There are people who feel that they can only tread where the ground is solid; where they see quite clearly what is ahead; who take no risks; who venture nothing. Yet it is utterly impossible to live so in real life. Most of the business transacted in the world is based on a system of credits; and credit is but another name for faith in personal honesty. The financial investments that are made are ventures of faith as to profits and returns. Business foresight which is a great asset to success in life relies upon the invariableness and calculated changes likely to occur. The invalid carries out the doctor's instructions to the extent of his faith in his physician. The reader of the daily newspaper has faith in the reliability of the news served up to him. The history that men read, or the school textbooks used by children, postulate the veracity of the authors of these works. Friendships are an impossibility without the repose of faith. In short everywhere and in every department of life there can be no knowledge nor growth nor progress without faith. As I write the International Conference is taking place at Genoa where the chief obstacle to the task of putting Europe upon a peaceful economic basis is the suspicions, the lack of faith in one another that prevails, not without cause, among the nations. So when God, Who is Spirit, tells us He can only be apprehended by faith it is childish to quarrel with this necessary condition, because He is only asking of His children the same attitude towards Him which is everywhere adopted by humanity in its social relationships, consciously or unconsciously, as an essential condition of human happiness and progress. FAITH A BOND OF FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD Faith is required of men, not because God grudges information, but because He desires for man the unspeakable blessing of a willing, longing, intimate friendship with Himself. Among the heathen nations "He left not Himself without witness, if haply they might seek after Him and find Him." He selected Abram and called him forth from Ur to be a father of a nation. To that nation, tried and disciplined, He disclosed Himself "in fragmentary portions and in divers manners," by a long line of inspired writers and prophets, until at last "in the fulness of time God sent forth His Son." The Incarnation discloses the distance the Father will travel to meet His lost children, if by faith they will return to Him, and live the life of restored fellowship. Thus we understand why Jesus pleads and entreats and warns; it is because the loss of faith has such terrible consequences--consequences which in their harm to oneself and to others are incalculable. Through Jesus God has revealed the passion of His heart, His yearning love for the souls of men. GOD DEMANDS OUR ENTIRE PERSONALITY.