The Faith of Our Fathers

We live in a day when standards of value are being challenged, and the faith of our fathers has not escaped the challenge. This may be because men have asked too much of their lives, and too little of themselves. Some may have supposed that a mere creed or code of conduct or statute of doctrines and dogmas would take the place of self-effort and self-discipline. Some may have known the law but have not lived it. Some may not even have bothered to inform themselves concerning such things. And so perhaps we should look again at what we may rightly expect of the principles and power and purpose of our faith and then judge its effectiveness or ineffectiveness by that formula. It should not be expected to give us ease without effort or knowledge without study or truth without search. We should not expect it to offer reward without work or peace without repentance or blessings without obedience or exaltation hereafter without justifying our existence here. The Savior of the world gave us some suggestion as to what we should expect of a firm faith when He spoke of the “wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell not.” But the house of the foolish man was built upon the sand, “and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”¹ The implication is plain. The floods and the winds came alike to the wise and the foolish. But one withstood the storm, and the other fell before it. And in part at least and within the limits of this life this is what we have a right to expect of our faith⎯not that it should spare us all the unwanted experiences of life, but that it should help us to grow beyond them and prepare us for yet greater things to come. No man escapes all the vicissitudes of life⎯all men have their problems and troubles⎯but he who has isolated himself from a firm faith finds it harder to withstand the storms, while those who have kept their lives in touch with the purposes of God and with the timeless spiritual truths, are spared much of the groping uncertainty and sense of futility and defeat.