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That "faith" is "a gift of God" — as much a "gift" as any other sovereign act of His power — I need not stay to prove. We have to do this morning with another thought — that the growth and the "increase" of "faith," at every successive stage, is a distinct act of Almighty power. We know, indeed, that everything which is of God has in it essential tendency, nay, an absolute necessity in itself to grow. If you do not wilfully check the grace of God that is in you, that grace will, and must, in obedience to the law of its being, increase. We lay it down, then, as a certainty that "faith" is a thing of degrees. One believer never reaches the same degree in this life as another. Each believer is in different states of belief, at different periods of his own life. St. Paul speaks of a brother who is "weak in the faith" — St. Stephen and St. Barnabas are commended as men "full of faith." But it is easy for us to see traces of "increase of faith" in the lives of the apostles themselves. Have not we seen progress in the mind of the St. Peter in the Gospels and the St. Peter in the Epistles? In St. John also, from the time when he could call fire from heaven, to the hour when he could stand so meekly at the cross's foot? You will see the same in St. Paul's mind if you compare what he says of himself in his Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, which were his early Epistles, with his triumphant assurance in his Epistles to Timothy, which were his last Epistles. If, then, "faith" be a thing capable of degrees, every man must be responsible for the measure of his attainment of that grace in the sight of God. There are various "degrees of faith" in the world; but they are all placed in their various degrees with distinct design. It is intended, in the Divine economy of God's Church, that there should be "degrees of faith," to answer His purpose; but that eternal purpose Of God is still consistent with man's responsibility in the matter. The various degrees make that beautiful variety, out of which God brings His own unity. They give occasion for kind judgment, and Christian forbearance, and helpfulness one to another, seeing that the man of "much faith" must not despise, but must recognize as a brother, and help on, the man who is said to be a man of "little faith." One man has "faith" sufficient to lead him to entire separation from the world, and to undergo great mortification — another has not got so far. Let the halting, lingering one — the soul that still keeps too much in this world — remember what the apostle says, that it is "faith" which "overcomes the world," and therefore let him pray, "Lord, increase my faith." One can carry all mysteries, and liken mysteries — another loses his " faith" when he comes to mysteries. But he who knows his own heart best, that man knows most how fitting the supplication is, everywhere, "Lord, increase my faith." There are three reasons here why it is important to ask this petition. If any one of you is without any promised blessing of God, it is simply because he has not "faith" about the matter. Again, God has established a direct proportion between a man's faith and a man's success: "according to your faith be it unto you." And, once more, remember, there are degrees in heaven; and, according as we reach here "in faith" we shall reach there "in glory." "Lord, increase our faith!" The man simply says it, and there comes over his mind such a sudden sense of God's amazing love to him, in the redemption of his soul, that everything else looks perfectly insignificant, in the thought of his own acceptance with God. "Lord, increase our faith!" — and we have such communion with things unseen, that death has no power.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

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KJV: And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

WEB: The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."