Lastly, comes the triumphant faith.  The man went home holding fast the promise.  He had only one promise, but he held it fast.  When God gives me a promise, He is just as near me as when He fulfills it.  That is a great comfort.  When I have the promise I have also the pledge of the fulfillment.  But the whole heart of God is in His promise, just as much as in the fulfillment of it, and sometimes God, the promiser, is more precious because I am compelled to cling more to Him, and to come closer, and to live by simple faith, and to adore His love.  Do not think this is a hard life, to be living upon a promise.  It means living upon the everlasting God.  Who is going to say that is hard?  It means living upon the crucified, the loving Christ.  Be ashamed to say that is a difficult thing.  It is a blessed thing.

The nobleman went home and found the child living.  And what happened then?  Two things.  First:  he gave up his whole life to be a believer in Jesus.  If there had been a division among the people of Capernaum, and thousands of them had hated Christ, this man would still have stood on His side.  He believed in the Lord.  This is what must take place with us.  Let us go forward with our trust in the living Christ, knowing that He will keep us.  Then we will get grace to carry the life of Christ into our whole conduct, into all our walk and conversation.  The faith that rests in Jesus, is the faith that trusts all to Him, with all we have.  Do we not read that when God had finished His work, and rested, it was only to begin new work?  Yes; the great work was to be carried on—­watching over and ruling His world and His church.  And is it not so with the Lord Jesus?  When He had finished His work, He sat upon the throne to do His work of perfecting the body, through the Holy Spirit.  And now, the Holy Spirit is carrying on that blessed work, teaching us to rest in Christ, and in the strength of that rest to go on, and to cover our whole life with the power, and the obedience, and the will, and the likeness of the Lord Jesus.  The nobleman gave up his whole life to be a believer in Christ; and from that day it was a believer in Jesus who walked about the streets of Capernaum; not only a man who could say, “Once He helped me,” but, “I believe in Him with my whole life.”  Let that be so with us everywhere; let Christ be the one object of our trust.

One thought more,—­he believed with his whole house.  That was triumphant faith.  He took up his position as a believer in Christ; and his wife, his children, his servants—­he gathered them all together, and laid them at the feet of Christ.  And if you want power in your own house, if you want power in your Bible-class, if you want power in your social circle, if you want power to influence the nation and if you want power to influence the Church of Christ, see where it begins.  Come into contact with Jesus in this rest of faith that accepts His life fully, that trusts Him fully, and