Why does the speculator offer one dollar more to-day, than he did
yesterday, per barrel for flour? Because he believes the news he has
received, of an advance in some other market. Why does that pork dealer
advance the price one dollar per barrel? Because he believes the news
of an advance in some other market. Why does that trader refuse that
bank bill? Because he believes the statement in the detector, that it
is under par. Look through the various departments in life, business
transactions and all, and see what a vast amount of it is done by
faith. All business men are daily and hourly acting in matters where
thousands of dollars are involved upon faith, and acting with great
confidence, too. Look at that man at the post office, opening a letter
and reading! In a few minutes you see him stopping quickly and closing
an engagement, involving thousands of dollars! What is he acting upon?
Faith in the letter just received and read. Look at that other man,
waiting for a dispatch. Presently he receives and reads it. In a few
minutes he is waiting the arrival of the cars. As the cars approach,
you notice him eyeing the passengers as they come out of the train.
Presently he rests his eye upon a man. In the next moment the man is
arrested! What is he acting upon? Faith in the telegraphic dispatch
he had just received. Thus we perceive men are constantly acting upon
_faith_ in all the affairs of this life.
Is it possible that men who are thus constantly, and without
hesitation, acting upon faith, will have the assurance to apologize
for their unbelief in matters of religion, by saying they cannot
believe? It will also be observed that the men thus acting are not
merely a few credulous and thoughtless persons, but business men of all
classes—men of the first order of mind, thus showing that they _can_
believe and _do_ believe, in matters of great importance, and thus
demonstrating that they can believe in matters of religion, as well
as others, if they will but give a candid attention to the evidence.
The same faculties of the mind exercised in believing the news of the
day, political, commercial, or of sickness, health, or accidents, etc.,
are exercised in believing the divine testimonies. The same mind that
believes the testimony of men, is exercised in believing the testimony
of God. The difference in the effect produced upon the human soul,
by divine testimony, or divine faith, from that produced by human
testimony, or what is purely human faith, is not that the same mind,
or the same faculties of the mind are not exercised in both cases, nor
is it owing to the difference between divine and human testimony; but
the difference is in the things believed—the difference between divine
and human things believed. Heavenly things believed would, beyond all
dispute, make a different impression from that produced by the belief
of earthly things, however true they might be. A mere earthly truth,
even if proved by divine testimony, could produce no more than an
earthly impression; but a heavenly truth, if proved by earthly
testimony, would produce a heavenly impression. The same mind that
understands and believes that there is an advance in the flour market,
believes that the Lord rose from the dead, but the effect produced
by the faith in one instance, is very different from that produced
in the other instance; not because different powers are exercised in
believing; nor because the testimony differs; but because the things
believed differ.
The relation a thing believed sustains to the believer, is the main
cause of its effect upon him. Robert Owen, who professed to have
read, and traveled forty years, without being able to find any
evidence of the truth of christianity, has lately become a believer in
Spiritualism. How is it, that he is so slow to believe in one case,
but so ready to believe in the other? The reason is to be found in
the relation these two things to be believed, sustain to him. The
belief in modern Spiritualism involves nothing, requires nothing and
promises nothing. It is merely a speculative subject, for vain and
idle curiosity; placing no man under any new obligations who believes
it. It is a very suitable thing to catch a man of a perverted mind and
heart; one who has rejected Jesus; resisted the testimonies of the Holy
Spirit, and despised the Bible during an earthly pilgrimage of many
years, which God has mercifully and graciously granted him. But the
fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God—that he is divine—that
he is alive and lives forever and ever, is a fact sustaining a
different relation to time. It is not a speculative fact for idle
curiosity; not a mere theme for empty, cold and unfeeling hearts; for
idle, confused and wandering brains; but a fact, intimately connected
with all mankind; a fact, in which the destinies of all men are
involved; one, too, bearing upon the lives and conduct of all men. Here
is the reason that many are so slow to believe this, the greatest and
most important of all the facts presented for the belief of mankind:
it _requires a holy life_. A strange feature truly is it, in men, that
they should prefer to believe that which requires nothing, proposes
nothing and promises nothing, to that requiring the purest life, most
exalted character, and ennobled feelings, promising the approbation of
the Almighty now, and eternal joy in the world to come!
What reason can any man give for such opposition? No man believes that
the Lord Jesus Christ ever made any human being worse. No man sincerely
believes that the Bible makes any person worse; or that the Christian
religion does any harm to any one of our sinful race. No human being
solemnly believes that any harm could result from the universal
prevalence of pure christianity, as set forth upon the pages of the
New Testament, throughout the world. All men, upon cool and deliberate
reflection, must be satisfied, that if all the peoples, nations, tribes
and tongues of the earth, were fully under the power and influence of
the Bible, mankind would be infinitely blessed by it. Not a sceptic in
the world can give a reason for his opposition to the Lord Jesus and
the Bible. O, that men knew Jesus! O, that they possessed his spirit
and temper! O, that they would love him and be blessed by him!