Faith—What Is It?

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“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” But the question may be asked, “What is faith?” Faith includes two things—belief in a person and trust in a promise. For example: in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews the writer says, “For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” This trust is natural to a man; that is, man is so constituted that he intuitively believes in God, and is naturally trustful and confiding; is in fact so constituted that he must trust. You go out into the forest and examine various plants, and you say of certain kinds, though you may never have seen them before, “there are climbers or clinging plants.” And if it be asked, “how do you know this?” you reply that the evidence is in the plants themselves. You say, “See this one throws out little spirals every few inches with which to cling to the branches of some forest tree; and that one every few inches throws out tiny rootlets with which to take hold of the bark of some sturdy oak.” And these while clinging to their natural supports are beautiful to look upon; but remove the support and then in their helplessness they lie upon the damp earth and interwoven about each other, mildew and rot. So society becomes putrid and rotten when it turns aside from and refuses to cling to God.
It is this same principle of trust that binds society together as well as to the Creator; just as in the universe it is the same law which keeps the planets in their course around the sun that holds the constituent elements of the worlds together. It is by means of this great principle that it is possible for human beings to exist in communities.

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