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How to Deal with the Doubter.
Turn away from the reason, and go into the man’s moral life. I don’t mean go into his moral life and see if the man is living in conscious sin, which is the great blunder of the eyes. I am speaking now of honest doubt. Open a new door into the practical side of man’s nature. Entreat him not to postpone life and his life’s usefulness until he has settled the problems of the universe. Tell him those problems will never all be settled; that his life will be done before he has begun to settle them; and ask him what he is doing with his life meantime. Charge him with wasting his life and his usefulness, and invite him to deal with the moral and practical difficulties of the world, and leave the intellectual difficulties as he goes along. To spend time upon these is proving the less important before the more important; and, as the French say, “The good is the enemy of the best.” It is a good thing to think; it is a better thing to work; it is a better thing to do good. And you have him there, you see. He can not get beyond that. You have to tell him, in fact, that there are two organs of knowledge — the one, reason; the other, obedience. And now tell him, as he has tried the first and found the little in it, just for a moment or two to join you in trying the second. And when he asks whom he is to obey, you tell him there is but One, and lead him to the great historical figure who calls all men to Him;
the one perfect life — the one Savior of mankind — the one Light of the world. Ask him to begin to obey Christ; and, doing His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. — HENRY DRUMMOND.
Absurd Doubts.
A Christian once, in doubt and discouragement, considered the darkness which overspread her soul as a proof that she was finally cast away. She stumbled over molehills when she should have been removing mountains.
To an old minister who was trying to comfort her, with impassioned emphasis she said: “Oh, I’m dead, dead — twice dead and plucked up by the roots!” After a pause, he replied: “Well, sitting in my study the other day, I heard a sudden scream: ‘John’s in the well! John’s fallen into the well!’ Before I could reach the spot, I heard the sad, mournful cry: ‘John’s dead! Poor little Johnny’s dead!’ Bending over the curb, I called out:
glad to hear it from his own mouth.”
Many doubts are so absurd that the only way to combat them is by gentle
ridicule. — SPURGEON.
Looking to Jesus.
“When he saw the wind boisterous.” It is a pity that we should ever get so keen sighted as to see the wind. That is getting far too sharp on the temporal side of things. We ought to be blind to the wind. We ought to be deaf to its noise, and deaf to the roaring of the wave. If we would glorify God, and if we would show what faith is in its essence, substance and outcomes, we must go on as we began, “looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.” But when he saw the winds, he gave up faith. As somebody says, he began to be sensible that it was after three o’clock in the morning, and a rather wild morning at that; and down he went quicker than I can take time to explain it. You have to forget all about what o’clock it is. You have to forget all about this nineteenth century. You have to forget all about your surroundings, if you would know God, and do His work, and serve the hour. There has to be a splendid inconsiderateness.
— MCNEILL. Better Trust.
Better trust all and be deceived,
And weep that trust and that deceiving, Than doubt one heart that if believed
Had blessed one’s life with true believing.
Oh, in this mocking world too fast
The doubting fiend o’ertakes our youth;
Better be cheated to the last
Than lose the blessed hope of truth.
FRANCES A. KEMBLE.
Doubt and Darkness.
The sun is always there in the heavens — not only today, but in those past days “when the leaf was stamped in clay, and the rotting woodlands dripped.” He was there in the heavens then. These clouds and fogs are born of earth, and they do not in the slightest degree affect the fact that the sun in his splendor hangs up younger. So with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is gracious. Blessed be our Rock. These fogs, these doubts, these mists, are born of earth and time and sin. If they must occasionally pass across our spirits, let us never allow them to cause us to say: “My God hath forgotten me; my way is hidden from the Lord.” Let us never come to this, that because it is night with us, therefore the sun has dropped out of the sky. These mists do come to us, and they may last for eight days, and they may last for longer; but, as surely as the Lord lives, sunshine shall return. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
—MCNEILL.
The Definition of Doubt.
All religious truths are doubtable. There is no absolute proof of any one of them. Even that fundamental truth — the existence of a God — no man can prove by reason. The ordinary proof for the existence of God involves an assumption, argument in a circle, or a contradiction. The impression of God is kept up by experience; not by logic. And hence, when the experimental religion of a man, of a community or of a nation wanes, religion wanes. Their idea of God grows indistinct, and that man, community or nation becomes infidel. Bear in mind, then, that all religious truths are doubtable — even those which we hold most strongly.
What does this brief account of the origin of doubt teach us? It teaches us great intellectual humility. It teaches us sympathy and toleration with all men who venture upon the ocean of truth to find out a path through it for themselves. Do you sometimes feel yourself thinking unkind things about your fellow students who have intellectual difficulty? I know how hard it is always to feel sympathy and toleration for them; but we must address
shortsighted I must not abuse him or speak against him. I must pity him, and if possible try to improve his sight or to make things which he is to look at so bright that he can not help seeing.
Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is can’t believe; unbelief is won’t believe. Doubt is honesty; unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is content with darkness.
Loving darkness rather than light — that is what Christ attacked, and attacked unsparingly. But for the intellectual questioning of Thomas, Philip, Nicodemus and the many others who came to Him to have their great problems solved, He was respectful, generous and tolerant.
— HENRY DRUMMOND. The Experience of a Doubter.
I had a letter, not long ago, from a lady, evidently a person of great intelligence and culture, and I rather think that she is known in the literary world as an authoress. She tells me that she has suffered very severely because of this. When she came to the faith of Jesus Christ, with all her vivacity and all her great power of deep and serious thinking on the problems of life and destiny, she found the simple-minded Wesleyans no congenial companions, and she withdrew herself from those simple-minded people who
“Felt like singing all the time,”
and who shouted “Hallelujah” rather too much for her inclination, to knit her brows over some question or religious problem. She withdrew herself to more dangerous society. As she said in her letter:
“Undeniably goats are more clever and amusing than sheep. I left the company of the sheep and went in among the goats, and I have suffered for it. The more I revealed to my new companions my faith in Jesus Christ, the more they trampled upon me and butted me with their horns.”
At last she humbled herself to come back again among those who, with all our differences, dear friends, are of our kith and kin. We are of the same flesh and the same blood if we have at all in our hearts the faith and fear of Jesus. So you, dear Thomases, do not sit apart. You need us, and we need you. Remember, you are not an independent unit called Thomas; you are one of the twelve. — MCNEILL.
Eclipse of Faith.
I do not know how it was with your newspapers, but I remember that about a year ago, in connection with the eclipse of the moon, my newspaper in Scotland published a time-table of the eclipse. I was told to the second of the most nicely balanced chronometer when the dark shadow would first impinge upon the bright surface of the moon. I was told in the same definite way, to minutes and seconds, how the shadow would spread; when, precisely, the shadow would be half; when, precisely, the eclipse would be total; when, again, the eclipse would lift, would slide off, and would finally disappear, and the moon would walk in silver splendor through the heavens. So with these eclipses of our faith. Make God your Astronomer Royal, and then you may be sure of this: They are timed;
they are calculated; and certainly they will lift and disappear, for He is the perpetually recurring Sun, and sooner or later He will shine in.
“Look to the light; all will be right.
Morning is ever the daughter of night.
All that was black will be all that is bright.”
MCNEILL. Unbelief Stupid.
Let me repeat what I have repeated from this pulpit till it is almost wearisome. Unbelief out there in the world and out there in books — a spirit of doubting — is mightily praised, and gets a great deal of attention to itself. But here in the Bible it is always a stupidity — always an unreasonable thing, with nothing to say for itself when the Lord questions it. You do not find Peter saying: “Wherefore did I doubt, blessed Master?”
“There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.”
No; he did not think of it. He said nothing, Doubt has nothing to say for itself. Oh, let us come back to unquestioning faith! Peter walking on the sea to come to Jesus — that is the type. That is the picture for the individual believer and for the whole Church. That is where we should be, and Christ says to us, as He said to him: “Come.” And he says to us also, as He said to him: “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” — MCNEILL.
Condensed Comments.
Intellectually, the difficulties of unbelief are as great as those of belief;
while, morally, the argument is wholly on the side of belief.
— ARNOLD.
Skepticism is like the measles — very dangerous if it is driven in;
comparatively harmless if it is allowed to come out.
— LYMAN ABBOTT.
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