Faith
by Rev. Roderick MacEachen
Faith is the acceptance of another's testimony. Divine Faith is the acceptance of God's testimony. We can believe what we know from others only. We cannot believe what we know of ourselves. If I am told something I may either believe it or not believe it. If there is no possibility of error or deceit in what I am told right reason demands that I believe it.
God can neither err nor deceive. He is Truth itself. Reason dictates that I should believe all that He tells me. Though God's testimony be far beyond my comprehension, I must believe it. To demand proof for what God teaches is to insult God. God has indeed given us many proofs of His Divine Revelation. Yet it would be absurd to seek proofs of God's truthfulness. To say that we believe nothing that is beyond human reason is to limit God to the narrow confines of our own imperfect knowledge. It were the same as if a man who had never been ten miles away from his native village were to say to some noted traveler from India: "I will not believe anything you tell me unless I see it myself."
Faith relates primarily to the things that we do not know and that we can not learn of ourselves. We cannot believe anything unless it has been previously unseen or unknown to us. "Faith then cometh by hearing."
Faith is reasonable because it accepts the truth from One Who can neither err nor deceive. Unbelief is unreasonable and most of all agnostic unbelief. There are indeed unbelievers who profess to believe in God. Unbelief is properly lack of belief in divine revelation. Some unbelievers are Deists. They believe in the Creator.
Agnostic unbelievers accept the word of all but God and those who teach in His name. they believe scientists, historians and geographers. The believe that the pyramids of Egypt were built by men thousands of years ago. They believe that the archaeological inscriptions which they find were written by human hands. Yet they hold that the sun and millions of other stars and planets are the result of chance.
The pyramids stand coldly mocking the pride of man whilst the great orbs of the heavens revolve in their never-ceasing course and shed light and warmth upon us.
If a piece of wall is fund in ruin, they immediately conclude that a rational being built it. But they ascribe the wondrous edifice of the universe to a nameless force.
If they found watches hanging on the branches of a tree, they would declare that the watches were made by intelligent beings. Yet they would tell you that the tree grew up in obedience to a non-intelligent law.
They believe that the effect can e grater than the cause. they believe that the effect can exist without the cause.
Faith is not a slavery of the human reason. It extends the powers of the human reason far beyond their natural sphere. the mind of man operates within its narrow limits. Beyond certain natural confines it can only conjecture. Faith leads man out of his little circle of knowledge and reveals that to him wonders of the supernatural world.
There are powerful telescopes thorough which we can see thousands of stars that are invisible to the naked eye. Yet no one says that these instruments enslave the eye. Divine Faith is like a marvelous telescope that reveals the hidden things of God and the super-natural to our intellectual vision.
Faith must ever agree with right reason. For both Faith and reason come from God. Reason is the basis of Faith. None but a rational creature can believe. By reason we judge the motives of Faith. If God Himself appeared and revealed a truth to us by the living word, it is our reason that would suggest that we believe it.
Faith does not hamper the workings of reason. The object of human reason is truth. Faith permits reason to delve into the uttermost depths of all truth. The sum of human knowledge is called science. So long as science is true, it is in perfect accord with Faith.
If science disagrees with Faith, it is science that is in error. It has departed from the path of true knowledge and wandered into the ways of false speculation. Faith is the acceptance of truth; anything else than this cannot be called Faith. The acceptance of error is not Faith. Nor is the teaching of error science.
Often it is heralded abroad that there is a contradiction between Faith and science. It is announced from the high places that the teachings of science cannot be reconciled with the teachings of Faith. Weak men are appalled. They abandon their Faith because its teachings "have not stood the test of intellectual progress." The tenets of Faith become for them mere forms of superstition. But when "science" progresses a few decades more, it abandons its old teachings and sets up a new list of discoveries. It is too late now. The weaklings who lost their Faith are dead. Others will lose their Faith now because of these later "new discoveries."
There was a time when the "scientific world" proclaimed that it had proved the possibility of spontaneous generation. by this some thought to deny creation. Today scientists laugh at the idea of spontaneous generation. they have returned to the teaching that life comes from life.
Occasionally some university professor propounds a new theory for the origin of life. Lately one has offered the theory that all forms of life originated in the ocean. A generation ago evolutions was the watchword of science. Even man was supposed to have been evolved from primal matter. But today absolute evolution is left to the sole delight of amateur scientists.
The great Pasteur wrote: "The more I know, the more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all, I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman."