THE FULLNESS OF FAITH: ITS CHARACTERISTICS Acts 6:5: A man full of faith.

Faith is well defined to him who possesses it; it is but imperfectly apprehended until experienced. He who has faith in any degree, hungers and thirsts for it in a larger degree; a taste of faith makes the soul eager for a feast of it. Every believer has faith, but not every believer is full of faith; with much faith there may coexist much lack of faith. Therefore Paul longed to see the faces of the brethren at Thessalonica, that he might perfect that which was lacking in their faith. The soul may have saving faith, and still lack a fullness of faith. In this series ofFAITH PAPERS we have hitherto been presenting the subject of saving faith; we now take up the subject of special faith, which, under various phases, is as clearly distinguished in the Scriptures from saving faith as saving faith is from unbelief.

Much of the misapprehension which exists respecting the nature of faith arises from confounding faith in its saving measure with faith in the measure of its fullness.SAVING FAITH is a voluntary act of the soul, by which it appropriates salvationTHE FULLNESS OF FAITH is a state of the soul in which it apprehends divine and spiritual things; it is a temper of mind an entirely new fame of heart: it is faith shorn of none of its saving efficacy, graduated into the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of thing not seen by the baptism of the Holy Ghost in his indwelling presence received into the soul. Let us notice some of the characteristics ofTHE FULLNESS OF FAITH:

I. A consciously exclusive confidence in God.

Having the fullness of faith, the soul continuously exclaims, under all circumstances, with the Psalmist, Wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him; it is such a vision and persuasion of Gods almightiness, all-lovingness, and all-faithfulness as that the soul is given a set God-ward it will not look for help self ward, man-ward, earth-ward, circumstance-ward, -or other-ward. Faith in an imperfect measure is often deluded by favorable circumstances or promising indications, only to be disappointed. I recall in my own early ministry how my immature faith was disappointed on one occasion in its hopes, because it unconsciously reposed on indications. A protracted meeting was begun; the attendance was large; general interest good; my heart prophesied to itself a glorious revival.

But the interest evanesced; the results were meager. My faith had been misplaced. As I now know, I had great faith in the indications, and but little faith in God.

A noted evangelist taught me in a very abrupt way a lesson of faith. I had been chosen to welcome him to the city where he was to labor. I met him on his arrival at the depot; introduced myself to him, when he at once informally said to me: Have you faith in God? I replied: Our preparatory services have been good; the indications are favorable. Instantly he rejoined:

We cant depend on good meetings, favorable indications, or any thing of that kind. Have you faith in God? Then as I came to think of it. I found that I had much faith in the auspicious meetings already held, and in the coming evangelist, but very little faith in God.

The soul that is full of faith never becomes confounded by unconscious dependence upon apparent encouragements. Neither will discouragements dismay it. Oppositions, adversities, difficulties, do not enter into its calculations. It believes fully that all things are possible to him that believeth. It anticipates revivals in the face of prevalent deadness; expects victory where opposition is the most formidable; and keeps in heart where providences are the most disheartening. The fact is, a soul full of faith cant be discouraged, because it knows it shall not be disappointed. It shouts for what is to be done, even when, to human appearance, there is no hope of success. It says, We are fully able to go up, though the rabble of unbelief clamors: We cant. It utters the victorious hallelujahs which bring the walls of every frowning Jericho into the dust.

A pastor, who had not yet entered into the fullness of faith, closed a weekly prayermeeting, heart-sunken with discouragement, because of the few present and the unpromising outlook for the Church, when a good brother present came up to him and said What a good meeting we had tonight! The Lord is going to revive his work. That was the outlook of faith in its fullness. A pastor went to his field of labor; every thing was unpromising; religion was in great decline. His wife said: There can be no success here.

His reply was: Faithful is he who hath promised, who also will do it. That faith was honored in a most wonderful ingathering of souls and a great quickening of the Church a few months later. Faith in its fullness is A faith that shines more bright and clear When tempests rage without, That when in danger knows no fear, In darkness feels no doubt.

That sister most nearly discovered the secret of the Revelation Thomas Hansons power as an evangelist, who said: He is a knot of faith. A man full of faith.

A man full of faith is a man of God. He has a sustained conviction that God can not be unfaithful, and has an impressive sense that he is, and that he is rewarder of those who trust him.

II. A consciously vivid apprehension of Christ.

Having the fullness of faith, Christ is to the soul, the Son of God indeed.

The divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ becomes a spiritual verity, rather than a doctrinal conception. He who is full of faith can not be a Unitarian, for he knows by spiritual cognition that Jesus is Lord. The soul on the heights of the fullness of faith falls in adoring love at the feet of Jesus, and exclaims My Lord and my God, as never before. The sacrificial work of Christ receives under the illumination of faith in its fullness a new interpretation to the heart. The mystery of the cross becomes the glory of the soul.

The blood of the cross is exalted into infinite worth; it is seen as the sole ground of reconciliation, justification, sanctification, and eternal redemption; it is recognized not as a part, but as the whole of the atoning work; not as its symbol, but as its substance. The blood has wondrous significance to one who is full of faith; he sings of it with a sense of appreciation greatly augmented over that which he felt the hour he first believed. That sweet apostrophe so often sung, O the blood, the precious blood, Which Jesus shed for me! thrills his heart with raptures that are inexpressible. The substitutional propitiatory significance of the death of Christ is no longer a dogma, but a felt truth. Moreover, the name of Jesus becomes freighted with a power that is measureless; it is seen as The name high over all; as the prevailing element of successful prayer; as the mediatorial channel of all communion and communication between God and man as the true Jacobs ladder which joins earth and heaven, and this Christian life into a Bethel-a house of God. Christ becomes the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the all and in all to the soul which has come into the fullness of faith. So realized is Jesus to the soul in sensible glory that it exclaims: O could I speak the matchless worth; O could I sound the glories forth, Which in my Savior shine, Id soar, and touch the heavenly strings, And vie with Gabriel while he sings, In notes almost divine!

I once called upon a lady who had gone through deep waters of sorrow.

When I met her she had not been inside of a church for four years, though a Christian. The death of her husband had so saddened her by the peculiar circumstances under which it had occurred, that she could not summon courage to take her accustomed place in the house of God. Besides, the shadow of sorrow rested so deeply upon her heart that she had kept, all through those four years, lights burning every night in every room of her house, not out of superstition, but because she felt that natural darkness, superadded to the darkness of her sorrow, was more than she could bear. I said to her: Jesus will help you and comfort you. She replied petulantly:

You ministers say Jesus will be this and Jesus will be that to the soul, but he has been nothing to me in this sorrow. I saw she was not in condition to be talked with much. She was holding on to Jesus as her Savior, but had not embraced him as her Comforter. She was made the subject of special prayer by a few to whom her case was reported. A few weeks after wards she came to one of our morning meetings. I was almost startled when I saw her enter the door. A few minutes after the meeting began she arose, and said in almost an exclamatory tone; It is true, it is true! Jesus can help a broken heart! O, he came into my soul yesterday, and I blew out all the lights last night, and my soul and my home are now brighter than when all were burning. When she opened her heart and received the Comforter, there sprang up in her heart a fullness of faith which realized Jesus to her in all his matchless worth. Such faith is the souls Mount of Transfiguration, where it beholds in beatific visions the glories which in our Savior shine.

Dear reader, may you allow the Holy Spirit to translate you to this heavenly place; for once there you will desire to build tabernacles, and will sing: Here I should forever stay, Weep and gaze myself away.

III. A consciously higher appreciation of Gods Word.

The Bible is an infallible book to the soul that is full of faith. It is then received as a divine revelation, as the very Word of God. It becomes a volume all instinct with holy inspiration. The plenary inspiration of the Holy Scripture passes from being a merely doctrinal conception into a spiritual apprehension. He who has come into a fullness of faith drops all questioning and quibbling as to the complete inspiration and divine authority of the Scriptures; their very enigmas, difficulties, and obscurities are accepted as significant; and what is incomprehensible in them is believed even more fully than what is clearly understood. The fullness of faith not only accepts the Bible an inspired book, but it also renders it an illuminated book. It reads it by a new light, and sees in it new meaning. The soul, full of faith, sings: Holy Bible, Book divine, Precious treasure, thou art mine!

The Bible, hitherto uninteresting, becomes a supreme delight.

Once in my ministry a lady came to me who was a very creditable worker in my Church, and a converted woman, and she said to me: I dont love to read the Bible. I havent a relish for it. I find that I prefer to read the magazines and the best authors and current papers. There must be something wrong. I know I ought to love the Bible. I said: There is something wrong. You need that baptism of the Holy Spirit that will unseal the book, and illuminate its pages so that your soul will exclaim, How I love Thy law! About two months after she came to me and said: O, the Bible is a changed book to me now! O, it is a new book, such a precious book! I only wish I had more hours in which to linger over its pages! I asked her what had transformed it so wonderfully to her? She replied: I went with it open before me on my knees one day, and I said: Give me, Lord, a heart to love and delight in thy Word, and there came to me such a view of its truth, and such a sense of its divine origin, that my heart was filled with a completeness of faith in it, and ever since it has been a glorious enjoyment to me.