Hold Thou my hands!
In grief and joy, in hope and fear,
Lord, let me feel that Thou art near;
Hold Thou my hands!
If e’er by doubts
Of Thy good Fatherhood depressed,
I cannot find in Thee my rest,
Hold Thou my hands!
Doubt need not be sin. Unbelief is sin, – unbelief that rejects Christ and denies God. But there is doubt which is only faith searching for and finding its way. It is not content to take things for granted because it finds them in a creed, or hears some one state them; it would know them for itself. Such knowledge gives a much securer foundation for faith than that which is merely accepted on the statement of others.
It must be confessed, however, that there are real perplexities in Christian life. Even doctrines which in the days of our happiness and prosperity we think are among our settled and impregnable beliefs, when the sore testing times come must be relearned, and won back again into sure faiths through experiences of doubt, fear, struggle, and toil
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