The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 326

— PREPARATORY GRACE

286

the abandoning of the sinner to iniquity, in his

own ways, giving him up unto

when God

a man walk do things that

lets

vile passions to

But instead of interrupting God's labor upon such " to give them uj,," " to give them over" (Rom. i. 24, 28), show that this drifting away upon the current of sin is not without God's notice. Men have confessed that, if inward sin had not revealed itself, breaking forth in its fury, they would never have discovered the inward corruption nor have cried to God for mercy. The realization of their guilt and the remembrance of their fearful past have been to many saints powerful incitements to labor with strong hands and pitying hearts are unseemly.

a soul, the very words of Scripture,

same deadly waters from which they had been saved. The remembrance of the deep corruption from which they are now delivered has been to many the most potent safeguard from fancied self-righteousness, proud bearing, and the conceit of being holier than others. Many depths of reconciliation and grace have been discovered and sounded only by hearts so deeply wounded that, for the covering of their guilt, a for the rescue of those hopelessly lost in the

mere

superficial confession of the atoning blood could not suffice.

How

deeply did David

fall

;

and who ever shouted from mercy's

depths more jubilantly than he?

Who

impressed the Church's pure

more profoundly than Augustine, incomparable among the Church fathers, who from the abyss of his own guilt and inward brokenness had learned to gaze upon the firmament of God's Even from this extreme view of man's sinful way eternal mercies. it can not be affirmed that in that way God's grace was suspended. Light and shadow are here necessarily blended. And this is not all. Even tho by sin we have forfeited all, and the sinful ego, however virtuous outwardly, has tinctured every confession

action of life with sin, yet this is not all of

life.

In the midst of

it

was shaped and developed. The sinner of five-and-twenty differs from the child of three, who by his ugly temper plainly showed his sinful nature. During all those years the child has become a man. That which slumbered in him has gradually maniInfluences have wrought upon him. fested itself. Knowledge has been mastered and increased. Talents have been awakened and developed. Memory and remembrance have accumulated treasures all, life

However sinful the form, the character has beand some of its traits have adopted definite lines. The child has become a man a person, living, existing, and thinking of experience.

come

settled

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