"MacDONALD, George - Faith, the Proof of the Unseen" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacDonald George)

George MacDonald: Faith, the Proof of the UnseenGeorge MacDonald: Faith, the
Proof of the Unseen
Preached in Brixton Congregational Church, Last Sunday Morning, June 1882
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

--Hebrews 11:1



I read it to you as it is down here, but as it stands it never conveyed any idea
to my mind at all, and I am very glad it is altered in the Revised Version, for,
of all things if we are Christians--having the least claim to the name--it is
with the spirit and not the letter that we have to do; and this translation has
neither the letter nor spirit. Happy ought the man to be who finds the ark
things in the dear Book cleared up for him--to find that what had been as a
pebble under his feet was a nut with a kernel in it, a life in it, a power of
growth planted within his spirit. The true heart goes to the blessed Book not as
an idolater but as a disciple; not to worship the Book, but to learn the will of
Him who made the Book, and that has made His Spirit to understand the Book.
But I am going to talk to you this morning about the faith that is here spoken
of. We have been talking about faith ever since the Lord came. It is not
exhausted yet; and God forbid that I should know yet what faith is; although I
know a little what it is. I think the meaning of the phrase is this: Faith is
the foundation, the root, the underlying substance of hope. If you have any
hope, it comes from some faith in you. Hope, you may say, is a bud upon the
plant of faith, a bud from the root of faith; the flower is joy and peace.
Now the evidence of things not seen--I cannot, as I say, find any meaning in
that at all; but the true meaning is the most profound fact in human history; it
is the trial or the proving of things not seen.
Now upon that turns the life of every man, especially, perhaps, in the present
day. This thing of faith means the whole recognized fellowship of man to God and
His fellows; it is the right position of the human soul which is made to
understand the truth-- the right position of that soul towards the truth; that
is faith, partly. But you must remember that whenever you begin to speak of
anything true, divine, heavenly, beyond the human, you cannot speak of it at all
without speaking in some measure wrongly about it. We have no words, we have no
phrases, we have no possible combination of sentences--nay, we have no forms of
intellect that do more than represent fragmentarily the greatness of the things
that belongs to the very vital being of our nature. Much, much foolish talk has
been uttered about faith. Oh, this talking, friends. I would not trouble myself
to set your opinions all right from this moment, henceforth, and for ever. I
would not get up into the pulpit and do so. I do not think it is worth any man's
labour; but if I could stir up a single soul, instead of talking about the
meaning even of the greatest things, to go and do the smallest duty, I should
say that is the kind of duty for which Christ spent Himself. If you read His
life wisely you will see that His constant effort is to turn a man's thought
back to himself, and make him do a thing, and not talk about it. About faith
they often used to say that it was antithetically opposed to works. There never
was greater nonsense. They would say that Paul taught faith and St. James taught
works--and indeed one would feel something like this sometimes--that St. Paul