They have lost
faith, likewise, in Christ's immediate government of themselves; their
own fortunes, their own characters, and inmost souls; and, therefore,
they are tempted either to follow no rule or guidance save their own
instincts, passions, fancies; or else, in despair at their own inward
anarchy, to commit the keeping of their souls to directors and
confessors, instead of to Christ Himself, the Lord of the spirits of all
flesh.
Yes, the faith which keeps a man ever face to face with God and with
Christ, in the least as well as in the greatest events of life; which
says in prosperity and in adversity, in plenty and scarcity, in joy and
sorrow, in peace and war,--It is the Lord's doing, it is the Lord's
sending, and therefore we can trust in the Lord--that faith is growing, I
fear, very rare. That faith was more common, I think, a generation or
two back, in old-fashioned church people than in any other. It could not
help being so; for the good old Prayer-Book upon which they were brought
up is more full of that simple and living faith in the Lord, from
beginning to end, than any other book on earth except the Bible.
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