The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 635

TEMPORARY HARDENING

595

him with the prospects of peace. This is why he deand again in making a man either trifle with the deadly danger of his soul, or to believe that he is hopelessly lost and beyond the power of redemption. to ensnare

lights again

How many Holy

Spirit!

souls has not Satan terrified with the sin against the

— souls who

never thought of such a thing; who, on

the contrary, had a tender regard for the Holy Spirit's honor in the

hope of their salvation, but

whom

nevertheless he decoyed into

the fearful belief of being utterly cast away, of having committed

the unpardonable

Of course,

sin.

Word, more earnestly searched

if it,

such souls had lived nearer the

and adhered more closely

to

the guidance of the Church's interpretation of this dark mystery,

But as

they would not have fallen into this snare.

whispered life,

it

it

was, Satan

into their ear, and, almost smothering their spiritual

kept them, sometimes for years, languishing in the mortal fear And so dark was the spiritual night that it

of being lost forever.

seemed that no ray of light would ever pierce it. And the same is true of the hardening. Even with spiritual operation Satan plays his horrible

children of their spiritual peace. their

own fault.

game

Of course,

this

awful

of robbing God's

this is never without

All the spiritual distress of the saints is the neces-

But by sin. was no came to their side

sary result of their transgressions, whether public or private.

he that sowed the hurtful seed, in the

field fertilized

other than the tempter of souls, who stealthily and suggested that their grievous state was worse than being merely "forsaken " ; that there must be signs of hardening which would steadily increase wherefore the flower of hope was withered and ;

all

expectation cut

And

off.

danger the soul must be prepared by the clear and definite distinction between the temporary and the permanent hardenThe former comes to every one of God's children. There is ing. not one, among those grown old in the way, who can not recall the time when he felt the love of God drawing him to separate him from

some

for this

sin or unbelief

;

all the more and with greater energy

but this seemed only to incite him

to resist that love, to close his ears to

it

embrace the evil. It was not with the intention to persist in it, but merely to gain time wherein to enjoy the sinful delights a little longer, while the divine love is resisted. We say " Once more, to

:

and then we trifle

will stop our resistance."

with the love of God,

we

In reality, while

believe that

it is

we

quite strong

thus

enough

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen