Answer: (1) This objection has force against some of the one-sided theories about inspiration. But,

(2) I do not see as it weighs anything against the historical fact of apostolic inspiration as we have described it. You and I, for instance, have some knowledge of persons full of the Spirit of God and of power. Is it your observation that a person moved by the Spirit of God will not take cold, shiver in the wind, or need an overcoat? I can readily understand, then, that Paul might be inspired and at the same time need his overcoat, especially as he was in prison at this time. can I see any impropriety or think the Holy Spirit would object if the Apostle in writing to Timothy about some very important matters should venture to insert in the same letter that he needed his coat and his books. Only a very mistaken idea about inspiration can find any difficulty in such a thing.

Nor

Fourth But, some will say, you have after all told us nothing about the inspiration of the Old Testament. So I have not by any direct reference. I have thought we should get a clearer idea of the nature of the question if we took the New Testament first. Settle the question of inspiration in your mind for the New Testament, and the difficulties which may trouble you about the Old Testament will not be such as to do you serious harm. Christ and the Apostles refer to the Old Testament scriptures repeatedly as inspired; and that settles the question as far as the general fact is concerned.

Text:

FAITH.

BY REV. OTIS A. SMITH, D. D.,'

*

Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Bay City.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped} for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb. 11:1.

This subject is

My subject this morning is faith. fundamental. It lies not only at the basis of all religion, but of all thought, all life, all activity and all human progress. It is not a subject of equal importance and interest to all minds. Some have faith and exercise faith, who do not know what it really is. There is nothing irrational in so doing, for we can have faith and reap the rewards of it, without knowing what it is in itself, just as we can think without knowing what thinking is. But there are some who will not rest satisfied unless they have some proof and explanation of faith.

What credentials does faith give? By what authority does faith proclaim herself mistress in the great realm of the unseen, revealing herself as the very foundation and substance of the elements of the soul, as the source from which spring our most sacred hopes,

* Dr. Smith was born at Albion, Ill., April 20, 1862. Graduated from Wabash College, 1883. Tutor in Wabash College 188384, Union Theological Seminary 1884-85. Graduated McCormick Theological Seminary 1887. Pastor, Frankfort, Ind., 1887-91; Walnut Street Church, Evansville, Ind., 1891-96; First Presbyterian Church, Bay City, 1896-. Received from Wabash College, M. A., 1887, and D. D., 1893.

inciting the soul to a life which we cannot see, and to realities which triumph over reason, urging us on, undaunted by darkness or mystery? I shall hope this morning to show you that faith is its own best evidence; that its authority and evidence is unquestionable, though verification is incomplete; that it is just as trustworthy and reliable as reason. Away, then, with the foolish idea that faith belongs to the age of childhood, and must be cast aside by the mature and thoughtful mind!

You may

I. Let us notice the processes of science in the discovery of any new truth and see how far they apply to that act of the soul which we call faith. think that faith will suffer by the comparison. But I am sure of the contrary. Every complete act of science involves three processes. These three processes are observation, inference and verification. To illustrate : Newton one day observed an apple fall from a tree to the ground. The thought, as a kind of revelation, flashed through his mind that the same force which caused that apple to fall to the ground, might bind together the atoms and control the movements of the spheres. By a long course of study and experiment he was able to verify this wild inference. The world accepted it as true, and so came to speak of the law of gravitation and to believe in it.

Galileo was one day in the temple of Pisa, watching the swinging of the beautiful chandeliers. He thought the oscillations were in unison. He acted upon this inference and as a result of his experiments gave to the world the laws of the pendulum. Hearing on another day a number of hammers striking successively a heated piece of iron, he remarked that they produced harmonious chords. He took the weights of the hammers and afterwards verified his inference and thus