Saint Augustine on Faith, Hope, and Love— CHAPTER I. The Occasion and Purpose of this "Manual

 

Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love

Saint Augustine

Translated by Albert C. Outler

This book is a brief handbook or enchiridion on the proper mode of serving God, through Faith, Hope, and Love.

Translated by Albert C. Outler

CHAPTER I. The Occasion and Purpose of this "Manual"

1. I cannot say, my dearest son Laurence, how much your learning pleases me, and how much I desire that you should be wise—though not one of those of whom it is said: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputant of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"1 Rather, you should be one of those of whom it is written, "The multitude of the wise is the health of the world"; and also you should be the kind of man the apostle wishes those men to be to whom he said, "I would have you be wise in goodness and simple in evil."

2. Human wisdom consists in piety. This you have in the book of the saintly Job, for there he writes that Wisdom herself said to man, "Behold, piety is wisdom." If, then, you ask what kind of piety she was speaking of, you will find it more distinctly designated by the Greek term theosebeia, literally, "the service of God." The Greek has still another word for "piety," ensebeia, which also signifies "proper service." This too refers chiefly to the service of God. But no term is better than theosebeia, which clearly expresses the idea of the man's service of God as the source of human wisdom.

When you ask me to be brief, you do not expect me to speak of great issues in a few sentences, do you? Is not this rather what you desire: a brief summary or a short treatise on the proper mode of worshipping [serving] God?

3. If I should answer, "God should be worshipped in faith, hope, love," you would doubtless reply that this was shorter than you wished, and might then beg for a brief explication of what each of these three means: What should be believed, what should be hoped for, and what should be loved? If I should answer these questions, you would then have everything you asked for in your letter. If you have kept a copy of it, you can easily refer to it. If not, recall your questions as I discuss them.

4. It is your desire, as you wrote, to have from me a book, a sort of enchiridion,6 as it might be called—something to have "at hand"—that deals with your questions. What is to be sought after above all else? What, in view of the divers heresies, is to be avoided above all else? How far does reason support religion; or what happens to reason when the issues involved concern faith alone; what is the beginning and end of our endeavor? What is the most comprehensive of all explanations? What is the certain and distinctive foundation of the catholic faith? You would have the answers to all these questions if you really understood what a man should believe, what he should hope for, and what he ought to love. For these are the chief things—indeed, the only things—to seek for in religion. He who turns away from them is either a complete stranger to the name of Christ or else he is a heretic. Things that arise in sensory experience, or that are analyzed by the intellect, may be demonstrated by the reason. But in matters that pass beyond the scope of the physical senses, which we have not settled by our own understanding, and cannot—here we must believe, without hesitation, the witness of those men by whom the Scriptures (rightly called divine) were composed, men who were divinely aided in their senses and their minds to see and even to foresee the things about which they testify.

5. But, as this faith, which works by love, begins to penetrate the soul, it tends, through the vital power of goodness, to change into sight, so that the holy and perfect in heart catch glimpses of that ineffable beauty whose full vision is our highest happiness. Here, then, surely, is the answer to your question about the beginning and the end of our endeavor. We begin in faith, we are perfected in sight. This likewise is the most comprehensive of all explanations. As for the certain and distinctive foundation of the catholic faith, it is Christ. "For other foundation," said the apostle, "can no man lay save that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus." Nor should it be denied that this is the distinctive basis of the catholic faith, just because it appears that it is common to us and to certain heretics as well. For if we think carefully about the meaning of Christ, we shall see that among some of the heretics who wish to be called Christians, the name of Christ is held in honor, but the reality itself is not among them. To make all this plain would take too long—because we would then have to review all the heresies that have been, the ones that now exist, and those which could exist under the label "Christian," and we would have to show that what we have said of all is true of each of them. Such a discussion would take so many volumes as to make it seem endless.

6. You have asked for an enchiridion, something you could carry around, not just baggage for your bookshelf. Therefore we may return to these three ways in which, as we said, God should be served: faith, hope, love. It is easy to say what one ought to believe, what to hope for, and what to love. But to defend our doctrines against the calumnies of those who think differently is a more difficult and detailed task. If one is to have this wisdom, it is not enough just to put an enchiridion in the hand. It is also necessary that a great zeal be kindled in the heart.

Hope, as the Christian’s helmet, quiets his spirit when God delays to perform his promise.

           The fourth and last office of hope propounded is, to quiet and compose the Christian’s spirit when God stays long before he come to perform promises. Patience, I told you, is the back on which the Chris­tian’s burdens are carried, and hope the pillow between the back and the burden, to make it sit easy. Now patience hath two shoulders; one to bear the present evil, and another to forbear the future good promised, but not yet paid.  And as hope makes the burden of the present evil of the cross light, so it makes the longest stay of the future good promised short.  Whereas, without this, the creature could have neither the strength to bear the one, nor forbear and wait for the other.  ‘And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord,’ Lam. 3:18; implying thus much, that where there is no hope there is no strength.  The soul's comfort lies drawing on, and soon gives up the ghost, where all hope fails.  God un­dertook for Israel’s protection and provision in the wilderness, but when their dough was spent, and their store ended, which they brought out of Egypt, they fall foul with God and Moses.  And why? but because their hope was spent as soon as their dough.  Moses ascends the mount, and is but a few days out of their sight, and in all haste they must have a golden calf. And why? but because they gave him for lost, and never hoped to see him more.  This is the reason why God hath so few servants that will stick fast to him, because God puts them to wait for what he means to give, and most are short-spirited, and cannot stay. You know what Naomi said to her daughters, ‘If I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons; would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having hus­bands?’ Ruth 1:12, 13.  The promise hath salvation in the womb of it; but will the unbeliever, a soul without heavenly hope, stay till the promise ripens, and this happiness be, as I may so say, grown up?  No, sure, they will rather make some match with the beggarly creature, or any base lust that will pay them in some pleasure at present, than wait so long, though it be for heaven itself.  Thus as Tamar played the strumpet be­cause the husband promised was not given her so soon as she desired, Gen. 38, so it is the undoing of many souls because the comfort, joy, and bliss of the promise is withheld at present, and his people are made to wait for their reward; therefore they throw themselves into the embraces of this adulterous world that is present.  ‘Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,’ II Tim. 4:10.  The soul only that hath this divine hope will be found patiently to stay for the good of the promise. Now, in handling this last office of hope, I shall do these three things—

First. I shall show you that God oft stays long before he pays in the good things of the promise.

Second. That when God stays longest before he performs his promises, it is our duty to wait.

Third. That hope will enable the soul to wait when he stays longest.

Hope, as the Christian’s helmet stirs him to noble exploits

           Hope of salvation puts the Christian upon high and noble exploits.  It is a grace born for great ac­tions.  Faith and hope are the two poles on which all the Christian’s noble enterprises turn.  As carnal hope excites carnal men to their achievements which gain them any renown in the world, so is this heav­enly hope influential unto the saints’ undertakings. What makes the merchant sell house and land, and ship his whole estate away to the other end almost of the world—and this amidst a thousand hazards from pirates, waves and winds—but hope to get a greater by this bold adventure?  What makes the daring soldier rush into the furious battle, upon the very mouth of death itself, but hope to snatch honour and spoil out of its jaws?  Hope is his helmet, shield, and all, which makes him laugh on the face of all danger.  In a word, what makes the scholar beat his brains so hard —sometimes with the hazard of breaking them, by overstraining his parts with too eager and hot a pur­suit of learning—but hope but hope of commencing some degrees higher in the knowledge of those secrets in nature that are locked up from vulgar under­standings?—who, when he hath attained his desire, is paid but little better for all his pains and study, that have worn nature in him to the stumps, than he is that tears the flesh off his hands and knees with creeping up some craggy mountain, which proves but a barren bleak place to stand in, and wraps him up in the clouds from the sight of others, leaving him little more to please himself with but this, that he can look over other men's heads, and see a little farther than they.  Now if these peddling hopes can prevail with men to such fixed resolutions for the obtaining of these poor sorry things, which borrow part of their goodness from men's fancy and imagination, how much more effectual must the Christian’s hope of eternal life be to provoke him to the achievement of more noble exploits!  Let a few instances suffice.  First. This hope raiseth in the Christian a heroic res­olution against those lusts that held him before in bondage.  Second. This hope ennobles and enables the Christian to contemn the present world with all its pomp, treasure, and pleasure, to which the rest of the sons of men are, every man of them, basely enslaved.  Third. This hope, where it is steadfast, makes the Christian active and zealous for God.  Fourth. It begets in the Christian a holy impatience after further attainments, especially when it grows to some strength.

THE TRIUMPHS OF HOPE By D.L. Moody

In the fifteenth chapter of Romans, thirteenth verse, the Apostle says: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.” The next thing then is hope.

Did you ever notice this, that no man or woman is ever used by God to build up His kingdom who has lost hope? Now, I have been observing this throughout different parts of the country, and wherever I have found a worker in God’s vineyard who has lost hope, I have found a man or woman not very useful. Now, just look at these workers. Let your mind go over the past for a moment. Can you think of a man or woman whom God has used to build His kingdom who has lost hope? I don’t know of any; I never heard of such an one. It is very important to have hope in the Church; and it is the work of the Holy Ghost to impart hope. Let Him come into some of the churches where there have not been any conversions for a few years, and let Him convert a score of people, and see how hopeful the Church becomes at once. He imparts hope; a man filled with the Spirit of God will be very hopeful. He will be looking out into the future, and he knows that it is all bright, because the God of all grace is able to do great things. So it is very important that we have hope.

If a man has lost hope, he is out of communion with God; he has not the Spirit of God resting upon him for service; he may be a son of God, and disheartened so that he can not be used of God. Do you know there is no place in the Scriptures where it is recorded that God ever used even a discouraged man. Some years ago, in my work I was quite discouraged, and I was ready to hang my harp on the willow. I was very much cast down and depressed. I had been for weeks in that state, when one Monday morning a friend, who had a very large Bible class, came into my study. I used to examine the notes of his Sunday-school lessons, which were equal to a sermon, and he came to me this morning and said, “Well, what did you preach about yesterday?” and I told him. I said, “What did you preach about?” and he said that he preached about Noah. “Did you ever preach about Noah?” “No, I never preached about Noah.” “Did you ever study his character?” “No, I never studied his life particularly.” “Well,” says he, “he is a most wonderful character. It will do you good. You ought to study up that character.” When he went out, I took down my Bible, and read about Noah; and then it came over me that Noah worked 120 years and never had a convert, and yet he did not get discouraged; and I said, “Well, I ought not to be discouraged,” and I closed my Bible, got up and walked down town, and the cloud had gone. 

I went down to the noon prayer-meeting, and heard of a little town in the country where they had taken into the church 100 young converts; and I said to myself, I wonder what Noah would have given if he could have heard that; and yet he worked 120 years and didn’t get discouraged. And then a man right across the aisle got up and said, “My friends, I wish you to pray for me; I think I’m lost;” and I thought to myself, “I wonder what Noah would have given to hear that.” He never heard a man say, “I wish you to pray for me; I think I am lost,” and yet he didn’t get discouraged! Oh, children of God, let us not get discouraged; let us ask God to forgive us, if we have been discouraged and cast down; let us ask God to give us hope, that we may be ever hopeful. It does me good sometimes to meet some people and take hold of their hands; they are so hopeful, while other people throw a gloom over me because they are all the time cast down, and looking at the dark side, and looking at the obstacles and difficulties that are in the way.

Gracious Uncertainty - Oswald Chambers

Today’s devotion of April 29, is one that I have been struggling with so much. Oswald said: “Our natural inclination is to be so precise—trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next—that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing.” I have to admit that I left that stage of my life a long time ago. God forced me to get there by engineering circumstances in my life where I did not have a choice. For me it was “swim or sink”

Oswald said:  “Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been.” I found the more He keeps me in the waiting process, the more I learn to stop imagining my circumstances. (it’s a choice) I also found out that Satan knows us better than we know ourselves and he can tell when we are trying to live life ahead of God. Before we know it, this made up life in our mind becomes real. Sadly, as the imagined life becomes reality “in our mind”, there is a big conflict with the tangible life that we are living now, one that is involved interacting with others and it puts pressure on us to react a certain way as if our expectations are not being met. There is a movie coming out soon which is called “the secret life of Walter Mitty” I read this book a few decades ago and I remember how much I enjoyed it because I could identify with the protagonist. But, way back then, I was not a Christian, and felt there was nothing wrong in living this way to make my real life bearable.  My point here is that it is not Godly to live a life in conflict with the real life. It is the way of the unbeliever.

How do I know that? Because God has been hard at work in me trying so hard to drill it into my thick skull the past few years. There is nothing that Oswald Chambers has written in today’s devotion that is new to me or that I have not experienced with God. But, there are so many steps in between to get you to the point where one can live a life of gracious uncertainty with God. I am at the stage where I am still finding it hard to reconcile and live out the gracious uncertainty of my spiritual life as if it was a “normal life” and share it with no fear of being ridiculed or misunderstood by so called Christians. Gracious uncertainty while it is very much a SPIRITUAL LIFE, but it merges and embedded itself with the real and normal day to day life we live on earth. It is also part of living out a surrendered life, part of the transformation process, dependence and faith in God. It is strange that I do not mind the unbelievers, but my big challenge is those so called believers who are willing to think that I am an idiot and I am the one who does not understand God, because I am not making plans to present to God.

Here is my fight with God. He wants me to share and live out, my gracious uncertainty with pride. This pride I am referring to is the same pride that Paul felt when he said “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of God” and for some reason living out my spiritual life of gracious uncertainty is also related to that verse. Every single time He put me in a situation where I have to share proudly I both shy away or I do not answer all together. Then, I grumble in my heart that I do not have people to truly fellowship with. (Keep in mind that He taught me His idea of true fellowship)  Growing in gracious uncertainty is maturing in your spiritual life. When you fellowship with a bunch of believers who believe in their own belief, trying to tell them with joy, how you are uncertain of tomorrow, it feels like you are living out Matthew 7:6 "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” I am not uncertain of God, in fact, I AM CERTAIN OF GOD, but I hate the fact that He keeps putting me in situations where I have to share my uncertainty of what He is going to do next.

NEWS FLASH! I had all the intention of closing this post with something like “pray for me so that I can allow God to work this part of the gospel in my heart.” But would you believe as I am writing this post that God dealt with my heart? This is one of the things I love about this Christian life being a journey. You are never too mature to learn simple things with God and you can never outgrow this spiritual life. He just taught me that the reason I close-in, scared of sharing, scared of being ridiculed, misunderstood etc., is because I am not learning to leave the consequences of people’s misunderstanding, the shame of being ridiculed for my spiritual life and all that it entails, in His hands.

Can you see the domino effect of this spiritual journey? I got to go now because I have teary eyes and so many feelings that I have to deal with right now. What a journey we are called to live out with Him! This spiritual life is one that can only be lived out “IN THE SPIRIT!”

READ OSWALD CHAMBERS DEVOTION FOR TODAY APRIL 29 RIGHT HERE