in which faith is got, and it is the same in the religious world
as it is in the world of men and women. I learn to trust you, my
brother, just as I get to trust me just as you get to know me. I
do not trust you as a stranger, but as I come into contact with
you, and watch you, and live with you, I find out that you are
trustworthy, and I come to trust myself to you, and to lean upon
you. But I do not do that to a stranger.
The way to trust Christ is to know Christ. You cannot help trusting
Him them. You are changed. By knowing Him faith is begotten in you,
as cause and effect. To trust Him without knowing Him as thousands
do, is not faith, but credulity. I believe a great deal of prayer
for faith is thrown away. What we should pray for is that we may
be able to fulfill the condition, and when we have fulfilled the
condition, the faith necessarily follows. The way, therefore, to
increase our faith is to increase our intimacy with Christ. We
trust Him more and more the better we know Him.
And then another immediate effect of this way of sanctifying the
character is the tranquility that it brings over the Christian
life. How disturbed and distressed and anxious Christian people
are about their growth in grace! Now, the moment you give that
over into Christ's care--the moment you see that you are BEING
changed--that anxiety passes away. You see that it must follow
by an inevitable process and by a natural law if you fulfill the
simple condition; so that peace is the reward of that life and
fellowship with Christ.
Many other things follow. A man's usefulness depends to a large
extent upon his fellowship with Christ. That is obvious. Only Christ
can influence the world; but all that the world sees of Christ is
what it sees of you and me. Christ said: "The world seeth Me no
more, but ye see Me." You see Him, and standing in front of Him
reflect Him, and the world sees the reflection. It cannot see Him.
So that a Christian's usefulness depends solely upon that relationship.
Now, I have only pointed out a few of the things that follow from
the standing before Christ--from the abiding in Christ. You will
find, if you run over the texts about abiding in Christ, many
other things will suggest themselves in the same relations. Almost
everything in Christian experience and character follows and
follows necessarily, from standing before Christ and reflecting
his character. But the supreme consummation is that we are changed
into THE SAME IMAGE, "even as by the Lord the Spirit." That is to
say that in some way, unknown to us, but possibly not more mysterious
than the doctrine of personal influence, we are changed into the
image of Christ.
This method cannot fail. I am not setting before you an opinion
or a theory, but this is