EJW
E. J. Waggoner
Faith is that which enables one to see far off, to see farther than others can see, or to see things near at hand more accurately than some one else can see them. It enables one to see things that are invisible. Now faith does not manufacture anything; it is not fancy imagination, but there are more things that are invisible than there are that are visible; that is to say, there are more things in the universe that you have never seen than there are that you have seen. Not only so, there are more things in the universe that are visible to the spiritual sight than there are that are visible to the natural sight. The secret of Christianity, the secret of growth in the knowledge of God and in divine things, is in the ability to see what the ordinary man cannot see. And the work that we have, as messengers God’s truth, is to give the last message to the world, which shall not only bring this people up to the height that other people have ever attained to, but shall point out to men things that are about them that they do not see. That was the commission given to the apostle Paul: “To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” (Acts 26:18.) That is the thing-to open their eyes, to cause people to see, to behold the Lord, and to see the light. God is light, and when they see God they will behold the one who can save them, and who can heal them. MEDM September 1903, page 221.1
Moses was a man of most marvelous spiritual attainment, but he was at the same time a man of most marvelous physical development. Think of it! A man one hundred and twenty years old, when men did not live on an average more than we do now, and just as strong then as at forty. After forty years of hard pastoral labor, he entered at eighty upon still harder service, which he followed for forty years, with a flock of people who were ten times as foolish and difficult to lead as a flock of sheep, and at the end of that time he was still as strong as ever. Why?-Because of the truth which the Lord announced to the people when he led them forth: “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God,” not only will I put “none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians,” but I will take disease away from the midst of you, and thou shalt be strong; “for I am the Lord [thy physician] that healeth thee.” That brings us to the fact that healing and saving are identical in the Scriptures. For instance, we read in the seventh chapter of Luke of the sinner who came to the Lord and washed his feet and wiped them with the hair of her head. Then the Lord, after some preliminary talk to the makers of the feast, said, “Her sins, which are many, are, forgiven, for she loved much.” Then to the woman he said, “Thy faith hath saved thee go in peace.” In the eighth chapter of Luke, we read of a poor woman who had been suffering from disease; she had been to every doctor she could hear of and instead of getting better, she grew worse. And now she was on the verge of the grave, and she saw something that nobody else in that crowd saw. She saw the Lord; she saw a power there that they did not see, and she said, “If I may but touch him, I shall be made whole.” She reached through the crowd (she could not get to him herself) and just touched the hem of his garment, and instantly she was healed of that plague. Then the Lord turned and said to her, “Thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace.” In the Greek we find that he said identically the same thing to one woman that he said to the other; the Greek words “to save” and “to heal” are the same thing. So the presence of the Lord saves; it heals. There is healing power in the presence of the Lord. MEDM September 1903, page 221.2
Now this is scientific, because religion is the most scientific thing in the world. It is the only scientific thing. Christianity is pure science. Science is knowledge, and Christianity is the knowledge of God, and this is the sum of all science, because he who knows God has the key to all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God is light. A noted physician in London said not long ago, “Wherever we can get light to penetrate, we can heal.” This is not exactly true, for physicians do not do the healing; it is the light that penetrates, that heals. Wherever light penetrates it heals; and men are finding out much more about light than they formerly knew. Dr. Vinsen, who is known over the whole world through his investigations of the properties of light, has a most beautiful institute at Copenhagen, where he treats people with nothing but simple light, and he has had many wonderful cures through its agency. Since he has called attention to this, pure light is being used to an extent never dreamed of in former times. Of course, you all know the different applications of light in our sanitariums, as electric light baths, sun baths, etc. What does that mean?-It means that light is a healing power of God; it means that God is light, and all the light that there is in the world is simply the shining forth of God’s own life. Christ demonstrated that when he said to the man who had been born blind, “I am the light of the world.” This was not a theoretical thing, a mere figment of the mind, which some people would call “spiritual light,” or “mental light,” but real light that is visible to the natural eye. To show that, the next moment he causes the man to see. So when he said, “I am the light of the world,” he meant that he is the light that shines from the sun; that he is the light that shines in the daylight, in the starlight. He meant that all the light and the glory of the heaven is but the glory of the Lord. MEDM September 1903, page 222.1
Some one may ask, “Then you think that all that can be seen-that is, all that the light makes manifest-is God?” No, never. I wish to tell you the difference between this recognition God in all his works and the heathen doctrine, pantheism. The line of distinction between truth and error is imperceptible, because naturally, they coincide. When we go outside of truth, that very instant we are in error; and, per contra, when we get out of error, there truth is. We need not go far to find error, for truth and error lie side by side, and it is good that this is so. MEDM September 1903, page 222.2
The first chapter of Romans contains both sides of that story: “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world [that is, his everlasting power and divinity] are clearly seen, being understood [perceived] by things that are made.” So, as the preceding verse states, “That which may be known of God is manifest in them [in the heathen]; ... so that they are without excuse.” Those heathen (everybody) are without excuse, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. This being so, our business is to call their attention to that fact and free them from that alienation from the life of God by opening their eyes, thus removing their ignorance by removing their blindness; thus opening their eyes to the light and to the life, and that which may be known of God, which is manifest in them, so that they may lay hold upon eternal life, and that is salvation. MEDM September 1903, page 222.3
Now the heathen, “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” Then they “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.” The heathen did not wish to retain God in their knowledge, but they saw the manifestation of supernatural power in a plant. “That is God; the plant does this, and that is God.” Then they saw a power in the wind, and there was another god working there. They saw wondrous things accomplished by the light, and there was another god, and so on with other things. So they worshiped all these things as God, a thing which they never could have done if they had recognized the truth and kept it in mind, that in everything that God has made is everlasting power. The lie was to say that that power is inherent in the thing itself. Is there any difference? There is just as much difference as there is between heaven and earth and nobody in the world need make any mistake, neither can any one make this mistake if he holds to the truth that God himself is working here. MEDM September 1903, page 223.1
Some one who has not given this matter the attention he ought to has written this: “There is life manifested here and there, but it is not God’s life.” This is pantheism; because if it is not God’s life, then the life is inherent in the thing, but life is an essential attribute of God. God is life; he is all the life there is. In him is life; he is the source of life. But if you have another supply of life, then at once you have another god. And if the life that is manifested in the growing plant, and in you, and in me, is not the life of God, and is not God himself personally working there, then you have no other alternative but that heathen idea-that the creature itself is God. But it is not God. All these things are created things, and these manifestations of life and power are God working in them. MEDM September 1903, page 223.2
Some one will say, “Then you believe that God is just as much in these things as he is in the heavens?” No, there is a place where God has his seat; the center of attraction; and his power centers all things in himself; all the universe, all the planets, all the suns, are keeping their place by his attraction. So, believing the Bible, we must seriously combat any statement to the effect that God is as much in one place as in another. We can say, God is truly and really without trying to make any comparison, present everywhere. “Do not I fill all things?” he says. “Can anyone hide himself in secret places that I shall not find him?” “Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me: even the night shall be light about me.” (Psalm 139:7-11.) God is light, and the darkness and the light are both alike to him, and he causeth the light to shine out of darkness. MEDM September 1903, page 223.3
This is the truth which, proclaimed to man, will lift him up: and it is the only thing in the world that will give a man absolute continual deliverance from the besetments of the flesh, from the sins that he is heir to. When I thus recognize this power in me to do that which I cannot, then I have only to do as the physician or the nurse does with the germ-infested chamber,-open it up and let the light shine through. I recognize the light that is there, and let the light do the work. So, “It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” MEDM September 1903, page 223.4
Why should any one mistake this? and why should any one wish to shut his eyes to its glorious light? You need not go far to get health; you need not make a pilgrimage to some shrine to get deliverance. God is not far off; he is near at hand. God is working, and if your eyes are opened, you can get the evidence of his working, and a most marvelous working it is. I have watched through the microscope the mysteries in a drop of water, and in no meeting that I have ever attended (and I have attended some glorious seasons of refreshing), did I have feelings of greater joy and such a constant lifting up as while looking into the secret chamber of God, watching as if I were in the very presence of God, seeing him working in that wondrous way, when, in a creature which was not visible to the naked eye, I could see perfect joints, and could even see the blood coursing through the veins. There is a beautiful verse written by Cowper which I will give you:- MEDM September 1903, page 224.1
“‘Tis sweet to muse upon the skill displayed,
Infinite skill, in all that He has made;
To trace in nature’s most minute design
The signature enstamped by power divine,
Contrivance intricate, expressed with ease,
Where unassisted sight no beauty sees,-
The shapely limb, the lubricated joint
Within the small dimensions of a point,
Muscle and nerve miraculously spun,
Whose mighty word he speaks, and it is done.” MEDM September 1903, page 224.2