lexion of our thoughts will be practical, not theoretical.

In a dramatic story in the Book of Numbers faith is seen in action.
Israel became discouraged and spoke against God, and the Lord sent fiery
serpents among them. "And they bit the people; and much people of Israel
died." Then Moses sought the Lord for them and He heard and gave them a
remedy against the bite of the serpents. He commanded Moses to make a
serpent of brass and put it upon a pole in sight of all the people, "and
it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh
upon it, shall live." Moses obeyed, "and it came to pass, that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he
lived" (Num. 21:4-9).

In the New Testament this important bit of history is interpreted for us
by no less an authority than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is
explaining to His hearers how they may be saved. He tells them that it
is by believing. Then to make it clear He refers to this incident in the
Book of Numbers. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).

Our plain man in reading this would make an important discovery. He
would notice that "look" and "believe" were synonymous terms. "Looking"
on the Old Testament serpent is identical with "believing" on the New
Testament Christ. That is, the _looking_ and the _believing_ are the
same thing. And he would understand that while Israel looked with their
external eyes, believing is done with the heart. I think he would
conclude that _faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God_.

When he had seen this he would remember passages he had read before, and
their meaning would come flooding over him. "They looked unto him, and
were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed" (Psa. 34:5). "Unto
thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold,
as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the
eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon
the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us" (Psa. 123:1-2). Here
the man seeking mercy looks straight at the God of mercy and never takes
his eyes away from Him till mercy is granted. And our Lord Himself
looked always at God. "Looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and
gave the bread to his disciples" (Matt. 14:19). Indeed Jesus taught