If we look at
that long hero-roll in Hebrews 11, is it not striking that it is for triumph
over earthly difficulties that their names are emblazoned thereon? No doubt
there is in this a lesson for us that is enforced by the principle of our
Lord’s utterance:“If I have told you of earthly things and you believe not,
how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” Are we not apt often
to be more sure of the heavenly than the earthly? Are we not more afraid about
things down here than of righteousness and eternal judgment? Why is this? Is
Christ less reliable in His promises as to earth than He is as to those
concerning heaven? Can we be certain as to the future if the present is clouded
with doubt?

The story of
Zacharias in the temple gives us a remarkable instance of the inconsistency of
faith. He is in the presence of God. He is offering incense, without which none
could enter the presence of God and live. Without doubt he is firmly convinced
that it is Jehovah with whom he has to do. Yet, when suddenly on the right hand
of the altar there appears an angelic messenger from God, he is afraid. He does
not tremble in the presence of God, but he trembles in the presence of His
messenger! There are two things that we may notice about Zacharias. First, it says
he was doing what was the custom for priests to do. Very possibly when
he had first offered that incense to the holy God, he had done it in fear and
trembling; but as day after day passed he had grown familiar with the truth
that God would have him carry out, and his fear had taken wings and fled. But
he was not accustomed to seeing an angel, so he trembled.

But he saw
an angel also; God he did not see. Oh how the faint vision of our fleshly eyes
will at times fill us to the blotting out for a time of all the eternal truths
that are summed up in Him who is the living “Truth”!

There are two
things that tend to lead to God’s people being sure as to eternity, but
doubting as to time, and they are just those two things with which we have
become familiar by hearing. First of all we have become well grounded in the
eternal security of the believer. We have grown familiar with the thought that
“Death and judgment are behind us, grace and glory are before.” We have
reasoned much about God’s Word being pledged that heaven is inviting us to
enter into its “love and light and song” through the merits of Jesus’ blood,
but we have not exercised ourselves in the same way about the present. We have
not considered that God’s Word is just as surely pledged as to our security
amid earthly troubles as it is as to safety from the storm of judgment, and
consequently we doubt. How inconsistent it would be if we should be valiant
before the consequences of our sin and all the marshaled hosts of hell while at
the same time cringing before the circumstances of this present life!

The next moment
after his fear we find that Zacharias has so forgotten it that he asks the
angel how he shall know that his promise is true. Again we have a marvelous
inconsistency, but what is the reason? What has made him forget his fear of
God’s messenger and question his word? Why he looks at circumstances. He says,
“I am an old man,” and consequently it seems impossible that a child should be
born. We remember here also that thus, too, had Abraham, the pattern man of
faith, been overcome. How solemn and sad that God has to bring in other
circumstances to convince Zacharias, and so for his lack of faith he is struck
dumb!

O my reader,
has not this dumbness fallen often also upon you and me because of our unbelief.
Have not our mouths been closed and our voice of testimony hushed because we
could not trust God as to the things of daily life?

There are many
degrees of faith. What is your degree? Is it such as those had to whom the Lord
could not commit Himself because it was only intellectual? Or is it like
Peter’s who truly had faith enough to walk for a way on the waters, but whose
faith in the power of the waves presently grew greater than his trust in
Christ, and he began to sink? Do a thousand dollars in your pockets give you
more rest of mind than a check on your heavenly Father’s bank for full supply
of all your need, yes, of everything that is good for you (Rom. 8:28)?
Does the assurance, “My God shall supply all your need,” leave you still
in doubt whether it was ever intended that you should trust Him for tomorrow’s
supply of bread? Do you take anxious thought for the morrow when your Lord has
enjoined upon you not to do so, solemnly asserting that your Father in heaven
knows all about it and will care for it? If it be so, is it not better also for
you to trust that a thousand charitable deeds will do more to save you from
hell than all the pledged Word of God? O dear reader, let us have more faith in
Christ than we do in circumstances!

Let me close
this paper with a beautiful example of how to argue from circumstances and
triumph over them. There was a violent earthquake once that greatly alarmed the
inhabitants of a certain village. They rushed out of their houses, their faces
full of consternation, fearing sudden destruction. There was one old woman,
however, whose face was a marked contrast to those of the rest. It seemed to
beam with joy. One of the villagers was so struck with it that he could not
help asking her:“Mother, how is it you look so happy; aren’t you afraid?” “Oh
no indeed,” came the bright answer. “I rejoice that I have a God who can shake
the earth!” She saw the God who was in it all and well she might rejoice. Oh,
shall we not cry much to God to give us more a simple, child-like trust. It is
a prize well worth striving for and will richly reward its diligent seeker.

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 20.)