Leave Everything in the Hands of God

It is a great and blessed privilege to leave every thing in the hands of God; to go forth like the patriarch Abraham, not knowing whither we go, but only knowing that God leads us. 

“BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6. 

This is what is sometimes denominated walking in a “general and indistinct faith;” or walking in the “obscurity of faith,” or in the “night of faith.” Faith, in its relation to the subject of it, is truly a light in the soul, but it is a light which shines only upon duties, and not upon results or events. It tells us what is now to be done, but it does not tell us what is to follow. And accordingly it guides us but a single step at a time. And when we take that step, under the guidance of faith, we advance directly into a land of surrounding shadows and darkness. Like the patriarch Abraham, we go, not knowing whither we go, but only that God is with us. In man’s darkness, we nevertheless walk and live in God’s light. A way of living, which may well be styled blessed and glorious, however mysterious it may be to human vision. Indeed, it is the only life worth possessing, the only true life. “Let the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing;” let nations rise and fall; let the disturbed and tottering earth stand or perish; let God reveal to us the secret designs of his providence or not, it is all well. “Cast all your cares upon God, for he careth for you.” “BELIEVE in the Lord, your God, so shall ye be established. BELIEVE his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” 

— edited from The Life of Faith (1852) Part 1, Chapter 17.

Biblical Examples of the Conflict of Faith with Contrary Reasonings

Abraham had faith in God; that is to say, under the influence of the light which God had given him, light which had been addressed to him as a perceptive and rational being, he believed that God is, that all things are under his control, and that in all his dealings he is perfectly just. His mind, in the exercise of faith, rested fully and firmly in the general proposition of God’s existence, superintending providence, and holiness. Nevertheless, it is entirely reasonable to suppose, that, when he was called, in God’s mysterious providence, to the fearful and afflicting office of sacrificing his own son, human reason, in distinction from that higher reason, which is embodied in a well established faith, took occasion to suggest a multitude of doubts and inquiries. But he remained unshaken. Faith, holding on to the general proposition of God’s wisdom and goodness, at once rejected all suggestions, that were inconsistent with them.

Many are the instances in the Bible, many are the instances in all periods and ages of the church, in which faith and reason have thus come in conflict. Job was a man of faith. He also, when his property and children were taken, and when he was exceedingly afflicted in his person as well as in other respects, had his inward trials undoubtedly; resulting from the inability of human reason, in its ordinary operations, to reconcile the apparent dealings of God with the goodness and justice of his character. But faith, in the severe inward conflict to which he was subjected, prevailed against reason; and he was enabled to say, “The Lord gave; and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

— The Life of Faith (1852) Part 1, Chapter 14.

The Light of Faith

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." — Heb. 11.13.
 

The light of FAITH doth guide us kindly on,
Like Israel's cloud by day and fire by night.
High o'er our heads, its splendor waxes bright,
When every other blaze is dark and gone.
By FAITH did Noah sail upon the flood,
By FAITH did Abraham offer up his son;
By FAITH the prophets and apostles won
A crown in heaven, on earth a crown of blood.
Their journey here was through a sea of flame;
They trode it fearless, for before their eye
The star of faith shone brightly in the sky,
And showed upon each beam Christ's blessed name.
Oh, let it shine for us, till we, as they,
Shall climb these rugged cliffs, and reach the hills of day.

— The Religious Offering XVI.

Leave Everything in the Hands of God

It is a great and blessed privilege to leave every thing in the hands of God; to go forth like the patriarch Abraham, not knowing whither we go, but only knowing that God leads us. "BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." Philippians 4:6.

This is what is sometimes denominated walking in a "general and indistinct faith;" or walking in the "obscurity of faith," or in the "night of faith." Faith, in its relation to the subject of it, is truly a light in the soul; but it is a light which shines only upon duties, and not upon results or events. It tells us what is now to be done, but it does not tell us what is to follow. And accordingly it guides us but a single step at a time. And when we take that step, under the guidance of faith, we advance directly into a land of surrounding shadows and darkness. Like the patriarch Abraham, we go, not knowing whither we go, but only that God is with us.

Blessed and glorious way of living! Indeed, it is the only life worth possessing; the only true life. "Let the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing;" let nations rise and fall; let the disturbed and tottering earth stand or perish; let God reveal to us the secret designs of his providence or not, it is all well. "Cast all your cares upon God, for he careth for you." Our heavenly Father is at the helm. The winds blow, the waves swell, the clouds gather around, but we sail in a strong vessel. There is no port at hand, and there is no sun or star to guide us. Faith, therefore, in the defect of all things else, must constitute our port and our anchor, our sun and our favoring breeze; but we have all that we can ask, in having perfect confidence in our great Commander. It is the blessed privilege of faith, even in our darkest and most disastrous moments, to assure us that we are safe, forever safe, in the mighty keeping of God's holy will.

— edited from The Interior or Hidden Life (2nd edition, 1844) Part 3, Chapter 9.

The First Period in the History of Human Redemption

Among the wonderful works of God there is none more worthy of attention, none more important in its results, both to this world and to other worlds, than that of man's redemption. Man, in the exercise of that freedom of choice which God had given him, had no sooner fallen into sin and consequent ruin, than God announced to him, though at first obscurely, the great plan of salvation. As all Adam's posterity were involved in his fall, the plan of redemption, which has a relation to the whole human race in all ages of the world, occupies a great extent of time. Beginning with the promises to Adam and the early patriarchs, which were at first obscurely, and afterwards more clearly, made, it gradually unfolds itself in successive dispensations; but at last  we  see it in distinctness and as a whole.

The plan of human redemption may be divided, for the purpose of more distinct views of it, into two great periods; — including some subordinate distinctions and periods, to which it is not necessary to give particular attention here.