account of their faith, received not the promises, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and sin which doth naturally enwrap us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross and despised the shame. Consider Him who endured such gainsayings at the hands of sinners, that ye be not wearied and faint in your souls. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood in your striving against sin."-From Hebrews x. 22 to xii. 6.

We have seen that religion implies and necessitates the use of reason. We have seen, further, that there are many fundamental religious problems of which reason is unable to give us a complete solution. We have now to consider the function of faith, which comes in to help us at the point where reason fails.

That faith begins where reason leaves off is curiously illustrated by the fact that, according to our text, it is faith which teaches us "the worlds were framed by the word of God." Now,

as I intimated in the previous sermon, it is possible to demonstrate the existence of a divine Creator by a reflective examination of our conscious experience. But since this demonstration was first given to the world by Hegel, and from its excessive abstruseness is somewhat difficult to understand; and since, further, as I mentioned before, the ordinary logical arguments for the existence of God are not perfect demonstrations, -it follows that, as far as the majority of men are concerned, the divine existence must be, as our text asserts, a matter of faith.

Now, let us try and discover what faith is. And let us begin by inquiring what is implied in the ordinary man's faith in the existence of God. Though it has not been proved to him by absolutely perfect argument, it has nevertheless more or less of a rational basis. The most ordinary man can hardly have failed to perceive some sort of adaptation in the world around him and in himself. There is a beautiful landscape, and here is an eye which sees it, a mind which appreciates it, and a heart which is moved by it. Very dense indeed must be the human being to whom the idea has never occurred, that the landscape and the eye and the mind and the heart were made with some sort of view to one another.

But this suggestion does not amount to certainty. Sometimes what appears to be design turns out to be accident. Still, as the appearances of design are multiplied, the possibility of their being all due to accident becomes smaller; and when it is remembered that there are semblances of design extending over a universe which is for us practically infinite in space and time, the possibility of their being all due to accident becomes infinitesimal. The atheist, then, adopts an irrational belief, for he assumes that this smallest conceivable possibility outweighs the largest conceivable probability. The ordinary man, on the contrary, who believes in God because of the adaptation which he seems to see around him, adopts a rational belief. His reason has not proved the divine existence to demonstration, and yet it has afforded him arguments that are all but irresistible. Faith, then, implies a reasonable belief in the existence of God.

But faith, says our author, implies a belief that God is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, that is to say, it implies a belief in God, not only as the Creator, but as the moral Governor of the universe. The Hebrews had taken joyfully the spoiling of their earthly goods, because they knew there was in

store for them a better and an abiding possession. Moses had chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God, because he felt that the pleasures of sin were only for a season, and because he had respect unto the recompense of the reward which attached to the reproach of Christ. The noble army of martyrs refused to accept deliverance, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and though they had not themselves received the promises, they died in peace, feeling that they and those who should come after them were members of one great system, which would be perfected in God's good time. Even Jesus, the writer says, endured the cross and despised the shame for the sake of the joy that was set before Him.

Now the moral government of the universe, in which all these believed, can never be demonstrated; at least, no one has ever yet succeeded in demonstrating it. Even those who are able to prove conclusively by reason that God is, are not able to prove in the same manner that He is uniformly the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. It cannot be shown that it will always go well with the good, for seems to go very ill with them. the conviction that these apparent moral government are not real.

sometimes it Faith implies exceptions to

And far more

reasons can be discovered in support of this conviction than can ever be arrayed against it. As à rule, good men are honoured for their goodness; or, if they suffer wrongfully, they, generally speaking, have an inward peace which is sweeter than any outward applause. These and similar arguments, moreover, acquire additional force if read in the light of the Gospel. It is the blood of Christ, our author tells us,—that is, the sacrificial life of Christ,-which pre-eminently gives us boldness. It is in the light of the

Cross that we best discern the infinite value of character. On the whole, then, though we have not arrived at demonstration, we have strong rational grounds for believing that the Ruler of the universe is not indifferent to our actions, that the wages of virtue is not to be dust, that sooner or later it will be well with the righteous; and if later, that there will be compensation for the delay. Hence faith is not a belief in anything unintelligible or irrational. The proof for what is believed, though not by any means complete, is good so far as it goes. The Hebrew Christians, you will observe, endured their great conflict of sufferings after they were enlightened,—that is, after reasons for faith had been presented to them.