Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 583

Chap.

II]

THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

559

our faith in the Divine character of the

feel in ourselves,"

Scripture rests upon the experience of spiritual

life

that ad-

dresses us from that Scripture.

experience fosters

affinit}',

That similarity of personal quickens sympathy and opens eye

and ear. In by far the greater number of cases this testimonium Spiritus Sancti works gradually and unobserved. The '' enlightening " increases gradually in intensity, and in proportion as it grows stronger we see more, and see with more certainty, and stand the more firmly. Sometimes, however, this witness of the Holy Spirit becomes more incisive in character.

This

is

especially noticeable in days of general

apostasy, and then the child of

God

is

fully conscious of

this incisive inworking.

Living in a society of high intellectual development, and taking notice of what is contributed b}^ reason without enlightening to enervate the Divine char-

Holy Scripture, inwardly most painful discord is Doubt is contagious. When with firm tread you walk along your well-chosen way, and without hesitancy at the cross-road turn to the right, you are involuntarily brought to a standstill, and shocked for a moment in your acter of the born.

feeling of assurance,

when

three or four persons call out after

you that you should turn to the left. As in sanctification you are made to err in this way from time to time with respect to the Holy Scripture, you may be led to doubt, and even for a while pursue wrong paths. But this will not be permanent. The work of grace is not left to yourself, but with a firm hand is guided by the Holy Spirit, who in no mechanical way, but by a richer spiritual experience, at length restores you to seeing again what is truly Divine. And when the Holy Spirit enters accusation against us in our own soul that we kick against the pricks, and depend more on our own and Satan's word than on His Word, and moves and implores us with groanings unspeakable that for the sake of the glory of God and our salvation we attach again a greater significance to His Word than to any other, then there comes that incisive, and therefore decisive, moment when the child of God lays the hand on his mouth, and with shame and confusion turns his back upon doubt, in

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