“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.

“So walk in Him, established in your faith, abounding in thanksgiving.” Col. 2: 17.

The idea which is here expressed by the apostle is, that where faith is active and growing it will always go coupled with thanksgiving; as it stands written: “Then believed they His words; they sang His praise.” As faith stirs up to thanksgiving, so it exercises a reactive influence; it in turn strengthens faith. Faith and thanksgiving belong to one another and keep one another. The more I believe, the more I shall thank; the more I thank, the more I shall believe. The lack of faith is the reason that men give thanks so little; the neglect of thanksgiving hinders and weakens faith. This is a fault to which too little attention has been paid and from which many a one suffers great loss. Let us consider it for a moment.

The reason why thanksgiving has the effect of increasing faith is manifest. Faith has its greatest power in the fact that in believing the soul wholly forgets itself, and with undivided energy looks to God and hears Him — goes out wholly to Him. This is in like manner precisely the nature of thanksgiving, that in it the soul must be entirely occupied with God, with the contemplation of His goodness, the adoration of His Godhead, the consideration of His ways, the expression of His wonders. Accordingly, the more the mind is exercised in this work, and is taken up with the thought of all this, the more shall there be fixed and rooted in it the conviction that the Lord is truly a God on whom it is its duty to rely. If thanksgiving, the express mention of His omnipotence, His love, His faithfulness, His perfection shall fill the soul, the result cannot but be that the soul shall suffer it to be concentrated on God. He that has but a single word of such a God to build upon has enough. In such thanksgiving the soul will have its desires roused, its courage strengthened, its inward devotion to Him deepened. The shamefulness of its unbelief will be very manifest as an offence against such a God. The remembrance of unbelief, of my unworthiness, my lack of love, my insincerity, my weakness and my uncertainty as to whether I shall remain faithful, — all this shall be utterly blotted out by what the thankful soul has expressed, namely, that God in His compassionate and omnipotent love is greater than all the force of sin and Satan. It cannot be otherwise, if thanksgiving increases faith. Hence that word: “Abounding in faith with thanksgiving.”

And now I wish to ask you who here say that you are seeking the increase of faith this question, Are you really doing this by thanking God? If you are still unconverted, go and thank Him that you are still not in hell. O, what a wonder it is that in His longsuffering He has still borne with you and spared you. Thank Him for this. Thank Him that He gave His Son Jesus for sinners. Yes: although you are not yet able to say that He is yours, fall upon your knees and thank God for His unspeakable gift to this sinful world and also to you. Thank Him for His gracious promise which has also come to you. O sinner, though you have as yet received little or nothing for yourself, pray be not silent, but adore and speak of His wonderful compassion. Let this be a daily work with you. Keep yourself intensely occupied with it: let your soul abide in contemplating what God is, what He has done, what He has promised He will do; how gracious, how faithful He is and how mighty to deliver and endeavor, however imperfectly, to express this on your knees before Him. In every acknowledgment of your bitter misery, thank Him that He is God; confess before Him that He is great and good. This thanksgiving will teach your soul that you may calmly confide in God. And, throughout the whole conflict of faith, you will often have to say that, when everything looked utterly dark and your wretchedness was very deep, if you but rendered thanks for what God was, hope then once more revived in your soul. Whatever else fails you, this always remains — a God to praise. Never was your case so wretched, that you had nothing more left to be thankful for. Only put this remedy to the proof: in the midst of all that is dark, grievous, and incomprehensible for the soul, only begin to praise, and your praising shall speedily merge in believing. Praising and believing are one. [Translator’s note: The Dutch here admits of a play upon words, “Loven en gelooven zijn een.”]

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” Heb. 11 [Note: The Dutch version has, “Now faith is a firm foundation of the things which we hope for,” etc.] Many people think that faith is something which at its best is but very uncertain: not so certain, for example, as sight or hearing. They appear to think that faith is a sort of imagination by which we must take pains to be assured in our own hearts that we shall be saved. The result of this erroneous conception is that they often attempt to exercise it, but find no rest in it, or perhaps even come to regard all assurance of faith as conjecture, self-deception, or presumption. They do not understand what faith is. The Epistle to the Hebrews might have taught them. There faith is represented as the highest certainty, as a sure foundation on which one can build and safely trust oneself. In faith there is nothing that moves or can be moved: faith is a strong basis, and that indeed for the simple reason that faith depends upon what stands more firmly than rocks or mountains, namely, the word of God. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the word of God endures to eternity. And on this account it is that to come to rest, peace, and stability, the soul has simply to ask, “What has God said?” Is there anything that God has commanded me to believe? Has He spoken anything that is directed to every sinner, and that every sinner is bound to believe? If so, then it is my duty to search out this and to receive it as being the word of the true God, and therefore sure and certain. And what is it, then, that every sinner is to believe I Simply this — that Christ has been given by God also to him as a Savior. “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners,” — all sinners without distinction, even the chief. Let the sinner that longs to be saved only hold fast that truth, and be occupied with it. Let him go out of himself, so as to be hemmed in with this thought, until his heart be filled with it: Jesus is come to save sinners, even me; Jesus is given by God also to save me: Christ is certainly for me. Not because I have believed all this or have been converted; no, but because I am an ungodly one. And, whether I believe it or not, it remains truth that Christ is offered by God also to me. Before I believe it, it is the truth: the truth of it thus does not depend on anything in me that is yet to take place. The truth of it is grounded on the fact that God has said it. I have, therefore, nothing to do but to hear according to the word of God, and to receive it in my soul, until it becomes with me a settled conviction: it must be true, Christ is a Savior also for me, for God has said it. Every questioning in the form of, Are you already converted ? or, Are you worthy of it? or, Are you indeed sincere? I bring to silence with the simple answer: Whoever or whatever I may be, Christ is for the sinner, is also for me. And according as I day by day accustom myself simply to ask, Am I sure that God has said it? shall I experience that faith is a firm foundation. Standing on this basis, I cannot waver, but I come to an ever clearer insight into the truth that faith is nothing but a receiving and committing of oneself to the word of the true God. Hence it cannot be otherwise than that “faith is a firm foundation.” And now, anxious one, why do you not believe? O, faith is no imagination that you too are a chosen one, but a laying of yourself down on the immovable rock of the word of the Lord. “God loved the world,” “Christ died for the ungodly”; and now He comes to ask you — see to it, I entreat you, that you give Him an answer: “If I speak the truth to you, why do you not believe?”

“We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” Rom. 3: 28.

The Lord has revealed to us two ways, which should be able to lead us to Him and salvation. Along the one the law leads us, along the other grace. Both ways are good and come from God: yet there is after all only one of the two for us to use, by reason of our weakness. The law is good for those who have the power to obey and to follow it. Grace is the way for those who are powerless and can accomplish nothing. The law demands and must be fulfilled: grace gives and needs simply to be received. The law says, “Do this and thou shalt live”; grace says, “Believe and thou shalt be saved.” The law demands works, yet gives no strength to produce them: grace asks for faith, which it also of its own power awakens by its promises — faith, which is nothing but the acknowledgment of weakness and a consent to be willing to receive everything for nothing. The law directs me to the height, to a mountain too steep to climb: grace to the valley, where I have only to sink down to be preserved.

Of the utmost importance is it that I should know well the distinction betwixt these two ways, choose the right one, and walk in it. For in our present sinful condition there is only one of these ways that is still really of service to us, although man on the contrary would just very fain walk in the other. Well is it for us that God has left us in no doubt as to which one is wished for and approved of by Him.

It was especially the Apostle Paul whom God chose to point out to us clearly the way of salvation — as he has done most fully in his Epistle to the Romans. The conclusion of his argumentation we have in the text quoted at the head of this chapter. He had shown how all mankind, Jews as well as heathen, had missed the glory of God. They could not fulfil, they did not wish to fulfil, the law of God. The law must be perfectly obeyed, otherwise it works only wrath. The law knows nothing of grace, only of right. God has searched the world, and there was none righteous, not even one. By the law every mouth was stopped, and the whole world made guilty before God. It was a declaration of the law itself, “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Rom. 3: 20). “But the righteous shall live by faith.” That, the Lord Jesus had proclaimed. By His death God had reconciled the world. He had allowed the punishment and the demands of the law to be fulfilled. He has permitted an everlasting and infinite righteousness to be brought in. For nothing had God suffered it to be offered: without price and without money is this righteousness ours, through the free gift of God. In the case of the corrupt, curse-deserving, and powerless sinner, there can be no talk of service or works: only of faith, “Submission to the righteousness of God.” Where that faith in Jesus and the word of His grace is found, there is the sinner made partaker of the righteousness of God, faith being simply the eye to see it as it was offered, the hand to receive it, and the activity for appropriating it for himself. He that believeth is justified.

What folly, then, is it still to look to one’s own works or merit. Sinner, are you resolved to work? Then must you keep the whole law, and that perfectly; and thus you shall certainly be condemned. Do you desire to be justified? Only believe in Christ and His righteousness, in God and the promises of His grace, as intended also for you. By that faith man is justified without the works of the law.

“Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.” Jas. 2: 24.

It has often been supposed that there was opposition betwixt this utterance of James and the doctrine of Paul. It is to be nevertheless acknowledged at once that this is not the case, when one reflects that the works of which Paul speaks are entirely different from those which James intends. Paul always speaks of the works of the law: James has his eye upon the works of faith. The works of the law are those which are done out of the personal power of man. In the direction of fulfilling the law of God in order to merit the favor of God and make himself worthy of it. Of these the word of God says, that man is justified without the works of the law. He can do nothing that is good or meritorious: all that comes from him is impure and deserving of wrath. On the contrary, the works of faith of which James speaks are those which must be done for the confirmation and the perfecting of faith, and thus out of the power which God gives and not to merit anything. They serve to manifest that which faith has received from free grace. They follow upon conversion, while the works of the law can only precede this change. The works of the law will be able to glorify man: the works of faith give God all the honor; for they are done in the acknowledgment of personal unworthiness. Works and faith go together, as being both fruits of grace and tokens of the renewing of the mind; faith as the root of the works, the works as the perfecting of faith.

In this way it can now be clearly understood what the word of God means, when in one passage it says: “To him that worketh not but believeth, his faith is reckoned for righteousness,” and then again insists on works. The works which are done apart from faith, as an endeavor to make ourselves worthy of God’s favor and thus keep us back from faith, the reception of God’s free grace, are not to be done: they are abominable in the eyes of God: “He that worketh not is justified.” The works which are done with and in faith, while the soul in the sense of its unworthiness commits itself to the gracious promises of God, just because it hopes or knows that the Lord receives it apart from its merits, and seeks to praise Him for them, are acceptable to God, and must be done, the more the better. And it is of these that it is said that “man is justified by works”: they are the manifestation of faith and actual fruit-bearing, and not merely of a faith that continues inactive, and is thus dead.

Let the soul which seeks to come to Jesus in faith thus understand what it is to think of works. As soon as it begins to look upon its works as the ground of merit, as soon as it begins to say in fear, “My works are too small, too trifling, too sinful for me to be received,” it must at once remember that “man is justified without works.” No sin or ungodliness of which you have been guilty ought to keep you back from the hope of grace. Yet, on the other side, in order that the soul may not perhaps sit down in idle inactivity, in order that it may not go on in sin while it relies upon grace, let it be remembered that as soon as the first beginnings of the desire for grace awake within us — this, if it is sincere, will necessarily show itself active in the doing of God’s will. We shall be able to pray with confidence and in truth, “forgive us our debts,” only when at the same time we just as heartily endeavor to say, “as we forgive our debtors”; just as John writes, “Let us not love in word, neither with the tongue but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him”; and, “If our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God.” (Compare further 1 John 4: 22, as also Psalm 18: 22-27.) Thus we learn to understand rightly the word, “work for God worketh in you,” that is, by faith; and our works become the lovely evidences of His heavenly grace, the foretokens of His everlasting favor.

“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out.” Heb. 11: 8.

Beloved soul, you still say that you would fain believe, that it is your earnest and sincere desire to belong to the people of the Lord. You are nevertheless kept back, for what reason you yourself do not really know. Perhaps it is because it is not yet quite clear to you what you have to do when you believe. You do not yet understand the simplicity of faith, nor see that it is something which you can and must do without any even the least delay. Let us try to understand this by the example of the father of the faithful.

The Lord had said to Abraham: “Go thou out of thine own land to the country which I shall show thee.” In this calling of Abraham, we find a divine command and a divine promise. The command is, “Go thou out of thine land”: the promise is, “to a country which I shall show to cleave to the word: “The Lord will bring you thither.”

“But I have not received the promises,” you cry. My reply is, You have indeed received the promises. God is not so unrighteous as to say to anyone that he must go to heaven without the promise that He will bring him thither. He has given you Jesus to show you the country, and to lead you on the way thither. He does not say, “Repent ye,” without pointing to Jesus whom He ordained to give repentance. He does not say, “Abandon sin, and be saved,” without at the same time saying, “Jesus frees and saves from sin.” And it is only in the strength of this faith that you shall enter heaven. Therefore, soul, observe the calling of God: pray, understand that Jesus will do all for you: receive Him this day as the guide on the way given by God. However wretched you are, just simply believe that it is truth that God has given His Son Jesus also to you to save you. Be willing and acknowledge Him as your Savior. Rejoice in the thought: God has given Him to the sinner and thus also to me. And although you still feel nothing in yourself, grasp firmly this thought the whole day: carry it round with you in the midst of all your work and over it: It is certainly true, God has given Jesus also to me, to save me. This simple thought is faith. Hold fast by it, thank God for it: it will speedily send forth roots in you, and you shall rejoice in the assurance: Jesus is leading me to heaven. By this faith, you also, having been called, shall be obedient.

“A day’s portion every day.” Ex. 16: 4.

“I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no.” In these words we have announced to us what the rule is for the maintenance of the spiritual life, the law for the growth and increase of the life of faith. This law is in no respect different from that which we observe in the natural life every day. Every man knows how the little child is fed so as to grow up a strong man, how the strong man is supplied with nourishment so as to maintain his strength. The daily regular use of a little food gives man strength of body. Thus also is it with everything in nature: the little tree becomes large, the poor man becomes rich, the grandest building rises from its foundation, the longest journey can be performed, not with great and violent strides, but by the silent, persevering faithfulness, which does not despise the little, invisible progress of every day, but uses it to reach the appointed goal.

“A day’s portion every day,” the general rule of the natural life prevails also in the spiritual; and yet there are so many Christians who, by not acknowledging this, suffer dreadful loss. They imagine that great exertion of strength at particular times, that fervent prayers when we feel ourselves stirred up, are the means of securing the increase and the flourishing of the soul’s life. But the golden rule, “a day’s portion every day,” the day by day, regular continuance in the use of food, whereby the soul obtains its growth, they do not understand. They have not yet apprehended the lesson that faith and the life of faith must have nourishment, daily bread; and that with the promise, “Iwill rain bread from heaven,” there stands the command “The people shall gather a day’s portion every day that I may” (this clause is added just for this very end) “prove them whether they will walk in my law or no.”

Beloved reader, have you not often mourned over the unstable and changeable character of your spiritual life; have you not often wondered how it comes about that your days of hope are so shortlived, and asked on all sides what you had first to do that it might be otherwise with you, that your faith might abide and increase? Would it surprise you that you should be weak, if your body remained without food for a couple of days, and that every time afresh? And is it then to surprise you that your faith should not be living, firm, and strong, if you do not faithfully partake of the word of God? That is the nutriment of faith: from it and from it alone does faith draw its strength. “Man shall live by every word that cometh from the mouth of God.” Confess that you too often yield to this and that worldly circumstance, to idleness and apathy, and neglect the hidden use of God’s word, or use it so hastily and superficially that your soul is not nourished. No wonder that you have to mourn over a leanness in your soul. Begin today and henceforth let no day pass by without eating of the heavenly manna, the word of God and the living Christ in the word. Receive the word in faith. God gave manna every day in the waste wilderness up until the homecoming in Canaan: if we go out and gather there will be in the word, for every new day, instruction, strengthening, purification, and salvation. And he who with faithful perseverance continues day by day in the use of the word, even when he does not at once observe the blessing that flows from it, shall experience that the increase of faith, although it be unobserved and slow, is yet certain and sure.

“And they gathered it morning by morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed us hot, it melted.” Ex. 16: 21.

In the silence and coolness and secrecy of the night God gave the manna: in the freshness and quickening of the morning hour the people had to go out to gather it. It was thus the first work of every day to receive bread from God’s hand; for, when the sun waxed hot, it melted, and was no longer to be found. Not in the glow of the midday sun, nor in the press and bustle of the day, did they receive this hidden manna, but in the charming coolness of the morning, ere the mind was ensnared by the seductions of the world.

Lovely and instructive image of the way in which God still ministers to faith its nutriment. And I remain convinced that there are many that seem to be sincerely longing for confirmation of faith, while they have not become partakers of it, because they do not go in search of it betimes. How many are there, pray, by whom the reading of the Bible is continued only in the evening? After the freshness of the morning hour and the strength of the day have been devoted to the world, they come in the evening, in weariness of mind and body, to serve the Lord with the remnant of their energies. No wonder that there is no blessing enjoyed: the heart is weary, the tenderness of the spirit and its receptiveness for the word is dulled. On the other hand, are there not many who are often content in the morning with the general reading of the word in the household, apart from private searching of the Scriptures, or reflection or meditation with prayer? This still yields little blessing. The reading of a chapter once a day is, as a rule, not sufficient. No: let all that truly desire to increase in faith, see to it that they endeavor in the morning hour to gather for the day manna on which they can ruminate throughout its course. He that goes out in the morning without partaking of a portion of this nutriment comes home weary in the evening, with but little desire to eat. And he who does not in the morning first lay up the word in his heart is not to be surprised if the world assumes the first and chief place in his heart, for he has neglected the only means of being in advance of the world. No: as the Lord gives us the night in order to throw off again the weariness of the day, and in the morning hour to make a new beginning with fresh spirit and energy, so must the believer take and devote to the Lord his first fresh and undiminished forces, and gather his manna while the blessing of the night’s rest is upon him, and before the corruption of the world has again banished its lovely dew; for when the sun waxes hot, it melts. When the heat of the day has come, and temptation has first passed over the soul, all the gladness and trustfulness of the morning hour have also passed away. The life of grace will not endure the heat of the sun unless it be first strengthened by food.

“Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning.” “O Lord, in the morning shalt Thou hear my voice; in the morning will I order my prayer unto Thee, and keep watch.” (Ps. 143: 8; 5: 3.) Such words point out to us what will be the attitude of the soul in him who is in earnest first and chiefly and with the whole heart to serve the Lord. With every morning hour he will taste the delightful experience of the word: “His going forth is prepared as the daybreak.” (Hosea 6: 3.)

Reader, why do you not believe? Pray be faithful towards yourself and towards God. There is no piety in mourning over unbelief, unless you also lay aside everything that stands in the way of faith. If the irregular, superficial use of the word, if the giving of the first, the fresh, the best hours of the day and energies of the soul to the world and its service is the cause, then come, make a change in these points: morning by morning go and seek your God: He will not keep Himself hidden from you.

 “Jesus said to the man that had his hand withered . . . stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored.” Luke 6: 10. One of the most common mistakes by which souls are kept back from faith is that they do not feel the strength for faith. They desire first to feel faith living in themselves, and then they would believe. But that the command to believe should come to them while they do not yet feel themselves prepared for it or in a position to believe — this they do not comprehend. They do not understand, because they have not observed, what we experience or may see every day, that readiness and ability for any work is not given before the work but only through the work, and thus after we begin to work. The child that learns to run begins before he can really do it, and learns in the midst of the effort. The man that wishes to learn swimming goes into the water while he cannot yet swim, because he knows that, when he begins, he will in time learn to do it. And this law of nature has a still more glorious application in grace. God gives us commands for which we have previously no power, and yet requires obedience to them with full right; because He has said to us that when we submit, and set ourselves towards obedience, strength will be given along with this incipient activity. And this is the spirit in which we are to believe. Under the conviction of its unbelief, the soul must set itself to believe. In the assurance that power will be bestowed, it is yet to make a beginning: “Lord, I believe.” In this action it is also to persevere and go forward. Very strikingly are both aspects of this truth pictured to us in the case of the man with the withered hand. He feels his hand powerless, and yet Jesus says to him: “Stretch forth thy hand.” He sees in the Savior enough to convince him that He will not mock him, that He who gives this command will certainly never issue it without, at the same time, giving power to carry it out. He obeys and his hand is healed. O soul, the Lord Jesus who calls to you, “Believe in Me, as your Savior,” knows your helplessness. But it is just on this account that He speaks to you to rescue you from it. With a voice of power He commands you, “Believe in Me, that I am given by God to be your Savior: stretch out your hand to lay hold of Me and to appropriate Me for yourself.” Listen to Him, be willing to obey Him; remember that with the command He also gives the strength; begin, although you do not yet feel the power, and, although you can still do nothing, say, like Martha: “I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” Show that it is your desire to believe, and that you are in dead earnest about it; set your soul to attend to the fact that He really speaks to you, and to hear how charmingly attractive and kindly encouraging His voice is: “O thou unbelieving one, believe in Me.” As the man with the withered hand obtained power to stretch it out at the command of Jesus, so shall it be with you. The command, “Believe,” will no longer oppress you with the thought, “I cannot do it,” but encourage you to entertain the confidence: “Jesus commands it, thus it is to be, thus it may be.” And if, with every inclination again to be discouraged, you look to Jesus and hear how cheeringly He calls to you, “You may, you must, you can believe in Me,” your soul will be strengthened with an ever-growing steadfastness to entrust yourself to Him. In the endeavor to believe, strength for it is given and exercised: the hand of faith will soon be entirely healed. Soul, Jesus asks you, “If I speak the truth to you, why do you not believe?” He tells you the divine truth that He has come for you. He tells you the truth that your faith may be awakened thereby. I beseech you, understand this. See Him who here speaks: it is Jesus, the faithful and almighty Lover: hear His voice and be no longer unbelieving.