This is a most weighty principle: “According to your faith, so be it unto you.” Let us remember this. God delights in faith. He loves to be trusted; and He will ever put honor upon those who trust Him. On the contrary, unbelief is grievous to Him. It provokes and dishonors Him, and brings darkness and death over the soul. It is a most terrible sin to doubt the living God, who cannot lie, and to harbor questions when He has spoken. The devil is the author of all doubtful questions. He delights in shaking the confidence of the soul; but he has no power whatever against a soul that simply confides in God. His fiery darts can never reach one who is hidden behind the shield of faith. And, oh, how precious it is to live a life of childlike trust in God! It makes the heart so happy, and fills the mouth with praise and thanksgiving; it chases away every cloud and mist, and brightens our path with the blessed beams of our Father’s countenance. On the other hand, unbelief fills the heart with all manner of questions, throws us in upon ourselves, darkens our path, and makes us truly miserable. Caleb’s heart was full of joyful confidence, while the hearts of his brethren were filled with bitter murmurings and complaints. Thus it must ever be. If we want to be happy, we must be occupied with God and His surroundings: if we want to be miserable, we have only to be occupied with self and its surroundings. Look, for a moment, at the first chapter of Luke. What was it that shut up Zacharias in dumb silence? It was unbelief. What was it that filled the heart and opened the lips of Mary and Elizabeth? Faith. Here lay the difference. Zacharias might have joined those pious women in their songs of praise were it not that dark unbelief had sealed his lips in melancholy silence. What a picture! What a lesson! Oh that we may learn to trust God more simply! May the doubtful mind be far from us. May it be ours, in the midst of an infidel scene, to be strong in faith, giving glory to God.