Faith of Our Fathers – Part 3

The local historian G.R. Balleine was also a clergyman, and in 1940, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he penned a series of 52 lessons around the Apostle’s Creed. Balleine being first a foremost a historian, there’s a lot of history there that I’ve never come across before, and I have studied church history quite a lot.

He’s also master of the pithy anecdote or illustration to bring something to life, which is why Frank Falle says the original history, flowing freely, is a better book to read that its more worthy revisions. Joan Stevens was a fair historian, but she could not write nearly as well as Balleine, who has an almost intimate chatty style.

I’m hoping to put some or all of this book online on Sundays.

Faith of Our Fathers – Part 3
By GR Balleine

LESSON I:  I BELIEVE

Our Need of a Creed: I believe.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : Selected portions from Hebrews xi.

TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " This is the victory that overcometh the world,even our faith " (1 John v. 4).

Aim : To create that " Will to Believe," without which no one can accomplish anything great.

APPARATUS : Picture of Christ and St. Thomas.

HYMNS : " O for a faith," and " Wo saw Thee not."

HOMEWORK : Write down seven things, not in the Creed, in which you believe.

THOUGHT FOR TEACHERS : " Faith is resolving to live in the light of the highest hypothesis."

FAITH IN EVERYDAY LIFE.

(a) This year our subject is the Apostles' Creed, and to-day I want you to think about the first two words. " I believe " means " I accept as true something that I cannot prove." We call this Faith.

(b) And Faith is not a thing peculiar to religion. Every day we are constantly using it in ordinary daily life. I go to Bournemouth, and ask a boy the way to the pier. He says, "First to the right, fourth to the left." I have not the faintest proof that he is speaking the truth. He may be a liar or he may know as little of the town as I do. But I believe him. I walk by faith, and not by sight ; and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred I reach my destination.

(c) I see a poster announcing that some celebrity is to speak in our Town Hall. It may be a stupid practical joke. Such things have been done. But I go to the Hall on the night advertised, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred I am not disappointed.

(d) I go to the doctor for a bottle of medicine. I have not the least idea what he has put in it : but I have faith in his skill and his kindly intentions, and I take my dose three times a day.

(e) Since I am constantly needing Faith in things of everyday life, I am not surprised when told that I shall need it also in Religion : that without Faith I can never make progress or do anything big (Text) : that I must take certain things for granted, even though for the moment I cannot actually prove them.

One early name for Christians was the Believers (e.g. " Be an example to the Believers," 1 Tim. iv. 10 : "Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers," Te Deum). And at our Baptism we were pledged to be Believers too : " They did promise and vow three things in my name : secondly that I should believe." And the things we are pledged to believe are the Articles of the Apostles' Creed.

DISBELIEVERS.

(a) Of course we can, if we choose, say " I disbelieve " but think where a disbelieving spirit lands us.

Picture Disbelieving Dick, a boy without belief. At school he learns nothing. He won't believe that Britain is an island, because he has not sailed round it. He argues that it may be joined on somewhere to Norway or to France. He won't believe that Napoleon was beaten at Waterloo. Perhaps the history book writers invented the story. He is useless at sports, for he never believes that he can win, and so never tries. When asked about his mother, he replies, " I don't know if I have one. A lady at home says she is my mother, but I may be only an orphan whom she has adopted." He won't post a letter, because he can't prove that it will get to its destination. He won't take a train, because he can't prove that it will stop at the station he wants. He can't even walk to the place, because he won't believe the signposts. He can accomplish nothing because he has no faith.

(b) Picture a world without belief. No farmer would sow corn. No one would work for another. The workman would say, " How do I know that you will pay me at night ? " The employer would say, " If I pay in advance, how do I know that you will do any work ? " No one would trust money to a bank. No one would buy a newspaper. Civilization is built on mutual faith.

(c) The Bible gives one picture of a disbelieving Christian. St. Thomas was a real disciple ; he loved Christ, had worked for Him, and been ready to die for Him (John xi. 16). But, when our Lord rose from the dead, Thomas could not believe it. " Except I see in His Hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His Side, I will not believe."

He ought to have believed. The evidence was overwhelming. He knew that his friends were neither fools nor liars, and many of them had seen Jesus alive. But he disbelieved ; and so he missed the happiest week that the Church has ever known. When every one else was rejoicing in the Resurrection, he went about with a long face thinking that Christ was dead. At the end of the week the Lord pointed out to him what he had missed. " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed " (John xx. 29).

MISBELIEVERS.

(a) Disbelief is fatal, but misbelief is almost as bad. We must take all reasonable care to secure that what we believe is true. A wrong belief is bound to show itself In wrong actions. (The word "miscreant," which originally meant "misbeliever," came to mean " wrong-doer.")

The Thugs in India were intensely religious people. They were most of them highly respectable merchants and farmers. But they believed that the goddess they served demanded human sacrifices : so every October they wandered through India secretly strangling every unprotected person they could find, and the Government had the greatest difficulty in suppressing them.

(b) A wrong belief will have disastrous effects on our own life. Think of a man who believes in a quack doctor. He gets ill, and instead of going to a hospital to be properly treated, he wastes money on bottles of coloured water. He will probably die.

(c) This is one great use of the Church's Creeds. They guard us against false beliefs. The Apostles' Creed gives a number of points which Christians of all centuries have agreed to be true. They have been challenged, criticized, sifted, discussed again and again, but every discussion has made the majority of Christians more and more satisfied that they are the truth. So they form a standard by which we can test our beliefs.

A standard is always useful. Once every one set his watch by a different standard, one by the station clock, one by the church clock, one by the post-office clock, and all were different. Now Big Ben comes over the wireless, and all accept that as correct. So the Creed is a standard by which we can correct our own religious views.

MAKE-BELIEVERS.

(a) Beware of Disbelief. Beware of Misbelief. And Make-belief is almost as bad. Much that is called Belief is only Make-belief. Schopenhaur, a famous German philosopher, gained many disciples by teaching that life was not worth living and that it was better to be dead. But, when cholera broke out in Frankfort, he was one of the first to fly to a place of safety.

(b) In the war, when the young men enlisted, middle-aged men declared that they wished that they could go too. But, when the age limit was raised, they crowded the tribunals begging to be excused. Women, who had loudly expressed their wish to go to the front, when the Women's Corps was formed preferred to stay at home.

(c) In Religion too it is fatally easy to imagine we believe. The test of a real faith is Does it lead to action? " Faith without works is dead."

A map in the British Museum shows that as early as 1540 the Portuguese believed in the existence

of the continent that we call Australia. But they made no use of their belief. Later Englishmen heard of the belief, and took possession of the land. The Creed we really believe, is spoken not by our lips but by our lives. The Apostles' Creed will only become a real belief to us when we act on it, and lay hold of all that it declares to exist.

BELIEVERS.

(a) Draw illustrations of true belief from Hebrews xi. Abraham, leaving the greatest city of the ancient world, leading his clansmen across the desert to found in unknown lands a People of God.

(b) Moses, renouncing Pharaoh's court, and throwing in his lot with the brickfield slaves, leading them out into the Wilderness to find a land of liberty.

(c) The Martyrs, tortured, scourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn asunder, winning victory for their cause by their willingness to die.

(d) The Creed invites us each to say, " I believe "; not merely " The Church believes," but "I believe." The Church's Creed is useless to us, unless we make it our own. But, when we believe, it becomes a source of power within. Ubi fides, ibi lux et robur," (motto of the town of Birkenhead) Where there is Faith, there is Light and Strength."

If you want to achieve, you have got to believe

With a faith that is strong and true

For a misbelief or a disbelief

Or a half belief won't do.

You can't succeed, till you get a Creed

That will brace you and see you through.