[Sidenote: Two senses of the Word “Faith.”] The word “Faith” is used in two different senses. In ordinary language it means little more than a custom or a name. When people say that Napoleon I. belonged to the Roman Catholic faith, they only mean that he bore the name and followed the external customs of that religion, for we know that his own belief was a kind of fatalistic deism. The facility with which some exalted personages have gone from one faith to another, and in some cases have even repeated the change for obviously political reasons, is explicable only by reading the word “Faith” as a custom or a ceremony. [Sidenote: How employed here.] The sense in which it will be employed in the following pages is that of sincere inward conviction. Evidently this must be far more difficult to ascertain than those acts of external conformity which are intended to be visible by all. In a world like this, where there is so little moral courage, people are easily browbeaten, easily terrorised, and they have in general such an abject dread of any term implying degradation or disgrace, whilst they are at the same time so keenly alive to the advantages of social advancement, that it seems at first sight impossible to find any sure test of the genuineness of their professions. [Sidenote: The Test of Sacrifice.] [Sidenote: Deceptive Nature of Pecuniary Sacrifices.] There is, however, one sure test, and that is sacrifice. When people make _real_ sacrifices for their faith its sincerity is unquestionable. But we must be well on our guard in admitting the reality of the sacrifice. It may seem to be real when it is only a payment for something held to be more valuable than itself. Pecuniary sacrifices prove nothing when the donor gets consideration in return, more valuable to him than superfluous money. It costs no trouble to write a cheque. [Sidenote: The Tests of Sincerity.] Personal labour and trouble, _that cannot be delegated to working inferiors_, are the best test of sincerity on the active side. On the passive side, there is the sacrifice of the things that make life pleasant, its comforts and luxuries, and the happiness of home and friendship, and especially the renunciation of worldly ambition. [Sidenote: A Sketch from Life.] [Sidenote: Renunciations.]