s of life.
But when or how the transition is made, whether the renewal be sudden
or gradual, it is the same victory in all cases that must be won, the
victory of the spirit over the flesh, the 'putting off of the old man'
and the 'putting on of the new.' Life cannot be always a compromise.
Sooner or later it must become an alternative. He who has seen the
higher self can be no longer content with the lower. The acts of
contrition, confession, and decision--essential and successive steps in
repentance--are the immediate effects of the vision of Christ. Though
repentance is indeed a human activity, here, as always, the earlier
impulse comes from the divine side. He who truly repents is already in
the grip of Christ. 'We love Him because He first loved us.'

2. _Faith_.--If repentance looks back and forsakes the old, faith
looks forward and accepts the new. Even in repentance there is already
an element of faith, for a man cannot turn away from his evil past
without having some sense of contrast between the actual and the
possible, some vision of the better life which he feels to be desirable.

(1) While there is no more characteristic word in the New Testament
than faith, there is none which is used in a greater variety of senses,
or whose import it is more difficult to determine. It must not be
forgotten at the outset {175} that though it is usually regarded as a
theological term, it is a purely human act, and represents an element
in ordinary life without which the world could not hold together for a
single day. We constantly live by faith, and in our common intercourse
with our fellows we daily exercise this function. We have an
irresistible conviction that we live in a rational world in which
effect answers to cause. Faith, it has been said, is the capital of
all reasoning. Break down this principle, and logic itself would be
bankrupt. Those who have denied the intelligibility of the universe
have not been able to dispense with the very organ by which their
argument is conducted. Hence faith in its religious sense is of the
same kind as faith in common life. It is distinguishable only by its
_special object_ and its _moral intensity_.

(2) The habitual relationship between Christ and His disciples was one
of mutual confidence. While Jesus evidently trusts them, they regard
Him as their Master on whose word they wholly rely. Ever invested with
a deep mystery and awe, He is always for His disciples t