"The just shall live by faith." Rom. 1:17.

"The just shall live by faith." Rom. 1:17.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. The reason for this is that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23), and of course sin cannot please God.

This is why it is that, as stated by the Spirit of Prophecy on the first page of the Review, Oct. 18, 1898,

"The knowledge of what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith is

more essential than any other knowledge that can be acquired."

In order to be able to know what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating

faith, it is essential to know, first of all, what is faith.

Plainly, it must be to little purpose to urge upon a person the necessity of cultivating faith, while that

person has no intelligent idea of what faith is. And it is sadly true that, though the Lord has made this

perfectly plain in the Scriptures, there are many church-members who do not know what faith is. They

may even know what the definition of faith is, but they do not know what the thing is. They do not

grasp the idea that is in the definition.

Faith comes "by the word of God." To the Word, then, we must look for it.

One day a centurion came to Jesus and said to him, "Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy,

grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and

said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my

servant shall be healed . . . When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I

say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Matt. 8:6-10.

There is what Jesus pronounces faith. When we find what that is, we have found faith. To know what

that is, is to know what faith is. there can be no sort of doubt about this, for Christ is "the Author . . . of

faith," and He says that that which the centurion manifested was "faith"--yes, even "great faith."

Where, then, in this is the faith? The centurion wanted a certain thing done. He wanted the Lord to do

it. But when the Lord said, "I will come" and do it, the centurion checked Him, saying, "Speak the

word only," and it shall be done.

Now what did the centurion expect would do the work? "The word ONLY." Upon what did he depend

for the healing of his servant? Upon "the word ONLY."

Now, brother, sister, what is faith?

Faith is the expecting the word of God to do what it says and the depending upon that word to do what

it says.

As that is faith and as faith comes by the word of God, it is plain that the word of God, in order to

inculcate faith, must teach that the word has in itself power to accomplish what itself says.

And such is precisely the truth of the matter: the word of God does teach just this and nothing else, so

that it is truly "the faithful word"--the word full of faith.