414. Wednesday after Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.
Merciful Holy Spirit,
enlighten us with thy gifts. Amen.
Hebrews 11, 1-6. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
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To the natural man the things of eternity are as incomprehensible as they are real. Their plane is higher than any which reason and the senses can reach. Here is God himself with eternal life in the means of grace committed to the keeping of his church; but in the eyes of unbelief there is nothing. The blind walk in the light; and yet to them there is no such thing as light. Faith alone discerns the things of heaven. Faith is, however, itself a miracle wrought by the Spirit of God; it cannot spring forth out of the human understanding, nor can any man give it to another. None but the Spirit of God can create it; though he, to be sure does it through the instrumentality of the word and sacraments, administered by men. — As the things which faith discerns are of heaven, and as it is of heavenly origin, so faith itself is a thing of heavenly and divine nature. And as these heavenly things which are grasped by faith are true and real, nay the very essence of truth and reality, the living and everlasting; so faith also is not an imaginary something, but a real and living truth in the soul. It is not dependent on human wisdom, which is shifting and elusive; nor on human power and strength, which wither like the grass; nor on human virtue, which is nothing but imperfection; — no, faith has its origin in God’s own word, and is immovably established on this rock, in the eternal truth, righteousness, and love of God; and like the life itself it is the irrefutable proof of its own truth. Faith is hid in the heart; but it manifests itself in the conduct of the Christians, and is the root of all divine science and of all truth and holiness on earth. Take faith out of the hearts, and you have taken away all the true theology and all true piety. Faith is not seeing and feeling, but the act of the heart in clinging with childlike confidence to the promise of God in the gospel. Use the word; ask the Spirit to illumine you; and walk uprightly before the Lord according to the measure of light given you. Then he shall strengthen your faith, and give you victory, as he did to them of old time. This shall never fail. — “Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and shall not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” — Grant us this mercy, O God; give us faith, and increase it from day to day. Amen.*
O then, impute, impart
To me thy righteousness,
And let me taste how good thou art,
How full of truth and grace:
That thou canst here forgive
Grant me to testify,
And justified by faith to live,
And in that faith to die.
[Church Book 362; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.