What I Believe

Chapter 9

Were all to fulfill Christ’s doctrine, the kingdom of God would be on earth.  If I fulfill it, I do what is best for all mankind and myself.  I should be helping that kingdom to come.

But where shall I find the faith that will enable me to obey Christ’s teaching, to practice it, and never to swerve from it?  ‘I believe, Lord; help my unbelief.’

The apostles begged Christ to confirm their faith.  ‘I desire to do good, yet I do evil,’ says Paul the apostle.

‘It is hard to be saved.’  This is what each says and thinks.

A drowning man calls for help.  A rope is thrown him.  It could save him; but the drowning man cries, ‘Confirm my belief that this rope can save me.’  ‘I believe,’ says the man, ‘that it can save me; but help my unbelief.’

What does that mean?  If a man does not take hold of what alone can save him, doesn’t it prove that he is unaware of the danger he is in?

How can a Christian who professes to believe in the divinity of Christ and of His doctrine say that he would believe if he could?  God Himself, when on earth, said, ‘You are on the eve of eternal torment and fire, of complete, eternal darkness.  I bring you salvation; do as I tell you, and you shall be saved.’  Can a Christian reject the salvation offered him – remain unmindful of his Savior’s words, and say, ‘Help my unbelief?’

If a man spoke thus, would it not seem as if he not only refused to believe that destruction awaited him, but was convinced he should not perish?

Some children have leaped overboard into the water.  The current, for a time, upholds them before their clothes are entirely soaked through.  They swim about, unconscious of danger.  A rope is thrown to them from the ship.  They are entreated by those on board to take hold of the rope.  (We find the same meaning in the parables of the woman who had found a farthing, of the shepherd who found the sheep that was lost, and in the parables of the supper and of the prodigal son.)  But the children will not believe; not because they think the rope is an unsafe one, but because they do not believe that they are about to perish.  Thoughtless children, like themselves, have told them that they will go on bathing merrily, even when the ship sails away.  The children do not believe that the time is near when their clothes will be wet through, their little arms tired out; when they will begin to lose breath, and that then they will choke and drown.  They do not believe that, and therefore they do not believe in the rope of salvation.

Men are like the children who have jumped overboard, and are sure they will not perish.  Therefore they do not take hold of the rope.  They believe in the immortality of the soul and are convinced that they will not perish, and therefore they do not fulfill the doctrine of Christ-God.  They do not believe in what is indubitable, only because they believe in what is beyond all possibility of belief. 

And they cry, “confirm our belief that we are not perishing.’

But t…