The World's Great Sermons, Volume 09: Cuyler to Van Dyke
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 09: Cuyler to Van Dyke
Sermons
And now, some one who feels a little freshened interest in this
subject, some man who has never got hold of the gospel faith, says
to himself: "I wonder if the preacher is going to explain to me
what believing is, what faith is. I never heard any one succeed in
explaining faith." Well, if you will pardon me, the best explanation
of faith I ever heard was given by a negro preacher in Virginia. As
the story was told me, one Sunday afternoon, a few years ago, some
negroes were lying on the ground together, and one of them spoke
and said, "Uncle Reuben, can you explain this: Faith in de Lord,
and faith in de debbil?" "To be sure I can. There is two things:
in de fust place, faith in de Lord, and then faith in de debbil.
Now, in the fust place, fustly, there is faith. What is faith? Why,
faith is jes faith. Faith ain't nothing less than faith. Faith ain't
nothing more than faith. Faith is jest faith--now I done splain it."
Really, that man was right, there is nothing to explain. Faith is
as simple a conception as the human mind can have. How, then, can
you explain faith? You are neither able to analyze it into parts,
nor can you find anything simpler with which to compare it. So also
as to some other things, that are perfectly easy and natural in
practical exercise, and can not be explained. What is love? Well,
I won't go into an elaborate metaphysical definition of love, but
if I wanted a child to love me, I should try to exhibit myself in
such a character to him and act in such ways that the little child
would see in me something to love, and would feel like loving.
There would then be no need of an explanation of what love is. Did
you ever hear a satisfactory definition of laughter? If you wanted
to make a man laugh, would you attempt to define laughter to him?
You might possibly succeed in making a laughable definition; but
otherwise definitions won't make a man laugh. You would simply say
or do something ludicrous, and he would laugh readily enough if he
was so disposed; and if the man be not in a mood for laughing, all
your explanations are utterly useless. And so what is faith? There
is nothing to explain. Everybody knows what faith is. If you want to
induce a man to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you must hold up
the Lord to him in His true character, and then, if he is in a mood
to believe, he will believe, and if he is disinclined to belief, all
your explanations will be fruitless. The practical result may even
be obstructed by attempts to explain. What is faith? You know what
faith is. Every one knows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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