And the last sign of true repentance that I shall give you is trust in God's love for Christ's sake. Your perseverance will depend entirely on your faith or trust in God. In common life we know that as we put a greater distance between ourselves and any object at which we may be looking, it becomes less and less distinct; whereas, the nearer the eye approaches any object, the more distinct that object becomes. So is it with man in his relation to God. The further he wanders from God by sin, and the greater distance he puts between himself and his Maker in this way, the less he knows about Him, and the less he is able to trust Him. But the nearer man comes to God in true repentance, the more he learns of that great Being, and the more he learns to trust God's love to him for Christ's sake.

Reader, may you and I learn such true repentance as this, and having learnt it, may we "bring forth fruits meet for repentance." May we cultivate a sense of our own nothingness, and of God's greatness; and may we put a generous trust in our good Lord, Who has done so much for us. "May we never indulge unworthy thoughts, measuring our Lord's tender mercies by ours; but let us in every trial and temptation, nay, even in the hour of surprise or sudden fall, yet cling the closer to Him, Who is the true Refuge of sinners, and Who is ever willing to receive those who in sincerity return to Him."

FAITH.

"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 lamp that burns to guide

Our bark when tempest-driven;

Faith is the key that opens wide

The distant gates of Heaven."

John Burbidge.

I spoke in the last chapter of faith being one of the signs of true repentance. Repentance, as I then showed, was that grace whereby we forsake sin; faith, on the other hand, is the grace whereby we believe and trust in the promises of God, made to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now it is not always an easy matter to exercise faith in God. Many people believe in God's judgments, and when these are in mercy sent upon them, they are quite ready, like Ahab of old, to humble themselves before their offended Master. But take away the punishment, stay the uplifted rod, and let them receive instead of judgments, mercies, and then where is their faith? It is no easy thing to believe in God! to believe, that is, that prosperity and adversity are alike gifts of the same Father. To believe Him as Abraham believed Him, whose faith "was counted unto him for righteousness." To believe Him as Job did, so that not even the loss of worldly goods, or terrible pain inflicted on the body, or even the advice of her he trusted and loved more than all other on earth, could cause him to blaspheme. To have such faith in Christ as the Apostles had, who "left all and followed" Him; nay, more, such faith that one of their number could exclaim, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, ... but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith[#]."

[#] Phil. iii. 8.

Yes, reader, that is the kind of faith you and I shall need when sorrow and troubles come upon us; that is the only kind of faith which can carry a man peacefully through life, and bear him up in death, till his eyes rest upon the everlasting city.

But there are many people who have faith, but only a very little. Their faith is like S. Peter's. It is strong enough to make them desire to be with Jesus, but not strong enough to carry them to Him. Just as St. Peter tried to walk over the dark waters of the sea of Galilee to go to his Lord, so these try, and often try hard, to walk over the waters of sin to go to Christ. But when temptations arise, or doubts arise, they begin to sink, as it were, that is to say, their faith begins to fail, and they cease to please God. St. Peter's fault was not that he had no faith, but that he had too little. That he had some, who can doubt, for if he had not, he surely would never have left the ship, and his companions, to walk upon the water to Christ. And so it is with us. Many of us have God's great gift of faith: sufficient faith to leave the world, and start to go to Christ, but we find that our failures are frequent, that when we would do good, evil is present with us, and so, like St. Peter, we begin to sink, it may be just as we are nearing Christ. What we want, then, is more faith, and we must ask God for this, for He alone can give it.

But what shall I say of those who have no faith at all; those who never start on the journey whose end is Christ? Are they not, think you, in a dangerous state? True, they may be living happily enough now, but the end must come one day, and what an end that will be! Think of that, reader. Think if it be not better to suffer the Master's rebuke for having little faith, than to receive no rebuke at all, because you have no faith. Once more, faith is necessary to those who would live godly lives, because there are certain mysteries in religion which are left to faith, and which we must accept as facts, though we cannot understand them. For instance, we are told that there are three Persons in the Blessed Trinity--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost--and yet though there are three distinct Persons, there is but one God. We cannot understand that, but we must believe that it is so. Just as in nature there are many things we cannot understand, but which we accept as true; and if we do so in matters relating to man, are we not equally bound to do so in such as bear reference to God? It is such a common thing nowadays to hear silly people, who wish to be thought clever, say, "I won't believe anything I cannot understand!" But there are many things which these very people accept as true, but which they in no way understand. For instance, I suppose they all believe that the grass which is eaten by geese, by cows, or sheep, will by a process of digestion turn to feathers on the geese, to hair on the cows, and to wool on the sheep. But do they understand how this happens? No, they do not; but though they cannot understand it, they nevertheless believe it.

And, reader, there are many who cannot understand many things in God's world of nature, and they do not want to, for they accept them as matters of faith. But if there is anything in religion they cannot understand, they must needs disbelieve it at once, or else be guilty of seeking to pry into "the deep things of God."