WHY does the speculator offer one dollar more to-day, than he did yesterday, per barrel for flour? Because he believes the news he has received, of an advance in some other market. Why does that pork dealer advance the price one dollar per barrel? Because he believes the news of an advance in some other market. Why does that trader refuse that bank bill? Because he believes the statement in the detector, that it is under par. Look through the various departments in life, business transactions and all, and see what a vast amount of it is done by faith. All business men are daily and hourly acting in matters where thousands of dollars are involved upon faith, and acting with great confidence, too. Look at that man at the post office, opening a letter and reading! In a few minutes you see him stopping quickly and closing an engagement, involving thousands of dollars! What is he acting upon? Faith in the letter just received and read. Look at that other man, waiting for a dispatch. Presently he receives and reads it. In a few minutes he is waiting the arrival of the cars. As the cars approach, you notice him eyeing the passengers as they come out of the train. Presently he rests his eye upon a man. In the next moment the man is arrested! What is he acting upon? Faith in the telegraphic dispatch he had just received. Thus we perceive men are constantly acting upon faith in all the affairs of this life.
Is it possible that men who are thus constantly, and without hesitation, acting upon faith, will have the assurance to apologize for their unbelief in matters of religion, by saying they cannot believe? It will also be observed that the men thus acting are not merely a few credulous and thoughtless persons, but business men of all classes—men of the first order of mind, thus showing that they can believe and do believe, in matters of great importance, and thus demonstrating that they can believe in matters of religion, as well as others, if they will but give a candid attention to the evidence. The same faculties of the mind exercised in believing the news of the day, political, commercial, or of sickness, health, or accidents, etc., are exercised in believing the divine testimonies. The same mind that believes the testimony of men, is exercised in believing the testimony of God. The difference in the effect produced upon the human soul, by divine testimony, or divine faith, from that produced by human testimony, or what is purely human faith, is not that the same mind, or the same faculties of the mind are not exercised in both cases, nor is it owing to the difference between divine and human testimony; but the difference is in the things believed—the difference between divine and human things believed. Heavenly things believed would, beyond all dispute, make a different impression from that produced by the belief of earthly things, however true they might be. A mere earthly truth, even if proved by divine testimony, could produce no more than an earthly impression; but a heavenly truth, if proved by earthly testimony, would produce a heavenly impression. The same mind that understands and believes that there is an advance in the flour market, believes that the Lord rose from the dead, but the effect produced by the faith in one instance, is very different from that produced in the other instance; not because different powers are exercised in believing; nor because the testimony differs; but because the things believed differ.
The relation a thing believed sustains to the believer, is the main cause of its effect upon him. Robert Owen, who professed to have read, and traveled forty years, without being able to find any evidence of the truth of christianity, has lately become a believer in Spiritualism. How is it, that he is so slow to believe in one case, but so ready to believe in the other? The reason is to be found in the relation these two things to be believed, sustain to him. The belief in modern Spiritualism involves nothing, requires nothing and promises nothing. It is merely a speculative subject, for vain and idle curiosity; placing no man under any new obligations who believes it. It is a very suitable thing to catch a man of a perverted mind and heart; one who has rejected Jesus; resisted the testimonies of the Holy Spirit, and despised the Bible during an earthly pilgrimage of many years, which God has mercifully and graciously granted him. But the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God—that he is divine—that he is alive and lives forever and ever, is a fact sustaining a different relation to time. It is not a speculative fact for idle curiosity; not a mere theme for empty, cold and unfeeling hearts; for idle, confused and wandering brains; but a fact, intimately connected with all mankind; a fact, in which the destinies of all men are involved; one, too, bearing upon the lives and conduct of all men. Here is the reason that many are so slow to believe this, the greatest and most important of all the facts presented for the belief of mankind: it requires a holy life. A strange feature truly is it, in men, that they should prefer to believe that which requires nothing, proposes nothing and promises nothing, to that requiring the purest life, most exalted character, and ennobled feelings, promising the approbation of the Almighty now, and eternal joy in the world to come!
What reason can any man give for such opposition? No man believes that the Lord Jesus Christ ever made any human being worse. No man sincerely believes that the Bible makes any person worse; or that the Christian religion does any harm to any one of our sinful race. No human being solemnly believes that any harm could result from the universal prevalence of pure christianity, as set forth upon the pages of the New Testament, throughout the world. All men, upon cool and deliberate reflection, must be satisfied, that if all the peoples, nations, tribes and tongues of the earth, were fully under the power and influence of the Bible, mankind would be infinitely blessed by it. Not a sceptic in the world can give a reason for his opposition to the Lord Jesus and the Bible. O, that men knew Jesus! O, that they possessed his spirit and temper! O, that they would love him and be blessed by him!