"There is no true religion without faith, nor any true faith without the belief of the truth. Now, although a Scriptural faith is the scarcest thing among men, it is exceedingly simple, and by no means difficult to acquire, when it is sought for aright. Paul gives the best definition of faith extant. He says, 'faith is a confident anticipation of things hoped for, a full persuasion of events not seen' (Hebrews 11:1). This is the faith without which, he tells us afterwards, God is not, and cannot by any possibility be pleased. It is a faith which lays hold of the past and the future. The person who possesses it, knows what is testified concerning Jesus by the apostles, and is fully persuaded of its truth; he also knows the exceeding great and precious promises which God has made concerning things to come, and he confidently anticipates the literal fulfillment of them." (Elpis Israel)
"We insisted upon Paul's definition of Faith in Hebrews, which might be resolved into the simple aphorism that faith is the belief of testimony. That if this were admitted, the whole system of superstition and delusions based upon the popular theory of faith wrought in the heart by some undefinable operation was razed to the sands upon which it stood. That all religions not based upon facts testified and believed, were founded upon opinion, and that this was just the difference existing between the Christian religion and sectarian religions. The Christian religion is a religion of facts; Methodism, Presbyterianism, Episcopalianism, and Romanism mere matters of opinion; and as opinion implies doubt, they all in the aggregate, constitute a system of religious scepticism, proclaiming to the world, that the Scriptures do not contain evidence enough to enable them to come to a unanimous verdict as the the identity of the religion of Christ." (The Apostolic Advocate, 1835)
(By Dr. John Thomas)