be seen, touched, or comprehended by any of the outer
senses. It is faith when we are fully conscious of "things
not seen" and have the "assurance of things" not yet
manifest. In other words, faith is that consciousness in us
of the reality of the invisible substance and of the
attributes of mind by which we lay hold of it. We must
realize that the mind makes real things. "Just a thought"
or "just a mere idea," we sometimes lightly say, little
thinking that these thoughts and ideas are the eternal
realities from which we build our life and our world.

Faith is the perceiving power of the mind linked with a
power to shape substance. You hear of a certain proposition
that appeals to you and you say, "I have faith in that
proposition." Some man whose character seems right is
described to you and you say, "I have faith in that man."
What do you mean by having faith? You mean that certain
characteristics of men or things appeal to you, and these
immediately begin a constructive work in your mind. What is
that work? It is the work of making the proposition or man
real to your consciousness. The character and attributes of
the things in your mind become substantial to you because
of your faith. The office of faith is to take abstract
ideas and give them definite form in substance. Ideas are
abstract and formless to us until they become substance,
the substance of faith.

A very important work in soul culture is the establishment
of a faith substance. Once we discern this law of soul
building by faith, we find the Hebrew