Faith and Social Controveries

Strong faith has the tendency to remove undue fears and anxieties, in relation to existing public evils. The man of strong faith does all that he can to remove such evils, and to prevent the extension of their results; but having done this, he is willing to leave every thing calmly and patiently in the hands of God. His soul is at rest in the consciousness of having done his duty. He remains silent in the Lord. 

But the anxieties of the man, who is weak in faith, never end. He is looking, first, in one direction and then in another, addressing one with denunciations and appealing to another’s sympathy, making a world of trouble by the constant use of his tongue, without effecting his ultimate object and probably with injury to it. His tongue does not rest, because his heart does not rest. And his heart does not rest, because he has little or no faith. And the movement of the tongue, founded upon the sin of a too weak faith, is necessarily unsanitary. In relation, therefore, to existing public evils, strong faith, having first led persons to do all their duty, leaves them in a state of patient and quiet waiting upon God. “I waited patiently for the Lord,” says the Psalmist, “and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” Psalm 40:1.