WONDERS DONE BY FAITH 1/2 (ELDER SILAS H. DURAND)

I woke from a troubled sleep in the midst of most peculiar terrible weeks I was not conscious of any upright, as though, like Joe, and scared dreams, terrified provisions, but as I walked my whole life seemed device spread out before as in the sight of God come and in it all, I saw nothing but sin and evil, with not one redeeming meritorious feature. I was as one brought before his king, and whose service he had been especially engaged in important matters of trust, and whom he had professed to love and honor, charged with unworthy motives and traitorous acts, which he could not deny, and yet who was himself, the most utterly surprised by his own guilt, having been unconscious of any crime, or even of any evil intent, but On the contrary who had fought he loved his king so much that it would have given his life in his service.

This but imperfectly intimates the kind of weakness that possessed my soul as I awoke that Sunday morning. It is impossible for me to describe the exercises of my mind in that condition; the deep sinking down of my soul under the sense of being myself what I most loathed, and of falling infinite below what I most love and Revere; the surprise at recognizing myself of the crimes I most hate, and of which I was before unconscious, and of standing under them before the Lord without defense Sonny: the sore hurt of the wounds that sin has made, and of the fiery darts of Satan, felt through all of my beings; the painting of my soul after God, and the hopeless cry unto him even in the shudder and tremble of death; The gathering, as it were, before me of all the elements of trouble and weakness, and all the bitter touches and tastes of sorrow that I had felt, and are waiting in the dollar is more grief the coming of that deeper night whose darkness must soon be upon me.

How long does this feeling last I do not know what sunny color there is no measure of time in this condition. It seemed but a moment when out of the very darkness and trouble of my soul these words seemed to come forth most mysteriously and to place themselves before my wondering sight; “out of weakness were made strong ”. It was indeed amazing. I cannot describe the wonderful appearance of the words, my surprise they should appear, not their transforming power. They were inexpressibly beautiful to me, and their sweetness filled my soul with holy and wondering delight. I thought of Paul when that terrible night of sorrow and pain was lighted upon by the dear savior's words, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

These words, “out of weakness were made strong,” were my text that day, but I could tell but little of what they were to me. I have nothing to do with bringing them to my mind, nor in producing the wonderful change which they robbed in my feelings. In a moment light seemed to shine out of the very darkness I had felt, and I felt strong in the sense of which I had been weak before. I was not strong in myself, no stronger in myself than before, but “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” The strength seemed to appear out of that very weakness which had been so distressing. I had been made to feel, as I had many times before wise my weakness before the Lord, being absolutely without defense and myself against the charges of sin and iniquity, and so had been brought to the end of the earth, to the end of earthly strength, when through these precious words Jesus appeared as my defense, and I was at once strong in him. He had satisfied the claim of the law and removed it from me forever, and so in him I had “righteousness and strength. Quote quote I did not make myself strong, but out of the weakness was made strong, and yet it was the work of faith.

This precious sentence occurs in the midst of a rich cluster of such sentences, each giving examples of wonderful things done by faith. It had been especially familiar to me above the other sentences, yet now it came by itself alone, as though taken out from among others and handed to me from mine. This experience, then, of the love and grace of God, in making me strong in him, was to be shown to me as my own work by faith; For the apostle is telling of works done by the faith of the people of god, to their own wonder and amazement. The works of faith which they are thus said to have done, appeared to themselves as far from being their own work as would be the opening of their eyes that they have been born blind, or as is the rising of the sun upon us in the morning.

It is of the peculiar character and mysterious work of faith that the apostles speak in all of this connection. He points to examples as witnesses of the experience of faith as “the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” These things which God had provided for his people cannot be seen by the natural eye nor understood by the natural mind as it is written, “I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those that love him home but God has revealed them to us by his spirit.” First Corinthians 2.9. These heavenly things are revealed to faith. Romans 1.17 It is the dust of faith which is the substance of things hoped for, it is also the evidence of the same things which are not seen by the natural side. Being was hidden from the wise and prudent from the natural wisdom and understanding of men, and revealed only to babes, these gospel things can only be understanding we talked about by those babes, who have mutual faith Matthew 11.25.

In all these examples which apostle has given to illustrate the meaning and power of faith, things which are impossible with men, but which are experienced by them, are said to be their own work by faith. Thus Enoch's translation is that he should not see death as the work of God, yet the apostle says that by faith he was translated. Sold, “by faith women received their dead raised to life again. Quote quotes these women did nothing by which they recovered their children from death, but the faith which God gave them, and Enoch, and all that great cloud of witnesses, laid hold upon the purposes and power of God and caused them to see and believe and earnestly desire and pray for what the Lord purposed to do. So Jesus said to the sorely afflicted father, who besought him to heal his son, “Believe you that I can do this? All things are possible to him that believes.” 

The purpose and work of God are not caused by the belief, but the belief is because of God's purpose and work for the women who received their death to live again, and the father who received his restored son, from the hand of Jesus, did nothing to bring to themselves such unspeakable blessings, yet they were not passive in the work as a piece of wood or stone is passive on the other hand of the workmen. They are mightily wrought upon by the unseen power of faith. That space given to them had the power to penetrate into the mysterious purposes of God, to discover his will, to know what he had determined to do, and thus that faith, as the evidence of things not seen, caused them to believe and to pray. It was such fate that caused the lighter to pray earnestly that it might not rain, a thing he could not have desired as a man, for which he earnestly desired when it was revealed to his faith as the purpose of God to bring this judgment upon his rebellious people. He had nothing to do and causing the rain to be withheld, nor afterward in causing it to be sent upon the earth; yet he was not passive under the power of that faith to which was opened up the things of God but urgently moved to pray for what God had designed to do. The apostle says that by faith Daniel stopped the mouths of lions, and by faith, the Hebrew children quenched the violence of fire. But Daniel said the Lord sent his Angel and shut the lion's mouths and the heathen king recognized the power of God in saving those whom he had commanded to be thrown into the fiery furnace from being burned by the fire.