Luke 8:25 And he said to them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another… 1. "I believe in God." How lightly, how carelessly, we repeat those solemn words, and yet what a universe of meaning lies in them! 2. Do we believe? Do we at all know what belief means? Do we suppose it to mean, "I am familiar with these formulae, I see no special reason for rejecting them." Thou believest that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe; nay more, they tremble. 3. "I believe," but, while with orthodox self-satisfaction we repeat our creeds, on which soul has dawned the tremendous responsibility of our belief, the transcendent obligation of all that it entails? 4. What, then, is wanting? Faith is wanting — that faith which is a possessing principle, an irresistible enthusiasm. Real faith — not the ineffectual pretence; not the faith which makes idols of formulae; not the faith which delights in rigid systems and fantastic self-delusions, groping in mediaeval traditions for a dead and material and exclusive Christ. Had we but faith as a grain of mustard-seed we should remove the mountains which overshadow and threaten to fall on us. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him. |
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