The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 538

;

SANCTIFICATION

498

Man

by being taught But as soon as he presumes himself to determine the difference between good and evil, He violates the divine majesty and God's inalienable right to be God. Not one man, nor many men, nor all men and angels together may do this. It does not belong to them. It is the eternal prerogative of the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He alone determines good and evil, for every creature, for time and eternity. That which He detfiands of each life shall be the law of that life, of all that belongs to it, and under all circumstances a law in which His law, tho its prinall the divine ordinances are comprehended. ciples are briefly comprehended in the Ten Commandments, rises from these ten stems in branches and boughs broad and dense, and forms in its completeness one immeasurable roof of leaves which overshadows the entire human family in all its variegations. Hence there is not the remotest chance here to compromise. God's will and law are absolute rule over all are binding in every domain, and can never be repealed. And where, in the delicate works of a watch, the thousandth part of a millimeter is allowed to a wheel for variation, in the divine law such play is unthinkable. The law of God brooks not even the deviation of a hair's breadth, nor of any infinitesimal fraction thereof. Hence a good work does not signify a work merely not evil nor a work containing some good, or simply passable nor a work whose good intention is evident. But a good work is nothing else and nothing less than a good work. And it is not good unless it also can acquire this discernment, but only

of God.

;

;

;

;

is

absolutely good,

i.e.,

in all its parts equally conformable to

the divine will and law.

A

grape, but absolutely a peach

peach ;

so a

is

not half a pear and half a

good work

is

not merely pass-

able, partly well intentioned, but absolutely

conformable to what God has determined to be good with regard to that work. it is readily

enable it.

ing

As life,

man it is

to

seen that unless sanctification were adapted to perform such a work, he would never accomplish

the peculiar habit of a peach-tree, through

to impart to the fruit the flavor of the peach,

grape-vine to give to

its fruit

its

ascend-

and of the

the flavor of the grape, so

it is

the

peculiar quality of the soul sanctified in principle to impart to its fruit the flavor of the laiv.

Sanctification does not merely inspire

the soul with a desire for something higher, but

it

imparts to

it

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