88 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



Thus we see that to the prophet Habakkuk^ who first 

 used the word *' faith '' in a religious sense, its meaning 

 had nothing whatever to do with belief in a doctrine. 

 It did not mean shutting one's eyes to facts, and blindly 

 accepting as true the orthodox teaching of the day. 

 That is the negation of Faith, and it is just what Habakkuk 

 refused to do. Faith meant loyalty to God ; loyalty to 

 His Truth ; loyalty to His Eternal Law of Righteousness ; 

 and surely it still means the same. Faith has nothing to 

 do with soundness of view ; it has everything to do with 

 soundness of life. 



Now, whilst we fully recognise that the simple 

 philosophy preached by the eighth century prophets 

 fails to cover all the facts of life, let us not overlook the 

 fundamental truth which underlies that philosophy. 

 It is absolutely and eternally true that no nation can be 

 really strong and great, whose moral life is corrupt. 

 Right and wrong are not the arbitrary creations of 

 theologians and moralists. Right is right because it 

 is that which tends to bring health, and happiness, and 

 prosperity to the community. Wrong is wrong because 

 it brings to the community disease and disaster, sorrow 

 and suffering. Moral degradation must ever mean 

 physical deterioration, for the moral laws are laws of 

 heahh. It is not by accident that the two words 

 *' healthy ** and ** holy *' are both derived from the same 

 Anglo-Saxon root, and are virtually the same word. If 

 we would have a healthy nation, strong and virile, we 

 must have a moral nation. Of a truth it is Righteousness 

 that exalt eth a nation. 



So the word '' faith ** means ** faithfulness ** ; and to 

 the Christian it ought to mean fidelity to the Prince of 

 Peace and to the Law of Love, which He taught. It 

 cannot mean less than this. 



But when a word has been used for many centuries, 

 it gathers around it associations which did not originally 



