Wesley Corpus

On Faith "Now faith is the evidence of things not seen." Heb. 11:1. 1. Many times have I thought, many times have I spoke, many times have I wrote upon these words; and yet there appears to be a depth in them which I am in no wise able to fathom. Faith is, in one sense of the word, a divine conviction of God and of the things of God; in another, (nearly related to, yet not altogether the same,) it is a divine conviction of the invisible and eternal world. In this sense I would now consider, -- 2. I am now an immortal spirit, strangely connected with a little portion of earth; but this is only for a while: In a short time I am to quit this tenement of clay, and to remove into another state, Which the living know not, And the dead cannot, or they may not tell! What kind of existence shall I then enter upon, when my spirit has launched out of the body How shall I feel myself, -- perceive my own being How shall I discern the things that are round about me, either material or spiritual objects When my eyes no longer transmit the rays of light, how will the naked spirit see When the organs of hearing are mouldered into dust, in what manner shall I hear When the brain is of no farther use, what means of thinking shall I have When my whole body is resolved into senseless earth, what means shall I have of gaining knowledge 3. How strange, how incomprehensible, are the means whereby I shall then take knowledge even of the material world! Will things appear then as they do now, -- of the same size, shape, and colour Or will they be altered in any, or all these respects How will the sun, moon, and stars appear the sublunary heavens the planetary heavens the region of the fixed stars -- how the fields of ether, which we may conceive to be millions of miles beyond them Of all this we know nothing yet. And, indeed, we need to know nothing.