SERMON XVIII.

FAITH.

"Without faith it is impossible to please God."— HEBREWS xi. 6.

THE old Assembly's Catechism asks, "What is the chief end of man?" and its answer is, " To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." The answer is exceedingly correct; but it might have been equally truthful if it had been shorter. The chief end of man is "to please God;" for, in so doing,—we need not say it, because it is an undoubted fact,-in so doing he will please himself. The chief end of man, we believe, in this life and in the next, is to please God his Maker. If any man pleases God, he does that which conduces most to his own temporal and eternal welfare. Man cannot please God without bringing to himself a great amount of happiness; for, if any man pleases God, it is because God accepts him as his son, gives him the blessings of adoption, pours upon him the bounties of his grace, makes him a blessed man in this life, and insures him a crown of everlasting life, which he shall wear, and which shall shine with unfading lustre, when the wreaths of earth's glory have all been melted away; while, on the other hand, if a man does not please God, he inevitably brings upon himself sorrow and suffering

in this life; he puts a worm and a rottenness in the core of all his joys; he fills his death-pillow with thorns, and he supplies the eternal fire with fagots of flame which shall forever consume him. He that pleases God is, through divine grace, journeying onward to the ultimate reward of all those that love and fear God; but he who is ill-pleasing to God must, for Scripture has declared it, be banished from the presence of God, and consequently from the enjoyment of happiness. If, then, we be right in saying that to please God is to be happy, the one important question is, how can I please God? and there is something very solemn in the utterance of our text, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." That is to say, Do what you may, strive as earnestly as you can, live as excellently as you please, make what sacrifices you choose, be as eminent as you can for every thing that is lovely and of good repute, yet none of these things can be pleasing to God unless they be mixed with faith. As the Lord said to the Jews, "With all your sacrifices you must offer salt," so he says to us: "With all your doings you must bring faith, or else without faith it is impossible to please God.'"

This is an old law; it is as old as the first man. No sooner were Cain and Abel born into this world, and no sooner had they attained to manhood, than God gave a practical proclamation of this law, that "without faith it is impossible to please him." Cain and Abel, one bright day, erected an altar side by side with each other. Cain fetched of the fruits of the trees and of the abundance of the soil, and placed them upon his altar; Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock, and laid it upon his altar. It was to be decided which God

would accept. Cain had brought his best, but he brought it without faith; Abel brought his sacrifice, but he brought it with faith in Christ. Now, then, which shall best succeed? The offerings are equal in value; so far as they themselves are concerned, they are alike good. Upon which will the heavenly fire descend? Which will the Lord God consume with the fire of his pleasure? O! I see Abel's offering burning, and Cane's countenance has fallen; for, unto Abel and unto his offering the Lord had respect, but unto Cain and his offering the Lord had no respect. It shall be the same till the last man shall be gathered into heaven. There shall never be an acceptable offering which has not been seasoned with faith. Good though it may be, as apparently good in itself as that which has faith, yet, unless faith be with it, God never can and never will accept it; for he here declares, " Without faith it is impossible to please God."

I shall endeavor to pack my thoughts closely this morning, and be as brief as I can, consistently with a full explanation of the theme. I shall, first, have an exposition of what is faith; secondly, I shall have an argument, that, without faith, it is impossible to be saved; and, thirdly, I shall ask a question, — Have you that faith which pleases God? We shall have, then, an exposition, an argument, and a question.

I. First, for the EXPOSITION.

What is faith?

The old writers, who are by far the most sensible,for you will notice, that the books that were written. about two hundred years ago by the old Puritans have more sense in one line than there is in a page of our new books, and more in a page than there is in a whole volume of our modern divinity, the old writers tell

you, that faith is made up of three things: first, knowl edge, then assent, and then what they call affiance, or the laying hold of the knowledge to which we give assent, and making it our own, by trusting in it.

1. Let us begin, then, at the beginning. The first thing in faith is knowledge. A man cannot believe what he does not know. That is a clear, self-evident axiom. If I have never heard of a thing in all my life, and do not know it, I cannot believe it. And yet there are some persons who have a faith like that of the fuller, who, when he was asked what he believed, said, “ I believe what the Church believes."—"What does the Church believe?"-"The Church believes what I believe." "And pray what do you and the Church believe?"- 66 - Why we both believe the same thing." Now, this man believed nothing, except that the Church was right; but in what, he could not tell. It is idle for a man to say, "I am a believer," and yet not to know what he believes; but yet I have seen some persons in this position. A violent sermon has been preached, which has stirred up their blood; the minister has cried, "Believe! Believe! Believe!" and the people on a sudden have got it into their heads that they were believers, and have walked out of their place of worship and said, "I am a believer." And if they were asked, "Pray, what do you believe?" they could not give a reason for the hope that was in them. They believe they intend to go to chapel next Sunday; they intend to join that class of people; they intend to be very violent in their singing, and very wonderful in their rant; therefore, they believe they shall be saved; but what they believe they cannot tell. Now, I hold no man's faith to be sure faith, unless he knows what he believes.

If he says, "I believe," and does not know what he be lieves, how can that be true faith? The apostle has said: "How can they believe on him of whom they have not heard? and how can they hear without a preacher? and how can they preach except they be sent?" It is necessary, then, to true faith, that a man should know something of the Bible. Believe me, this is an age when the Bible is not so much thought of as it used to be. Some hundred years ago, the world was covered with bigotry, cruelty, and superstition. We always run to extremes, and we have just gone to the other extreme now. It was then said: "One faith is right; down with all others, by the rack and by the sword!" Now it is said, "However contradictory our creeds may be, they are all right." If we did but use our common sense, we should know that it is not so. But some reply, "Such-and-such a doctrine need not be preached, and need not be believed." Then, sir, if it need not be preached, it need not be revealed. You impugn the wisdom of God, when you say a doctrine is unnecessary; for you do as much as say, that God has revealed something which was not necessary, and he would be as unwise to do more than was necessary as if he had done less than was necessary. We believe that every doctrine of God's Word ought to be studied by men, and that their faith should lay hold of the whole matter of the Sacred Scriptures; and more especially upon all that part of Scripture which concerns the person of our all-blessed Redeemer. There must be some degree of knowledge before there can be faith. "Search the Scriptures," then, "for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Christ;" and, by searching and reading, cometh