The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 445

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THE FACULTY OF FAITH

405

not be exercised without the guidance of the Holy Spirit in connection with the contents of Scripture.

was effected in deceased infants we can not tell not Holy Spirit can not work in them as well as in adults, but because they do not know the Scripture. However, since the

How

this

;

because the

Scriptures testify only of Christ,

He may have

a way to bring the He provided

not-thinking child into connection with Christ, as Scripture for thinking men.

In either case, the faith faculty can not produce anything of

but must be stimulated and developed by the Holy Spirit's

itself,

training and exercise, gradually learning to believe

tinued to the end

;

for until

in strength, development,

we

— a training con-

die the working of faith increases

and glory.

But this is not all. A man may have the faculty of faith fully developed and exercised, but it does not follow that therefore he always believes. On the contrary, faith may be interrupted for a

Hence faith should not be called the breath of the soul when a man ceases to breathe he dies. No the faculty of faith more like the power of a tree to blossom and bear fruit appar-

season. for is

;

:

ently dead one season, and beautiful with blossoms the next. I

possess the faculty to think

is

evident, not from

my

That

uninterrupted

when asleep I do not think; but it is evident from my when I inust think. Even so with the faculty of faith, which occupies the same position as the faculties of thinking, speakthinking, for

thinking

ing, etc.

Regarding these

faculties,

we

distinguish three things: (i) the

(3) and its exercise Hence we notice not only the Spir-

faculty itself; (2) its necessary development:

when

sufficiently stimulated.

it's first

operation, implanting the faith faculty

ond, qualifying that faculty for exercise

;

;

nor only the sec-

but also the third,

sti7nu-

and calling out the act of believing whenever it pleases Him. There is no man possessed of the faith faculty but the Holy Spirit has thus endowed him. There is no man enabled by this fac-

lating

ulty to believe but the

Nor

is

there a

less the

Holy

man

Holy

Spirit has

wrought

whom you

ways

feel that love,

this in him.

We see

it in our love. You have a But in the daily life you do not aland sometimes you charge yourself with being

Life has its ups and downs. child

Spirit has also qualified that faculty.

using this qualification, actually believing, un-

love tenderly.

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