Hebrews 11:1

Now faith Since he has said "we are of faith to gaining of the soul," the question might naturally arise, What then is faith? It is nowhere defined in Scripture, nor is it defined here, for the writer rather describes it in its effects than in its essence; but it is described by what it does. The chapter which illustrates "faith" is full of works; and this alone should shew how idle is any contrast or antithesisbetween the two. Here however the word "faith" means only "the belief which leads to faithfulness" the hope which, apart from sight, holds the ideal to be the most real, and acts accordingly.

the substance of things hoped for The word "hypostasis," here rendered "substance," as in Hebrews 1:3, may mean (1) that underlying essence which gives reality to a thing. Faith gives a subjective reality to the aspirations of hope. But it may be used (2) in an ordinary and not a metaphysical sense for "basis," foundation; or (3) for "confidence," as in Hebrews 3:14 (comp. 2 Corinthians 9:4; 2 Corinthians 11:17): and this seems to be the most probable meaning of the word here. St Jerome speaks of the passage as breathing somewhat of Philo ("Philoneum aliquid spirans"), who speaks of faith in a very similar way.

the evidence of things not seen The word rendered "evidence" means "demonstration," or "test."

not seen i.e. which are as yet invisible, because they are eternal and not temporal (2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 5:7). God Himself belongs to the things as yet unseen; but Faith in thissense of the word, which is not the distinctively Pauline sense (Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:26; Romans 3:25) demonstrates the existence of the immaterial as though it were actual. The object of faith from the dawn of man's life had been Christ, who, even at the Fall, had been foretold as "the seed of the woman who should break the serpent's head." The difference between the Two Covenants was that in the New He was fully set forth as the effulgence of the Father's glory, whereas in the Old He had been but dimly indicated by shadows and symbols. Bishop Wordsworth quotes the sonnet of the poet Wordsworth on these lines:

"For what contend the wise? for nothing less

Than that the Soul, freed from the bonds of sense,

And to her God restored by evidence

Of things not seen, drawn forth from their recess,

Root there and not in forms her holiness."