FAITH AND UNFAITH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 59

FAITH AND UNFAITH.

In love, if love be love, if love be ours, Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers; Unfaith in aught is want of faith ir all. It is the little rift within the lute, That by-and-bye -will make the nnisic mute, And, ever widening, slowly silence all. The little rift within the lover's lute, Or little pitted speck m garner' d fruit, Which, rotting inward, slowly moulders all. It is not worth the keeping; let it go; But shall it? Answer, ilarling, answer No; And trust me not at all, or all in all. —Merlin and. Vivien. We are told by no less an authority than St. Paul, that of "Faith, Hope,* and Charity, the greatest of these is Charity." To me it always seems as if the world's greatest miracles, are wrought by Faith What religious faith can do and has done in the world's history we all know, though we are not always much inclined to heed. Pessimists who proclaim that the age of faith is past, need only to be reminded of the supreme faith with which the nowconquered Mahdi inspired his people through years of struggle. Ah ! you speak of civilised, not savage, peoples, Mr Pessimist? Why these Easterns belong to a civilisation beside which our Western pretensions are as those of an oil or cotton "king ' beside the ducal family which runs back in a direct, unbroken line to Cceur de Lion ! — but let that pass. Let us look here in our very midst at the capacity for faith which triumphantly confronts us. Mental healing, mental science, faith healing — whichever of the numerous titles you choose for a power beside which the " laying on of hands " of the Apostles was mere child's play — claims its enthusiastic believers scattered through all ranks of the community. Every day we meet men and women " too advanced '' and " up-to-date " to believe in " those absurd old Bible myths, mere oral traditions shining with vague, indefinite glory through the mists of time," listening with avidity to latter-day miracles performed by some modern miracle-monger. To declare ourselves above and beyond believing in the marvels of Biblical history, while we prove ourselves perfect gluttons in swallowing every fashionable marvel which tickles our idle palate, is absurd. The fact is men and women cannot live without faith of i some sort. The moment that we cease- to have faith in some one or something, we become derelicts upon Life's ocean — rudderless wrecks, drifting at the mercy of the winds and waves of Templation, sweltering in the tropics of Sin, frozen in the arctic desolation of too late Remorse, borne hither and thither in the miserable '"doldrums" of faithless, effortless Apathy. In youth our faith in ourselves, like our faith in all other things, is supreme. Like the untried wings of Icarus, our untried powers seem equal to the realisation of our noblest, most ambitious dreams of destiny. Our undaunted souls, ignorant of life and its temptations, of the besieger without and the traitor Avithin the citywalls, see but one role assigned to us in the battle of life : that of the victor. We scarcely need the faith of others then, our own confidence is so magnificent ! The world is ours — for us is written, "Veni, vidi, vici ! " The faith and confidence of others — if indeed we think of them eft all — seem only natural ; they are so in harmony with the joyous confidence of our youthful egotism. But as the years pass by, as our powers, talenls, atid strength are tried and \ their limits denned ; as, realities take the place of dreams, our faith in ourselves wavers, faints, fails — like the wings of Icarus : powerless to uphold us, we drop to earth, bruised, wounded. How differently then do we welcome the faith of others ! What iresh courage it gives us to know that there is still some one to believe in us. How it binds up the bruised spirit and heals the wounded selfesteem 'to find one fond, believing heart still prophesying success ! We have failed — and let those who have, failed tell of its bitterness — though we are ready to enter the lists again, yet it is with a very different feeling, shaken confidence, bitter humility. But that one faithful heart, the' frank eyes with their unquenched ,love, the smile of bright encouragement, the brave sustaining words which tell us that failure may be more honour-.

able than success — that failure is some-*" times life's best tonic — that failure may strengthen and brace for a nobler success than any we have yet dreamed of — what fresh hope springs with these? And if this be true ot worldly struggles and ambitions, how much more is it true of the inner life. It is essential to the moral and spiritual well-being of all human creatures that some one should believe in them. It is indispensable to our honour, our faith, and our integrity that some «one — even though it be but a little child or a sweet, foolish woman — have faith in us. Though this page in life's book is blotted and blurred, though tnat one is torn and defaced, though deep in our own hearts we cry " Mea culpa" for broken vows, for temptations , surrendex'ed to, and follies committed, if some good man or woman, some simple boy, or tender woman-heart still has faith in our truth and honour, even though conscience tells us it is undeserved, there is something to strive for. The little breath of trust and faith will fan that dying spark of good which had shrunk down to a mere feeble glow amid the ashes of weakness and temptation- — fan it into life and warmth. Faith in us restores to us Hope, without which we are lost indeed. The human waif to whom honour has long been only an encrimsoned folly, the criminal whose life is a base network" of all that is despicable, the Magdalen whose sole oblivion' lies in fresh and deeper draughts of sin, even these may be raised, slowly and painfully, but surely, from the 'Slough of Despond," the mire of hopeless self-con-tempt oy some pure heart's unfaltering faith in them. How much more then we, whose paths have lain in pleasant places, who are only trammelled with worldliness, corroded by cynicism and selfishness, or blighted by failure? Why for us to know that loyal hearts and true still believe in us is to stand' erect and free with the winds of God about us and the sunshine of heaven warming our starved souls. Ah, Charity is great; but Faith is a magician of whose power no man may declare the limits.