By Matthew P.
Gill, 28 October, 2012
As expressed in
our fourth Article of faith, The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ believes
that faith in the Lord is the first principle of the Gospel. Faith is the motivating
and sustaining power that gives us the strength and courage to live righteously
each and every day. And it is absolutely necessary to our exaltation with the Father.
Faith has always fascinated
people the world over for centuries; they have tried to understand what it is
and how they should express it in their everyday lives. It has often been the
case that some of these people can offer us insights that will strengthen our own
understanding of faith.
Such an
individual was Alfred Lord Tennyson. Alfred Lord Tennyson was England’s Poet
Laureate for many years and was probably Britain’s best known poet during the
second half of the ninetieth century.
In 1827, he went
to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined probably the most distinguished
group of young thinkers in the country, they were called The Apostles. In that
group, he met and became close friends with Arthur Henry Hallam. Hallam died
1833, leaving Tennyson grief-stricken and increasingly doubtful that God was
loving and kind, since he allowed the death of such a remarkable man just at
the beginning of a great career.
In the sixteen
years following his friend’s death, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote 131 short poems,
which later he compiled and published as In
Memoriam, in honour of Arthur Henry Hallam. In this monumental and inspiring
work, Tennyson describes his sadness and doubt, analyzes problems of faith, and
shows how he is finally able to trust the goodness of God, even though he doesn’t
understand all that happens in the world.
In two short
poems that make up In Memoriam, notice how Tennyson is able to have faith even
when he does not have complete understanding of faith. In the following passage,
we see Tennyson struggling to believe that every life has a purpose and that
nothing lives in vain. He wants to have faith that God will ultimately triumph,
even though death and despair seem to triumph now.
“Oh, yet we trust
that somehow good
Will be the final
end of ill,
To pangs of
nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt,
and taints of blood;
That nothing
walks with aimless feet;
That not one life
shall be destroy'd,
Or cast as
rubbish to the void,
When God hath
made the pile complete;
That not a worm
is cloven in vain;
That not a moth
with vain desire
Is shrivell'd in
a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves
another's gain.
Behold, we know
not anything;
I can but trust
that good shall fall
At last—far
off—at last, to all,
And every winter
change to spring.
In this next
passage, he explains that only faith in Christ can enable a person to make
sense of life.
Strong Son of
God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;
Thine are these
orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made…
We have but
faith: we cannot know;
For knowledge is of things we see;
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in
darkness: let it grow…
Forgive my grief
for one removed,
Thy creature, whom I found so fair.
I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.” (In Memoriam Preface)
Tennyson
acknowledges that God made life and death, and he has triumphed over death. He
recognises that we must have faith, for we cannot have all knowledge while we
are here on earth. And he asks for forgiveness for grief, for he has faith that
his friend is still alive and that he lives in a better place than this earth. The
entire poem is moving declaration of how faith can overcome grief and teach us
hope even when we lack understanding.
As Latter Day
Mormons, we believe that faith is a bridge between us and God. The image of the
bridge helps us understand how faith works in our lives; faith is the element
that builds the bridge in the absence of concrete evidence. This is exactly
what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews was talking about when he
referred to faith as ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.’ (Hebrews 11:1)
So as we develop
faith we become more able to build a bridge between our own knowledge and the
assurances that God has given us of things we cannot see. By overcoming trials
and diligently keeping commandments, we can build a bridge of faith so solid
that we will never be out of contact with God.
