In this extrovert age we are apt to forget that men's deeds can rise no higher than their belief. What they do is conditioned and circumscribed by their faith. Jesus made this plain to his followers when he told the woman who had touched his garment, "Your faith has made you well." He emphasized the point in asking the two blind men who begged him to restore their sight, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" When they answered, "Yes," he touched their eyes saying, "According to your faith be it done to you." The author of Acts reports that Paul, looking intently at the cripple of Lystra and seeing that he had faith to be made well, told him to stand on his feet and he stood up and walked.
So it behooves Quakers today with their great concern for works of healing and mercy to look into their faith and see how far it enables them to receive God's word and share it with others.
