CHAPTER IX.

FAITH OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE.-WE SHOULD AIM AT BOTH.-THE CASE OF THOSE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN INSTRUCTED IN THE FAITH.

FAITH is at once the most elementary and the deepest part of religion. "Without faith it is impossible to please GOD. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." We must have a belief in His existence, and to some extent in His attributes. A perfect faith is the hard-earned grace of the advanced saint who is very near to heaven.

In connection with this subject, it will help us to understand much which is otherwise difficult in religion if we consider the nature of truth. Now truth is subjective or objective. The first -Subjective Truth-has been defined to be that which each man "troweth" or believeth. What each man believes to be truth, is truth to him subjectively; that is, he is not guilty of moral falsehood in asserting it, although it may be the reverse of truth, and though he may be to blame

FAITH OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE.

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for not knowing better. Objective Truth is that which exists in the nature of things, that which really is the truth. Hence, evidently subjective truth may be the real truth, or it may be manifold, vague, contradictory; objective truth must be one, uniform, consistent.

Faith is the faculty by which we apprehend the truth, and faith also is subjective and objective. A subjective faith consists in the inward belief of the mind, without necessary reference to the real truth or falsehood of what it believes, but only to its own sincerity. Objective is concerned with the real facts and

doctrines, which

"Revealed reli

are the objects of our belief. gion" (says Coleridge) " and I know no religion which is not revealed, is, in its highest contemplation, the unity—that is, the identity or coinherence of subjective and objective. It is in itself and relatively, at once inward life and truth, and outward fact and harmony. But as all power manifests itself in the harmony of corresponding opposites, each supposing and supporting the other, so has religion its objective or historic and ecclesiastical pole, and its subjective or spiritual and individual pole. . . . . As much of reality, as much of objective truth as the Scriptures communicate to the subjective experience of the believer, so much of present life, of living and effective import do these experiences give to

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NEED OF BOTH OBJECTIVE

the letter of the Scriptures. In the one the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we have the spirit of adoption. In the other, our spirit bears witness to the power of the Word, that it is the Spirit that proceedeth from GOD."1

Let us dwell somewhat longer on the doctrine, for it is important. It is necessary, I say, for all good Christians to have both an objective and a subjective faith. The one must needs be imperfect without the other. On the one hand a man may have a perfect knowledge and historical belief in all the articles of the Christian religion; he may be an excellent theologian, and receive the true orthodox faith, and yet he may be deficient in that practical living faith which enables him to cling to CHRIST as his SAVIOUR, and look to Him for pardon and peace. On the other hand, a man may have a warm enthusiastic feeling of faith-at least fancy he has it—and yet as regards the object of his faith he may be very wide of the mark. He may know almost nothing about CHRIST. He may believe Him to be a mere man, a creature of God's hand, and not the very and eternal GOD. He may believe Him to have been a mere phantasm or spirit, and not a real man of flesh and blood as we are. Or he may know CHRIST as perfect GOD and Man, and yet may be very imperfectly acquainted with His

1 Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, p. 114.

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office and attributes. He may be quite ignorant of Him as our Great High Priest, our Intercessor or Mediator, the Atoner for our sins. It is evident that a mere subjective faith, however warm and sincere, cannot be perfect without a right objective faith. It is not enough to know and be enamoured of the human character of CHRIST, without believing in Him also as the SON of GOD. In order to have a perfect rational and abiding faith, and not a mere subjective feeling, it is necessary to know and believe the articles of the Christian faith, which have been taught by the Apostles and received in the Church from the beginning.

"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one GOD in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." To use the words of the Catechism, "We learn to believe first in God the FATHER, who hath made us and all the world; secondly, in GOD the SON, who hath redeemed us and all mankind; thirdly, in GOD the HOLY GHOST, who sanctifieth us and all the elect people of GOD."

First, we believe in GOD the FATHER Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. We believe that there is an unseen mighty Spirit, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, who created out of nothing the great visible universe-the earth, the

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BELIEF IN GOD THE FATHER.

sea, the sun, the moon, the stars. We do not pretend to know the time or the manner in which this was done, that is of less importance. All we know and believe on this head is, that GOD made the heavens and the earth, and adapted the earth for the habitation of man, and placed in it our first parents, from whom has sprung the human race. He gave them the wonderful gifts of reason, speech, and other high endowments, that they might glorify Him with a free and willing service. It is through the operation of His goodness and power that all things living are preserved, that the earth brings forth her increase year by year, that the seasons follow each other in due succession, that night follows day and day night. GOD, we believe, has given to all things "a law which shall not be broken," and is everywhere present upholding and maintaining the work which He has made. This is the objective part of our faith in God the FATHER, belief in the facts and doctrines revealed to us. The subjective part is to apply this faith to ourselves individually, to believe ourselves to be living under the eye of this great and good Being, to feel towards Him as towards a kind Father, to rely on Him with perfect confidence for the supply of our daily wants, to shrink from doing anything which would offend Him, to delight to love and obey Him, and worship Him. If we