Light without Sight.
To find the way, we need more than light; we also need sight! The Holy Scriptures are the source of moral and spiritual light, yet I consider that I cast no aspersion upon the hallowed page when I say that its radiance is not by itself enough. Light alone is not sufficient. The coming of knowledge is like the rising of the sun. But sunrise means nothing to the unseeing eye. Only the sighted benefit from the light of the sun. Between light and sight, there is a wide difference.
We have said this much to point out that religious instruction, however sound, is not enough by itself. It brings light, but it cannot impart sight. The text without the Spirit’s enlightenment cannot save the sinner. Salvation follows a work of the Spirit in the heart. There can be no salvation apart from the truth, but there can be, and often is, truth without salvation.
How many multiplied thousands have learned the catechism by heart and still wander in moral darkness because there has been no inward illumination! The Pharisees looked straight at the Light of the world for three years, but not one ray of light reached their inner beings. Light is not enough!
Fruit Without Root.
One marked difference between the faith of our fathers as conceived by the fathers, and the same faith as understood and lived by their children, is that the fathers were concerned with the root of the matter, while their present-day descendants seem concerned only with the fruit.
Today we write biographies of the Augustines, the Luthers, and the Wesleys and celebrate their fruit, but the tendency is to ignore the root out of which the fruit sprang. Our fathers looked well to the root of the tree, and were willing to wait with patience for the fruit to appear. We demand the fruit immediately, even though the root may be weak and knobby, or missing altogether.
How can we ignore even the “natural” fact that the bough that breaks off from the tree in a storm may bloom briefly, giving the impression that it is a healthy and fruitful branch, but its tender blossoms will soon perish, and the bough itself will soon wither and die? There is no lasting life apart from the root.
Much that passes for Christianity today is the brief, bright effort of the severed branch to bring forth its fruit in its season. But the deep laws of life are against it. Preoccupation with appearances and a corresponding neglect of the out-of-sight root of the true spiritual life are prophetic signs that go unheeded.
Faith Without Failing.
This we must remember: faith is not a noble quality found only in superior men. It is not a virtue attainable only by a limited few. It is not the quality to persuade ourselves that black is white, or that something we desire will come to pass if we only wish hard enough. Faith is simply the bringing of our minds into accord with the truth. It is adjusting our expectations to the promises of God in complete assurance that the God of the whole earth cannot lie.
As long as we question the wisdom of any of God’s ways, our faith is still tentative and uncertain. Faith enters when there is no supporting evidence to corroborate God’s word of promise, and we must put our confidence blindly in the character of the One who made the promise.
A man looks at a mountain and affirms, “That is a mountain.” There is no particular virtue in the affirmation. It is simply accepting the fact that stands before him, and bringing his belief into accord with the fact. The man does not create the mountain by believing, nor could he annihilate it by denying.
And so, with the truth of God. The believing man accepts a promise of God as a fact as solid as a mountain, and vastly more enduring. His faith changes nothing except his own personal relation to the word of promise. God’s Word is true, whether we believe it or not. Human unbelief cannot alter the character of God.
“Christianity” Without Christ.
As believers, we should be warned that any appeal to men and women in the name of Christ that rises no higher than an invitation to a tranquil life must be recognised as mere humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear Christian. Strange, is it not, that we dare to alter and modulate the words of Christ while professing to speak for Christ to men and women in the gospel!