FAITH.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.—Romans, i. 17.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.—Romans, x. 17.
By grace are ye saved through faith.—Ephesians, ii. 8.
The shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.—Ephesians, vi. 16.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.—Hebrews, xi. 1.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.—Hebrews, xi. 6.
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.—James, ii. 26.
If bliss had lien in art or strength,
None but the wise and strong had gained it;
Where now, by faith, all arms are of a length;
One size doth all conditions fit.
A peasant may believe as much
As a great clerk, and reach the highest stature;
Thus dost thou make proud knowledge bend and crouch,
While grace fills up uneven nature.
Faith makes me any thing, or all
That I believe is in the sacred story;
And when sin placeth me in Adam’s fall,
Faith sets me higher in his glory.
George Herbert.
From purer manners to sublimer faith,
Is nature’s unavoidable ascent;
An honest deist, where the gospel shines,
Matured to nobler, in the christian ends.
Young.
If weak thy faith, why choose the harder side?
We nothing know but what is marvellous;
Yet what is marvellous, we can’t believe.
So weak our reason, and so great our God,
What most surprises in the sacred page,
Or full as strange, or stranger, must be true.
Faith is not reason’s labour, but repose.
Young.
O ye, whom, struggling on life’s craggy road,
With obstacles and dangers, secret foes
Supplant, false friends betray, disastrous rage
Of elements, of war, of civil broil
Brings down to Poverty’s cold floor, while grief
Preys on the heart, and dims the sinking eye;
Faint not! There is, who rules the storm, whose hand
Feeds the young ravens, nor permits blind chance
To close one sparrow’s flagging wing in death.
Trust in the rock of ages. Now, even now
He speaks, and all is calm. Or if, to prove
Your inmost soul, the hurricane still spread
Its licensed ravages. He whispers hope,
Earnest of comfort; and through blackest night
Bids keen-eyed Faith on heaven’s pure sunshine gaze,
And learn the glories of her future home.
Gisborne.
The pious man
In this bad world, when mists and couchant storms
Hide heaven’s fine circlet, spring aloft in faith
Above the clouds that threat him, to the fields
Of ether, where the day is never veiled
With intervening vapours, and looks down
Serene upon the troublous sea, which hides
The earth’s fair breast; that sea whose nether face
To grovelling mortals frowns and darkens all,
But on whose billowy back, from man conceal’d
The glowing sunbeams play.
H. K. White.
Through Faith on earth, man holds a life sublime,
And in the past and future, as he lists,
Expatiates, and confers with every clime.
Through faith he knows whereby the frame subsists,
Of the expanded universe, by whom
Created, and whereto it yet exists;
A stranger and a pilgrim till the tomb
Opens the way to the celestial land,
Where God prepares a city, as a womb.
So hopeful o’er the grave the faithful stand,
Wherein their brethren in the dust repose,
Grasped in the Father’s Omnipresent hand.
J. A. Heraud.
I saw in visions of still thought reveal’d,
Two silent forms before me; both were fair,
But yet how much unlike that voiceless pair,
Except in outward beauty. One appeal’d
To all, save hearts by pride and passion steel’d,
With meek-eyed gentleness; and seem’d to wear
Mixt with each human charm, an heavenlier air,
To which humanity had wisely kneel’d.
Beautiful was the other’s speechless shade,
And called herself Philosophy; but proud,
Cold, statue-like, she look’d upon the crowd,
Who to the lovelier spirit homage paid—
Her name was Scepticism! That gentler maid
Was titled Faith by acclamation loud!
B. Barton.
Behold the chamber where the Christian sleeps,
And where, from year to year, he prays and weeps;
Whence, in the midnight watch, his prayers arise
To those bright mansions where his treasure lies,
How near it is to all that Faith can see;
How short and peaceful may his passage be!
One beating pulse, one feeble struggle o’er,
May open wide the everlasting door;
Yes, for that bliss unspeakable unseen,
Is ready, and the veil of flesh between
A gentle sigh may rend, and then display
The broad full splendour of an endless day.
—This bright conviction elevates his mind,
He presses forward, leaving all behind.
Thus from his throne the tyrant foe is hurl’d—
This is the Faith that overcomes the world.
Jane Taylor.
Thou ask’st why Christ so lenient to the deed,
So sternly claims the Faith which founds the creed;
Because, reposed in Faith, the soul has calm;
The hope a haven, and the wound a balm;
Because the light, dim seen in Reason’s dream,
On all alike, through faith alone, could stream.
God willed support to weakness, joy to grief,
And so descended from His throne, Belief!
Sir E. B. Lytton.
To reason less is to imagine more;
They most aspire, who, meekly, most adore—
Therefore the God-like Comforter’s decree—
“His sins be loosened who hath faith in me.”
Sir E. B. Lytton.
O, thou that rearest with celestial aim
Thy future seraph in my mortal frame,
Thrice holy Faith! whatever thorns I meet,
As on I totter with unpractised feet,
Still let me stretch my arms, and cling to thee,
Meek nurse of souls, through my long infancy!
Coleridge.
As evening’s pale and solitary star
But brightens while the darkness gathers round;
So Faith, unmoved amid surrounding storms,
Is fairest seen in darkness most profound.
However deep be the mysterious word,
However dark, she disbelieves it not;
Where reason would examine, Faith obeys,
And “It is written” answers every doubt.
Caroline Fry.
Lo, when dangers closer threaten,
And thy soul draws near to death;
When assaulted sore by Satan,
Then present the shield of Faith:
Fiery darts of fierce temptations,
Intercepted by thy God,
Then shall lose their force in patience,
Sheathed in love, and quenched in blood.
Hart.
Redeemed from fear, and washed from lustful blot,
By Faith we then might rise above our lot;
And like Thy chosen few, restored within,
By hearts, as morning pure, might conquer sin.
*****
Faith, Hope, and Love, together work in gloom;
What Faith believes, Hope shapes in form and bloom,
And Love sends forth to daylight from the tomb.
John Sterling.
O thou of little faith, lift up thine eyes!
Are the ten thousand glorious stars of night
But a vain dream, because thy feeble sight
May not behold them in the noon-day skies?
Mary Howitt.
The steps of Faith
Fall on the seeming void, and find
The Rock beneath.
J. G. Whittier.
Lady, there is one star, and one alone,
That tells the future. Its interpreter
Is in man’s heart, and is called Conscience:
The star, True Faith; the future that it shows
Is beyond human life.
G. P. R. James.
Faith is the Spirit’s sweet control,
From which assurance springs,
Faith is the pencil of the soul,
That pictures heavenly things.
Faith is the conq’ring host that storms
The battlements of sin,
Faith is the quick’ning fire that warms
The trembling heart within.
O Rock of Ages, Fount of Bliss,
Thy needful help afford,
And let our constant prayer be this—
“Increase my faith, O Lord.”
J. Burbidge.
We walk by faith, and not by sight,
Along this vale of tears,
’Till our wrapt souls shall wing their flight
To Heaven’s unclouded spheres.
Triumphant then o’er sin and death,
We’ll praise our living head,
And, looking back, behold the path,
Through which we have been led.
W. J. Brock.