"Leaning Wholly: That Is Faith!"
When Dr. John G. Paton first preached the gospel in the New Hebrides, he had some difficulty in finding a word in the native tongue for "FAITH." The natives were unable to give him such a word: they had none in their language. "To hear" was the nearest; but that was insufficient, as it is possible to hear the gospel without having faith in it. Dr. Paton looked earnestly to the Lord for means to make this important word clear to his hearers, and the Lord answered his prayer.
One day while Dr. Paton was sitting on a chair talking to a group of natives, he was inspired to use a simple illustration to evoke the idea of trusting, which is the real meaning of "faith."
"What am I doing just now?" he asked a native.
"Koe kae and, Missi" (you are sitting down, Sir), was the answer.
Then Dr. Paton drew up his feet from the floor altogether and placed them on a bar of the chair, thus resting his whole weight on the piece of furniture. "What am I doing now?" he asked.
"Fakaron grongo, Missi" (you have lifted yourself from every other support, Sir), was the native's answer.
"That's it," shouted Dr. Paton; "that's faith. To lean on Jesus only, to rest on Jesus wholly, for all the things of eternal life—that is living faith."
Beautifully simple, yet divinely true! Faith rests upon Jesus, it reposes on Him alone. It leans wholly and solely upon Him, and neither expects nor looks for any good in self. Faith confides in God, takes Him at His word, and asks for neither frames nor feelings to give assurance that what God says is true.
"What Jesus is and that alone
Is Faith's delightful plea;
It never trusts in sinful
Self Nor righteous Self in me."