At this time I desire to help you regard­ing the question of faith. After years of experience in this field, I have reached certain conclusions and have demon­strated to my own satisfaction certain laws or principles of truth in relation to this question of faith. I have been able to deduce from the Word ofGod a workable philosophy that has been adequate for me. But let me say that if it does not seem to suit your approach and movement in this direction, you are at perfect liberty to take the form which gets you to God. In this matter of faith and approach to God, I found that many forms or patterns of prayer confused and bewildered me and failed to bring the desired results.

I found that there is a process in this matter of faith which is as orderly as any found in the natural world. In life we have discovered that there are certain fundamental laws which we must recog­nize. God has established them and works I through them. We have the laws of light, of heat, of radiation and of gravitation. Each one has a fundamental principle which is orderly and bound by the law in which it moves.

These are the basic laws and principles by which we live and move. Life would not be livable if we did not recognize these basic facts. If we ignore them we will have trouble and confusion, but if we line up with them and adjust ourselves according­ ly, life will be livable. If I continually quarrel with the law of gravitation, I court a great deal of trouble; but if I recognize that there is a law and, whether I like it or not, adjust myself to it, then I will get along.

We seem to think that because we have been born of the Spirit and have swung over into a new order of life-the realm of the Spirit-that it is a kind of happy hunting ground in which we may run around as we please, regardless of the spiritual laws, and then expect to have an orderly, well-balanced Christian life. Often this is due to the fact that the revelation of God’s power and grace has overwhelmed us, and being conscious of these we forget that they become operative only under a specific law. We must recognize that in the spiritual order all the principles are basic and real and just as exacting and as genuine as are the principles in the natural world. The laws which operate in the realm of the Spirit are just as demand­ing as the natural laws and require a like obedience.

“People will not pay the price of learning the spiritual laws and principles so that God can do the thing which He desires.*”

But under the impact of truth concern­ing God’s grace and love and power, peo­ple too often lose spiritual poise and ven­ture into all sort of extravagant ex­periences. Frequently their prayers are answered, but when they try the same combination and pattern on another oc­casion their prayer is not answered, and consequently they have a hard time. After observing this, I have sat back and said, “There is something queer about this.” As one gets quiet before the Lord, he will see that such a procedure is not of God. It has taken much prayer, meditation and observation of His Word before I have reached a satisfactory conclusion. However, as I have kept my whole being open to God and remained clear, clean and responsive to His touch, the truth gradually has been revealed. What is often called defeat, is not so much the result of a lack of faith as of failure to comply with God’s prescribed method for" the exercising of faith. This is because people will not pay the price of learning the spiritual laws and principles so that God can do the thing which He desires. They want to get it all on the bargain counter and there are no bargain counters in God’s economy. You pay for everything you get, and the more marvelous the conception of truth that swings in upon your inner conscience, the greater the price you pay. It is true that salvation is free, but many people still live within the realm of gifts, in a receptive at­titude, when they should be in the learn­ing stage, paying the price for a spiritual education.

In regard to the question of faith, I have discovered that there is a certain basic rule consisting of three steps. God gave me a verse in support of this truth.

In John’s Gospel, chapter eleven, we find an occasion where Christ worked a miracle: He raised Lazarus from the dead. Most people are so charmed by the fact that a miracle is recorded and so thrilled to reach the climax where He says, “Lazarus, come forth”, that in their haste they run breathlessly by, paying no attention to what happened in the ap­proach to the miracle. Before you get into the real atmosphere of what He did and said, certain dynamic words appear which Jesus said to one of the sisters. He dropped these words like jewels into one of the richest bits of truth ever contained in a single statement.