STUDY VIII.

HOW TO HELP The Man WHOSE FAITH IS UNSETTLED.

STUDY VIII. HOW TO HELP THE MAN WHOSE
FAITH IS UNSETTLED.

"Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" (Job xi. 7.)

"For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor?" (Rom. xi. 34.)

PART 1. PRESENT-DAY FORM OF UNREST.

THIS is distinctly not an age of scoffing. Men once laughed at religion and thought it the most foolish dream. The French Revolution banished Christianity and put the worship of reason in its place. One skeptic said he could go through the Bible and fell the trees and they would never grow again. It was with pride that one truly great spirit signed himself "Percy Bysshe Shelley, Atheist." No man of thoughtfulness would do that now. The age of blatant infidelity is gone.

Neither is this an age of atheism. Most men acknowledge that there is a God, though they may stop far short of the Christian conception of a God who as a Father loves his children.

The present form of doubt is not so far removed from that of Job. It is a reverent uncertainty. Men are not sure as they once were. The whole basis of knowledge has been changed. Science has brought us to feel that we must proceed carefully from the known to the unknown. Criticism has made us careful in the examination of the records of the past. Philosophy has made us less dogmatic about some supposedly religious facts. Some men are therefore deeply troubled.

The point of this day's thought is simply this: Unsettled

量

!

faith is nothing new. It has always existed. But presentday uncertainty is not irreverent or atheistic. The person who claims to be an atheist is perhaps unlearned. Most of the men in doubt are honestly seeking light. They believe there is a power in the universe which works for righteousness, but they are not certain of its attributes.

The first step in meeting and helping the person whose faith is unsettled is to recognize the form which his questioning assumes. The studies which follow will attempt to make clear some of the fundamental questions of Christian life. They are put plainly and simply, in order that they may help even the unscholarly and immature. A sympathetic understanding of these forms of uncertainty may help us to reach a solution of some of them. Tennyson strikes the keynote to the present type of doubt in those pathetic lines of "In Memoriam:"

The wish that of the living whole

No life may fail beyond the grave,
Derives it not from what we have
The likest God within the soul?

I falter where I firmly trod,

And falling with my weight of cares
Upon the great world's altar-stairs
That slope through darkness up to God,

I stretch lame hands of faith and grope
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,

And faintly trust the larger hope.

STUDY VIII. HOW TO HELP THE MAN WHOSE FAITH IS UNSETTLED.

"And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and wherefore do questionings arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here anything to eat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish. And he took it and ate before them. And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke xxiv. 38-45.)

PART 2. OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD THE MAN OF UNSETTLED FAITH.

THERE is nothing in the life of Christ which is more beautiful than the attitude he assumed toward his doubting and troubled followers. A man with an unsettled faith is like smoking flax, which smolders but cannot burst into flame. Christ never rudely smothered out the spark that was there. Instead, his kindly spirit fanned it into flame.

How different from this is the attitude assumed by many of Christ's followers of to-day. I have on my table, as I write, a book on personal work in which the chapter on doubt is headed with the quotation: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt," etc. The author goes on to say that most of the doubt is due to corrupt living. This is absolutely false. Some men do claim to be in doubt because they wish to excuse their sin, but that is not the prevailing temper of our time. Most doubters to-day are really troubled and are honest. If we are to reach them and help them, we must recognize their honesty.

Neither is it a sign of weakness that a man should be un