Thomas was an unbeliever for a time,--a very resolute one,--yet the
Gospel gives no intimation that he was chargeable with any form of vice.
And John the Baptist, one of the noblest characters in sacred history,
after having proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah to others, came himself to
doubt, whether He was really "the one that should come, or they should
look for another." Like the early disciples of the Saviour, and the
Jewish people generally, John expected the Messiah to take the throne of
David by force, and to rule as a temporal prince; and when Jesus took a
course so very different, his confidence in his Messiahship was shaken.
And one of the sweetest Psalmists tells us that, as for him, his feet
were almost gone; his steps had well-nigh slipped: and that, not because
he was eager for sinful pleasures, but because he saw darkness and
clouds around the Providence of God: he could not understand or "justify
the ways of God to man."

And there are thoughtful and good men still who fall into doubt and
unbelief from similar causes. The kind of people who, like Thomas, are
constitutionally inclined to doubt, are not all dead. Baxter mentions a
class of men who lived in his day, that were always craving for sensible
demonstrations. Like Thomas, they wanted to _see_ and _feel_ before they
believed. In other words, they were not content with faith; they wanted
_knowledge_. And there are men of that kind still in the world.

And the darkness and clouds which the Psalmist saw around the providence
of God are not all gone. There are many things in connection with the
government of the world that are hard to be understood,--hard to be
reconciled by many with their ideas of what is right. There are
mysteries both in nature and in history, which baffle the minds and try
the faith of the best and wisest of our race.