The Source of Pardon & Spiritual Life
The three constituents of faith may be illustrated from the (1) thoughts, (2) feelings, (3) actions of a person who stand by a boat, upon a little island which the rising stream threatens to submerge. He first regards the boat from a purely intellectual point of view which it is merely an actual existing boat. Second, as the stream rises, he looks at it with some accession of emotion, his prospective danger awakens in him the conviction that it is a good boat for a time of need though he is not yet ready to make use of it. Third, when he feels that the rushing tide must otherwise sweep him away, a volitional element is added, he then gets into the boat, trusts himself to it, accepts it as his present and only means of safety. Only this last faith in the boat is faith that saves. Although this last includes the preceding. It is equally clear that the getting into the boat may actually save the man, while at the same time, he may be full of fears that the boat will n...