ith is so vitally important, if it is an indispensable _must_
in our pursuit of God, it is perfectly natural that we should be deeply
concerned over whether or not we possess this most precious gift. And
our minds being what they are, it is inevitable that sooner or later we
should get around to inquiring after the nature of faith. What _is_
faith? would lie close to the question, Do I _have_ faith? and would
demand an answer if it were anywhere to be found.

Almost all who preach or write on the subject of faith have much the
same things to say concerning it. They tell us that it is believing a
promise, that it is taking God at His word, that it is reckoning the
Bible to be true and stepping out upon it. The rest of the book or
sermon is usually taken up with stories of persons who have had their
prayers answered as a result of their faith. These answers are mostly
direct gifts of a practical and temporal nature such as health, money,
physical protection or success in business. Or if the teacher is of a
philosophic turn of mind he may take another course and lose us in a
welter of metaphysics or snow us under with psychological jargon as he
defines and re-defines, paring the slender hair of faith thinner and
thinner till it disappears in gossamer shavings at last. When he is
finished we get up disappointed and go out "by that same door where in
we went." Surely there must be something better than this.

In the Scriptures there is practically no effort made to define faith.
Outside of a brief fourteen-word definition in Hebrews 11:1, I know of
no Biblical definition, and even there faith is defined functionally,
not philosophically; that is, it is a statement of what faith is _in
operation_, _not_ what it is _in essence_. It assumes the presence of
faith and shows what it results in, rather than what it is. We will be
wise to go just that far and attempt to go no further. We are told from
whence it comes and by what means: "Faith is a gift of God," and "Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." This much is clear,
and, to paraphrase Thomas a Kempis, "I had rather exercise faith than
know the definition thereof."

From here on, when the words "faith is" or their equivalent occur in
this chapter I ask that they be understood to refer to what faith is in
operation as exercised by a believing man. Right here we drop the notion
of definition and think about faith as it may be experienced in action.
The comp