Objective Faith.
I. If we were asked to fix upon the most prominent want in the spiritual life of the present time, we might perhaps not untruly say that it is the want of objective faith. We fail to grasp the realities of the spiritual world, and live in shadows. Visions pass before us, and we believe that in them is our life, but where is the entranced consciousness of their reality? Where is the abiding feeling of their substance, their power? Where is the fresh, warm faith which ever sees One like unto the Son of man moving amid sacraments, and taking the shape of human symbols? Where is the rapturous conviction that pierces at once through the veil of visions and sees the well-known features by a perpetual inspiration? And yet this is undeniably the character of the faith which has drawn the soul to God at all times, and it was to perpetuate this life of faith that in the Revelation our Lord chose symbols wherein to enshrine His presence.
II. Consider some of the bearings of this law of spiritual life. (1) The symbolic visions of the Revelation are an argument in favour of the sacramental teachings of the Church, of the system which represents sacraments as outward forms containing and conveying grace. (2) Again, as objective faith is the means of sustaining the spiritual life, so is it the true antidote of one of the great dangers which beset the soul in times of strong religious excitement: that of morbid self-contemplation. Our safety is to lose our own consciousness in the greater consciousness of the unseen world. (3) Once more, the same truth holds good as to our progress in any single grace. We gain more by looking on what is perfect than by striving against what is imperfect.
T. T. Carter, Sermons,p. 170.
References: Revelation 1:13. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 343.Revelation 1:14. Talmage, Old Wells Dug Out,p. 231.Revelation 1:17. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvi., No. 1533; G. Macdonald, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiv., p. 215.