I do not trust you as a stranger,
but as I come into contact with you, and watch you, and live with you,
I find out that you are trustworthy, and I come to trust myself to
you, and to lean upon you. But I do not do that to a stranger.
The way to trust Christ is to know Christ. You cannot help trusting
Him then. You are changed. By knowing Him faith is begotten in you, as
cause and effect. To trust Him without knowing Him as thousands do, is
not faith, but credulity. I believe a great deal of prayer for faith
is thrown away. What we should pray for is that we may be able to
fulfill the condition, and when we have fulfilled the condition, the
faith necessarily follows. The way, therefore, to increase our faith
is to increase our intimacy with Christ. We trust Him more and more
the better we know Him.
And then another immediate effect of this way of sanctifying the
character is the tranquillity that it brings over the Christian life.
How disturbed and distressed and anxious Christian people are about
their growth in grace! Now, the moment you give that over into
Christ's care--the moment you see that you are _being_ changed--that
anxiety passes away.
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