Good faith

“ When they have rested and refreshed themselves enough, they proceed on their way, and not only do they not thank me for my hospitality, but they break off my tender branches and use them as whips, further to goad and distress their weary animals. Can such conduct as that be called good faith? No, I am bound to say that my experience of life leads me to believe that there is no such thing as good faith in this world. ”

“ Here we shall give an answer to all those who, taking offence at the word of faith and at what I have asserted, say, "If faith does everything, and by itself suffices for justification, why then are good works commanded? Are we then to take our ease and do no works, content with faith?" ”

“ May we not go a step further and say that Christian Faith or trust—if it be once recognized as faith or trust, altogether distinct from the kind of assent which we give to a proposition of Euclid—needs not only to be protected from certain evil influences but also to be subjected to certain good influences? ”

“ If religion calleth us to a life of watching and prayer, ’tis because we live amongst a crowd of enemies, and are always in need of the assistance of God. If we are to confess and bewail our sins, ’tis because such confessions relieve the mind, and restore it to ease; as burdens and weights taken off the shoulders, relieve the body, and make it easier to itself. If we are to be frequent and fervent in holy petitions, ’tis to keep us steady in the sight of our true good, and that we may never want the happiness of a lively faith, a joyful hope, and well-grounded trust in God. ”

“ We will ask the first three living things we meet whether or no there is such a thing as good faith. If they say there is not, then you are welcome to kill and eat me; but if they say there is such a thing, then you shall let me go free. ”

“ A true faith, in which is the spirit of wisdom and understanding, points out how such benevolence and good-will is to be directed or performed: and the actual exercise of both, in the just and faithful discharge of all our relative duties, and on every sion that arises, according to our ability, and the several states, qualities, and necessities of our neighbour, as before observed, constitutes good works, or the life of charity and faith. ”

“ First, you must have an assured faith in God, and give yourselves wholly unto him; love him in prosperity and adversity, and dread to offend him evermore. Then for his sake, love all men, friends and foes, because they are his creatures and image, and redeemed by Christ as ye are. Cast in your mind how you may do good unto all men, unto your power, and hurt none. ”

“ Those who acknowledge the hand of God in all things, and abide in his commandments, are the only ones who will sustain the principles of truth and purity. If their influence upon the character is not good and pure, how will they produce that pure feeling, pure faith, and pure godliness which prepare a person to dwell in eternal burnings? ”

“ In the attempt to express it different Churches say different things. But you will find that even those who insist most strongly on the importance of good actions tell you you need Faith; and even those who insist most strongly on Faith tell you to do good actions. ”

“ Let us, I say, join and knit all these together with the chearful exercise of faith and trust in God. Let us excite one another, with comfortable words, to cast ♦off all fear of man. Wheresoever God hath wrought a good will, let us take heed of damping it in any of the least members of Christ; but let us cherish it by the word of the gospel, and by the rules of true Christian discretion, keep it within such bounds, as may bring it to a fuller and more substantial maturity. ”

“ If, therefore, you will carry to completion what with a mind so disposed you have conceived, study to form that people to good morals, and, as well by yourself as by those whom you shall find qualified for the purpose by faith, word, and conduct, so act that the Church may be adorned, that the religion of the Christian faith may be planted and may increase ”

“ And these acts, whereby faith becomes wedded to charity, or truth in the understanding becomes married to love in the will—if done (as the truth requires) in the hearty acknowledgment that the power and disposition to do them, are every moment given by the Lord—are the good works which consummate the heavenly marriage of good and truth in the soul. ”

“ But how comes it that we see many good men and men of learning among all sects of Christians, some of which must undoubtedly be false, as they contradict and condemn one another? A. To understand this we must observe that the Word of God declares that God wills, "all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." ”

“ While the state of our race is such as to need all our mutual devotedness, all our aspiration, all our resources of courage, hope, faith, and good cheer, the disciples of the Christian Creed and Morality are called upon, day by day, to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling and so forth. ”

“ The Christian faith from the beginning, is sacrifice the sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of spirit, it is at the same time subjection, self-derision, and self-mutilation. ”

“ Faith by itself saved him; but works by themselves never justified any man.”
12. The third thing to be noted of true faith is, what good works it doth bring forth. And this Christ himself hath plainly declared, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. So that we are taught by Christ’s own mouth, that the works of the commandments of God are the true works of faith, the very way that doth lead to everlasting life.
13. Wherefore as ye have any regard for everlasting life, apply yourselves above all things to read and hear God’s word ”

“ to delight in the rest of faith while forgetful to fight the good fight of faith; to dwell upon the cleansing and the purity effected by faith, but to have little thought for the poor souls struggling in the mire of sin. ”

“ But the righteousness which is by faith in Christ is a loving heart, and a loving life, which every man will long to lead who believes really in Jesus Christ. ”

“ And my speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the showing of the spirit and power. That your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. ”

“ Forasmuch as they have thought proper to distribute virtue into four divisions—prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance—and as each of these divisions has its own virtues, faith is among the parts of justice, and has the chief place with as many of us as know what that saying means, "The just shall live by faith." ”

“ For he had a vital faith, and this faith made the ideals he conceived seem possible—faith in the duty and desirability of overthrowing idols; faith in the gospel of liberty, fraternity, equality; faith in the divine beauty of Nature; faith in the perfectibility of man; faith in the omnipresent soul, whereof our souls are atoms; faith in love, as the ruling and co-ordinating substance of morality. ”

“ And is not the demonstration, which we possess, that alone which is true, as being supplied out of the divine Scriptures, the sacred writings, and out of the “God-taught wisdom,” according to the apostle? Learning, then, is also obedience to the commandments, which is faith in God. And faith is a power of God, being the strength of the truth. ”

“ If we are not true-hearted and sincere in our convictions, if we ourselves are halting between two opinions, how can we call down the heavenly fire of true faith upon the souls of our children? That we may be better able to fulfill our mission, God has endowed us with wonderful faculties and abilities, which have made us proverbial; he has given us greater vitality, to survive the storms of hatred and persecution; wealth and wisdom, to emulate in the solution of the greatest problems of mankind. ”

“ The 18th, the first of the week, we attended the meeting at this place, which was large, composed of Friends and others. I was led to open the great advantages attendant on a life of righteousness, from that scripture passage, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people;” and showing the difference between a righteousness, founded on the laws, maxims, and precepts of men, and the righteousness that is witnessed by faith in the Son of God, as revealed to the hearts and souls of the children of men through the holy spirit. ”

“ To promote among all true believers, brotherly love; to lead them to make less of those non-essentials in which disciples differ, and to make more of those great essential and foundation truths in which all true believers are united; to help all who love and trust one Lord to rise above narrow sectarian prejudices, and barriers to fellowship.
5. To strengthen the faith of believers, encouraging a simpler trust, and a more real and unwavering confidence in God, and particularly in the sure answers to believing prayer, based upon His definite promises. ”

“ Go back to the days of your youth; take a close view of the use you made of affluence and influence; not comparing yourself with others, but judging yourself by the law of God, the only standard of right and wrong, truth and error. Seek for humbling views of yourself in yourself. If the Holy Ghost enlighten, you will find sufficient grounds. Seek for consolation in the free promises of God, through Jesus Christ, of which there are also abundance, even to the chief of sinners. ”

“ Unite yourself, therefore, to him with all your mind, in the fervour of faith, and further his endeavours, by that virtue which God has given you, that He may make you partaker of His kingdom, Whose faith you cause to be received and maintained in your own. ”

“ A vigorous faith, and the confident hope for humanity which a vigorous faith begets, were never better calculated than they are to-day to produce a right moral impression on the world, owing to the {210} mere absence of rival enthusiasms. ”

“ The virtue that we demand in the worshippers of God, under the rule of the Christian dispensation, is the virtue that flows from religious faith; that faith being, the exercise of trust in the redemption of the gospel. ”

“ The intelligence of each one, his past history, his moral dispositions, will determine how far the faith that is in him corresponds to the faith that is without him—the faith as it is in itself, the object of faith as it is in God. ”

“ Given faith, there will ultimately emerge all the successive qualities of true goodness—knowledge, temperance, patience—the personal virtues, rising upwards to godliness or the love of God, and widening out to brotherhood, and thence to charity or a love of mankind—a charity which embraces the whole world, even those who are not Christian: the enemy, the outcast, and the alien. ”

“ They confound a plenary conviction of the truth of the Christian scheme of salvation, with an assurance of a personal interest in its invaluable blessings. This is the error into which they have fallen, and on the eve of which you are now standing; but it does not require much force of reasoning to show its fallacy. Faith is an assent of the mind to some truth, or some system of truth, which is established by satisfactory evidence. ”

“ Let others partake of its waters in My name, that the leaders of men in every land may fully recognize the purpose for which the Eternal Truth hath been revealed, and the reason for which they themselves have been created.
CX: The Great Being saith: O ye children of men!... The Great Being saith: O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity. ”

“ A man's works should agree with his faith; if he has faith to sustain his words, if he has faith to sustain his deeds, his works should correspond with his faith. I must be right in my faith, to be right in my works. ”

“ Faith is, for such a being as man, the spring of all righteousness before God, the one act of the soul which is primarily and supremely right. What [185] is more just than that the creature should trust his Creator, the child his Father? Here is the root of all right understanding and right relations between men and God—that which gives God, so to speak, a moral hold upon us. And by this trust of the heart, yielding itself in the "obedience of faith" to its Lord and Redeemer, it comes into communion with all those energies and purposes in Him which make for righteousness. ”

“ Persons of this character could not in the least serve themselves from his discourses; in every one of which he so preached faith in Christ, as to establish the law, in its true sense, that is, to secure all the interests of genuine holiness, both in heart and life; all the fruits of righteousness; the most rigorous regard to mens duty to God, their neighbour, and themselves. ”

“ They wrought righteousness, both in their public and personal capacities; they turned many from idolatry to the ways of righteousness; they believed God, and it was imputed to them for righteousness; they walked and acted righteously towards God and man. It is a greater honour and happiness to work righteousness than to work miracles; faith is an active principle of universal righteousness. ”

“ This readiness for great things, and this sense that the world by its importance, wonderfulness, etc., is apt for their production, would seem to be the undifferentiated germ of all the higher faiths. Trust in our own dreams of ambition, or in our country's expansive destinies, and faith in the providence of God, all have their source in that onrush of our sanguine impulses, and in that sense of the exceedingness of the possible over the real. ”