CHAPTER II.

FAITH AND WORK.

THAT which makes the difference between the foolish and the wise virgins in the parable is that the wise have oil in their vessels, and the foolish have none. The whole parable turns upon this; and thus it becomes necessary to settle the meaning which we should attach to the mention of the oil. Now, two classes of expositors have given two sorts of interpretation. It will answer my purpose if I briefly discuss each of these, as each contains a portion of substantial truth; each may serve to correct the other, and each may teach us a lesson of toleration and catholicity. One class of interpreters explain thus: By those who are virgins, who have taken their lamps and gone forth to meet the bridegrooom, we understand those who indeed possess the external characteristics of our holy faith, but have no oil in their lamps-are destitute of good works. Other expositors take the converse : These persons, indeed, perform all the exterior acts of religion; they may possess an abundance of good works, but there is no oil; they are destitute of a living faith. And these lines of thought have a real

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correspondence with theological schools, both in ecclesiastical history and in the religious history of the day. There have always been men who have laid an emphatic and superior stress on the doctrine of works, and those who have laid this stress on the doctrine of faith. There are those who distrust what is simply speculative or merely emotional; they have found for themselves the advantage of a strict rule of life, of fixed religious forms, of self-denial, self-mortification, self-discipline; they have, perhaps, sought to fashion themselves after the example of the austere purity of an earlier age. God forbid that we should throw a doubt on the excellence of such piety, when exercised with the limitations taught by a right mind. Others there are who rest in that liberty wherewith Christ has made His people free,-who look with suspicion upon practices which, founded on fervent piety in their first phase, have degenerated into unmeaning formalism in a subsequent phase,-whose leading thought is not so much of their Church, but of their individual responsibility before God, and their individual acceptance in Christ,-who hold fast the doctrine of justification by faith, and in their system do not assign a coördinate importance to good works. And these differences might by some be maintained to be as old as the Bible itself; the doctrine of faith being urged by St. Paul, and that of works by St. James. By those who have espoused extreme views, these doctrines have been pressed into an attitude of

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THE IDENTITY OF FAITH AND WORK.

antagonism. But is it not possible by some system of reconciliation to arbitrate between these apparent differences? Assuredly St. Paul did not preach one doctrine, and St. James a contradictory doctrine. Let us be very sure that we do not confound a difference of words with a difference of things. The doctrine of faith and the doctrine of works are not so much two different doctrines as two different sides of the same doctrine. For it is often impossible to distinguish the act of faith from the act of working. The man who believes that his ship is sinking is the one who will cast away his cargo, and search earnestly for escape. The man who believes that his house is falling is the one who will bear away all that is precious, and forsake the ruinous tenement. Here it is impossible to define where the act of faith terminates and the act of

working commences. The two are inseparably commingled: the man who is all faith is the man who is all work. The faith is bound up with the works, as the statue is contained by the marble, or as the flower subsists by the roots. In faith, works are implicitly contained; in work, faith is explicitly involved. Faith is work seen on the passive side; work is faith seen on the active side. In faith, works are potential; in works, faith is energetic. Faith is work on its spiritual side; works are faith on the human side. And, therefore, if one should maintain that by the oil in the parable faith is meant, and if another should maintain that works are meant,-it is not

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necessary to deny either as truth, if only the other side of the same truth is borne in mind. For if faith is wanting, or if the works are wanting, either case is the case of the foolish virgins who had no oil in their lamps.

But we ought rightly to find some common term in which each side of the truth will be fully represented. We may at once find such. Oil, in the symbolic language of the Scriptures, is used to signify the anointing influence, the unction of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is absent, there is no oil in the lamp; there is religious failure, of whatever character that religious failure may be. When that blessed Spirit is sought for and obtained, It will give to every man according to his need, supplying that of which there is a lack to the man of faith, more of the spirit of working; to the man of works, more of the spirit of faith.

Thus the lot of the unwise virgins conveys a fearful warning to those who are merely persons of speculation, and to those who are merely persons of formality. It will remind the former that religion is not so much a theory as a life; not so much something to be discussed as something to be done; that faith without works is utterly dead; that the man of mere profession is a living lie; that where works are nowhere to be found as an evidence, the belief that one is justified must be regarded as a delusion. And to the other class also does this parable

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COORDINATE WARNINGS.

give its note of warning. It reminds us, though we attend the stated service of religion, and give alms to the poor, and walk according to a rigid rule of life, that after all we are but unprofitable servants ;—that none of these things can save us; that even our repentance must be repented of; that we are accounted righteous before God only for the merits of Jesus our Saviour; that no man can be saved simply by Church or system, but that each must seek pardon and reconciliation for himself through the merits of the Saviour Christ.