FAITH AND ITS FOOTSTEPS. HEB. XI. THE apostle sums up in this chapter, and shows that all through man's history, no matter who had obtained a "good report," it was by faith. This was specially a trial for the Hebrews. Their very religion was one of sight. They had a system to walk by-a visible temple, sacrifices, priesthood, and the like. Messiah, they expected to see. (When they did see Him, they hated and put Him to death, and this Messiah is gone to heaven.) In becoming Christians, they lost all they had possessed, and gained nothing that was tangible to the flesh. There was, therefore, the constant temptation to deny an unseen Messiah, and to turn back to things seen. The saint's warrant is the word of God. The moment he acts upon any object seen, he ceases to act as a Christian. Christ lived, in that sense, the life of faith. (Heb. xii. 2.) It is the life of faith we get here, not salvation, or the finding peace in the way of faith. Faith is looked at as the power by which they walked. There are these two things in faith: as it regards, 1st. PEACE OF SOUL. 2nd.-POWER FOR WALK. If I talk of faith, I may mean belief of a testimony-a person tells me a thing, and I believe him. But there is another sense in which I may have faith in that man; that is, I may put my trust in him. We often confound these things. There is the testimony of God which I have to believe, and a trusting in God which is the power of my walk. That which gives me peace, is receiving the testimony of God I do want confidence in God for power of walk; but I must not confound this confidence in God with His testimony. We shall find the two things in Abraham. God called Abraham and shewed him the stars of heaven, and said, "So shall thy seed be ;" and Abraham "believed God." In the offering up of Isaac (v. 9), there was not the receiving of a testimony, but "believing in God." Here I am, a sinner with the consciousness of sin; how can I trust in God? I know Him to be a holy God, a hater of sin; how can I trust in Him? I dare not be in His presence with sin upon me,-what can meet that? it is not denying the holiness of God; it is not my putting away my sin; but God tells me my sin is put away. I believe Him. This is not trusting in His power. The thing that gives me peace, is my receiving a testimony. My spirit cannot rest, when I am conscious of sin, unless I know that it is not imputed to me; it is God who has seen it just as it is; my being content with myself, will not do; I must have God content about me. There is a wrestling going on in the soul that wants to be content with itself. Believing God's testimony, it would be at peace. It has never yet been brought to feel itself a thoroughly worthless sinner. The question is not as to my not having sin; but do I believe what God says, when He says it is put away? There is really a work of the Spirit of God in this; not in producing what will satisfy me, but in bringing my soul to say, 'It is all over with me.' God often allows it to struggle on; it will try to get better; He lets it, and, like a man in the mire who pulls one foot out to get the other in, its case is only the worse. The answer to this comes in in the blessed truth of the Gospel of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that "whosoever believeth in Him is justified from all things. (Acts xiii. 38, 39.) I find God perfectly at rest; He is resting in Jesus perfectly satisfied. Christ says, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do ;" and God says, "Sit thou on my right hand." I get rest to my soul because I find that God has not one single thing against me. There is often this struggling under the sense of conviction, before the soul gets peace. Another thing is the walk of faith. Come sifting, come trial, come what may, the ground of my peace is never touched. If it were not completely settled, done, it never could be, and why? because it says, that, "without (not "sprinkling, but) shedding of blood there is no remission." (Heb. ix. 22.) Therefore, if not perfectly done, Christ must die again, shed His blood again. But it is finished. The Spirit of God will ake me see it; but it is done. I take this word of Jesus, "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do;" and I say, 'It is finished.' Now I get the path of faith opened before me; I am sure God loves me, and is nothing but love; I can, therefore, trust in Him: I know His love; He has saved me as a sinner, I can trust in His love as a saint. Mark the order in which things are presented here. To faith, that which is unseen becomes as present, as real, as though present to sight. (v. 1.) Yea, much more so; because there is deception in seen things; but there is no deception in things communicated by the Spirit to the heart. Through faith we know that creation was by the word of God. (v. 3.) Then (v. 4) we come to the great basis on which a fallen creature can have to say to God. Let us look a little at the distinctive character of Abel's sacrifice. Cain offered to God what cost him more. His was not the case of a thoroughly irreligious man; he offered to God, worshipped God, and was utterly rejected. He was not an infidel or an irreligious man; but a worshipper, and a rejected worshipper. His worship was founded on unbelief. A sinner, turned out of paradise, he could go to God as though nothing had happened. So with many; they think they can go and worship God, pay a compliment to Him. And what did he bring? The very thing that had the stamp of the curse upon it. God had said, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; thou shalt eat of the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." That is what comes of a person thinking he can worship God ("do his duty," as he terms it); it is the denial of the whole truth of his condition. What does Abel? Quite another thing; he brings a slain lamb, comes through death (in principle, through the atonement of Christ). He sets between himself and God the testimony of a provided sacrifice. By faith he offered. Before the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the revelation had been that such a thing would be done, as though I were to say to a debtor in prison, "I will pay your debts." All that we enjoy as a finished work was a subject of hope. "Whom God," it is said, "hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of |