Adventures in the Land of CanaanBerry, R. L. (Robert Lee)
Religion
Adventures in the Land of Canaan
Berry, R. L. (Robert Lee)
Christian life
Now faith is the same kind of thing as joy and love. It belongs to that
family of intangible, unseen realities of life. They have to do with the
spiritual part of our nature, and through them we rise higher or sink
lower than we can through any mere physical feelings or actions. Faith,
joy, love, are spiritual qualities, spiritual things, things of the soul,
affecting it favorably or adversely according as they themselves are
affected by causes good or bad. Doubt, unbelief, anger, wrong ambition,
pride, and such are as intangible as are faith and love, but they are
at the opposite pole.
Faith is no harder to understand than is doubt. Faith is believing, and
doubt is not believing. One is the opposite of the other, just as heaven
and hell are opposites. Considering doubters more closely, we find that
doubters believe; but they believe the opposite of what they should
believe. Doubters believe the wrong thing. A doubter is one who could
and ought to believe facts, but for some reason or other can not bring
himself to do it. Instead, he believes another set of things, which
appear to be facts but are not.
Let us illustrate faith and doubt. You pick up a newspaper this morning
and read that a fire destroyed a hotel in Chicago and four persons were
burned, that a train ran off the track in Iowa and no one was hurt, and
that a Congressman from Florida died. Do you doubt these facts or believe
them! If you believe them, that is proof that you have faith. You look
at the almanac and find it says that tomorrow there will be an eclipse.
If you prepare to look at the sun through smoked glass, it is proof that
you have faith. If you receive a letter stating that your uncle John
died and feel sad at the thought of his leaving his family in destitute
circumstances, it is proof that you have faith. If someone in your place
of business brings you a report that fire has destroyed your warehouse
and you feel at once the loss, it is proof that you have faith.
Then, of course, there are things which you doubt. You are told that
some one has discovered perpetual motion. You smile, and do not believe
it. You doubt. Doubt is simply the opposite of faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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