April 1

Who through faith . . . obtained promises. — HEB. xi. 33.

. . . Believe ye that I am able to do this? . . . According to your faith be it unto you. — MATT. ix. 28, 29.

IN connecting as he does our faith with the exercise of his power and the benefits it confers, Christ's design is to produce a co-operation of human agency with the divine, so that we become co-workers with God in the reception and diffusion of the blessings he bestows. Thus, aside from the natural or physical effects of such co-operation, there springs up a moral or spiritual effect which enriches and ennobles the character of man. God honors us by making our faith the measure of his beneficence, and we honor him by attesting and acknowledging his power to do the things for which we pray. Hence the Scriptures say, "Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. xi. 6).

But faith is likewise "the gift of God," and the concomitant of the divine "grace" which issues in salvation (Eph. ii. 8). So that it has been observed that duties are graces, and graces become duties. It is not therefore every state of mind in which the imagination — the faculty most akin to faith — is exercised. That constitutes the prescribed condition on which God will use his power and bestow his blessing. Many are liable to delusion just at this point. The best proof of a genuine faith in man is in the works wrought by divine energy and their results according to this faith. And so the believer may herewith prove God, if he "will not pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. iii. 10).

B. Sunderland

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,

And looks to that alone,

Laughs at impossibilities,

And cries, "It shall be done!"

C. WESLEY.