An Extract.
WHAT a practical thing is faith! The Christian is a child of faith, called to live a life of faith; and a life of faith is simply living upon the word of God.
Noah spent a hundred and twenty years in building the ark. What urged him? what sustained him in his work to the end? Simply the word of God.
Abraham left his country, his father’s house, separated himself from all the ties of nature, and lived in the wilderness a pilgrim and a stranger. What sustained him? Simply the word and promise of God. And so with all God’s people of old, the word of God was everything to them—it separated, sustained, and comforted them; they lived upon it, and died reposing in it. Oh that we had more of this now! Not more knowledge of God’s word, but more living on what we do know. We want to take that word as they took it, to separate us from the world, to rejoice in it, and to live upon it. It is not so much the knowledge of the word that is wanted now, as the word brought home to the heart by the Holy Spirit, the word making us more humble, more holy, more separate, more the “peculiar people.” Our happiness does not flow from our knowledge of the Word merely, but from our measure of subjection to it.
Christian, throw not your affections away on this poor, dying world! Think what a Saviour you have, and what glory is before you. Oh, brush away the poor, paltry things of time and sense from before your heart, and live for Jesus! Live on the word, carry it into every scene and circumstance of your daily life, and make it the atmosphere of your soul. Be what you seem to be, the cross will meet you in new places, and on every side; but in thus meeting and bearing it, you will have within you the witness of the Spirit that the Lord loves you; you will have a fresh and continued enjoyment of His presence, and an “abundant entrance” into His everlasting kingdom. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
The word of God is the ground of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ is the object of faith, God Himself is the source of faith. Seeing Him who is invisible is faith in exercise; holiness is the fruit of faith, and “it is written” is the language of faith. It is by faith, not for faith, that we are justified.
It is a happy thing to live to some purpose. We may apologize to our consciences now for our lukewarmness and conformity to the world; but cannot do so when our Master comes to ask us what use we have made of our talents.