To be near unto God - pagina 164

will. How could this be otherdoes not come into action by what is written about it in a book, or preached on it from the pulpit. It is the Lord who inspires the will to act, and in action to direct it for good. It is he "who worketh in you both to will and

God

wise?

through the

The

will

to do his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13), and how could the Lord be bound to sermon or lecture? We only mean that he who is so fortunate and blessed as not only morning by morning and evening by evening to be refreshed with a drop of grace from the fountain of Divine Compassion, but also to have time and insight to meditate on holy things, does wrong when he neglects the investigation of such an important component part of the power of the soul as the will. This makes poor; while to give one's mind to it makes rich. For the will is inscrutably wonderful. In the creation of the soul it constitutes a marvelous piece of Divine workmanship, and it is so deeply engraven a trait of the image of God, which reflects itself in us, that to leave it unstudied betokens lack of reverence and wonder. It is, moreover, so mighty a tool that the thoughtless use of it readily does harm. must also distinguish between times and times. There is a time of childhood followed by that of early youth, when we live by instinct, and are not able to give a reason for the acts of the will. But then there comes a time when the troubled waters settle, and the mirror of the consciousness becomes clear, and we begin to think. Our age is farther advanced than that of our fathers, because it is older. Earlier instinctive life gradually becomes a conscious life. He who

We

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