FAITH AND CONFESSION

The wisdom of the fathers

FAITH AND CONFESSION Part 1

The two acts of heart-faith and mouth-confession are so conjoined in the Bible, they are woven together in such multiplied forms of expression, that no ordinary Bible student can doubt that they sustain an inherent and essential relation to each other. An inner faith and an audible confession are the two wings of religious life. God has, in infinite wisdom, ordained them both as conditions of His blessing.

Faith in the heart is the condition by which we obtain the fact of God's blessing, and confession with the mouth is the condition by which we obtain the experience or emotion of God's blessing. One is the inner condition for the spirit, the other is the outer condition for the feelings. Faith makes its report to Christ, and the mouth of confession makes its report to the world; so that the work of the Holy Ghost in us gets reported to a divine and human audience. This is every where in the Bible the divine order. Heart- faith and mouth-confession are twin-born of the Holy Ghost, and that which the Spirit has joined together, we dare not put asunder.

(from "White Robes" by G.D. Watson)