Morrison, Joseph - Achieving Faith

Excerpt:
Chapter 1

THE LAW OF FAITH

"According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9:29). "Though I have all faith so that I Could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:2).

"But, by the law of faith" (Rom. 3:27.)

Law is not only a word used to designate a statute, on the law books of a nation, passed by some congress or legislature, it is also the word used to describe the uniform recurrence of natural phenomena, under the same conditions. The influence, for instance, of the stars and planets on each other, affecting their orbits, their seasons, and their ability to hold objects to their surfaces, is called the law of gravitation. The effects of currents of air, heat and cold, and of mountain ranges and the sea on climatic conditions, bring about what is known as the laws of weather, whereby storms are predicted. The relation of one chemical substance to another, and the uniform changes that result from the combination of chemicals, is called the law of chemical affinity. In the same way we have mortuary laws setting forth the almost changeless rules that enable life insurance companies to transact business with accurate predictions. There is also the law of supply and demand which governs the production and disposal of merchantable goods, while the laws even of salvation are charted so accurately that every genuine minister of the gospel can guide his hearers almost infallibly out of the ways of sin into the life of holiness.

As a sub-division of the law of salvation, there is faith, which is also governed by law. That is, there are principles and conditions of faith to be fulfilled, and when they are thus met, there is invariable recurrence of certain results, under similar circumstances. So accurately can this be brought about that when the occurrences do not take place, we at once know that there is some flaw in the adjustment of the principles. To be sure, there is an element of time that must come in at this point, which will be discussed later, but the matter we desire to emphasize here is that there is a uniform method according to which faith operates. In other words, there is a law of faith.

About the Author:

Joseph G. Morrison (1871-1947) was an American minister and general superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene.  Born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and raised in South Dakota, where he became a Methodist minister, Dr. Joseph G. Morrison was one of the founders of the Laymen's Holiness Association, and served as its president until he joined the Church of the Nazarene in 1921. He was a district superintendent, college president and from 1927 to 1936 executive secretary of the Department of Foreign Missions. Dr. Morrison was elected general superintendent in 1936, and served in that office until his death in 1939.