To be near unto God - pagina 173

32

'WHO WORKETH IN YOU TO By we

doing willingly what

God

wills

WILL." us to do,

knowledge of God; not in barren book-knowledge, but in living soul-knowlThis springs edge, which is itself eternal life. from all sorts of causes, but not least from the fact that our willingness is not born from us, but is \sTOught in us by God. "He it is, writes the apostle, who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). Hence there is first the willing, after that the working through and according to our will, and while we increase

in

the

this action of the will in the soul, it is God It is self-evident that in it in us. this connection this last distinction must be made.

work

who worketh

Otherwise our willingness would merely be

on

the surface, and the child of God, in good works, would merely be a puppet moved mechanically. This distinction should be clearly understood. We ourselves will, not because of ourselves, but because God so worketh in us, that now we ourselves trulj- and actually will to do thus and not otherwise. It takes some pains to see this clearly, and it is easy to follow the advice not to concern ourselves with the several distinctions. But when we lend our ear to this advice of spiritual sloth, we do ourselves a wrong. Ask any physician how many distinctions he makes in a single group of nerves, or how many differences he observes in germs of disease in the blood. And will it do, that so much pains are taken in behalf of the body, which perishes, and not in behalf of the soul, which is so much more precious? But this tendency prevails. While 165

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