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STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH : 
 
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 A TKACT FOE PAEISH USE. 
 
 BISHOP OF ^CENTRAL NEW YOEK. 
 
 -f- 
 
 IT^N 
 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY, 
 
 713 Broadway. 
 
 1873. 
 
A "' 
 
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 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 
 
 E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY, 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress,,. 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 
 H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 
 
These letters were written to meet an 
 actual inquiry. It has been thought that they 
 might be of some further service if transferred 
 from the periodical — " The Churchman " — 
 where they were first printed, to a pamphlet 
 by themselves. This does not relieve me of 
 the responsibility of the present publication, 
 but it accounts for it. 
 
 F. D. HUNTINGTON. 
 Syracuse, 
 
 Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, 1873. 
 
STEPS FROM A LIFELESS BELIEF 
 TO A LIVING FAITH : 
 
 BEING 
 
 LETTERS TO AN INDIFFERENT BELIEVER. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 My dear Friend: You ask counsel 
 because you need help. According to 
 your own account, the state of your rnind 
 is this : Intellectually, but no farther, you 
 accept the Christian Revelation. Per- 
 haps it would be more strictly accurate to 
 say that you do not deny its truth, because 
 you see no yalid reasons for denying it, or 
 because you are not able to produce such 
 reasons. It is rather a passive than an 
 active assent. You are not disposed and 
 not able to dispute the historical facts re- 
 corded in the Christian Scriptures. You 
 understand that for nearly eighteen hun- 
 
6 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 dred years the Record of those facts has 
 been lying in the full view of the sharpest 
 critics and most thorough scholars of the 
 successive generations ; that, from various 
 motives, many gifted and learned men, all 
 along, have done their best to discover 
 defects in that record, or to break up the 
 evidence of its authenticity, by every line 
 of argument that you are able to conceive 
 of ; that to argument they have often 
 added ridicule, satire, and abuse, in their 
 keenest and most fascinating forms ; and 
 yet that none of these strenuous efforts of 
 unbelief, whether springing from pride, 
 ambition, impatience of religious restraint, 
 or the passion for independent investiga- 
 tion, have been able to make a very pro- 
 found or lasting impression on the general 
 conviction of the reading and thinking 
 world that what is related in the New 
 Testament is true. All that has been ad- 
 duced by way of objection has been fairly 
 met and answered by students, who have 
 devoted their lives impartially to the in- 
 quiry. 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 7 
 
 You also understand that the men who 
 wrote these Scriptures, for the most part 
 certainly, had the best possible opportu- 
 nity, as eye-witnesses or otherwise, to know 
 whether what they declared was true or 
 not; that many of them were subjected 
 to every kind of test and trial in their tes- 
 timony, and suffered every kind of loss, 
 agony, persecution, even to exile and 
 martyrdom, for the sake of it ; that they 
 lived consistent and pure lives, and were 
 evidently made more upright, charitable, 
 and devout, by what they believed and 
 reported. All this you are ready to ad- 
 mit. 
 
 Furthermore, seeing that these Scrip- 
 tures contain certain teachings or doc- 
 trines, as well as narratives and statements 
 of fact, and that the facts are the basis of 
 the doctrines, and that the history is so 
 interwoven with the moral and spiritual 
 instruction that they cannot be taken apart 
 without utterly destroying the integrity 
 and sense of the writing, you are not pre- 
 pared to reject the teachings themselves. 
 
8 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 Some of them are plainer and easier to 
 receive than others ; some require expla- 
 nation ; some deal with matters that are 
 mysterious; some are in debate among 
 Christians. But you have learned that 
 this is what might be naturally expected 
 from the character of the subjects touched, 
 from the circumstance that the text of 
 the Sacred Books has passed through a 
 process of translation by which shades of 
 meaning are modified, and from the con- 
 fessed tendency of the human mind to 
 put constructions on language suiting it to 
 its own preconceived ideas or preferences. 
 You are obliged to acknowledge that, in 
 spite of all differences and all obscurities, 
 there is a body of well-ascertained and gen- 
 erally received religious doctrine taught 
 in the Bible. It is so received by a vast 
 majority of those who have been in sym- 
 pathy with the spirit of the Revelation, 
 who have sought its real signification with 
 docility, and have made a cheerful obe- 
 dience % to its practical requirements one 
 of the guiding lights to its interpretation. 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 9 
 
 Drawing an obvious distinction between 
 those things in the subject-matter which 
 are essential to its life, as well as essential 
 to constitute a Christian in belief and 
 character, and certain other things con- 
 tained which are not so essential — a dis- 
 tinction clearly made out within the 
 Revelation itself — you acknowledge that 
 there is as good an agreement respecting 
 the former as could be reasonably ex- 
 pected, considering the nature of religion 
 as a spiritual reality, and considering the 
 imperfection of words as a medium of 
 communication. Moreover, you are aware 
 that in certain great, ancient, and power- 
 ful Christian organizations, claiming to 
 have a common origin and a common 
 interior life — claiming to be able to dem- 
 onstrate an unbroken historical existence 
 from the beginning, with invariable marks 
 of identification, and therefore pronounced 
 branches of one Church, there has come 
 down, from the earliest Christian age, 
 a Declaration or summary, in two con- 
 cordant shapes, of these vei;y facts and 
 
10 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 doctrines — -the essential matter of the 
 Faith : the Creed of the Apostles. 
 
 Again you observe an inseparable con- 
 nection between the prevalence of this 
 Faith and the welfare of our Race. In all 
 human history since Christ came, civiliza- 
 tion and Christianity are found together. 
 The first never exists in its highest form 
 without the second. The second never 
 exerts its peculiar power freely, without 
 producing the first. There were forms of 
 society before Christ came, and outside of 
 Judea, where the intellectual arts reached 
 a rare measure of cultivation. So we 
 sometimes speak of a Phoenician or a 
 Greek civilization. But the term is rel- 
 ative. No other civilization deserves a 
 moment's comparison with the Christian. 
 As soon as Christianity prevailed any- 
 where, a new and higher social type was 
 manifested. No ideal of human excel- 
 lence has transcended the Christian stand- 
 ard. No heroism has been more glorious, 
 no kind of moral dignity more majestic, 
 no domestic virtue more chaste, no mer- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 11 
 
 cantile honor more immaculate, than the 
 Christian ethics demand. It has every- 
 where been put beyond cavil by experi- 
 ment, that mankind are every way better 
 for the Gospel. 
 
 Go where you will and make up a 
 catalogue of those attributes or qualities 
 which belong to the higher social state, 
 you discover, on comparison, that they 
 are the very same which are emphatically 
 enjoined in the New Testament, and that 
 they actually appear in the world in pro- 
 portion as the entire Christian morality, 
 propagated and supported by the ordi- 
 nances of the Gospel, penetrates the 
 private life and controls the public action 
 of the people. You are not blind to the 
 logical inferences from this recognized 
 law, or to the immense confirmation it 
 lends to the claims of Revelation. 
 
 This, then, is your attitude. Intel- 
 lectually you are a Christian ; because 
 nothing in your intellect, on the whole, 
 denies the religion of Christ. Negatively 
 you are a Christian ; your adherence to 
 
12 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 this religion, if it can be called such, 
 consists rather in not denying, than in pos- 
 itively embracing and asserting it. Pas- 
 sively and nominally you are a Chris- 
 tian ; because, while belonging to a nation 
 or community called Christian, you offer 
 no conscious or intentional opposition to 
 this religion : though you neither avow 
 personal allegiance to it, nor make any 
 resolute endeavor to promote or establish 
 it. You are not an infidel, or even a 
 skeptic. You are not an atheist, because 
 you believe in God. You are not a pan- 
 theist, because you believe God to be a 
 person. You are not a rationalist, be- 
 cause, when you reflect, you acknowledge 
 an authority in Religion above your own 
 or any human reason. If you reckon your- 
 self in with any eccelesiastical or denomi- 
 national body it is still only speculatively 
 that you belong to it, because your prefer- 
 ence leads to no practical result, and tastes 
 are not convictions. 
 
 You may hang loosely upon a religious 
 society, but are not joined vitally to any. 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 13 
 
 You are not quite certain, I think, whether 
 you were brought by the faith of others, 
 as a child, into a covenant relation with 
 the Body of Christ, in the Sacrament of 
 Baptism, or not ; you are not concerned 
 about that ; if you were so brought to 
 baptism, you have taken no heed of the 
 relation, and have done nothing to prove 
 yourself a " very member incorporate " 
 in the Body. 
 
 Owing to some instincts that you have 
 never taken the trouble to account for, or 
 some traditional notions that render the 
 Christian name respectable, you would re- , 
 sent it as a wrong, possibly as an affront, 
 if you should be refused that name, Chris- 
 tian. But you do not pretend that the 
 amount of your title to it is more than I 
 have represented. 
 
 I have taken pains to mark out your 
 position in these respects somewhat more 
 fully than you have done it in the few 
 intimations you have given me, with a 
 particular object. It is important to any 
 right use of what is to follow that we note 
 
14 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 with equal care what you receive, or con- 
 cede, of the system of Divine Truth, and 
 what you do not. I am especially desir- 
 ous to have it understood that your diffi- 
 culties are not those of an absolute un- 
 believer. 
 
 Let no reader of these papers suppose 
 that what has here been said, inciden- 
 tally, of the proofs of Revelation, is in- 
 tended as a formal answer to those that 
 deny its truth. I have only alluded to 
 two or three lines of the manifold argu- 
 ment. It is sadly true that the class of 
 doubters is large, nor is it difficult to 
 detect the causes of its recent increase. 
 Many of these skeptics are but very 
 superficially acquainted with the real 
 grounds of the Christian belief. The 
 neglect of Christian history, in our sys- 
 tems of education, has long been amazing. 
 We are beginning to see that it is disas- 
 trous. 
 
 What is needed as much, perhaps, as 
 anything for the arrest of speculative un- 
 belief, is an appreciation of our Religion in 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 15 
 
 its historical character. That is, Chris- 
 tianity is a matter of fact. A notion 
 extensively prevails that it is entirely or 
 chiefly a matter of opinions, sentiments, 
 feelings, interior states, or else of abstract 
 principles. The vast importance of all 
 these in relation to practical results and 
 personal conduct is not to be overlooked. 
 The end of Christianity is character ; the 
 production in man of that likeness to 
 Christ which is the supreme manifesta- 
 tion on the earth of the glory of God. 
 There the divine and human elements 
 meet in their intended reconciliation ; 
 the Incarnation becomes a perpetual re- 
 deeming power ; with the second Adam 
 is a new creation. But there is a popular 
 confusion of ideas as respects two closely 
 related and yet actually different things; 
 namely, the Christianity of personal char- 
 acter on the one hand, and, on the other, 
 Christianity as a tangible reality outside of 
 our personality, a whole body of facts or- 
 ganically wrought together and ascertained 
 as any other facts are ascertained, an ob- 
 
16 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 jective, solid substance, an institution of 
 God, a visible and definable thing that He 
 has given to men and set up on the earth. 
 We can look at it, study it, identify it ; 
 it must be accounted for, for there it is. 
 If we think we can account for it without 
 Revelation, or in any other way than that 
 which Revelation opens, why, we can try 
 it. Some men have tried ; with what 
 success you know. But if we put all this 
 body of historical facts out of view, and 
 undertake to conceive of Christianity as 
 wholly a matter of internal states, or in- 
 dividual ideas, it is obvious that there can 
 be no certainty, no definiteness, no fixed- 
 ness, no standard or criterion, about it. 
 Some will agree about it, and some will 
 differ. Logically there may be as many 
 Christianities as there are individuals. 
 All those internal states, dispositions, 
 principles, that make up a Christ-like 
 character, are the fruit of that revealed, 
 embodied Christianity of facts, opening out 
 from God, containing a law of authority 
 and a life-giving energy, originating in 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 17 
 
 Jesus Christ born of Mary, " the Word 
 made flesh," and disclosed in divine 
 beauty through Him to the eyes and 
 hearts of mankind. Around his person, and 
 stretching down the ages from the track 
 He trod and the cross where He died, is 
 a broad and luminous belt of kindred, 
 clearly attested verities, further facts, 
 but al£ of them parts of one Whole. 
 Were our religion to be approached more 
 generally under this representation, it is 
 probable that multitudes would take a 
 new kind of interest in it, that many 
 loose and fluctuating notions respecting it 
 would be replaced by a settled confidence, 
 and that to these multitudes the expres- 
 sions " Kingdom of Heaven " and " Church 
 of God " would take on a new significa- 
 tion. Errors of opinion would be found 
 to have been thrust into association with 
 these facts by mortal hands ; but they 
 would also be found to be separable, be- 
 cause the tests of facts, including the origi- 
 nal Records, the historical events, and the 
 visible institutions are so much simpler 
 2 
 
18 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 and more satisfactory than the tests of 
 mere speculation. 
 
 There are three classes of unbelievers : 
 1. Unbelievers who are so from a natural 
 slowness and hardness to believe ; consti- 
 tutional doubters, congenital Thomases, — 
 who have taken little trouble to be rid 
 of their defect, and so suffer a contin- 
 ual loss of faith and peace. 2.* Unbe- 
 lievers from other men's misrepresenta- 
 tions of the Faith, from false education, 
 from the sincere blunders of mistaken 
 theologians, and from the bad lives and 
 small graces of avowed but inconsistent 
 believers. 3. Unbelievers from taste and 
 choice, from the conceit of being sharper 
 and wiser than the ages, from an ambi- 
 tion to sit in the pride of individual judg- 
 ment on Bible, Church, and all other 
 authority, — unbelievers having in them 
 the spirit and temper of doubt and a 
 relish of denial. You are not, I assume, 
 to be reckoned in with either of these 
 classes. Yet your position is not so far 
 removed from the skeptic's, or so secure 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 19 
 
 against sliding into it, as to make it un- 
 suitable for me to remind you that for 
 every one of these sorts of skepticism there 
 are remedies, ready for use. ^ Be assured, 
 that for a thorough defense of the Faith 
 against each and all of the various forms 
 of unbelief, ancient or modern — and the 
 modern are not so very unlike the ancient 
 as you may have been led to imagine — 
 the Church, in her scholarship and her 
 dialectics, feels entirely armed. Not all 
 her champions are thus armed. There 
 are honest contestants among them who 
 know but little of the enemy's real 
 positions, little of the real strength of 
 their own cause ; who have never had oc- 
 casion for the terrible encounter in their 
 own souls, and have not studied pro- 
 foundly the laws of the warfare elsewhere. 
 Understand, however, that to the skeptic 
 the Church has something to say about 
 skepticism. I have been acquainted with 
 a great many doubters, and I am obliged 
 in truth to say but very few of them, con- 
 tinuing doubters, have been willing to un- 
 
20 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 dertake to satisfy their minds by what I 
 should call a fair and reasonable amount of 
 careful reading, of the right kind, on the 
 Christian side. There would be little 
 difficulty in naming two or three affirma- 
 tive works in Christian literature on each 
 department of modern unbelief* which 
 would be acknowleged in any court of 
 Letters to deserve the highest intellectual 
 respect ; and they are such works that 
 till they or their equivalents have been 
 read, no man has an intellectual or moral 
 right to determine in favor of disbelief. 
 It would be well if, instead of jumping 
 to the conclusion that their doubts are 
 insoluble, minds that are tending to un- 
 belief would apply to some competent 
 authority for information. At present we 
 are on a different field. 
 
 Nor is the class of minds small to which 
 you, my dear friend, belong. You will 
 readily perceive that, though I am ad- 
 dressing myself to an individual inquirer, 
 and would gladly do as much if you were 
 all alone in your difficulties, vet I cannot 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 21 
 
 be unmindful that there is scarcely a con- 
 gregation or hamlet in the land where 
 scores of men and women are not to be 
 found who, if they were as candid as you 
 are, would confess to the same religious 
 dissatisfaction. In fact, I suppose that it 
 is precisely these difficulties which at this 
 moment create one of the most formida- 
 ble obstacles to the spiritual power of 
 Christ's Church and Gospel. Praise be 
 to God that here and there a frank, 
 thoughtful mind is moved to own the 
 first, faintest movements of the Spirit, 
 and seek the way of life ! You may be 
 sure you will not be chided or discouraged 
 by any true follower of that Christ, our 
 only Saviour, who treated with wonder- 
 ful love every sincere seeker of his friend- 
 ship. I promise you as tender a sympa- 
 thy in your troubles as one burdened, 
 tempted heart can feel for another. 
 Above all, do not forget that however 
 cordially and earnestly we may strive to 
 help one another, our first and final help 
 is in God alone, and that simple, direct, 
 
22 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 special prayer to Him is the surest path 
 to the light. 
 
 What, then, in a word, is your com- 
 plaint ? You are not, on your own show- 
 ing, a true disciple of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, in will, in heart, in life. Some- 
 thing is wanting at the very root. You 
 are conscious of it. Let us start at that 
 point, then, where the Spirit of God has 
 brought you. 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 THE WANT. — ORIGIN OF THE FEELING. 
 
 My dear Friend : In our conscious- 
 ness, a Christian life begins in a sense of 
 want. We must be dissatisfied with 
 what we have, and with ourselves as we 
 are, before we shall go in search of a bet- 
 ter part, or aspire to a loftier estate. 
 The Saviour appeals first to a feeling of 
 the need of being saved. Self-content- 
 ment, if such a degree of stupidity can 
 be said to exist at all in a moral nature, 
 is the most discouraging of conditions. 
 There is no power of spiritual quickening 
 in it. Neither the sensibilities nor the 
 activities of life are born of death ; and 
 to be absolutely self-approved is to be 
 dead. If we say that we have no sin, we 
 deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in 
 us ; and the absence of truth from the 
 
24 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 spiritual world is what the obscuration of 
 light is to the physical. If you thought 
 yourself well enough off as you are, you 
 would not have sought for more light ; 
 and it would be hard work to feel much 
 esteem for your manhood. You should be 
 thankful that you are in some measure 
 unhappy. 
 
 I remind you, observe, of what takes 
 place in the consciousness of man. About 
 the processes of the Divine Spirit there is 
 a deeper mystery. We know, however, 
 by his own plain declarations, that lie 
 moves upon the heart according to the 
 heart's own spiritual constitution, in con- 
 formity with its laws, and in the ways of 
 an everlasting order. Not only has He 
 had a personal concern for you, separat- # 
 ing you, in the gentle thoughts of his 
 loving-kindness, from all other souls that 
 ever lived, ever since you were born, but 
 the preparations of his grace were made 
 for you before you began to be. The 
 Lord " loved us before we loved Him." 
 St. Paul struck down among those pro- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 25 
 
 founder things where *>ur modern medita- 
 tions seldom drop their plummet, when he 
 said, " According as He hath chosen us in 
 Him before the foundation of the world." 
 Concurrently with the course of our nat- 
 ural, ordinary existence, the purpose of 
 this heavenly affection has been patiently 
 wording. It has been ever pressing to- 
 wards us, seeking tenderly to attract us 
 to Himself, and to fashion us into his 
 likeness, taking advantage of every turn 
 in the stream oL life, besetting us be- 
 hind and before, " following," and " pre- 
 venting," marvelously turning ordinary 
 events, little and great, into instruments 
 of this definite design, and often coming 
 upon us in providences so signal, in their 
 evident intention to make us understand 
 his meaning, that, in our imperfect dis- 
 cernment of the whole plan, we call them 
 " special." Run your eye back along 
 your past years, and candidly tell your- 
 self whether you cannot see traces of such 
 an assiduous goodness, a " besetting God." 
 It will be strange if you do not then in- 
 
26 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 quire of yourself what this signifies, and 
 what you owe for it. Whether you do or 
 not, the Grace works on, as it has from the 
 first, infinite, unwearied, trying to fashion 
 the poor frivolous thing, that you call your 
 life, into the glory that is possible for it. 
 One of Christ's most earnest efforts has 
 been to stir up in you the sense of need 
 which you are now willing to confess. 
 The Spirit works within us not only " to 
 do" but u to will," and to feel that un- 
 less we do so " will " we die. 
 
 Searching closely, we find that this 
 grace has an outward as well as an in- 
 ward economy. Operating immediately 
 on the soul, it operates also mediately 
 through the fixed channels, the conduct- 
 ing ordinances, the life-conveying sacra- 
 ments of a mediatorial system. St. Au- 
 gustine and others call them " life-giving " 
 sacraments ; and so they are ; but we must 
 take care not to hide the original Giver, 
 or confound even the stream of living 
 water with the hand of Love that pours 
 it. All the parts of this gracious system 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 27 
 
 are organically related to one another, 
 being fitly joined together, compacted 
 and articulated, each member nourished 
 and the whole body continually enlarging 
 by that which every joint supplieth. Je- 
 sus Christ is the head of this complete, 
 twofold, living organization. His incar- 
 nation is at once the source and the type 
 of the entire constitution, every depart- 
 ment and organ of it being constructed 
 on the pattern and warrant of the Heav- 
 only Life and Grace taking a visible form 
 in " the Word made Flesh." You can- 
 not afford to despise the office of these 
 mediate agents, in both awakening and 
 filling your spiritual wants. Their sanc- 
 tion is in the mediatorship of the Son of 
 God, — God's unseen life becoming visi- 
 ble and tangible, in order to impart itself 
 to an indifferent world. Your attention 
 may not have been much directed to them 
 in this higher character ; for between a 
 false spiritualistic philosophy on the one 
 hand, and an engrossing materialism on 
 the other, their Divine appointment has 
 
28 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 been well-nigh forgotten, and accordingly 
 much of our piety has become ghost-like, 
 and our living carnal. But as you come 
 to regard them in this pure evangelic 
 light, as the first Christians did, they will 
 put on an inexpressible beauty. You 
 will see that God has dealt with us in the 
 simplest way, on the most natural terms, 
 taking us body and spirit, just as we are, 
 and not proposing to put asunder in relig- 
 ion what He has joined together every- 
 where else. He reaches the unseen 
 springs of penitence and prayer by a 
 pathway not entirely invisible to sense. 
 No matter how jealous you may be of at- 
 tributing too much efficacy to external 
 forms, you must acknowledge that nearly 
 all those impressions that you consider as 
 coming directly from the Spirit into the 
 heart, are found, after all, to be borne in 
 by some outward vehicle, or instrumen- 
 tality - — a written text, a word spoken, 
 a sight seen, a sorrow overtaking, an 
 event occurring. Besides, among impres- 
 sions that are wholly without regulation, 
 
STEPS- TO A LIVING FAITH. 29 
 
 or law, or criterion, you know that a great 
 many run to extravagance, fanaticism, 
 self-conceit, and religious absurdity. Jf 
 I am not mistaken, you have sometimes 
 laid off the responsibility of your own 
 indifference upon the disgust and reaction 
 occasioned by that sort of sentimentalism. 
 "There is one Spirit and one Body." 
 You will discover here a very merciful 
 adaptation to our practical necessities. 
 That of itself will invest the subject with 
 fresh interest, I think, and will perhaps 
 wake up a new desire to go further, and 
 will help you to feel that St. Paul was 
 right in calling the Christian discipleship 
 a " reasonable service." Indeed, you will 
 begin to wonder, I suspect, that you have 
 not sooner recognized this twofold work- 
 ing of the Spirit in all parts of the Bible^ 
 as well as in the history of the Church. 
 
 I have referred particularly to it here 
 on account of its connection with the 
 sense of want, which is the beginning of 
 conscious Christianity in the squI. You 
 find the want making itself felt. But 
 
30 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH, 
 
 does it make itself felt ? There was no 
 such motive force there. You did not call 
 it into being. It came. You felt it. It 
 was present by no act of your will. 
 Whence was it ? Suppose you were 
 brought, in the obedience of faith, in 
 childhood, into the sacramental covenant 
 of baptism, then this waking up of a de- 
 sire after your true inheritance, this feel- 
 ing after God — if haply you may find 
 Him — is a part of the fulfillment of his 
 baptismal promise, which He was " sure 
 to keep and perform." The germ is 
 springing after all. Seeds sprout that 
 have been lying buried long. It was not 
 an empty form. The water was not in 
 vain, because the Spirit, and a pledge of 
 the Spirit, and a sponsorial faith and 
 prayer, were with it. How could it be in 
 vain ? Whatever you may desire to do 
 with this awakened want, be sure it is a 
 part of your Father's faithfulness to you, 
 and will take its place as a witness for 
 his affection. If you were not brought 
 into the Body sacramentally, then you 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 81 
 
 have only to be thankful for a yet more 
 abundant grace. Your Lord has done 
 more than He promised. The river has 
 overflowed its banks to reach your lips. 
 Beyond what you have had reason to ex- 
 pect or claim, not being under the cove- 
 nant, you are visited and touched by the 
 boundless Compassion that would not 
 leave even the Gentile without some wit- 
 ness. You have still to say, - 
 
 " 'Tis mercy all that thou hast brought 
 My mind to seek her peace in thee." 
 
 The connection, however, even then, 
 between this gracious experience in your 
 religious history and the initiatory sacra- 
 ment is not, by any means, dissolved, as 
 we shall see. What in the one case came 
 after, in the other comes before. As the 
 salvation before Christ came was still 
 Christian salvation, so all the movements 
 of the Spirit of the Saviour on the heart 
 bear a secret relation to the revealed 
 kingdom and its laws. As will appear, 
 Christian grace is not complete till you 
 are a branch on the Vine, a member in 
 
32 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 the Body. You cannot too firmly believe 
 that all the spiritual influences and pow- 
 ers which play through our human life 
 emanate from the person of Christ, and 
 that all spiritual help for us centres there. 
 The Comforter testifies of Him. It will 
 assist you greatly if you can join with this 
 faith a hearty conviction that the only 
 religious progress you can hope to make 
 will not be independent of the worship, 
 the ordinances, the rites, the visible order 
 of the Kingdom. 
 
 At any rate, recognize in yourself, first 
 of all, this feeling of something wanting, 
 this restless sense of need. However it 
 came, however you may think it came, 
 by whatever untraceable course it found 
 its way, take it very humbly and grate- 
 fully as a gift of your God. Do not 
 despise it because it is feeble. Do not 
 distrust it because it is not constant, 
 or not constantly remembered. You do 
 not know what boundless blessings may 
 come in its train. Treat it rightly, and 
 it may be the germ of infinite gain, of a 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 33 
 
 harvest of vigorous virtues. Reverence 
 your self -discontent. Taking you just as 
 you are, it is the healthiest symptom of 
 your soul : the finest thing in you. You 
 are not satisfied with yourself, religiously, 
 as a man, living in Christendom. Act 
 accordingly and acknowledge it. <No man- 
 lier thing have you ever done. Kneel 
 down, like a child, like a man, at once, and 
 thank God that you have done it. A 
 vague dissatisfaction, a disturbed feeling 
 of being generally wrong, of being out of 
 the best way, is not the same thing with 
 a sense of the need of God. Many men 
 know that they want something, and 
 something quite different from all that 
 they have or are seeking, but do not 
 know what they want. And yet these 
 two states are meant to be links in one 
 chain. There is a step between them — 
 a step that too many never take ; for it is 
 sadly true that there is no spot along the 
 whole line, from the swine-herd of the far 
 country to the Father's house, where 
 some weak feet have not halted. The 
 Spirit has done his first salutary work 
 
34 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 when He has made us uneasy in ourselves 
 and uneasy with the world. What trage- 
 dies, and famines, and slaughters, might 
 have been escaped, if restless multitudes, 
 feeling the pain, had not from pride, or 
 eagerness of appetite, or fatal delay, at- 
 tempted to bury it or narcotize it, instead 
 of listening to it ! What it requires is an 
 interpreter of its solemn voice, and a read- 
 iness to follow it as the prophet of a better 
 future. Many a soul that finally came to 
 cry out for the living God, as the hart 
 panteth after the water brooks, could only 
 say at first that it was " athirst." The 
 benediction of the beatitude falls, to be 
 sure, only on those who hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness ; and it is worth your 
 notice that all the blessings pronounced 
 before that one, are promised to simply 
 receptive states, emptied of self, — pov- 
 erty of spirit, sorrow, humility. Yet 
 those hearts are not far from the blessing 
 which have found out that the world's 
 cisterns are broken. Our next step will 
 be to look more closely at the nature of 
 this want. 
 
LETTER III. 
 THE NATURE OF THE WANT. 
 
 My dear Friend : A sense of spirit- 
 ual need being the beginning of spiritual 
 action, and necessary to both repentance 
 and faith, the stirring up of that sense be- 
 comes, as we have seen, the first effort of 
 Divine Love in the soul. Here are the 
 model and rule for human ministrations. 
 In dealing with ourselves, or with one 
 another, if we aim at deep work, or 
 thorough results, we must go bravely 
 and honestly at this mark. Preeminently 
 it is the prophet's business. Men in ear- 
 nest will not shrink from the awful office 
 — stern, searching, incisive, painful, and 
 therefore very often unwelcome, but mer- 
 ciful with the far-sighted mercy which re- 
 gards the true peace beyond the transient 
 pain. You notice it in all those parents, 
 
36 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 disciplinarians, spiritual masters and pas 
 tors, who know the difference between 
 affection and fondness, between kindness 
 and indulgence. The great workmen for 
 God have wrought straightforward in the 
 mystery of this higher faith and charity, 
 willing to hurt when they were sure 
 thereby to bless. The preachers of grand 
 est success, in all periods, have been those 
 that had most skill and power in making 
 their hearers uncomfortable in the knowl- 
 edge of themselves, and discontented 
 with their past lives. Hence the terrible 
 severity of those rebukes, in Holy Scrip- 
 ture, that fall on messengers who deliver 
 to the people the message the people wish 
 and are delighted, in their low-toned life, 
 to hear, instead of the message given them 
 when they were sent. Smooth prophesy- 
 ings are lying prophesyings. When apa- 
 thy is the disease, and drowsiness the 
 symptom, soft sayings are the hardest in 
 their cruelty. Not that the sense of want 
 is kindled always in one style, or always 
 in direct terms, or by always technically 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 37 
 
 talking to men as impenitent sinners. 
 Pulpits that have made this their only- 
 way are responsible for a miserable mass 
 of callous consciences. But be the method 
 what it will, the first object is the same 
 — the creation of a conscious hunger. 
 Some by hearing the plainest invective, 
 some by an acute analysis of the interior 
 morbid condition, some by the uncovering 
 of their delusions, some by the wholesome 
 stimulation of the better powers till they 
 put the worse to shame, some by being 
 made to look at lofty standards and pure 
 ideals in contrast with their meanness and 
 selfishness, yet all alike must come to 
 feel and confess that they are empty till 
 the Lord's hand fills them. They are the 
 strong and happy souls which take the 
 truth of God on these rugged terms, not 
 counting the truth-teller their enemy, not 
 impatient of faithfully-reproving lips, not 
 shrinking from the humiliating discovery 
 that they are Laodiceans, poor, and blind, 
 and naked. It is nothing less than ever- 
 lasting life, my friend, that you want. 
 
38 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 You can afford some wretchedness and 
 homesickness for that. Be encouraged 
 that you have found out enough of what 
 you lack to put you out of ease, starting 
 in you a quarrel with your indifference. 
 You say that you have too little sense of 
 sin. No doubt you have. But how did 
 you happen to say it ? Unless you are 
 utterly insincere, as I do not believe you 
 are, your very saying of that is a sign of 
 hope, a token that a new life is generated 
 and quickened, a faint ray of morning 
 light on the cloud in the East. 
 
 When our Lord, in his personal min- 
 istry, came to an indifferent world, he 
 sought primarily to convict it of just this 
 defect, to make it conscious of its indiffer- 
 ence. From the Record we learn the 
 wondrous fact that, to a large extent, He 
 did this as no other teacher ever did, by 
 simply showing himself, in the Divine 
 tenderness of his benignity and the 
 beauty of his holiness, to the eyes of 
 men. His mere presence, by the marvel- 
 ous power which absolute goodness exerts 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 39 
 
 over evil, smote the persons He met with 
 a kind of self-condemnation. They looked 
 upon Him, and a strange self -revelation 
 flashed through their natures. Instantly, 
 and as it were in spite of themselves, they 
 stood in new relations to themselves, to 
 their fellow-men, to God, and to judgment, 
 because He was there. They can throw 
 off this silent grasp upon their consciences 
 only by going away and plunging back 
 into the old superficial life. A thorough- 
 bred Pharisee was equal to that policy. 
 A few, of simpler habits, men of more 
 open spirit, women whose tears were not 
 all burnt out of their fountains, looked 
 into the Heavenly face, listened to the 
 Heavenly voice, and knew that they 
 needed Him. For awhile this seems to 
 have been all that they knew. It drew 
 them to Him. As they went on it bound 
 them to Him. They said to themselves, 
 " This stranger can give me all I want." 
 They were not instructed yet. There was 
 no explanation. The august opening of 
 the mysteries of the Gospel of the King- 
 
40 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 dom was not yet begun, by one parable, 
 beatitude, miracle, or prediction. Men 
 were made disciples by another evangeli- 
 zation, by a secret waking up of self-con- 
 tempt and self-renunciation, by the heart's 
 hunger, and a sufficing assurance that He 
 would, fill it. The latter part of the first 
 chapter of St. John's Gospel illustrates 
 this, in the details of such a following of 
 a new-comer as never was before or since. 
 John the Baptist had said a few half- 
 understood words of the Nazarene as a 
 Lamb of God, to take away sin: an im- 
 perfect preaching of the Cross. But He 
 in whom the power and glory of the 
 Cross lay was there. That was enough. 
 He said, " Come ; " and men came. It 
 was an easy matter to throw away fishing- 
 nets, boats, a tax-gatherer's table, and to 
 leave houses, and livelihood, and every- 
 thing held most precious to that hour. 
 The feeling of want arose in its mighty 
 mastery, because He in whom " all the 
 fullness dwelt bodily " stood manifest. 
 When He went on to teach and preach, 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 41 
 
 it was only a more articulate expression 
 of the same influence. He took up the 
 Baptist's cry " Repent," a word of kin- 
 dred import to the " Turn ye " of the 
 older prophets. By the well of Samaria 
 the guilty woman had her hidden thirst 
 interpreted to her under the image of the 
 well-water. Any sudden disclosure of 
 his Divinity evidently had the same pen- 
 etrating and convicting effect as his lan- 
 guage. At a merciful miracle which, we 
 might have thought, would only have 
 made the witnesses complacently thank- 
 ful, St. Peter exclaimed, " I am a sinful 
 man," — not good enough for this Pres- 
 ence, — " Depart from me ; " and when 
 the same apostle, a primate of penitence 
 though not of prerogative, afterward took 
 up his missionary calling and preached 
 the first and pattern sermon at Pente- 
 cost, the burden of it was, " Behold your 
 Saviour, whom you have crucified, and 
 let the sight of Him make you repent, 
 drive you to your baptismal washing, and 
 through faith to life." In the personal 
 
42 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 revelation of Jesus, all that was bad in 
 men became visibly and confessedly bad ; 
 yet this conviction became not a force of 
 despair, but rather an inspiration of hope ; 
 because at the same moment all capaci- 
 ties of good sprang into confident vigor 
 under his eye, and along with the feeling 
 of spiritual need there came, in Him, the 
 infinite and inexhaustible and free supply, 
 — " the Lord our Righteousness." 
 
 Proceeding now to analyze this general 
 sense of spiritual need, you find it has 
 several elements. In actual experience, 
 these may make themselves felt in dif- 
 ferent individuals with different degrees 
 of power ; one of them may sting this 
 heart, and another that ; but they all be- 
 long to the beginnings of the conscious 
 life of God in the soul. 
 
 1. First is the want of being at one 
 with God. I doubt if a single soul, when 
 the faintest rudiments of Gospel truth 
 have once been presented, can be found 
 wholly devoid of a feeling of uneasiness so 
 long as it is alien from God, and because 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 43 
 
 of that alienation. All that is necessary 
 to it is a belief that there is a God. Once 
 let that idea enter and lodge itself in your 
 mind — and with most men it enters by 
 a door that no mortal hand opened — and 
 ever afterward a shadow of fear pursues 
 you till you know that you and God are 
 friends with one another. The shadow 
 may be slight, fugitive, making scarcely 
 a deeper impression than the shade of a 
 thin, white cloud on the mountain side 
 across which it flies in the flood of noon. 
 But it comes and comes again, and again, 
 and always there is some questioning, 
 some misgiving, some little check of the 
 blood, or shrinking of joy. Give it a 
 voice, a chance to speak, and it would 
 say, " All is not right between me and 
 God." Peace is disturbed. There is a 
 twinge of pain. This God is almighty : 
 then it cannot be safe to be estranged 
 from Him. He made the world and us . 
 Can it be well for us to live on as if thei^ 
 were no such Being ? He is the Judg^; 
 What is his judgment of me ? He is lov** v 
 
44 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 What does it mean that I have no love 
 for Him ? His love holds me in on every 
 side : What must come of it, if I go on 
 just shutting my eyes to it, and trying to 
 forget it ? Unquestionably there are ex- 
 pedients enough to help you in that mad 
 forgetting. The world is a curiosity-shop 
 brimful of them ; the flesh promptly fur- 
 nishes them through five avenues ; the 
 devil makes it his obliging business to 
 pass them on in their most fascinating 
 shapes and colors. But what of ail this ? 
 Your soul's divine instinct is mightier than 
 all of them. Your soul aches under its 
 alienation. It cannot rest till it looks up 
 with clear eyes, and is sure that it is on 
 the side of God — that between itself and 
 God there is no separation. 
 
 2. Attending this want of oneness 
 with the Heavenly Father, and so near 
 to it, as practically to be a part of it, 
 is the want of a special reconciliation. 
 There is a secret feeling that all this rest- 
 less sense of alienation and boding fear 
 may be gone, and become a thing of the 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 45 
 
 past, remembered only as an ugly dream. 
 Call it an intuition, or an operation of the 
 Spirit that strives with man, or a convic- 
 tion let in upon you at some time by the 
 Word of Life, no matter now what your 
 account of it is. You reckon yourself a 
 "believer." I am not anxious to inquire 
 the amount of your belief. It is enough 
 to keep alive in you, or else to press back 
 often upon you, a conviction that there is 
 such a thing as an act of Reconciliation, 
 definite and effectual, and that it carries 
 an estranged soul over at once into that 
 blessed state of friendship and peace. 
 You have heard of it as known by' ex- 
 perience to thousands in the Church. 
 You believe in it, as possible for you. A 
 conscious need of being " at one " with 
 God would be only a tantalizing torment, 
 unless there were a reality of at-one-ment 
 answering to it. The one want passes 
 into the other. You need not puzzle 
 yourself about the process. Bible and 
 Church say but little about processes ; 
 they deal with facts. The fact with you 
 
46 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 is, that you want to have that miserable, 
 haunting, guilty sense of absence from 
 God, replaced by a real restoration to 
 Him. The fact in the everlasting mercy 
 of God towards the whole world, which 
 precisely meets that want in you is, that 
 He is in Christ, reconciling the world to 
 Himself. A little positive and resolute 
 faith in you will bring the want and sup- 
 ply together. 
 
 3. An obstacle to this reconciliation 
 arises in the recollection of your past 
 disobedience and present unworthiness. 
 Granted that oneness with God would 
 bring you peace, and that there is a way 
 to it in the reconciliation of the Saviour, 
 there has been a direct, personal, life-long 
 affront on your part toward God, in all 
 this evasion, faithlessness, and selfishness. 
 You know enough of the relations be- 
 tween one person and another to under- 
 stand that there must be a direct personal 
 forgiveness of you by a personal God, 
 before there can be open relations, or a 
 taste of strength and gladness. Hence, 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 47 
 
 a part of the want is a want of pardon 
 and of an assurance of absolution. The 
 old score of accumulated transgression 
 must be blotted out. One gracious stroke 
 of forgiving Love must cut away the 
 clog dragging at your feet. One word of 
 power must make you whole, and turn 
 your fear to trust. You want to be cer- 
 tain that for Christ's sake, God hath for- 
 given not only mankind at large but you. 
 You want the Cross, and you want the 
 comforting voice of the Church, the Body 
 of the Lord, reiterating to you not only 
 the promise that you shall he but the 
 affirmation that you are forgiven and ab- 
 solved, in that you believe and are washed 
 and made a branch on the Vine. 
 
 4. But, in addition to these cravings 
 which are subjective, having relation to 
 internal states and satisfactions, you want 
 the satisfaction of a right and definite 
 position among your fellow-men, founded 
 on these right relations with God, ex- 
 pressing them, openly declaring them. I 
 think this is an almost universal desire, as 
 
48 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 soon as any religious life springs up, for- 
 cible no doubt in proportion to the natu- 
 ral honesty and constitutional straightfor- 
 wardness of the person. There is a great 
 significance in it. We are not mere in- 
 dividuals. We are bound in with a social 
 and corporate life by bonds and links and 
 ties of marvelous delicacy and mysteri- 
 ous meaning. These ties involve our 
 spiritual faculties and responsibilities. 
 Neither our Christian life here nor our 
 final salvation can be a merely individual 
 concern. There is a Body of many 
 members. Hence a true Christian must 
 be a Christian before men, among men, 
 in their face and sight. For their sake 
 and his own he must be enrolled, and in 
 a communion. No concealment, or am- 
 biguity, or misconstruction, as to his place 
 and belongings, can be tolerated. He is 
 no true soldier who hides his colors, or 
 thinks to fight out of line. In this world 
 belonging to God, and with two armies 
 occupying it, and no strip of neutral terri- 
 tory anywhere between them, can you 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 49 
 
 possibly treat your Maker loyally or fil- 
 ially without taking sides ? It is a part 
 of truth to stand aright, as well as to 
 think and feel aright. Are you not con- 
 scious of this, and a little uneasy at your 
 fictitious neutrality ? Is not this a part 
 of your want ? 
 
 5. I apprehend that the more you re- 
 flect on the matter the more you will feel 
 yourself in the wrong as having either 
 believed too much or done too little. 
 This, if you will let me say so, is a con- 
 spicuous weakness in the whole class of 
 men to which you belong. You lack, 
 and will not deny that you lack, consist- 
 ency. As a " believer "it is impossible 
 for you, with solid respect for yourself, or 
 with a perfectly frank countenance before 
 the world, to stay " indifferent." Belief 
 in spiritual verities is of the nature of a 
 law constraining the will, kindling the 
 conscience, impelling the active powers. 
 Belief in God the Father binds you to 
 filial obedience ; in the Son, to a confes- 
 sion and discipleship ; in the Holy Spirit, 
 4 
 
50 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 to a consecrated life — a life of prayer 
 and advancing holiness ; in Revelation, 
 to a practical performance of the plain 
 requirements of the Book ; in the Church, 
 to an explicit, acknowledged membership 
 and a grateful reception of both of its 
 healing sacraments. There is no stop- 
 ping-place midway. Speaking well of 
 Christianity as a civilizer, paying a 
 parish-tax, helping to build a church, 
 supporting or entertaining a clergyman, 
 attending public worship, do not at all 
 meet the demands of consistency in the 
 case. Neglecting the most vital and most 
 characteristic obligations of Christ's re- 
 ligion, and yet admitting its truths, you 
 put yourself in an attitude that you find 
 it utterly out of the question to defend, 
 or even to attempt to defend. Were you 
 to see a man, in any other department 
 of life, going so far, in conviction and 
 action, in expenditure and painstaking, as 
 to provide a complete apparatus for some 
 special operation, and then stopping short 
 of the decisive and ultimate benefit all 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 51 
 
 along contemplated, you would apply to 
 him names harsher than you would be 
 ready to hear applied to yourself, even by 
 those who, disinterestedly, watch for your 
 soul. 'Are you sure 'that you would be as 
 patient with him as Christ's ambassadors 
 are with you ? I think I have talked 
 with hundreds of men occupying — I 
 cannot say holding — the ground you oc- 
 cupy, and though I have endeavored, in 
 every way, to draw out an intelligent defi- 
 nition and vindication of the position, I 
 have never yet, in a single instance, suc- 
 ceeded in seeing it undertaken. It is not ' 
 for me, my dear friend, to impugn your 
 candor and honor by presuming you do 
 not really want to be out of that unmanly 
 compromise, on a firmer footing. Might 
 not the thorough-going soldier, faithful in 
 the field and faithful at the feast, say to 
 you, " Your rock is not as our Rock, even 
 ye yourselves being judges ? " 
 
 6. There is a future. A cry not to be 
 suppressed in your own better nature, 
 and the solemn prophecy ringing all 
 
52 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 through that Word of Heaven in Holy 
 Scripture, which you say you believe, 
 proclaim it with almost equal distinctness. 
 Every human heart wants something very 
 definite in order to confront " that Day." 
 I shall say nothing to you about the pro- 
 portions of the figurative and the literal 
 in the predictions ; for you know as well 
 as I do that the eternal reality is not to 
 be trifled with or covered up by any such 
 imbecile devices. The Day will try every 
 man's work, every man's foot-hold, of 
 what sort it is. There must be some- 
 thing to hold by. A " belief " will not 
 do it, if it is a belief too short to reach 
 from the intellect to the heart and will. 
 A doctrinal theory, a pew in church, 
 an outward conformity, handsome words 
 about your ecclesiastical order spiced 
 with sarcasms on the ways of your neigh- 
 bors, along with a life intensely absorbed 
 in your business, your family, your repu- 
 tation, will not answer. There mil shine 
 at last a great and scorching Light, be- 
 fore which the secrets ei all hearts will 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 53 
 
 be opened. There can be no illusion 
 about the Right hand and the Left. 
 Forewarnings of that separation are writ- 
 ten all over your common scenery. The 
 stream sweeps on. Familiar forms vanish. 
 The graves open and close. Your body 
 shows symptoms of wearing out. What- 
 ever the changes may be, is there not " one 
 thing " that is a preparation for them all, 
 and makes a man superior to them all ? 
 Do you not want that ?. Does your pres- 
 ent religious condition give it to you ? 
 
 7. Suppose, finally, that as a reason- 
 ably thinking and honestly acting man, 
 you have admitted these wants in you, 
 dealt fairly by them, and followed their 
 sacred leading, instead of hiding, stifling, 
 or running away from them. The better 
 life, born of the renewing spirit, with 
 your consenting will, has begun. Still 
 there is one want more. This secret, 
 Divine life is in a human vessel and 
 wants food, — a heavenly nourishment 
 that it may grow thereby. Growth is its 
 law, and if it is not fed it cannot grow ; 
 
54 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 it cannot else but die. My friend, need 
 I say to you that a life which only the 
 Spirit of Christ can create or awaken, 
 only Christ Himself can sustain ? that it 
 is by his own hand, from his own heart, 
 in his own banqueting-house, at his own 
 board, that .the immortal refection and 
 refreshment must be given ? When 
 it is farthest from home, the longing, 
 famishing heart sees, half in penitential 
 memory, and half in the expectation of 
 faith, the " Bread enough and to spare." 
 What comes of that vision ? 
 
LETTER IV. 
 THE CHOICE. 
 
 My dear Friend : It has appeared 
 that the first movements of spiritual life 
 in an indifferent soul arise from the stir- 
 ring of an inward sense of dissatisfaction. 
 The diversified forms under which this 
 feeling asserts itself in different persons, 
 or in the same person at different times, 
 show the extent and depth of the disorder, 
 as well as the manifold mercy of that 
 ever-soliciting Spirit who is so unwilling 
 to leave us to ourselves. There is no more 
 affecting view of our human life than 
 that which presents it to us as a scene 
 of this perpetual working of Divine com- 
 passion, seeking by every possible agency 
 and avenue to enter in and rouse us from 
 apathy, to break the sinful sleep, to open 
 our eyes on the beauty of holiness in the 
 
#56 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 face of Christ, to unseal our ears that they 
 may hear the voices of a higher world 
 than this, and to draw us into the bless- 
 edness of reconciliation and communion 
 with our Lord. The air we breathe is all 
 quick with these gracious ministries. Till 
 we find it out we discern only the surface, 
 we comprehend nothing of the glory, of 
 the common life we are living. It is but 
 a tread-mill march, or a mere scramble 
 of appetites, or a whirl of vulgar intoxi- 
 cations, or a mocking dance of illusions. 
 Strong words are used by Holy Scripture 
 to declare the earnest reality of this Di- 
 vine solicitation, so much more merciful 
 to us than we are to ourselves. The 
 Spirit strives with man. He pleads, He 
 presses, He teaches, He watches, He pur- 
 sues, He cries, He wrestles, He agonizes, 
 He maketh intercession with groanings 
 that cannot be uttered. What kind of a 
 nature must it be that can stay indiffer- 
 ent to a Love like that ? 
 
 In most cases, under this solemn deal- 
 ing with us, there is no stopping of the 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 57 
 
 stricken soul to resolve the distress into 
 its elements. One keen, overmastering 
 conviction of being wrong, mean, guilty, 
 and in helpless danger takes a tremendous 
 possession of the man. It is like a spe- 
 cial instinct provided for the mind now 
 awaking to the everlasting realities in 
 which it is entangled. That soul is in 
 its utmost peril ; o'f what precise evils or 
 pains it is in peril, it does not undertake 
 to inquire ; it is in no mood for analyzing 
 its alarm : it only knows that all conceiv- 
 able evils are round about it, and threat- 
 ening it, because it is away from God. 
 " Lost" is the Scripture word, not a whit 
 too vigorous for those who know anything 
 about it. Hence the question, the New 
 Testament tells us, that comes to the lips 
 of a man convicted of this one supreme 
 want — this sense of inward separation 
 from God flashing through him — whether 
 his outward living has been respectable or 
 dissolute — is the question of instant dan- 
 ger — " What shall I do to be saved? " 
 With the degree of vividness or intensity 
 
58 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 in the conviction, as with the manner of 
 demonstrating it, no doubt temperament, 
 or other personal qualities, will have some- 
 thing to do. I only beg you to mark two 
 things. One is that you are never to 
 make any other man's experience, espe- 
 cially as to its emotional characteristics, a 
 model or a measure for your own ; incal- 
 culable mischief has been done, discour- 
 aging effort and depressing hope, by this 
 unhealthy comparison of the mere phe- 
 nomena of faith in its individual manifes- 
 tations. The other is, that the experience 
 itself — that stage of the inner- progress 
 where the soul feels and confesses its com- 
 plete helplessness, insufficiency, emptiness, 
 and knows itself to be lost without God, 
 is an essential reality, with every soul that 
 ever passes from unbelief or indifference 
 to the power and peace of a union, by 
 faith, with Jesus Christ. The study of 
 subjective religion discovers it as a logical 
 necessity, while all Christian biography 
 reveals it as a spiritual fact. I need not 
 inform you that in the Revelation which 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 59 
 
 you believe, from one end of the Bible to 
 the other, no doctrine is clearer or more 
 conspicuous. 
 
 At this point comes a decision. It is not 
 enough to say that it ought to come ; it 
 must come. Strictly speaking it is super- 
 fluous to exhort the man to decide whether 
 he will be God's true child and servant or 
 not ; whether he will serve God or him- 
 self, Christ or this world, the Holy Spirit 
 or Satan. He makes that decision inevi- 
 tably. I may urge him to make it on the 
 right grounds, to make it fairly and intel- 
 ligently, to make it for his eternal life, 
 and to declare it honestly when he makes 
 it. But make it he must. There are only 
 two possible attitudes in which you or any 
 man can stand toward God in Christ: one 
 is that of union, the other of opposition ; 
 one is that of willing, conscious, faithful, 
 affectionate obedience, the other is that of 
 distrust, separation, alienation. Not to 
 be in the first is to be in the last. Neu- 
 trality is utterly out of the question, be- 
 cause it is incompatible with the nature of 
 
60 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 tlie moral and personal relations subsist- 
 ing. Towards a man you may hold a re- 
 lation of indifference or moral neutrality, 
 because the personalities are finite, and 
 the spheres distinct. The two simply let 
 one another alone. But God is every- 
 where. He creates, encompasses, pre- 
 serves, commands, loves, redeems us. By 
 no possibility can we escape these intense 
 and intimate ties, holding us to Him. No 
 energy, no will, no disbelief, no sacrilege, 
 no oblivion, can set us free from the re- 
 sponsibility of choice. The will of the 
 one or the other person, yourself or God, 
 is obeyed. " He that is not with me is 
 against me." The particular value of 
 that state to which you have come, when 
 your empty soul hungers and thirsts after 
 God, conscious of the estrangement, is 
 that it breaks up the illusory and treach- 
 erous pretense of such neutrality, teaches 
 you that indifference means disloyalty, 
 and moves you powerfully to choose 
 aright. 
 
 If we seek the causes of this division 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 61 
 
 of the life of the moral world, and this 
 absolute necessity of being on one side or 
 the other, we shall find them in the fact 
 that the Lord of all souls is one God, the 
 discriminating law of his single Will ar- 
 raying all souls in two armies, either as 
 being in harmony with that Will, or in 
 discord with it ; and again, on the other 
 part, in the freedom of man. With these 
 conditions, the more you think of it, the 
 plainer it will become to you that to pre- 
 sume upon indifference as a kind of mid- 
 dle-ground of temporary security where 
 you are waiting for a convenient time to 
 make up your mind, or for some wrench 
 in your life to take you off your feet and 
 sweep you into the Kingdom of Heaven 
 involuntarily, is something a gi;eat deal 
 worse than folly. There is not a word in 
 the Book of Life that lends any color to 
 a sophistry like that. Mix ourselves up 
 as we may, let the gradations in the ap- 
 pearances and outer details of character 
 be what they will, the line runs out 
 straight from the Great White Throne, 
 
62 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 and you and I and all souls are on the 
 right hand of it, or on the left. 
 
 This act of choice is distinct in its na- 
 ture, direct in its operation, generally 
 instantaneous, and yet is in no respect 
 inconsistent with the laws of the rational 
 constitution. You decide whether or not 
 you will be Christ's man, in the same 
 way, by the same sort of mental action, 
 that you decide what profession you will 
 follow, or in what country you will live. 
 Put promptly away all those artificial 
 representations that would envelop the 
 matter in a maze of mystical confusion, or 
 take it out of the range of simple, intelli- 
 gible, reasonable doings. There are mys- 
 teries in religion, but not in this region of 
 it. There are things of faith that are spir- 
 itually discerned, but this act is not one 
 of them. Let there be no necromancy 
 and no fanaticism beclouding the sharp 
 question whether you will be a thorough- 
 going, unequivocal disciple. Long trains 
 of thought may very well go before the 
 actual determination. The mind may 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 63 
 
 advance and recede, waver and deliberate, 
 weigh reasons, or be swayed by passion ; 
 but finally there is a moment when the 
 great controversy is settled, the face is 
 turned, the foot is planted, the will de- 
 clares, " I will arise." Th§ heart gives 
 itself at once to the Lord, and thenceforth 
 is more truly self-possessed, better bal- 
 anced, and resting in a deeper peace, than 
 ever before. 
 
 In one respect this decision is unlike 
 all others, and stands alone. It compre- 
 hends the whole field of character. It is 
 not one of a class or series of decisions. 
 By placing you on the right side of the 
 great line, it determines that on that side 
 also a great many of your less-considered 
 actions, indeed the main body of your 
 actions, shall lie. Every-day life includes 
 thousands of deeds which scarcely seem to 
 have any definite moral complexion, be- 
 cause no specific moral motive is conscious- 
 ly connected with them. This Christian 
 choice throws all these over into the sphere 
 of dutiful obedience, because it assigns 
 
64 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 the man himself to a dutiful position, on 
 God's side, with godly motives. The old 
 sacramental writers used to distinguish 
 three of their seven sacraments as " giving 
 character," and as " character" is indeli- 
 ble these were never to be repeated, name- 
 ly, Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders. 
 We may adopt the expression for that in- 
 ward act of choice on which Confirmation 
 sets the seal. If it is genuine, and intelli- 
 gent as Church teaching can make it, it is 
 very rarely, to say the least, in the normal 
 progress of the spiritual man, to be done 
 a second time. Once for all the younger 
 son says, " I will arise and go to my 
 Father." After that, the ups and downs 
 of the homeward journey over the moun- 
 tains are not very hard to bear. 
 
 You have too much good sense, I trust, 
 to raise the cavil of human inability, and 
 to excuse yourself from choosing, on the 
 pretext that your business is to wait for 
 the sovereign energy of God. No doubt, 
 if you desire to put a metaphysical puzzle 
 into your business of laying hold on Eter- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 65 
 
 nal Life, this one will serve your turn as 
 conveniently as any other. Precedents 
 for that sort of self-stultification are not 
 wanting. The older school of Calvinistic 
 orthodoxy stood fast for sovereign grace 
 in conversion ; but that system went far 
 to sacrifice the grace to the sovereignty, 
 limiting the Divine benevolence by the 
 arbitrariness of the personal election. 
 Pressed by this difficulty, the later and 
 more liberal school ventured to escape it 
 by saying that " the first step is man's ; " 
 rationalizing more than they were aware, 
 and opening a wide door to Pelagianism. 
 Catholic doctrine has always seen the clear 
 workings of Heavenly grace antecedent to 
 any human choice, forever besieging the 
 heart with the inward and outward solic- 
 itings of the Spirit, and making man's 
 part to consist in a simple ceasing to 
 resist, and an opening of the door to Him 
 who stands and knocks. The prodigal 
 " came to himself," and "arose;" but 
 the power of the love and bounty in 
 the Father's house was upon him long 
 
66 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 before. You may arrange one class of 
 texts attributing the whole spiritual work 
 in the human soul to the absolute, uncon- 
 ditional action of the mind of God ; and 
 over against these you may set another 
 class equally explicit, requiring all that 
 work of the free will of man. But an 
 unsophisticated, candid believer makes no 
 question at all that these diverse represen- 
 tations are only two hemispheres of the 
 perfect globe of truth — two parts of a 
 consistent whole. After we have made 
 the most of the difficulties, we are still 
 able to reach a practical solution, and rest 
 in it. We knoiv that God is Almighty, 
 and the fountain of every good thing 
 within and about us. We know just as 
 well, that whensoever we will, we may 
 give Him our hearts, and be sure that He 
 accepts them. We know that we can de- 
 cide, choose, turn ; and that when we 
 have so done, it was yet God that wrought 
 within us to will and to do, far more than 
 we wrought for ourselves. This is enough. 
 It is sometimes represented, in religious 
 
STEPS TO A* LIVING FAITH. 67 
 
 discourse, that in making the great choice, 
 we choose between two conditions equally 
 separate from us, and external to us. 
 The impression is that the kingdom of 
 Christ is as foreign to each individual as 
 the kingdom of anti-Christ ; the chooser 
 stands apart from both, surveys them ab 
 extra, and, on a cool comparison of their 
 advantages, takes which he prefers. There 
 is a misconception here of the economy of 
 the Gospel, of the grace of God, of the 
 Divine plan of the Church, and hence of 
 the entire practical method of the Chris- 
 tian life, a misconception which is wide 
 spread among modern religionists, and is 
 disastrous in its effects. According to the 
 Apostolic teaching, every baptized person 
 is already within the Kingdom. Divine 
 mercy and the faith of the Church placed 
 him there. The shelter of the Covenant 
 is over him. The defenses of the eternal 
 Fold are round about him. His choice, 
 therefore, is not between going here and 
 going there. It is between staying and 
 being true and faithful where he already 
 
68 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 is — true to the blessed place and faithful 
 to its holy obligations — and renouncing 
 his inheritance for exile. Shall he be a 
 filial child in that house — a loyal citizen 
 of that Kingdom — a sound and serving 
 member of the Body, under the life-giving 
 Head — or shall he sink into the double 
 guilt and deepened shame of refusing an 
 invitation and disowning a birthright? 
 Even if you were not made a partaker in 
 that sacramental blessing, you still sus- 
 tain a certain relation to Jesus Christ, the 
 Lord of our race. 
 
 It is not optional with you, my friend, 
 whether you shall live on a redeemed 
 earth, and in times on which the ends of 
 the age are come ; it is only optional with 
 you hoiv you shall live here. It cannot 
 be with you as - if your Saviour had not 
 sanctified the world with his feet, and 
 sweetened its air with his charity, and 
 judged it by his cross. These supernat- 
 ural facts are a part of the estate you 
 occupy. Neither your ingratitude nor 
 your caprice can root them out, or clear 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 69 
 
 you of the accountability they bind upon 
 you. Your indifference may blind your 
 eyes or paralyze your limbs ; it does not 
 slide you out of the range of the media- 
 torial ministry, or of the reckoning that 
 must follow it. In any case, therefore, 
 the scales of the choice do not hang evenly 
 balanced. Your right decision is already 
 weighted with the coming of the Son of 
 Man. The Way of Life has his light 
 upon it. Choose you, this day, whether 
 you will serve, in joy, the Master of the 
 house, or turn your back upon it, and 
 upon Him ! If you have wandered some 
 distance away, turn you, for your place 
 is kept for you, and you are yet within 
 the borders of the King's country ! If 
 you have fallen into the slumber of uncon- 
 cern, awake and arise, and Christ shall 
 give you light ! 
 
 Set clear of the perversions and discol- 
 orations of mistaken systems, the teach- 
 ing is wonderfully simple and wonderfully 
 consistent. This signal, solitary, personal 
 act of choice, by the catholic and evan- 
 
70 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 gelic instruction, has its due place and 
 proportion in the entire history of the 
 new life — no more, no less. With the 
 baptized it looks backward to the im- 
 planted grace and quickening life of the 
 regeneration, and owns its seal, deriving 
 thence secret power and the consolation 
 of an inviolable promise — a help so sure 
 that even Luther declares that all subse- 
 quent resolves and renewings must be 
 traced back to Christian baptism, as they 
 start from that. With the unbaptized it 
 is incomplete and incongruous until the 
 choosing soul takes its pledge, and wins 
 its benediction, at the same cleansing font. 
 Nor, on the other hand, are the relations 
 of this grand decision to Christian nurture 
 and growth and a gradual sanctification 
 afterward, less definite. The choice de- 
 termines the direction of the soul's move- 
 ment, strikes away all obstructions to the 
 impelling power of the Spirit, and places 
 the disciple where he will receive all the 
 holy helps and gracious nourishments pro- 
 vided by the Lord's hand. Inwardly, a 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 71 
 
 decisive change lias come to the negligent 
 and careless heart, which makes all things 
 new; and the salvation, once for all ob- 
 tained, is appropriated. It is an act of 
 faith, for faith is the willingness to receive 
 that life which Christ gives. The confes- 
 sion now is, " My Lord, and my God, I 
 am thy child, thine always henceforth, 
 thine to be fashioned and led, thine to 
 love and serve ! " 
 
 There remains a spiritual discipline 
 under a law of spiritual increase. 
 
LETTER V. 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE NEW LIFE. 
 
 My dear Fmend : Magnifying, as we 
 ought, the importance of a definite decis- 
 ion of the great question, we are not to 
 take it for more than it really is. There 
 is a danger at either extreme. Here is 
 one multitude missing the inestimable 
 benefit by irresolution as to the act of 
 laying hold of it ; there is another wasting 
 or losing it by taking the one act of choice 
 for the whole work of life, leaning idly 
 back on that single purpose of the mind, 
 and behaving as if by being on the right 
 side of the line we were released from the 
 drill and the march, the vigil and the bat- 
 tle. How mournfully this twofold for- 
 feiture reduces the ranks and limits the 
 triumphs of the Lord's kingdom among 
 men ! What an unfathomable depth of 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 73 
 
 sadness there is in that most pathetic say- 
 ing of his, " Ye will not come to me that 
 ye might have life ! " And yet while He 
 marveled at the utter unbelief of some, 
 He evidently looked with equal sorrow on 
 the frail resolves and short-lived emotions 
 of others, whose zeal was as fugitive as 
 the morning cloud, and their penitence and 
 piety as quick to vanish as the drops of 
 morning dew ; the workmen that looked 
 back as soon as their hands had touched 
 the plough, or the disciples that had no 
 root in themselves, and so endured but 
 for a time. 
 
 You may say, perhaps, that this relapse 
 into indifference does not always come 
 from moral infirmity, but that it often 
 results from mere spiritual ignorance, or 
 a lack of clear and firm directions as to 
 how the resolved and started Christian 
 should go on ; and you might say this 
 with reason. Mistaken instruction must 
 answer for a fearful amount of efferves- 
 cent religion. Sometimes the whole ob- 
 ject of religious exhortation seems to be 
 
74 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 to kindle up and set aglow a furnace of 
 pious feeling without the least suggestion 
 as to what is to be done with the heat af- 
 ter the flames are lighted. Sometimes a 
 stress so exclusive is laid on the determi- 
 nation to begin the work that, after the 
 beginning has been made, and the good 
 part has been chosen, the beginner is ut- 
 terly at loss what to do next. The first 
 step has been taken, thanks be to God ! 
 But are there no other steps ? A position 
 has been gained. What then ? What 
 for ? Beyond this first act a nebulous 
 confusion envelops the scene. The move- 
 ment slackens. A sense of disappoint- 
 ment creeps into the heart, and with dis- 
 appointment the reaction that almost 
 always attends a relaxing of an over- 
 wrought tension of the mental or emotion- 
 al powers. Doubts are gendered. Spirits 
 not of heaven are ready to crowd into the 
 empty room. The world, never resting, 
 never sleeping, never wanting in definite 
 promises, presses hard. Old habits and 
 passions, " scotched, not killed," reassert 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 75 
 
 their insinuating or imperious demands. 
 The Hill Difficulty looks rather steep : is 
 the end worth the troublesome toil, after 
 all ? This second state of indifference is 
 as bad as the first. 
 
 But meantime, my friend, the everlast- 
 ing verities have not changed their places 
 or lost their light. They are stars that 
 never set or go out, whatever low-bred 
 mists may hang about our eyes. Your 
 Father is waiting for you ; Jesus Christ 
 is the same ; the Holy Spirit still strives ; 
 the deep wants of your soul are not 
 quenched ; the Covenant is not dissolved ; 
 the House stands with the door open and 
 the table spread, and all the gracious nur- 
 ture of the Home is prepared ; provisions 
 are made there, not for a fickle sentiment, 
 but for an immortal progress. No errors 
 or failures of human teaching can alter in 
 .the least these abiding realities. 
 
 Suppose, then, the new life of personal 
 faith and holy endeavor has been awak- 
 ened and begun. Its next need is nurture. 
 If it is not to perish, it must have care, 
 
76 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 protection, nourishment, guidance. It 
 must be treated just as all other young 
 life is treated. There must be a com- 
 plete sj^stem of training adapted to its 
 nature, meeting all its weaknesses, expos- 
 ures, and necessities, and ministering to it 
 all that it requires, in a patient discipline 
 for a final perfection. Of course this ju- 
 venile religious life is not able to strike 
 out such a system for itself. It has not 
 wisdom, strength, or experience for that. 
 At best it is in a mortal vessel. The 
 child never makes his school : if he could 
 do that he would be beyond the school 
 already. The question arises, — and it is 
 one of unspeakable interest, — Is there 
 any such positive system of spiritual nur- 
 ture existing ? Is there a place, and 
 method, and form of that Divine train- 
 ing ? Is there a school whose authority 
 and love are both complete and complete- 
 ly harmonized ? Is there a home for the 
 Father's child, and a tuition for the Mas- 
 ter's disciple ? Must there not be ? And 
 if there is, you will say, with me, that 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 77 
 
 Heaven, and not man, must have estab- 
 lished it. He only who made the soul, 
 who called it to glory and immortality, 
 and awakened it to conscious life, must 
 have created and fashioned the plan of its 
 education and provided for its maturing. 
 Your own thought will anticipate what 
 I would say, and give the only true name 
 to the fact. It must be the Kingdom of 
 Heaven on the earth ; the Church of God 
 in Christ ; the Family of the Bridegroom 
 and the Bride. 
 
 There, beyond all peradventure, the 
 young life in your heart must be shel- 
 tered, and have its nutriment ministered 
 by a higher hand than your own. There 
 it must be glad and thankful to be, hum- 
 ble, teachable, diligent, obedient. If it 
 already finds itself there by the covenant 
 of Churchly faith enclosing you in bap- 
 tism, in your childhood, it is well ; it is 
 better than you know, in many ways ; for 
 no understanding ever entirely compre- 
 hends the grace of the Sacramental mys- 
 tery, any more than the other hidden 
 
78 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 mercies of the Spirit, breathing where 
 He listeth. Blessed are those children! 
 Even then, however, — since you were 
 unconscious, perhaps, and irresponsible, 
 when those Arms wrapped their embrace 
 of compassion about you, — you will in- 
 quire whether there is not some free, vol- 
 untary action on your own part needful 
 to ratify and confirm, by personal self- 
 consecration, the sponsorial vow and the 
 charitable work of others in your behalf. 
 The answer, if you look into your New 
 Testament, will not be far to seek, — 
 Revelation here, as everywhere, answer- 
 ing to reason while over shining and di- 
 recting it. Baptized or not, having now 
 chosen to take up your inheritance and 
 follow your Lord, you have an immediate, 
 imperative duty to discharge ; and you 
 see what it is. In the one case it is to 
 "arise and be baptized;" in the other, 
 it is to seek the laying on of hands, which 
 is the voluntary consummation of the bap- 
 tismal blessing, with the further gifts of 
 the Holy Spirit attached and pledged to 
 that effecting ordinance. 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 79 
 
 Notice that in the very doing of this 
 commanded act there is a supply of addi- 
 tional poiver. We are so made that the 
 moment we are filled with a new feeling 
 and a new purpose, there is requisite — 
 wherever a healthy, natural condition al- 
 lows it — some overt step to be taken. 
 Some energy must be put forth, to con- 
 centrate the subjective life and fix it as 
 an abiding power of " character." The 
 earnest, ardent convert, and the more de- 
 liberate and guarded believer alike, com- 
 ing to this stage of the true experience, 
 naturally want to do something ; to move 
 forward ; to arise and walk ; to stand up 
 for Jesus ; to bear a testimony ; to take 
 an oath of allegiance and service, — the 
 original sense of the Latin sacrarnentum. 
 If nothing of this sort is undertaken, 
 there is the usual danger of a passive, 
 ebbing, disheartened sensibility. The 
 newly-chosen walk with God becomes 
 secure and vigorous by an outward con- 
 fession and enrolment. Instead of sub- 
 siding into himself, inspecting his own 
 
80 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 interior anatomy, and brooding over his 
 dubious symptoms, the new man takes 
 healthily up his proper business, and goes 
 gladly on. He goes first where his Chris- 
 tian purpose will be taught for work, and 
 fed for growth. In the practical aspect 
 of this kind of proceeding you will be apt 
 to find yourself intelligently interested, 
 and your indifference giving way. 
 
 Sentimentalists, in abundance, imagin- 
 ing they are advocating a superior spirit- 
 uality, will tell you to beware of the 
 whole outward part of religion as a mat- 
 ter of surface and snare ; that, despising 
 these visible conformities and supports, 
 you are to struggle up independently and 
 individually, if you can, through some 
 exercises of unregulated feeling and some 
 groping among abstract principles, into a 
 rarer atmosphere, or, if it might be, into 
 a closer likeness to Christ. But you will 
 have to meditate the matter only a little 
 while to perceive the fallacy. In the 
 whole range of our knowledge, in any 
 of the kingdoms of nature, we know of 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 81 
 
 no life that does not inhabit a form and 
 act through organs. Take the form or 
 body, without the informing life, and you 
 have, to be sure, only dead wood fit to be 
 burned or a corpse fit to be buried. But 
 take the life, if you can, without the body, 
 and you have only sap spilt upon the 
 ground, or a fitting ghost, spectral and eva- 
 sive. All vital force needs some channel or 
 shape to conserve it and give it instrumen- 
 tal value and regularity of operation. As 
 sure as converted individuals go about to 
 find their own ways of religious progress, 
 there will be chaos instead of order, and 
 apples of ashes instead of fruits of right- 
 eousness. There will be as many religions 
 as there are people, and, after a time, not 
 much of Christ in any of them. At any 
 rate, the word of the Law puts the matter 
 out of dispute. Our mortal fancy may be 
 fertile in comparisons and " modern in- 
 stances." But the command to mind the 
 outward part is just as plain in Scripture 
 as to mind the inward part. The same 
 Lord who says " Repent," says also, "Be 
 
82 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 baptized." The Saviour, who sanctifies by 
 the Spirit, institutes a sacrament of sanc- 
 tiflcation in the Supper. Inspiration (Heb. 
 vi.) places " the laying on of hands " side 
 by side with " faith toward God," among 
 essential " principles." The Gospel 
 speaks no more explicitly of virtues and 
 graces than it does of " the kingdom." 
 Great care is taken, too, to pronounce the 
 visible part to be of universal obligation, 
 binding on " all " and " every one." 
 Doubtless there is a gradation in these 
 things ; in a sense, one is more important 
 than the other. But where Divine teach- 
 ings are explicit, and precepts are of ab- 
 solute authority, it is not for us to omit 
 anything, or call anything superfluous, or 
 optional. 
 
 If you have a notion that you can 
 attain to any heights without doing ex- 
 actly what God has told you to do, with- 
 out entering by a visible door — putting 
 your spiritual life to school and to practice 
 in an instituted Church, to be nourished 
 there just according to her divinely-ap- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 83 
 
 pointed appliances and helps, in prayer, 
 sanctuaries, separate seasons, sacred places, 
 reverent observances, charitable works and 
 ministries, holy sacraments — it is only 
 because you have been more or less misled 
 by a very plausible sophistry of self-direc- 
 tion, or infallible personal illumination. 
 A great deal of the prevailing indifference 
 — not all of it, but much — may be traced 
 to the misleading of that flattering idea. 
 The sooner you make a fair revision of 
 the whole subject, and let good sound 
 common-sense and a docile heart set you 
 down at the feet of the Great Master, in 
 his own " school," the sooner you will be 
 a strong soul, at peace with yourself, and 
 a useful workman for God. 
 
 You will observe, further, how practi- 
 cable and hence how animating the busi- 
 ness of being a Christian becomes, by 
 the orderliness and definiteness of it. 
 Nothing is more fatal to good intentions 
 than vagueness. We not only gain noth- 
 ing by beating the air, but we disappoint 
 and disgust ourselves. Our Lord gives 
 
84 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 us our work in successive steps, one thing 
 at a time. The steps may follow rapidly- 
 one after the other, but no one of them 
 can be skipped. If you leave out the con- 
 fession of Christ, and the taking of your 
 place in his Heavenly School, there will be 
 a defect or failure as to all that shall come 
 after that. I may wish myself on the top 
 of the mountain on the other side of the 
 river. Shall I sit here wishing, or shall I 
 step into the boat that lies yonder ready 
 to take me across ? Shall I build a dream 
 of reaching that point per saltum, or shall 
 I climb, putting one foot before another, 
 in the mountain path ? Shall I cavil be- 
 cause the boat is not a balloon, or because 
 it is made of common, visible wood ? God 
 proves us first by the humility of a par- 
 ticular obedience. Christ required of those 
 He healed that they should do something. 
 The act of taking up the responsibilities 
 of an open relation to the Church is es- 
 sentially an act of faith, and hence, with 
 the sacrifice it demands, it is a test of the 
 sincerity of faith. You cannot expect 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 85 
 
 the satisfactions of the Father's house, 
 and the " bread enough," even though you 
 are' within the borders of the King's coun- 
 try, till, all unworthy, you draw near and 
 come under that roof. 
 
 Several familiar objections arise to this 
 outward act of holy obedience, whereby 
 you seal your choice and achieve the two- 
 fold benefit of bearing testimony to your 
 Redeemer and receiving the nurture and 
 discipline of his household. 
 
 1. There is an objection on the score of 
 belief. Men hesitate because they are 
 not sure that they believe enough. Some 
 men are constitutionally slower to believe 
 than others. Men that are Thomases by 
 temperament are to be treated with re- 
 spectful sympathy, and when so treated 
 they may become, as the gospel shows 
 us, mighty and valiant in faith. The 
 things necessary to be believed are, there- 
 fore, reduced in Christ's Church to the 
 smallest possible number and the simplest 
 possible terms. It cannot be God's inten- 
 tion, after planting his Kingdom on earth 
 
86 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 by the costly sacrifices of redemption, to 
 keep men out of it by intellectual difficul- 
 ties. Having died for you, Christ will 
 not tax you by demanding an assent to a 
 string of metaphysical propositions such 
 as only one man in a hundred can grasp. 
 He asks you to believe in Him, a living, 
 Divine Saviour, and in the personal and 
 historical facts of his Mediation, with a 
 very few of the more comprehensive 
 truths closely related to his person, his 
 ministry, and its consequences. This 
 summary is the daily Declaration of the 
 Church, in all her members, to herself, to 
 the world, and to God. About that there 
 is not to be a shadow of uncertainty. 
 Whatever is beyond that is doctrine not 
 essential to membership, or to beginning, 
 but may be learned in the discipline, and 
 by doing the will, afterward. 
 
 2. Other objectors plead a defect of 
 feeling. There is, of course, such a de- 
 fect. But you will remember that neither 
 the Bible nor the Church has laid down 
 any gauge of the precise amount of re- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 87 
 
 ligious emotion necessary for being a 
 branch on the Vine, and that our emo- 
 tional nature is one of the most change- 
 able and indeterminate elements in us, 
 being largely influenced by temperament, 
 by passing occasions, by physical states, 
 by natural and unnatural stimulants. One 
 of the prime absurdities of untaught 
 teachers is to be perpetually telling their 
 hearers to feel more about religion, when 
 the more they try to directly force them- 
 selves to feel, the less the right feeling 
 comes. The fact is, in all the great acts 
 of life we have to subordinate mere feel- 
 ing to conviction, impulse to principle, 
 lively sensibilities to a law of right, and, 
 provided we have just feeling enough to 
 begin a commanded work honestly, we 
 are to make the beginning. Put yourself 
 directly where God has told you you 
 ought to be, and then you will be in a 
 position where the touching and inspiring 
 objects which naturally rouse devout emo- 
 tions will exert their power. Instead of 
 waiting to feel more before you act at all, 
 
88 STEPS TO A LIYING FAITH. 
 
 bestir yourself to act as you are, and 
 your indifferent heart will be like coals 
 of dulled fire under a rising wind. You 
 lament that you feel too little hatred of 
 sin and too little love of God. Shall I so 
 mock and insult you as to assure you that 
 you feel enough, or that you may put your 
 sluggish spirit at ease ? God' forbid ! I 
 only bid you in the name and after the 
 teaching of the Saviour, to take some 
 humble courage to come nearer to Him, 
 and to let the fact that you have feeling 
 enough to own your want of feeling, drive 
 you to the promises, and so save you from 
 despair. 
 
 3. If this is Christ's word to hearts of 
 defective sensibility, He speaks very much 
 the same word to those that excuse them- 
 selves for fear that their general religious 
 attainments are too little. Little enough 
 they are, with the best of us. How are 
 they to be made larger ? By ourselves, 
 or by our Lord? If by Him, how but 
 by his own appointed way, in his own 
 appointed place ? The question is not 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 89 
 
 how much of a Christian you are, but 
 whether you are earnestly desirous and 
 deliberately resolved to be a Christian at 
 all. If so, then you must be, as soon 
 as possible, where and where only the 
 blessed and glorious result can be gained. 
 Starving, you must creep to the table ; 
 freezing, you must approach the fire ; 
 ashamed of your ignorance, you must sue 
 for admission to the school. Proper re- 
 spect must be paid to any timid appre- 
 hension that the honor of the Body of 
 Christ will suffer damage from an incon- 
 sistent member : but that must not blind 
 us to the other dishonor of holding back 
 from Him a confession that is his due. 
 We are not to chide the modesty which 
 dreads to make a vow that may possibly 
 be broken ; but neither are we to conceal 
 the assurance that to those who go straight 
 forward strength and support shall be 
 given, of which they know nothing who 
 have not made the venture and the trial 
 of faith ; nor are we to call that self -dis- 
 trust which is really distrust of God. We 
 
90 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 may recognize some moral integrity in a 
 diffidence that shrinks from the responsi- 
 bility of a public commital ; but why not 
 consider whether there is not a responsi- 
 bility quite as awful in leaving undone 
 what the Almighty has ordered us to do, 
 especially when He declares that if we do 
 not confess Christ before men Christ will 
 not confess us before the Father ? 
 
 I do not expect of you such a frivolous 
 pretext as that you do not call Christ 
 Master because you have seen so many 
 men call him Master, and then go back to 
 live mean, selfish, unclean, unjust lives in 
 the world. Pride and self-approval fre- 
 quently have as much to do with that 
 excuse as any scruple of conscience ; nor 
 would the treachery or backsliding of all 
 the world change by a hair's breadth the 
 relations and duties of your single soul to 
 God now or in the last judgment. 
 
 You are not paltry enough, I am sure, 
 to refuse your allegiance to Christ, once 
 seeing it to be due, because it will cost 
 you a denial of some pleasures and van- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 91 
 
 ities of the senses and a crucifixion of 
 some of the fierce ambitions of the mind. 
 Indifference is not cowardice. And even 
 if you look no higher than the personal 
 satisfactions to be obtained, it must have 
 occurred to you that you will find more 
 than a recompense for any sacrifice of 
 earthly delight in the honorable liberty 
 and joy of a clean and unambiguous stand 
 on the side and under the banner of Him 
 in whom you " believe." 
 
 Look the objections fairly in the face. 
 Having met tl^em and dealt with them in 
 detail, consider whether they are fit to 
 stand between you and the future growth 
 of your spiritual life in the nurture and 
 discipline of the Fold of Christ, who has 
 so loved you as to give Himself for you. 
 Once within that Fold, and close to Him, 
 it will appear that there is the place of 
 holy work as well as of refreshing rest, of 
 giving as well as of receiving, of service 
 for man as well as of praise and prayer 
 to God, of the nobleness of charity no 
 less than of the cheerfulness of hope and 
 
92 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 the peace of faith. It remains, therefore, 
 in one letter more, to mark the course of 
 the growing Christian's increase in holi- 
 ness toward the measure of the stature of 
 the perfect man. 
 
LETTER VI. 
 
 THE LAW OE SPIRITUAL INCREASE. 
 
 My dear Friend : The Christian life 
 would be a more attractive thing if the 
 lives of Christians were less dull. We 
 are all impressed by signal manifestations 
 of vital power ; and the higher the kind 
 of power, the deeper and grander the 
 impression. I suppose one prolific source 
 of religious indifference is that those who 
 appear to the world as representatives of 
 religion have but a meagre and timid ap- 
 prehension of the principle of perpetual 
 growth inherent in the Christian faith. It 
 is not that they are insincere, in belief or 
 feeling, but that they take the Christian 
 privilege for a much less glorious thing 
 than it is, and misconceive its mightiest 
 law. They exhibit it as negative, when 
 it really is positive ; as attained and com- 
 
94 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 passed by a single experience of conver- 
 sion, whereas that is only the outset of an 
 unceasing progress ; and as a condition 
 of stationary security instead of a con- 
 stant production of holy uses and mani- 
 fold forms of good. " Herein is my 
 Father glorified, that ye bear much 
 fruit ; " and if the Father is thus glorified, 
 so also his cause, his kingdom, and his 
 personal service. Were the Church as 
 alive in its membership as it is in its liv- 
 ing Head, — were it a body of thorough- 
 ly roused, intensely earnest, forward- 
 pressing men — men on whom the signet 
 of their consecrated calling were visibly 
 stamped, men having their conversation, 
 in a true sense, in heaven, and all the 
 more serviceable in this world because al- 
 ways acting as having a commission and 
 an errand for the other, never counting 
 themselves to have apprehended, but al- 
 ways reaching on, : — then who could cal- 
 culate the energy of its movement? 
 Would it not irresistibly sweep into its 
 majestic lines multitudes now uncon- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 95 
 
 cerned ? This engaging and inspiring 
 influence on unbelievers of a spiritual life 
 ever cumulative and ever advancing might 
 well be presented oftener than it is as a 
 practical argument for greater Christian 
 activity, and as a motive for missionary 
 zeal. Indifference begets indifference, — 
 yielding after its kind. I will give you 
 the credit of presuming that possibly your 
 own lack of interest may be partly owing 
 to a prevalent but depressing idea that the 
 act of accepting Christ's invitation and 
 putting on his badge exhausts the stress 
 of his demands, and as good as finishes 
 the business of becoming a Christian. 
 
 The error inflicts, in fact, a double 
 damage. On the one hand, with some 
 minds, it creates a sense of unreality, re- 
 pelling rather than animating any gener- 
 ous aspiration. In other quarters, it pro- 
 duces a wrong estimate of the require- 
 ments for taking a clear Christian position, 
 in the good confession of baptism and 
 confirmation, and discourages from that 
 duty. If a single step — silently reasons 
 
96 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 the perplexed and diffident inquirer — 
 is so all-inclusive in its moral magnitude, 
 if it is not only the first essential thing, 
 chief in significance and chief in its chal- 
 lenge to courage, but so exhaustive in its 
 character as to fill the field of vision and 
 leave very little to be done afterward for 
 the full keeping of Christ's commands, 
 why, then there must be some extraordi- 
 nary prerequisite ; there must be certain 
 singular, abnormal, interior exercises : 
 sincere sorrow for sin and faith in the 
 Lord and his cross cannot be enough. I 
 might be ready to make a beginning, but 
 I cannot make an end at the same mo- 
 ment ; I find conversion is pushed out of 
 the rank of practicable undertakings ; I 
 must wait a great while before I commit 
 myself to a profession like that. On that 
 theory it will not be strange if misgivings 
 and excuses without should make many 
 empty places within ; if the company of 
 those who dare to come and sit a;s learners 
 and followers at the Saviour's feet should 
 be very select indeed ; and if the princi- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 97 
 
 pal employment of- the venturesome few 
 should consist in self-congratulation at 
 having escaped the things behind, rather 
 than in the self -forgetful and loyal doing 
 of a work for Christ, lying at hand and 
 stretching before. Never present to your- 
 self the act of conversion, I beg you, as 
 a leap out of the field of action, or a re- 
 lease from the necessity of exertion, but 
 exactly the contrary. We are not awak- 
 ened to lie down, or confirmed to stand 
 still. Accustom yourself to regard this 
 great change in a more stimulating light. 
 Take it as just getting into a position to 
 receive ever-renewed gifts from God, and 
 to do nobler labors for Him. Look at it 
 as an equipment for a service of charity 
 and prayers yet scarcely begun ; the clear- 
 ing up of confused relations with eternity ; 
 the joyous acceptance of a heritage where 
 the blessedness will lie in boundless op- 
 portunities of disinterested work, with 
 love for the motive*, and endless supplies 
 of strength from the Beloved for the re- 
 ward, and the communion of pure souls, 
 
 7 
 
98 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 ever ascending into loftier holiness, be- 
 cause ever " growing up in all things into 
 Him," for the refreshment. Will "in- 
 difference " to a calling, a career, a des- 
 tiny, like that be possible ? 
 
 You can be troubled by no serious 
 doubt that this is the real nature of the 
 Christian life, as to its beginning and its 
 course, when you turn from the one-sided 
 schemes of scholastic and sentimental 
 system-makers to the strong Scriptures of 
 truth. To quote their solid array of ex- 
 plicit and literal statements, standing all 
 along the pages of the New Testament, 
 affirming the law of spiritual increase and 
 spiritual fruitage, and binding it upon 
 each disciple, would but very imperfectly 
 exhibit the strength of the doctrine. It 
 is incorporated into the whole evangelic 
 structure, it is inwoven into the texture 
 of the New Economy, in its implications, 
 allusions, personal biographies, sacramen- 
 tal significations, and all its practical 
 helps. Beginning and progress, birth 
 and growth, believing and living, are 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 99 
 
 never for an instant confounded with each 
 other. The steps never interfere. The 
 order is never disturbed. " As ye have, 
 therefore, received Christ Jesus the Lord, 
 so walk ye in Him," might be taken as 
 the solemn superscription of every epistle. 
 In all places where they are planted, the 
 young Churches are addressed as being 
 made up of persons in whom a certain 
 movement of Divine life has been begun, 
 but not matured, with a great deal yet to 
 do, and a great deal to undo : graces to 
 be gained, and faults to be fought down ; 
 knowledge to be patiently acquired, and 
 active force to be indefinitely enlarged ; 
 Christians to be fed, that they may grow 
 — ministered to, that they may be built 
 up — " called to be saints," indeed, be- 
 cause they believe, and because their re- 
 lationships and aims are holy, but with 
 a saintship inchoate, as it were ; sure in 
 its root, magnificent in its anticipations, 
 and yet beholding the greater glory to 
 be revealed only through a perspective 
 of greater self-denials to be borne, and 
 
100 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 greater toils to be accomplished. We see 
 the same law continually recognized in the 
 Saviour's recurring references to the anal- 
 ogy of the seed, the plant, and the corn, 
 and in the exalted standard of unattained 
 righteousness that He always keeps flying 
 like a celestial oriflamme before the eyes 
 of his disciples. We find it illustrated in 
 the characters of the men He first called 
 and gathered about Him. They are al- 
 ways advancing from a feeble outset to 
 self-masteries of exceeding dignity and 
 splendid triumphs of martyr-endurance 
 and martyr-trust, ready to be offered at 
 the end of a finished course. And thus 
 we discover the life of God in the soul of 
 man to be equally simple in its early mo- 
 tions, steady in its subsequent workings, 
 and sublime in its immortal issues. 
 
 Indeed, the very name we give it, call- 
 ing it a " life," which is Christ's own 
 name for it, contains a confession of its 
 natural ordination to grow. The universe 
 offers no example of an organic exist- 
 ence remaining stationary or motionless. 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 101 
 
 Causes that produce inertia or restrict 
 movement produce deformity, disease, 
 and, finally, disorganization or death. 
 All we know of moral life makes its pres- 
 ervation dependent on its activity, and, 
 in finite natures, on its increase. Taking 
 it in its elements, our acquaintance with 
 men teaches us that this is true of each 
 separate spiritual grace or virtue. Unless 
 there is growth in faith, purity, forbear- 
 ance, self-control, self-sacrifice, there is 
 going on a process of decline. 
 
 But far more conclusive than observa- 
 tion, or philosophy, or analogy, is the 
 character of the source from which this 
 life is drawn. It is the life of Christ 
 Himself, indwelling, in whom is all the 
 fullness of the living God. We receive 
 of Him grace upon grace, being made, 
 through our union with Him, partakers 
 of the Divine nature. There can be no 
 limit, cessation, abridgment, or pause in 
 this living of Christ within us, except by 
 a contradiction of Him, or death. Till 
 the measure of the mortal stature is filled 
 
102 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 with Him ; nay, till the mortal measure 
 itself is exchanged for the celestial, and 
 that also receives of his fullness, there 
 must be a " daily increase in his Holy 
 Spirit, more and more." 
 
 In a single view, even the most com- 
 prehensive, it would not be possible to 
 observe all the characteristic features of 
 this progressive sanctification. A few 
 may be noted, and this will contribute to 
 the completion of the subject. 
 
 1. One invariable mark of increasing 
 spiritual vitality will be a more habitual 
 consciousness of an intimate relation to 
 the person of Christ. At first, the soul 
 is constrained to its homeward striving 
 and its choice of the better part by a sense 
 of want, which, as we have seen, while it 
 is very real, and of a Divine origin, is 
 somewhat indefinite. The mind is guided 
 largely by an external authority. It is 
 convinced that all good lies in the direc- 
 tion it is taking. It asks what it shall do 
 to be saved or safe, and is answered, and 
 it understands that the answer proceeds 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 103 
 
 from the Son of God. But these are not 
 the higher states or riper stages of a 
 Christian's experience. They are not 
 meant to be entirely satisfactory. As 
 you go on, you learn that both the new 
 life and the satisfaction of it comes from 
 a personal Friend. Abstraction, general- 
 ities, rational inferences as to what is 
 right, human persuasions, occupy rela- 
 tivelyjess room in your mind. To speak 
 of the importance of religion, the truth 
 of Christianity, the assuming of religious 
 responsibilities, would be to deal in 
 phrases correct enough in their way, no 
 doubt, but weak as expressions of what 
 is going on and growing up within you. 
 As your thoughts are more with the 
 Son of Man in his ministry, his suffering, 
 his glory, your inner life will take on a 
 peculiar* freshness, vigor, and reality. 
 You will think less of his particular of- 
 fices, perhaps, than of Him ; less of his 
 exactions than of his affections. Your 
 times of devout retirement will be like 
 dialogues with Him. His words and ap- 
 
104 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 pointments will be precious as cords and 
 stays drawing you to Himself, and making 
 you at home there. You will ask your- 
 self, in doubtful matters or places, how 
 this or that would suit his mind, or har- 
 monize with his presence. Not that his 
 visible presence, or any strained attempt 
 to realize it, will be needful. The Apos- 
 tles, when writing to the Churches and 
 preaching the Gospel, seem to hav.e had 
 as quick and clear a sense of his being 
 with them as if they were in the group 
 at Bethany, or in the upper chamber at 
 Jerusalem. Yet there will be an in- 
 creased feeling of his being really close at 
 hand, and his face, marvelous in its ten- 
 derness, is almost , seen. Doubtless it is 
 for this reason that, in the more advanced 
 and thoroughly-disciplined frames of true 
 spirituality, there is a genuine desire for 
 more frequent communions at the Supper, 
 quite removed from all affectation or fa- 
 naticism. All this, too, is far apart from 
 those excited visions and familiar appeals 
 to the Saviour which sometimes accom- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 105 
 
 pany overwrought religious demonstra- 
 tions, and render them in their unreality 
 specially disgusting. It is the calm and 
 blessed fruit of long-continued watching 
 and holy endeavor where the noise and 
 surface agitations of an eager, secular 
 world have less and less part to play, and 
 where a hallowed nurture at the foot of 
 the altar, in the stillness of the closet, and 
 commonly under the shadow of some sor- 
 row, has chastened and tranquillized the 
 spirit till it not only dwells with Christ, 
 but hides itself in Him. 
 
 2. As the better life deepens and ex- 
 pands, there is also a steady alteration in 
 the relative proportions of fear and love, 
 as motive-powers in Christian living. 
 The fear will not totally vanish, even in 
 the highest type of piety ; but it will 
 become that confiding and reverential 
 fear which is in accord with the sweetest 
 filial affection. The love will not wax 
 overbold or presumptuous, so as to forget 
 the line that runs between things allowed 
 and things forbidden ; but it will set the 
 
106 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 heart at liberty from bondage, and make 
 obedience free-footed and joyous. Ebal 
 and Gerizim do not forsake their seats. 
 But whereas the man just shaking him- 
 self clear of his old life will often be found 
 saying, " Must I do this ? " or, " What 
 will happen to me if I do not? "- — doing 
 some good things only because of a threat 
 of evil if they are left undone, — the more 
 mature disciple will rather move forward 
 to the duty or the sacrifice with an 
 unquestioning conviction, — which in fact 
 shuts every question up, — that there 
 God will be with him, and hence he can- 
 not go elsewhere. His soul is so affianced 
 to righteousness that, in the instinct of a 
 nobler nature, he recoils from known sin 
 as ordinary men shun dishonor. In fact, 
 sin becomes a dishonor to the Best Friend. 
 Law remains, though liberty is gained, 
 for law and liberty are not opposites ; the 
 slavery of self-will is the real antagonist 
 of law, as license is the foe of liberty. 
 And therefore it is one of the signs of a 
 spirit that has risen well up toward over- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 107 
 
 coming the world, when the will sponta- 
 neously acts so much in line with the will 
 of God that there is no galling of the 
 neck under the yoke, and but little calcu- 
 lation of the consequences of disobedience. 
 Believe, my friend, in this oneness of pur- 
 pose and life with God ; pray for it as a 
 part of the Christian victory, and expect 
 it as a part of the Christian sanctifica- 
 tion. 
 
 3. Along with the reconciliation of 
 duty with inclination, there comes a recon- 
 ciliation of small and even comparatively 
 insignificant duties with the great princi- 
 ples of Christian allegiance. I scarcely 
 know a surer test of real growth into 
 Christ than this, — a more infallible touch- 
 stone to distinguish a true advance in 
 holiness from the higher life of mere sen- 
 timentalism. Something is wrong where 
 claims to exalted spirituality, or to a 
 superior freedom from temptation, even 
 though it be attributed to the special 
 power of Jesus Christ, are accompanied 
 by no corresponding deliverance from 
 
108 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 petty domestic foibles, from ill-temper, 
 vanity, obstinacy, contempt of those that 
 differ, or indolence. The grandeur of a 
 triumphant faith is in the uniformity of 
 its operation, in its easy condescension to 
 homely drudgeries, in the quiet self-sacri- 
 fice with which it takes the stumbling- 
 blocks and the burdens from others' paths 
 and shoulders, in the Christlike lowliness 
 that renders the hour with God on the 
 mountain-top not an excuse for neglecting 
 common-place services to our neighbors 
 but a secret preparation for their more 
 punctual and faithful performance. Too 
 many old habits, to be sure, cling about 
 our crude beginnings of the new life to 
 allow this divinest beauty of holiness to 
 appear at once. But it is capable of in- 
 definite unfolding and brightening. As 
 sure as Christ is formed in you, it will 
 glorify all your manhood. Is there noth- 
 ing inspiring in that certainty ? Add to 
 this another practical aspect of this ser- 
 vice, as the Church in its purity holds it, 
 although a perverted religionism has fear- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 109 
 
 fully obscured it, namely, that ceaseless 
 and systematic works, by every Chris- 
 tian, for his brother-man, are just as 
 truly a part of the fruits of his faith as 
 inward purification, and will not the way 
 of life look to you the way of light ? Is 
 it in a lofty style of humanity to be indif- 
 ferent to it ? 
 
 4. Another mark of the increase of the 
 blessed life of Christ in the disciple is an 
 increase of serenity. Agitations belong- 
 to earlier periods ; the slender stream is 
 tossed about and troubled by trivial 
 impediments, frets at every little rough- 
 ness on its edges, bubbles and babbles at 
 the stones in its bed, and even seems to 
 foam sometimes at sudden accessions to 
 its own fullness. But running on its way 
 it gathers contributions to its force. Gain- 
 ing volume and depth it gains tranquillity. 
 Slight hindrances are borne silently away 
 before its strength, and it moves in maj- 
 esty because its motion is undisturbed. 
 So a German saint, describing in his diary 
 the later results of a long spiritual con- 
 
110 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 flict, the final issue of a slow inward strug- 
 gle, borrows Isaiah's image, and says, 
 " Now was my peace like a river." The 
 anxiety of religious beginners is of many 
 kinds. There is the anxiety of crude 
 ideas, of undisciplined emotions, of morbid 
 introspection, of comparison with others, 
 of fear for the future, and distrust of God. 
 In a true, healthy growth, under the 
 Divine nurture of God's House, you see 
 less and less of this spiritual worrying. 
 In the character of Jesus Christ nothing 
 is more marvelously beautiful than the 
 peace; and, in the things of the Spirit, 
 peace comes by power. The more He 
 gives us of his life, the more He gives us 
 of his repose. To a large extent this 
 peace consists in a superiority to the irri- 
 tations and annoyances of our common 
 lot, as well as to its heavier sorrows. In 
 respect to the former, we call it patience, 
 which is sublime, in God and in man. 
 In the latter, we call^it submission. In 
 the case of some eager, impetuous, and 
 yet sensitive natures, it requires a long 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. Ill 
 
 practice and ripe attainments to be 
 patient with one's self, — almost as much 
 as to be submissive to God. This evil 
 spirit of unrest cometh not forth except 
 by prayer and fasting ; but when it is 
 gone, a singular loveliness is seen on the 
 face of the healed soul, and you confess 
 that the power which, even in a lifetime 
 of holy discipline, can work out a trans- 
 figuration so glorious, must be no other 
 than the power of the Son of God. 
 
 5. In nothing, however, is the Chris- 
 tian's progress in holiness more signally 
 manifest than in his prayers. They 
 become more and more the natural expres- 
 sion of the new life. At first, prayer is 
 either a part of the exercise of religious 
 obedience or else the indispensable means 
 of obtaining some desired benefit. Ac- 
 cordingly, persons immature in faith and 
 love have a great deal of difficulty with 
 their prayers. No complaint is oftener 
 poured into the ears of spiritual pastors 
 and teachers than that of unsatisfactory 
 devotions. It takes different forms. Some- 
 
112 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 times the heart is cold ; the hour of daily 
 retirement is unwelcome ; the closet has 
 no attractions ; the words are nothing but 
 words ; the whole transaction is a dead 
 form, or even a mockery. At other times 
 the disappointment is that the special peti- 
 tions are apparently not answered. Again 
 and again the cry goes up, and no evi- 
 dent sign is given of a hearing God. 
 The request is not granted ; the bad habit 
 is not broken ; temptation does not die ; 
 doubt is not removed ; the favor sought 
 is not bestowed ; the comfort is not felt, 
 and it is questioned whether the Com- 
 forter himself draws near ; it is as if the 
 supplication were driven back from a 
 shut up heaven and fell like a leaden 
 weight upon the breast. The baffled sup- 
 pliant keeps on entreating, rather because 
 the letter of the command is plain, or 
 because he knows it must somehow be 
 well for him to be on his knees *bef ore his 
 Maker, than because he is refreshed. 
 With the increase of life these sources of 
 misery disappear ; or, if they are after- 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 113 
 
 ward reopened, the distress is short-lived, 
 being generally due to some temporary- 
 disorder of the inward man. Christ 
 being more completely formed within, 
 the believer's seasons of communion with 
 the Father spread themselves more widely 
 through his days and nights. He passes 
 very frequently, almost unconsciously, and 
 by imperceptible gradations of feeling, 
 from his ordinary existence among the 
 things of this world into direct converse 
 with that Friend who is ever nearest, 
 while also most high and most mighty. 
 The current of adoring thought flows on 
 in joyous, satisfying concord with the 
 Eternal Will. We do not stop, perhaps, 
 to shape every aspiration into articulate 
 speech, but we yield to the Divine breath, 
 and move whithersoever the Spirit that 
 maketh intercession moves. In such 
 measure as may be, the disciple is in the 
 Mount with the Master. Those wonder- 
 ful words of the Communion Office are 
 realized, " That we may evermore dwell 
 in Him, and He in us." As the Lord 
 
 8 
 
114 STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 Himself sometimes, to the very last, offered 
 up particular entreaties, so it will daily 
 be with his most spiritually-minded fol- 
 lowers. But the communion will not end 
 with these. A larger and larger share 
 of devotion will consist in thanksgiving 
 and praise, — a sure mark of spiritual 
 growth. Some new blessing, — a victory 
 of faith, a fresh beam of light f ailing from 
 heaven on the path, — will as often stir 
 the soul to its heavenly conversation as a 
 trial, loss, or throb of pain. There will 
 be no anxious concern about answers, for 
 the felt blessedness of the act is itself an 
 answer. There is no doubt that God will 
 hear, because it is known that He listened 
 before his child called. May not some- 
 thing like this be the meaning of the 
 prayer that is " without ceasing ? " It is 
 as Mr. Coleridge strikingly said, the lofti- 
 est action of the spirit of man. It is hid- 
 ing in the pavilion of the Most High, 
 and resting under the shadow of his 
 wings. I do not believe you will always 
 be " indifferent " to the greatness of the 
 action, or the stillness of the rest. 
 
STEPS TO A LIVING FAITH. 115 
 
 My dear friend, I have gladly responded 
 to your candid questions, endeavoring, 
 without assumption, to comfort and help 
 you, as the Church of God comforts and 
 helps her children. If I have come short 
 of the scope of your inquiry, or gone 
 beyond it, I am sure you will pardon me, 
 for the love I bear you. One is your 
 Master, even Christ. Turn from all other 
 leaders to Him. Go to Him by the old 
 and everlasting way. Try all teachers 
 by Him, and by the rule of the Faith 
 once for all delivered to the saints. Be 
 true to yourself. And I am persuaded 
 that you will yet be found not only believ- 
 ing but alive in your faith, and heartily 
 confessing that nothing is able to separate 
 you from the love of God, which is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 I am, most cordially and affectionately 
 your fellow disciple, F. D. H. 
 

 
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 Cranberry Township'. PA 1 6066 
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