Feelings or Faith?

     Mere feeling and sentimentality can never rise above the source from whence they come, and that source is self; but faith has to do with God and His eternal Word and is a living link, connecting the heart that has it with God who gives it. Human feelings, however intense, human sentiments, however refined, could not connect the soul with God. They are neither divine nor eternal, but are human and fleeting. They are like Jonah's gourd, which sprang up in a night and peished in a night. Not so faith! That precious principle partakes of all the value, all the power, and all the reality of the source from which it springs and the object with which it has to do. It justifies the soul (Rom. 5:1); it purifies the heart (Acts 15:9); it works by love (Gal. 5:6); and it overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). Feelings are occupied with self; faith is occupied with Christ. Feelings look inward; faith looks outward. Feelings leave the soul in doubt; faith leads it into peace. Feeling has to do with one's own fluctuating condition; faith has to do with Christ's enduring sacrifice and God's truth.