The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 446

FAITH

4o6

warm attachment for the child. But let somebody injure him, or let him be taken ill or worse, let his life be in danger and your slumbering love will at once be aroused. That love did not come to you from without, but it dwelt in the depths of your soul, slumbering until fully awakened by the sharp sting of sorrow. The same applies to faith. For days and weeks we may have to reproach ourselves for the faithless condition of our own heart, when the soul seems dry and dead, as tho there were no bond of love between us and our Savior. But lo the Lord reveals Himself to us, or distress overwhelms us, or the earnestness of life suddenly lays hold of us, and at once that apparently dead faith is aroused and the bond of Jesus's love is strongly felt. And more than this: inspired by love, you are constantly doing something for your darling without saying " I do this or that for him because I love him so much." So also regarding faith: saving faith is a disposition whose activity we do not always notice, but like other faculties it works continually, its functions unnoticed. Hence we frequently exercise faith without being specially concold and without

—

—

!

:

scious of

when

it.

We

prepare ourselves

especially to

think or speak

and so we act from faith with conscious purpose when, peculiarly circumstanced, we must boldly stand up as witnesses or make some important decision. But our comfort is this, that faith's saving power depends, not upon some special believing act; nor upon acts less conscious; nor even upon the acquired ability of faith, but solely upon the fact that the germ of faith has been planted in the soul. Hence a child can have saving faith, even tho it never performed a single special occasion calls for it

;

And so we continue saved, even tho the act of faith slumbers for a season. The man, once endowed with saving faith, is saved and blessed. And when by and by the act of faith appears,

act of faith.

he

is not saved in higher degree, but it is only the evidence that, through the infinite mercy of God, the germ of faith has been

planted in him.

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