54. How to Believe
How to Believe
I WANT TO TELL.—At the battle of Williamsburg, a soldier who had the artery of his arm severed by a fragment of a shell, and was fast bleeding to death, saw a surgeon going to the front for orders; and, lifting his bleeding member, cried, “Doctor, please!” The surgeon dismounted, bound up the vessel, and gave all possible relief. As he started on, the man said, “Doctor, what is your name?” The reply was, “No matter.” “But, doctor,” said the wounded man, “I want to tell my wife and children who saved me.”
BRIDGING NIAGARA.—When the suspension bridge across the Niagara was to be erected, the question, was how to get the cable over. With a favoring wind, a kite was elevated, which alighted on the other shore. To its insignificant string, a cord was attached which was drawn over, then a rope, then a larger rope, then a cable strong enough to sustain the iron cable which supported the bridge, over which heavily laden trains passed in safety. This could never have been done but for the little kite-string, which may represent a weak faith, yet reaches to Christ and Heaven.
JEW’S DYING CONFESSION.—A little girl was sent to the Evangelical school at Jerusalem. Her father was a poor Jew who depended for his living on the alms given to him by the Rabbis. When it was known that his daughter went to the school, they threatened to take their support from him, but the father chose rather to lose the alms than to take her away. Not long after, the old man was taken very ill. Bishop Gobat, hearing of his sad case, sent a doctor and other support. In the last days it was noticed that so soon as the girl returned from school she was shut in with her father for some hours. Later it was known that she read the Bible to her father. On his deathbed the poor Jew sent for the Rabbis and some Christians, when, raising himself, he said, “I have sent for you all that you may hear my last confession. I die in the faith of Jesus of Nazareth.”
LINKED TOGETHER.—God has linked faith and salvation together by more than “hooks of steel.” No decrees of God are more certain than these: “He that believeth shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.” He that believeth is passed already from death to life, while he that believeth not is condemned already. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” NOT QUANTITY.—It is not the quantity of faith that shall save. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean; so a little faith is as true faith as the greatest. A spark of fire is as true fire as a great flame. A sickly man is as truly a man as is a well man. So it is not the measure of faith that saves,—It is the blood that saves. The weak hand of a child, that leads the spoon to the mouth, will feed as well as the strong arm of a man; for it is not the hand that feeds, but the meat. So, if we grip Christ ever so weakly, He will not let us perish.
SHE TOOK HIM AT HIS WORD.—A Christian was sent for in great haste to visit a woman who was said to be dying. He said to her, “You seem to be very sick?” “Yes,” she said; “I am dying.” “And are you ready to die?” She lifted her eyes with a solemn and fixed gaze, and, speaking with great difficulty, replied, “Sir, God knows—I have taken Him—at His word—and I am not afraid—to die.”