call Faith? But what has made him thus consent to seek the personal Saviour but his experience-imperfect, it may be, but, in its measure, real-of something of that very Light and Life of which he now desires to know and possess more? Christ has revealed something of His Life to that man in order that he may long and seek for more; and what is such longing and seeking but the Scripture attitude of Faith? He that believeth on the Son hath Life, because Faith itself is incipient Life. Perhaps I am thinking and speaking here of faith in its highest and most spiritual exercise; but all forms of faith, strong or weak, high or low, must contain something of this vital element. They are strong in proportion as they have it, and weak in proportion as they have it not. This is the only spiritual nexus which can so bind men to Christ that they live in Him. There can only be abiding union where there is the truest affinity and likeness. To have something of Christ in us is the sole link of connection with Him which can be enduring. All others will inevitably dissolve or be sundered. We have an intelligent and spiritually-minded friend who holds that there can be no true faith without love, and we suspect that between his view and our own there is, when both are duly analysed, very little difference. But we will not pile up any more words around the great realities of Salvation and Faith lest we hide them instead of helping to disclose them. We could wish heartily that some one with the requisite intellectual and spiritual gifts would undertake to elucidate for us the essential nature of faith. Meanwhile, we may ponder deeply the pregnant words of the beloved disciple, 'He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this Life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the Life, and he that hath not the Son hath not the Life.'

JOHN DAY THOMPSON.

VII.-THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF FAITH.

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FIRST, Faith a Human Faculty.-There has been much said and written in regard of faith, and we think sometimes confusedly; but if a candid and thoughtful appeal is made to the Scriptures and to our moral sense, there need not be mist and uncertainty about it. We are all aware that the term faith is sometimes used in an objective sense, meaning that which is believed, as when we speak of a person being of such a faith or belief: The faith as it is in Christ Jesus ;' 'The faith once delivered to the saints;'The Word of faith which we preach; The faith for which the martyrs died.' Here we have objective faith, or that which is believed. But active faith is believing assent given to declaration, fact, truth, promise, &c., on the veracity of others; it is reliance of mind on stated truth or promise, and comprehends the principle of trust that is in the mind. Faith, then, is an active principle; it is the mind's action put forth by its own powers in relation to the fitting objects presented for its acceptance. 'Faith,' said the apostle, is the substance'-the conviction and assurance' of things hoped for, the evidence' of taking as truth things not seen.'

We are so constituted that we are necessitated to believe, in many respects, on account of our limited faculties. We are unable to see, examine, and know personally everything. Innumerable things are not objects of the senses; and we have to believe them on testimony, or deny their existence, simply because of the limitedness of our capacities. But in relation to God, Christ, the way of salvation, and to our responsibility and duty connected therewith, there is not a necessary faith, but a voluntary one. Like any other faculty of the body or mind, faith, in its exercise, is human ability put forth. I look with my eyes on an object; I handle with my hands, and I walk voluntarily; I also love, and hope, and exercise a filial fear as acts of my will. The will governs. The element of will is in all these operations. We know they would and could not be performed without this element of voluntary will-power. And faith is the same kind of mental faculty as love, hope, &c., and it is the gift of God only in the same sense in which love, hope, and fear are His gifts. They are all God-implanted faculties, to be used by man in the exercise of his moral sense, his reason, his intelligence, and executive

will-power. Faith viewed in this natural and true light, as an act of voluntary human ability, rationally, and Scripturally, agrees with the Divine requirement of man to believe, and with the condemnation pronounced against unbelief. Were man really passive in regard of faith, where would be the reason and justice of condemnation for lack of faith or for unbelief? Is man accountable for anything in which he is absolutely passive? Our natural reason, our laws of society, our whole civil and social arrangements, and all the common sense of life, theoretic and practical, answer No. If our understanding and will are not exercised in a thing, it is alike flagrantly absurd and unjust to be made responsible for it. Faith, then, cannot be the gift of God in the literal sense, because it is required doing; it is human action. The eyes and brain are God's gifts; but seeing and thinking are our own acts, and therefore cannot be the gifts of God, except in the accommodating sense of being so counted, as the use of given faculties. And, of course, it can only be in the same sense that faith, as an active principle, is God's gift. It is the use of given faculty. We have life from God; but our doings in life are not His doings, but our own in the exercise of the life-power with which we are gifted by Him. If it be said faith is the gift of God, the significance of such an affirmation must be confined, in all reason and truth, to the accommodating sense of His having given Gospel truth as the object of faith, which truth we are called upon to believe; and also because, when faith is exercised, the mind exercising it is assisted by the Holy Spirit, which helpeth man's spiritual infirmities.

The Apostle's language in Eph. ii. 8 does not teach that faith is God's gift. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Here is the whole period. And we candidly ask, What is its evident teaching but that salvation is by grace, and not of human merit? and, therefore, that our being saved is not of ourselves, but by grace, as God's gift, received by us through faith? The passage no more teaches that faith is God's gift-because I receive His grace through my own act of faith-than that love to a parent or friend is God's gift, when I exercise the power of love with which I am constitutionally possessed. Yea, much less, inasmuch as the passage does not contain a shadow of meaning that faith is God's gift, but that through faith we obtain salvation by grace. And, without dogmatising, the affirmation may be ventured that all the Scripture passages that some have explained as teaching that saving faith-faith as the receptive, active power of salvation is literally a Divine gift―must be

fairly explained to the contrary; and a true principle of exegesis, unbiassed by preconception, will make this manifest; for no isolated textual interpretation, by a fair rule of exegesis, can be allowed to destroy or turn aside the obvious drift and purpose of the general tenor of Divine truth in regard to faith.

We call attention to Heb. xii. 2. Paul, exhorting the Hebrew Christians to patient effort in their life race, speaks of them looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.' Faith, in this text, is objective, clearly meaning what the parties addressed believed, of what faith they were; and, being Christians, it was the faith 'as it is in Jesus.' He, of course, is both the author and finisher of the glorious system of truth and doctrine which formed the belief or faith of those Christians. They were to hold on as believers, patiently endure in the career on which they had entered, looking to the allsufficient Author and Finisher of their faith, the faith which had been delivered to them and to all the saints. We believe this view of the passage in question cannot be controverted. There is an utter absence here of the barest idea of faith, as an active principle, being the gift of God. We adduce one more quotation, and it shall suffice, viz., Cor. xii. 9. The subject of the Apostle in the context is that of special spiritual gifts, gifts of miracle, and their diversity, as bestowed by the Holy Spirit. Such special gifts, we all know, accompanied the early stages of the Christian Church, and in many instances exorcists and magicians pretended to work miracles by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Apostle said to the Corinthians, no man could call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost; that is, no man could own Jesus as Lord and live his faith-and probably it meant so much as to imply perform miracles, so as to prove that faith-but by the Holy Ghost. For to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit,' &c. Matthew Henry rightly says of this passage: To another faith,' &c.-'that is, the faith of miracles, or a faith in the Divine power and promise, whereby they were enabled to work miracles; or an extraordinary impulse from above, whereby they were enabled to trust God in any emergency and go on in the way of their duty, and own and profess the truths of Christ, whatever were the difficulty and danger.' This faith, then, was a miracle-performing power given to some of the early Christians, who had already believed in Christ and were of the household of faith. Hence, there is not an iota of reference in the passage before us respecting faith unto salvation, faith by which we enter into the Chris

tian life, and by which we continue therein, being the gift of God; and we cannot find any portion of the Book of Inspiration that teaches that doctrine. Indeed, such a thing is impossible, in our view, inasmuch as, were it the case, it would destroy the consistency and fitness of all that God has said relative to faith and unbelief, as being functions of human ability, according to the decision and execution of the human will.

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The whole scope of the Bible in using the words believe,' 'trust,' and 'faith,' as an active principle, and also their opposites, unbelief,” 'faithless,' &c., and the praise and condemnation attaching to them, most obviously show that faith is something required of man within the exercise of his own powers; and, therefore, is not the gift of God-except in the accommodating sense named-but man's own act, for which he is held responsible. He that believeth is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.' 'Have faith in God.' These words, and many more of the same import, are words of Jesus. They mean something, and they carry on their very face the unmistakable significance that man is responsible for his faith; and, therefore, that it is not literally the gift of God. But as He has given the Gospel to be believed, and also promised the aid of the Holy Spirit, while we hold that faith is absolutely man's act and the product of voluntary power, there is beautiful consistency in the prayer of the disciples when they said, 'Lord, increase our faith,' and in the words of the earnest man to Jesus, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. The request for an increase of faith, in the first case, was for the same Divine help to be given to faith as was asked in the latter case against unbelief. God can only increase our faith by rendering assistance to our own willing, striving souls to exercise it, and help to send our unbelief away. The opposite of this, or more than this, would be contrary to what He has already done in giving us the faculty of faith, and requiring its free and voluntary use-according to the light and truth presented-under the penalty of condemnation.

What is the position, in all sound reason, of those who say man has no ability in himself to believe and obey God? It is this. If I am not a believer, it is because God does not give me faith. If repentance and faith are irrespective of the exercise of free will, and even of my voluntary acquiescence, it cannot be my fault if I do not repent and believe. If I am sinful by creation, and am powerless in obeying God's calls and in accepting by faith the provided means of salvation, the reason why I am unsaved must necessarily be for want