Topic: FAITH
Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith, and in the
greatest matters this is most the case.
William James (1842–1910), U.S. psychologist, philosopher. "The Will to
Believe," in New World (June 1896).
Comment: For some people, Mr. James is right. But what "is" does not have to be
what ought to be. Just because some people do not question enough, or look inside enough,
or blindly trust, does not make them less of a person. In many ways, those people who
blindly believe without doubts carry along the great minds, the great powers, and the
great leaders of the faith. If our faith is in Christ, nothing else matters. If our faith
is in a human being, the blindly believing offers Satan a most lucrative opportunity. PK
If you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is
always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another mask?
Graham Greene (1904–91), British novelist. Closing words of Dr. Magiot’s
last letter, in The Comedians, pt. 2, ch. 4, sct. 4 (1966).
Comment: Maintaining faith is a struggle. It is a war between good and evil within your
heart. You determine the outcome of the war. Like any war there is nastiness, blood, and
gore until the war is won. You can wave the white flag and abandon your position or hang
tough and fight till the end. What Mr. Greene did not understand was that we all have a
victory, a victory already secured in Jesus. When you have accepted Christ as your one and
only Savior, the rest of life is basically a mop-up operation. PK
May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to
have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that
"faith" is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?
W. H. Auden (1907–73), Anglo-American poet. A Certain World,
"God" (1970).
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.
Bble: New Testament. Hebrews 11:1.
Faith is not a thing which one "loses," we merely cease to
shape our lives by it.
Georges Bernanos (1888–1948), French novelist, political writer. The Diary
of a Country Priest, ch. 4 (1936).
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of
the improbable…. A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the
capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill.
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956), U.S. journalist. Prejudices, ch. 14,
"The Believer" (Third Series, 1922).
Comment: The exercise of faith is the pinnacle of the human achievement. To believe in
what we do not see, to act upon what we cannot hear, to envision what is not within our
realm of tangible reality lifts up humanity, changes the world, and honors the power of
our Creator. PK.
Faith—is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not—.
Emily Dickinson (1830–86), U.S. poet. The Complete Poems, no. 915
(1955).
Faith. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without
knowledge, of things without parallel.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914), U.S. author. The Devil’s Dictionary
(1881–1906).
Comment: Faith in God is belief in what we know from our spiritual connections to Him.
This is knowledge that escapes the lovers of darkness. PK
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Eric Hoffer (1902–83), U.S. philosopher. Reflections on the Human
Condition, aph. 13 (1973).
Cooments: Absolute faith moves mountains if the faith is placed in invested in Almighty
God. PK
It was the schoolboy who said, "Faith is believing what you know
ain’t so."
Mark Twain (1835–1910), U.S. author. Following the Equator, ch. 12,
"Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar" (1897).
Comment: Faith is believing in what you hope for and what you cannot see. If you know
something is not so, then you would not have faith in this something.
The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they
are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.
Henry David Thoreau (1817–62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden,
"Conclusion" (1854).
The world is full of people who have lost faith: politicians who have lost faith in
politics, social workers who have lost faith in social work, schoolteachers who have lost
faith in teaching and, for all I know, policemen who have lost faith in policing and poets
who have lost faith in poetry. It's a condition of faith that it gets lost from time to
time, or at least mislaid. -- P.D. James
Comment: The world is full of people who have faith. In every stripe, color, form,
context, bent, and distortion…human beings are people of faith. In faith, it is not
what we lose, it is what we find. In faith, we can find a savior, dying on cross, for a
crime He did not commit…for He was faultless and sinless. In faith, He restores us
and keeps us, even though we were the ones who crucified Him.
Faith is not making religious-sounding noises in the daytime. It is asking your inmost
self questions at night -- and then getting up and going to work. -- Mary Jean Irion
Comment: Faith is holding on to difficult answers to questions you were afraid to ask.
When faith is supported by facts or by logic it ceases to be faith. -- Edith Hamilton
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.
-- Christina Rossetti
Comment: Faith is believing in the wind even when you cannot see it, hear it, feel it, or
experience it with your senses.