Faith Versus Sight

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7

I think the apostle is here explaining how it was he could say, that while he was at home in the body, he was absent from the Lord; and why he

felt that this present life was not the state in which he wished forever to be in. Having been possessed, and actuated, and moved by the principle offaith, he was not content to tabernacle in a body which could only be dwelt in satisfactorily through the influence of the faculty of sight. The apostle, however, mentions here a great general principle– "We walk by faith, not by sight" and, in talking upon this text this evening, we shall, without pretending to go into it fully, speak, first of all, upon the posture mentioned; then upon the two principles contrasted; and then upon a certain caution which is here implied.

I. First, a word or two about THE POSTURE MENTIONED– WALKING. Paul, speaking of believers, says– "We walk by faith, not by sight." Walking is, of course, a posture, which implies the possession of life. You can make a dead man sit in a certain position, or even stand in a chosen posture. But to walk necessitates the possession of inward life. It becomes with us, therefore, a question in the first place, whether we have the life of God within us. In the sense in which the term "walk" is here used, the ungodly man does not walk at all. He hastens after his own lusts, and he treads in the way of the flesh. But in a spiritual sense he is, and always must be, a stranger to "walking" until God has quickened him. When we shall see corpses walking along our highways, and pass them at eventide in our streets, then shall we expect to see Christian feelings, Christian emotions, and Christian character exhibited by unconverted men, but not until then. There must first be an inward life, before there can be the outward sign of it.

But, walking is a position, which also signifies actively. You would suppose, from the way in which some Christians deport themselves, that their whole life was spent in meditation. It is a blessed thing to sit "With Mary at the Master’s feet;" but we walk as well as sit. We do not merely learn, but we practice what we know. We are not simply scholars, but, having been taught as scholars, we go on to show our scholarship by working in the vineyard, and wherever else the Master may be pleased to place us. The quietists and mystics are a class of people who have a peculiar attraction for my mind; and I suppose the mention of such a name as that of Madame Guyon, who, among females, stands at the very head of the school, will awaken in many of you many sweet remembrances of times enjoyed in reading her blessed hymns, and her sweet and admirable life. But, after all, it is not the highest style of Christian living to be a mystic or a quietist. "We walk."

Some Christians seem as if they always sat; but "we walk." You would gather, indeed, from what others say, that the whole life of a Christian is to be spent in prayer. Prayer, it is true, is the vitality of the secret parts of Christian life, but we are not always on our knees, we are not constantly engaged in seeking blessings from heaven. We do "continue in prayer," but we are also engaged in showing forth to others the blessings which we have received, and in exhibiting in our daily actions the fruits which we have gathered on the mountain-top of communion with God. "We walk," and this implies activity. Oh! I would that some Christians would pay a little attention to their legs, instead of paying it all to their heads. When children’s heads grow too fast it is a sign of disease, and they get the rickets, or water on the brain. So, there are some very sound brethren, who seem to me to have got some kind of disease, and when they try to walk, they straightway make a tumble of it, because they have paid so much attention to perplexing doctrinal views, instead of looking, as they ought to have done, to the practical part of Christianity. By all means let us havedoctrine, but by all means let us have precept too. By all means let us have inward experience, but by all means let us also have outward "holiness, without which no man can see the Lord." "We walk." This is more than some can say. They can affirm– "We talk; we think; we experience; we feel;" but true Christians can say, with the apostle Paul, "We walk." Oh that we may ever be able to say it too! Here, then, is the activity of the Christian life.

In the posture of walking there is also implied progress. A man does not walk unless he make some headway. We are not always practicing thegoose-step; we are not always lifting our foot, and then putting it down in the same place. This may do very well for the beginners in the awkward squad at drill, but I am afraid that a great many of us are still in that squad.

But the Christian, who has got through his childhood, and has grown somewhat, makes progress. There are some who will tell you that they do not know that they have made any progress; or, if they do not say this, you can see that they have made none. They are as bad-tempered as when they first joined the Church. They are as changing, as illiberal, as critical, or as easily "carried about with every wind of doctrine" as they were at first.

Such persons give some cause for suspicion as to whether they know much about the divine life at all, because they who have the divine life truly in them can say– "We walk." They go from strength to strength– every one of them appears in Zion before God. They are not satisfied with being in the right way; they desire also to walk in the way. God does not say to us– "This is the way," and then stop. But he says– "This is the way, walk in it." We are always to be making advances– we are to be going from faith in its beginnings to faith in its perfections– from faith to assurance– from assurance to full assurance– from full assurance to full assurance of hope–

from full assurance of hope to the full assurance of understanding– and thus onward, waxing stronger and stronger. There is a progress to be made in every Christian grace; and he who carefully marks the terms used about Christian graces will discover that there are degrees in all of them, while each of them are degrees one above the other. Walking implies progress; and the genuine Christian, when he is in a healthy state, may truthfully say– "We walk."

Walking also implies perseverance. When a man goes along a step or two and then stops, or returns, we do not call that walking. The motion of the planets, as seen by the eye, has been described by the poet as "progressive, retrograde, and standing still." I am afraid there are many people of whom this would be a true description. But the true Christian keeps on; and though there may often appear to be times when he stops, and seasons when he goes back, yet the Scripture is not broken where it says that "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day." The Christian’s motto is, "Upward and onward." Not as though he had already attained, either were already perfect, he presses forward to the mark for the prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus. We are not true Christians if we stop, or start, or turn aside. As an arrow from a bow that is drawn by some mighty archer speeds straightway towards its goal, such is the Christian life as it is, such is it as it always should be. We make progress, and we persevere in so doing.

I think, however, that by the term "walk" the apostle meant to signify, that, in the ordinary and customary actions of life, we are actuated by faith.

You know, walking is the common way of moving. You do not often talk of a child’s walking. You do speak of it, of course; but you generally say, "There are the little ones running about the house." You do not say that they are "walking about the house," because the way of moving with the young is generally running, inasmuch as they have a great deal of extra life, and have not yet got into the wear and tear of life. You do not find lambs walking at all, in the ordinary way in which sheep do. Now, it is very easy, in the beginning of the Christian life, to run in the ways of the Lord with rejoicing. But running, after all, is not the most manly form of progress– it is not that which can be kept up for long, for running fatigues and tires you.

But walking is that kind of progress in which a man continues hour after hour; and after his night’s rest he rises again to walk on as before, and until he reaches his goal. In Scripture we often read of men who, by faith, did great exploits– "By my God I have broken through a troop; by my God I will leap over a wall." Now, this is a very great thing to do; and some Christians are always fixing their eyes upon exploits of faith. The apostle Paul did cut through troops and leap over walls. But in this place he speaks of the common actions of life. It is as if he said– "I not only leap walls by faith, but I walk by faith; I not only break through troops by faith, but I go and do my business by faith." That man has not yet learned the true spirit of Christianity who is always saying, "I can preach a sermon by faith." Yes, sir, but can you make a coat by faith? "I can distribute tracts, and visit the district by faith." Can you cook a dinner by faith? I mean, can you perform the common actions of the household, and the daily duties, which fall to your lot, in the spirit of faith? This is what the apostle means. He does not speak about running, or jumping or fighting, but about walking.

He means to tell you that the ordinary life of a Christian is different from the life of another man– that he has learned to introduce faith into everything he does. It was not a bad saying of one who said, that he "did eat and drink, and sleep eternal life." We do not want a home-spun religion, but a religion that was spun in heaven, and that will do to wear at home and about the house. "We walk by faith." The Mohammedan worships God at the "holy hour;" the true Christian calls all hours "holy" and worships always. Some set apart the seventh day of the week, and therein do well, but in setting apart all the seven days, and living to God, and entering into rest throughout them all, we do better still. When our souls cannot keep our religion for the tabernacle and the pew, and the closet, and the open Bible, and the bended knee; but when that religion becomes the atmosphere in which we live, the element in which our soul breathes, when God dwells in us, and we dwell in him, when we feed upon Christ, not as a special dainty, but as "the bread of heaven," and drink of him, not as a luxury, but as "the water of life;" when we wear our piety, not as some holiday garment, but as our every-day dress, then it is that we get into the spirit of true religion.

Summing up all, then, the whole of the Christian life, which is implied in the term "walk," is here spoken of, and it is influenced by the principle of faith, which we are now about to speak of.

II. And now, secondly, in the text we have TWO PRINCIPLES CONTRASTED. There is walking by faith, and there is walking by sight. The most of men, all men, indeed, naturally walk by sight. They have a proverb that "Seeing is believing," and they are wise men, for they trust people as far as they can see them, and no further. The world thinks itself uncommonly knowing in always depending upon its own sight. The highest degree of worldly wisdom seems to be just this- see everything for yourself, and do not be taken in; do not be led by the nose by anybody, but follow your own understanding. This is the text which the world’s Solomons always preach from– "Self-made Men" – that is the title of their book. Self- reliance– that is the name of their principle, and, according to the world, the best and grandest thing that a man can do is to have faith in himself!

Their maxim is- ‘Know things for yourself; look after the main chance; make money- make it honestly if you can, and honorably if possible, but, if not, make it anyhow, by hook or by crook." "Take care of Number One," – this is the world’s learned dictum. Now the Christian is the very opposite of this. He says, "I do not care about looking after the things that are seen and are temporal– they are like dissolving views, or the scenes from a child’s magic lantern; there is nothing in them; they are but phantoms and shadows. The things that are not seen influence me, because they are eternal– they endure, remain, abide, and therefore they affect a creature which has learnt that it has, not mortality alone, but immortality, and who expecting to live for ever, therefore seeks for things which will are consistent with its own existence."

Now, since the world thinks itself so very wise for holding everything it can, and thinks the Christian such a great fool for giving up what he can see for what he cannot see, in contradiction to the world’s proverb, that

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," – let us just see wherein the wisdom of this matter is, and wherein it is not.

In the first place, we notice that walking by sight is a very childish thing. Any child can walk by sight, and so can any fool too. We know how a child feels when it looks at a mountain, and we have all felt the same when we have gone to Switzerland and other places. I had a friend with me, who said of a certain mountain– "I will undertake to be at the top in half an

hour." It took us five hours and a half steady toiling, and we did not go slowly either. Of course my friend judged by his sight, and, not being accustomed to mountains, and not knowing that sight is a very different thing when it comes to deal with different landscapes- not knowing that a judgment which would be pretty accurate in England would be totally wrong in the mountains of Wales, and still more erroneous in Switzerland- not knowing all this, I dare say he would be startled at eventide, expecting to find himself at the top before the sun went down, whereas he would not have reached it until the middle of the night. A child always judges of everything by what he sees. You give him a number of coins; they are all spurious, but he is so pleased with them that he does not care about having real sovereigns; he is just as glad to have those he has, for they look quite as good; you offer him sixpence, and when he is yet a youngster he will give you your sixpence back for a penny, because the penny is the larger of the two. He judges by sight, which, you see, is a childish principle altogether.

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