WHAT a compelling and authoritative question was that of Jesus the Christ which he asked his terrified disciples, on the night of the storm at sea, "Where is your faith?" The term "faith" was not new to the disciples. They had for some time listened daily to his teaching. Furthermore, they had been witnesses to amazing exhibitions of his healing power, and had had evidences of faith such as had never before been seen. Some of them must have heard the great Teacher's statement to the Roman centurion who humbly petitioned Jesus to heal his palsied servant, and have taken cognizance of the gracious statement, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
To what singular and unfamiliar power did they attribute the healing of the palsied man, lying upon his bed, who, because of the multitude surrounding Jesus, had been let down through the roof, that he might gain access to this teacher of faith and power, and hear the words, "I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house," and who, doing as he was bidden, "went forth before them all"? What was the divine energy which had prevailed on that Sabbath day in the synagogue, when, despite the opposition of those present and the tenor of the rabbinical law, the greatest of healers said to the man with the withered hand, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored whole as the other"?
Besides witnessing these radical proofs, the disciples beheld Jesus' work on that great day when, as they were about to enter the city of Nain and encountered a funeral procession, Jesus looked on it compassionately, halted the march, touched the bier, and with life-giving words commanded, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise," and restored him to his mother. This succession of mighty deeds it had been their privilege to witness; yet on the night of the storm, when Jesus lay asleep in the ship, they hastily awakened him with the anxious inquiry, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" We read that "he arose, and rebuked the wind" and the sea, "and there was a great calm." Then he put to them the profound interrogation, "Where is your faith?"
