? A principal reason is this: they will not walk in the way that leads to it; they are afraid of the school where that faith is taught. Or, they have very wrong ideas concerning the way to attain that great faith, as if, for instance, it were a gift which is bestowed at once. So perverse are their thoughts, that when the Lord is going to hear their prayers and is to lead them in another way than they had expected, they suppose that He is no longer caring for them. Come, all ye that long for more faith, learn from the Canaanite woman, how the Lord will bring you to it.

First of all, He will try you. The Canaanite woman had a daughter possessed by a devil, and what a trial was not that to her? And so the Lord still sends His children trials of very different kinds. With one, it is trial in the physical life; with another, trial in the family; with another again it is inward vexation of soul; with still more it is hidden conflict with sin. But trial there must be; for so long as the flesh has everything agreeable and according to its inclination, the soul will never wholly and with power cleave to the Lord. It is by necessity that it is driven out to seek all its salvation in the Lord and to commit itself to Him. Blessed trial, the message of God to teach more faith, how many regard thee as the messenger of His wrath and aversion, instead of humbly suffering themselves to be led by thy hand to the Lord.

Further: when the Lord is to lead a soul to great faith, He leaves its prayers unheard. So it was with the Canaanite woman. He answered her not one word, and when He did at length reply to her, the answer was still more unfavorable than His silence. This is always the way. If the answer came immediately, how would the soul get acquainted with the Lord Himself. His gifts would occupy its attention so much that it would overlook the Lord Himself. It must first be put to the proof, whether it can take its stand upon its Lord and what He has provided, without any answer; whether He and His word are to suffice for it; yea, whether it will, even when His word appears to be opposed to it, still not doubt His love, but rather commit itself to it. A faith so great that it still cleaves to the Lord in spite of apparent rejection: this precious lesson, which is above all else acceptable to the Lord, is learned and practiced only in the conflict of unheard but persevering prayer.

Once more: the soul that is to come to great faith must be humbled. What a hard word for the poor heathen woman: “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs.” But she suffers it to be well-pleasing to her, and uses it as her strongest argument. She overcomes the Lord with His own weapons and turns His rejection into her plea: “Even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall under their master’s table.” Do you also likewise: whenever, in following the Lord, your sins are laid bare to you, and your unworthiness held up before you, and the word makes you feel that you are an ungodly and accursed sinner, always answer with the woman, “Yea, Lord, I am very wretched; all that my heart testifies of sin is true: ‘yet, yet even the dogs eat’; and with such a Lord as Thou art, there is overflowing grace even for the most wretched.” The deeper the root, the stronger the tree; the deeper the descent of humility, the stronger the faith; for then it leans, not half on itself, but wholly on the Lord.

See here, thou, my soul, Jesus’ school for faith. Let it not grieve you, if the lessons are sometimes heavy; He has told you of this beforehand. But hold fast this conviction: when my soul is brought into trial, when my sin and unworthiness become more distinct, and press me the deeper down, I shall look upon all this as the way along which the all-loving Jesus is to lead me to that life of faith, in which He takes such delight; and when I am dispirited, I shall read again the story of the Canaanite, and I shall be strengthened by the glorious victory and reward of her conflict of faith. The more difficult the school, the more glorious the prize; “Be it done unto thee, even as thou wilt.”

“So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Rom. 10: 17.

Here is the simple answer to the question, How does faith arise in the soul? The Spirit, the author of faith, uses for this purpose a means, and that means is the word. It cannot be otherwise. The Spirit does not work apart from the faculties of man, but by means of them. His supernatural power makes use of the natural gifts which remain to man after his sin, renews and sanctifies them. By awakening desire, He bends the will; by presenting the loveliness of Jesus, He works upon the affections; and thus also, when He works faith, He does so by presenting the truth, in order thereby to awaken confidence.

I take it for granted that my reader is one who has been awakened; who, desiring to be saved, is looking out for rescue; who longs to be freed from his sin, and asks, How, pray, do I come to faith in Jesus? The answer is, By the word. But what am I to do with the word? Do with it what you should do with any ordinary message which you cannot at once believe. Suppose that tidings is brought to you of a great inheritance which comes to you. You had not been expecting it, and cannot believe that so great happiness and wealth have fallen to your lot. What are you to do? You will inquire if the messenger is trustworthy. If you are sure of this point, in order to obtain all certainty, you will ask him once and again and again to say that you are the person intended; or if he has brought a letter of conveyance or a will, you will read it repeatedly. And thus, by explanation and confirmation of his message, you will become convinced and will believe. This is just: faith is by the word.

Not otherwise is it in divine things.

When the message comes to you, Jesus is a Savior for sinners, also for you, do you ask if you are to believe Him who speaks? The answer is, Yes: for He is the true God. Do you ask if there is no misunderstanding, or if you are really the person intended? Yes: for the message is to every sinner. Then does it become your duty to listen earnestly to the message; to ask repeatedly, yea unceasingly — for the matter is of moment — Shall I or shall I not believe? And the more you simply take the word, read and read again the message of God, contemplate one after another the promises with which God has made it sure that the Savior is for every sinner, the sooner shall you feel constrained to say, It is true; God says it; I must believe it.

O, poor sinner, pray cease to ask what your own heart feels, as one who would be saved. Cease to seek the ground of faith in yourselves. Attend now to the word: Jesus is the Savior of sinners. Listen to it again and yet again. Let your soul become occupied the whole day with the thought: God says it; it must be. And continue with this, the more wretched and dark the condition of your heart may be. Ask simply from day to day, What says the word? Take and carry that word in your heart, and you shall speedily experience that “faith is by the word” And so far from making you think that faith is thus a work of your own power will such activity be, that you shall acknowledge that it is by the word the Spirit works. Your use of the word gives you reason, gives you right, to hope for His help. You shall experience how little faith is merely a reasoning of the intellect,but at the same time how faithful God is to bestow His grace on the use of means, and to crown with His blessing the soul that honors His word.