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

it or not, "If ye know these things," saith the Master, "happy are ye if you do
them." It is the doing that is everything, and the doing is faith and there is
no division between them.
Then I would say a word to those who are further on. They have been trying to
serve God for many years now, they do not seem to themselves to have made much
of it. They find that they are still troubled in their soul--not whether they be
of God; but does he manage everything now? "Where is He? I have never seen Him;
if He would but speak to myself! I have been crying for Him for all these years,
and I have never had a sign out of the great blank. Oh, if He would but show
Himself; if He would but do something--give me the meanest sign that He actually
is, and that He cares about me." You say, "I feel as if I could go and on for
ever then." Friends, I believe there is no sign God could give you, but what you
would begin to doubt again. I do not believe there is any miracle He could work
before your eyes even, that by-and-by you would not begin to doubt, and be just
as lost as before. God will not give us little things to spoil our appetite for
great things. God will never be content until we are one with Him as He is one
with Christ; God will not give us signs and wonders and these inferior things,
for be sure God's common and usual way is far better than His miraculous way, as
we call it; If it were all miracle, we would make it all common. You may be sure
then, that God's usual way of doing things is the best way. I say He will not
give us signs of anything outside to give us confidence in Him. Nothing will
serve God turn but this--that our faith in Him shall be complete, go instantly
with our perception of what He is. It is by the vision in our souls, the feeling
and perception in our souls of what God is, that we are able to believe in Him.
Let a man once see God as Christ saw Him, and he believes. He does not see Him
perfectly,and his faith will never be absolutely complete until he comes to that
point when he recognises the character and being and relation of God to himself;
and then he believes; and any glimmer of the truth in regard to our Lord's
nature helps us to believe--enables us to go on, and on, and on; So that you see
that the same thing that the intellect does with Euclid, the whole mind, heart,
intellect, imagination, conscience, and will does with regard to God when a man
sees God and knows Him. The man says, "I know enough to make life a grand and
blessed and strong thing to me, and I am going on." We will see. "I cannot
convey to you," he may say, "my conviction; that will only come with the
conviction itself; you must see, else you do not know; but life to me is
enough." So would he say; but then, "What is the way to this?" you say. Ah! my
friends, if you have been at it for twenty or thirty or forty years, surely you
have learnt by this time what you have just to go on doing--that is hearkening
to Christ and doing His will. Let me try you a bit.
What is your first thought in the morning? Is it "God is life"? or is it "How am
I to order my day's work?" Is it "God is very rich and I am His child and He
will see to me"? or is it "How on earth shall I get through this that lies
before me?" Are you afraid? Are the cares of this world troublesome to you?
Well, you have not got on much. But if you are not trying to suppress them, if
you are not trying to get rid of them, I am afraid you have not got on at all;
and if you had been thirty or forty years trying to serve Christ, it has been a
kind of service that He does not care much about, and it is no wonder that you
do not get on. You have been very careful reading your Bible and going to
church, and this thing and that thing that you think belongs to religion; but
have you been doing the thing Christ told you? If you do that, I do not care