“Prove Thy Faith by Thy Works”

;

"Prove thy Faith by thy Works"

BY ELDER JAMES E. TALMAGE, OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE

Faith is a little word, a simple monosyllable with few letters.

Its derivation is beyond question. Its meaning in early English

is plain. Yet it is a word that is ofttimes misused, and which I

am sure is not infrequently misunderstood. It comes to us through

the Anglo-Saxon from the Latin, and is derived from the same

original as our word "fidelity." Faith, therefore, implies fidelity,

includes fidelity, is fidelity.

Much question has arisen as to the relation between faith

and belief, and there are many who claim that the two are es-

sentially the same. It is true that in some modern languages we

find but one word to express what in our rich tongue is expressed

by the two, faith and belief, the reader or the hearer being left to

the context to determine just which is meant. But to hold that

because of that fact our two words have the same meaning, is

to violate recognized laws of philology and rules of the right use

of English. It were as reasonable to say that because in French

there are no two words to express the essential difference between

a house and a home, that therefore there is no difference. Houses

are built of wood, of iron and stone and other materials of earth

homes are built of loving deeds and kind affection and sacrifice

and service, and yet in some of our modern tongues there are

not distinctive terms for the two.

I want to cite you to our best dictionary authority on that

matter, in view of the fact that not all are agreed as to just what

faith as a term really means. In its general use and sense it

has more than a theological application. We may have faith in

the undertakings of men. We may have faith in men themselves,

as well as in their words and their testimony. The most recent

and most reliable authority that I could cite, The New Standard

Dictionary, gives the definition of faith as follows:

—

Faith a firm conviction of the truth of what is declared by an-

other by way either of testimony or authority, without other evi-

dence; belief in what another states, affirms or testifies simply on

the ground of his truth or veracity, especially (as distinguished from

mere belief) practical dependence on a person, statement or thing as

trustworthy; fiducial as opposed to merely intellectual belief; trust,

*Sermon delivered at the afternoon session of the M. I. A. Con-

ference, Sunday, June 14, 1914. Reported for the Era by F. E. Barker.

:

"PROVE THY FAITH BY THY WORKS." 941

as faith in a friend (as sincere and true), faith in his advice (as with

and good), faith in his efforts (as likely to be efficacious)."

In the more restricted and theological usage, the word is

thus defined by the same authority.

"In theology faith means the assent of the mind or understand-

ing to the truth of what God has revealed; belief in the testimony of

God as contained in the Scriptures; a divinely wrought, loving and

hearty reliance upon God and his promise of salvation through Christ,

or upon the Christian religion as revealing the grace of God in

Christ, sometimes called justifying or saving faith, as, we are saved

by faith."

Concerning this justifying faith, I quote from the New

S chaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, wherein we read

"In general it may be said that there exists in modern Protestant

theology an agreement on the following points: 1. Faith does

not originate from logical processes but from an immediate inner

experience. 2. It is not a human achievement, and not the ac-

knowledgment of a human authority, but an effect of God through

his revelation."

It is admitted that in early English, belief was the equivalent

of what is now commonly called faith but in middle and modern

;

English, the term belief has been confined mainly to the purely

intellectual process, excluding the moral element of trust or con-

fidence embraced in faith. By way of illustration, faith in Jesus

Christ is belief in Jesus Christ, plus absolute confidence and trust

in him. It is admitted that a man may exercise a mental assent,

or give mental consent, to any proposition, and he may justly say

he believes it but if that be all, the man has belief only and not

;

faith. Belief is the mechanism, like a locomotive standing with

tank empty and fire-box cold upon the track faith is the fire and

;

the resulting steam that gives it power and makes it work such

miracles as had never been dreamed of in days of yore. Faith is

vitalized, energized, dynamic belief. What doth it profit a man

to sit down and say to himself that he believes a thing, or even

to profess aloud that he believes it? Is there such force in his _

mental assent as to accomplish anything? Strange, is it not,

that there are yet those who hold that the use of the term belief

in the Holy Scriptures means empty, intellectual, negative

be-

lief, and that alone? Because of the fact, already cited, that in

early English the term belief was used as a synonym of faith,

we

find it occurring and recurring in our translation of the

Scriptures

given to us as the Holy Bible, when by the context it is absolutely

plain, and. bv derivation beyond all question, that living belief,

or actual faith, was intended, and that the term meaning

this did

occur in the original.

This use of the term faith as a synonym of belief has led to

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942 IMPROVEMENT ERA

the development of the dogma that the scriptures teach that man

may be justified before God by belief alone. This conception has

been developed into the doctrine of justification by faith. But

such faith as is referred to and proclaimed by the advocates and

defenders of that dogma, is faith that is inactive and dead. It is

nothing more than unproductive belief. The scriptures are ex-

plicit in telling us that faith is requisite to our proper service be-

fore God. Can we hold that that should be or could be meant

to imply that belief alone is the requisite which God demands of

those who profess his name? The Saints of old, in the exercise

of their belief, became at times very intolerant. They knew

they had the truth, and the truth, I believe you will find, if you

analyze the question carefully, is essentially intolerant. When

one knows he has the truth, it is difficult for him to treat with

patience and toleration that which he knows to be untrue. James,

an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, found it necessary to warn

the people against belief as a saving principle if left to stand

alone. He spoke to them in this wise, in this spirit and to this

effect "You profess a belief in the Christ. You do well. You are

:

distinguished from all the pagans by whom you are surrounded,

for they believe not in Christ; they worship the unknown god.

You have a knowledge and a conviction that Christ is the Re-

deemer, the fore-ordained Savior of mankind. But this is not

enough; the devils have as much belief as you in that sense." A

very bold statement, yet one that is fully substantiated by scrip-

tures that were earlier than the writings of James.

You will remember that when the Master went into the land

of the Gadarenes he met there" one possessed of an evil spirit, one

who was a terror to all who knew him. He could not be bound

he could not be confined. The people were all afraid of him.

And when he saw the Christ he approached, and the evil spirit

within him cried out for mercy, calling our Lord, "Jesus, Son of

the Most High God." On another occasion, when Jesus was

followed by a great multitude from Jerusalem, and from Idumea,

and from Tyre and Sidon, there were many amongst the crowd

likewise possessed, and those evil spirits testified before them

all, and said: "Thou art the Son of God." If you would have

further instance, consider that of the unclean spirit that pos-

sessed the man in the synagogue, who before being rebuked by

the Christ, cried out: "I know thee, who thou art; thou art the

Holy One of God." Think you that any of those to whom James

uttered his word of warning could bear a stronger testimony than

that? But yet, did the belief benefit those evil spirits, or did it

but serve to condemn them the more? How different that from

the testimony of Peter, who when put to the test, after citing

what other people said of the Lord, when asked, "Whom say

ye that I am?" answered, from his heart which was running over

"PROVE THY FAITH BY THY WORKS." 943

with the spirit of worship, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the

living God" —

almost the same words in which those devils had

testified. And yet that belief in the heart of Peter led to sacri-

fice, to works, to effort. It was a saving faith, absolutely distinct

from the mere belief of the mind.

The Apostle Paul is often cited as one who taught that faith

alone would save, and the dogma, the false doctrine, the teach-

ing that is an abomination in the eyes of God, if we may judge

his acceptance by his own word, is founded very largely upon

what modern theologians have come to call Paulinism. It is true

that Paul warned against the thought that men could be justified

and made acceptable unto the Lord by mere outward acts em-

braced in the law of Moses, for the law had found its fulfilment in

the gosrel, and he tried to make the people understand, that

though they complied with the law in everv particular, in making

good their tithes of mint, anise and cummin, in their sacrificing,

in their saving their pravers, in their alms ostentatiously given,

that though they did all these things they we^e not acceptable

unto God without an abiding faith in the Lord Tesus Christ. He

did so teach them but I venture to affirm, and I may safely chal-

;

lenge contradiction, that the spirit of all of Paul's writings is to

the effect that when he thus spoke of a savins: faith he meant

faith he did not mean mere belief, but belief plus the works

;

which that belief comprises and postulates, and such combina-

tion is faith.

I do not realize that we need to speak of faith and works as

distinct from each other. There is no true faith without works.

It is only belief if the works be left out. And in that sense, the

sense in which Paul, the scholar, the student of language, the

master of philosophv of his dav, used the term, he meant bv the

use of the term faith, faith as God understands it, faith as it has

been declared in the divine word, which means work, effort, sac-

rifice, service. Yet belief in the dogma of justification by faith

alone was carried to such an extreme as to lead to blasphemy.

By way of illustration: Martin Luther, taking issue with the

Roman Catholic church, proclaimed that man was not to be

justified by his works, and could not be saved by works, but

could be saved whollv through the profession of faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. His language reads: "The excellent, infal-

lible and sole preparation the eternal election and

for grace is

predestination of God." This would rob us of agency and of

free will and indeed, he declared on another occasion that since

:

the fall of man free will is but an idle word. And again "A :

man who imagines to arrive at grace by doing all that he is able

to do adds sin to sin. and is doublv guilty." Much as Luther

accomplished for good — and he was a servant of God—he mixed

his truth with error, and the most glaring of his errors is that

!H4 IMPROVEMENT ERA

declaration that works are not requisite to service in the cause

of truth. On one occasion, according to the historian D'Aubigne,

Luther became so full of the spirit of pride in the proclamation of

his false doctrine that he delivered himself as follows, referring

to the fact that there were many doctors of the law and doctors

of divinity who taught that man must work to obtain salvation:

"I. Doctor Martin Luther, unworthy herald of the gospel of our

Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith alone without works

justifies before God. And I declare that it shall stand and remain

forever, in despite of the emperor of the Romans, the emperor of

the Turks, the emperor of the Persians, in spite of the pope and all

the cardinals, with the bishops, priests, monks and nuns, in spite of

kings, princes and nobles, and in spite of all the world, and of the

devils themselves; and if they endeavor to fight against this truth

they will draw the fires of hell upon their heads. This is the true

and holy gospel, and the declaration of me, Doctor Martin Luther,

according to the teachings of the Holy Ghost."

In reference to the oft repeated statement that Paul justifies

the doctrine, and that he positively taught that faith was not neces-

sarily associated with works, need only refer to his epistles,

I

particularly to those written to the Romans and the Ephesians.

Time will not permit me to read them to you, but the 11th chapter

of the Epistle to the Hebrews is particularly explicit. Paul be-

gins that chapter with a definition of faith :

"Now faithis the substance of things hoped for, the evidence

of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the

word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things

which do appear."

Evidently there was work there, effort, achievement, con-

structive work. No mere operation of a mind, human or divine,

without application and action would produce any such effect as

that. He c; f es instances of work accomplished by Abel, by Enoch,

by Abraham, by Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and then, lacking time, he

says:

"And what shall T more say? for the time would fail me to tell of

Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Japhthae, of David

also, and Samuel, and of the prophets; who through faith subdued

kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the

mouths of lions, cmenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of

the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in

fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their

dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting de-

liverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others

had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of

bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder,

were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in

sheepskins and goatskins; being: destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of

whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in

mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

"PROVE THY FAITH BY THY WORKS" 945

Compare with that the declaration of James already referred

to asone who decried the efficacy of mere belief, though it were

founded upon actual knowledge. In the second chapter of the

Epistle of James, we read :

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say that he hath

faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or

sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto

them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye

give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth

it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works; show me

thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my

works * * * For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith

without works is dead also."

In many of the commentaries upon that scripture we find

special attention given to the fact that in the first verse read we

find this expression : "What doth it profit, my brethren, that a

man say that he hath faith," it being made to appear that in re-

ality he had not faith but only said he had, and so falsified. I

take it that that is a proper commentarv. What doth it profit a

man though he say, "I have faith." if he does nothing to make

good that profession of his faith? He might have an empty form

of belief, certainly not faith, for faith. I repeat, includes, and nec-

essarily implies, work, action and service. Many of you may re-

member, that the great city of Hamburg was once smitten with

pestilence. The people were dying in such numbers that a reg-

ular system of collecting the dead was inaugurated. It was re-

quired that at any house in which there lay a corpse a red cloth

should be hung out of the window, and the officers making their

n°xt rounds would call at that house and carry away the dead to be

buried in the common field. A man of science, working in his

laboratory, sought the cause of the deadly disease, and he found

;

t. He discovered that by far the greater number of fatalities

were limited to a certain district, and that district was supplied

with water from the old water-works. The other part of the c'tv

obtained its supply of water from a new plant, and was not so

sorely smitten, and in the few cases of death occurring in the more

favored oortion of the citv. it was found that the victims had

visited the other section and had drunk of the wat^r there. He

examined the water chemicallv. rm'crosconicallv, and actuallv saw

for himself, through the wonderful lens, the eerms of cholera in

the water, living organisms, that bad can c ed tb- destruction °f °

c

many human lives. Tt was no matter of belief with him. it was

a matter of actual knowledge, superior to mere belief. He pro-

claimed the fact that the water was the cause of the pestilence, and

warned the people against drinking anv but freshly boiled water,

the boiling process being- effective in destroying the death-dealing

germs. Thousands within that citv not onlv believed him, but

946 IMPROVEMENT ERA

had faith in him they boiled the water used in their households,

;

and escaped the pestilence. Others, who had not faith, whatever

their state of belief may have been, drank and died. But, mark

you, this tragic incident: Complete as was his knowledge, that

knowledge of itself could not save him. On one occasion, either

through forgetful.ness or mistake, or through some other cause

not known to us, he, the savior of so many, drank unboiled water,

and his body was taken with the rest to the common grave.

I want to put the question to you, my brethren and sisters,

vou of the Mutual Improvement organizations, you who profess

by the very name you have assumed to be working for betterment,

your own betterment and the betterment of your fellows :What

are you doing to prove your faith? Have you anything better

than empty belief? Anything that shall stand you in better stead

than a mere thought can do ? Do you believe in God ? Have you

faith in him ? Is your belief that of fear, knowing him to be a

God who can call you to account, and therefore you fear him?

Or is it the belief coupled with the allegiance that will make of

that belief saving faith.If you have faith in him, you believe

his words, and you know that you are his sons and daughters.

That faith should make you strong in the doing of his will, the

keeping of his commandments, the working out of his plans and

purposes, else it profiteth you not at all. Are you following the

examples of your fathers and your mothers, who gave to the

world one of the most sublime examples of faith the world has

ever seen, in their iourney from the civilization of the east, across

the plains, across the deserts, across the mountains, because they

had faith in God and those who represented him?

Can vou ever surpass the achievement of that memorable

day in July, 1847, when the vanguard of the pioneer band came

down into this valley? They had with them a little grain, a few

ootitoes, a little handful, as it were, of seed for crops. Well

might they have said :We are sure of these few bushels let us ;

ct. But no, they went out and cast the seed into the desert soil,

all thev had. because of their abiding faith in God that

he would

give them the increase. I commend unto you the reasonableness

of the course. This eospel of the kingdom is a gospel of com-

mon sense, and ther- N no sense nor reason in saying that a man

can believe in God and have faith in him, and do not what is re-

quired of him by the Lord God. Show me vour faith by your

works, whether those works be positive, as of actual labor and

actual struggle in the cause of good, or whether you be called

upon

toperform that negative labor of forbearance and endurance and

whereby vou testify your acceptance of the words of

suffering,

God and of his saving gospel. I thank the Lord this gospel is

reasonable, based upon the principles of human common

sense,

demanding at our hands sacrifice and effort. We need a Re-

"PROVE THY FAITH BY THY WORKS" 947

deemer. Without Christ man cannot be saved. He shall be re-

deemed whether he be good or evil, whether his life has been one

of righteousness or unrighteousness he shall be redeemed from

;

death and brought to a resurrection but he shall not be saved, far

;

less exalted, unless he combines his efforts with his reliance upon

the saving sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Brethren and sisters, peace be with you. Be ye faithful, and

show your faith by your works, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

THIRD WARD, BRIGHAM CITY, L. D. S. MEETING HOUSE

This building was erected in 1911-12, and was dedicated May 19,

1912, by President Joseph F. Smith. It is built of brick, with cement

foundation, and cost $35,000, including furniture and grounds. The

main building measures 50 by 80 feet, and the annex 20 by 24 feet— 30

feet to the square, and contains fifteen rooms. The main hall with the

gallery seats one thousand people, and the main room of the base-

ment, four hundred. Shreeve & Madsen, architects. The eight by

ten rods of land in connection with the building, is being improved by

the planting of lawns and shrubs. The building is steam-heated and

electric-lighted, and is considered one of the handsomest churches in

tiie state.