AN English missionary was in Central Africa, preaching the Gospel to the black, people there. He found it very hard to make them understand the meaning of faith. He said to them, “Listen now to what I am going to tell you.” Pointing to some water, he said: “You see that water?”
“Yes,” they answered,
“Well, you never saw that get hard, did you?”
“O! no,” they answered, looking at him with astonishment at such a thought, for in Central Africa the water never freezes.
“Now,” he said, “if you believe me, in the country I come from the water sometimes gets so hard that I can stand on the top of it.”
Upon hearing this, one whispered to another, “Massa’s telling lies.” The missionary overheard this, and he remembered it.
After a time he returned to England, and one of those who listened to him went with him. When they reached England, the winter came, and one clear, frosty morning the missionary took Sambo out for a walk. The ponds and rivers were completely frozen over, and boys were standing on the ice. Then the missionary took the opportunity of making good the words he had spoken when in Africa.
Turning to Sambo, he said, “Take my hand, and let us go on the hard water and try it.”
Sambo did not like to go, but the missionary took his hand and led him on; and then jumping hard upon the ice, said, “Now, do you believe what I said in Africa about the ice?”
So Sambo gave in.
Being made to believe because he saw, was not faith on Sambo’s part—it was sight. It would have been faith if he had believed the missionary when he was in Central Africa, where the water never freezes. Faith would have accepted as true what the missionary said, although it seemed impossible.
So reader, God has spoken. Do you believe His word? He has told you of your utterly-lost and ruined condition through sin, and of your inability to do anything to merit His favor, or to save yourself. But, thank God, He has told you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He declares that then you shall be saved. Will you trust your feelings, thoughts, hopes, or what some people may say? or, will you believe God just because He says it? This is faith.
“Faith is not what we see or feel;
It is a simple trust
In what the God of love has said
Of Jesus as the Just.”
ML-04/11/1920