HOW TO BE KEPT

The wisdom of the fathers

HOW TO BE KEPT

It seems then that we have certain conditions to fulfill and then God does the keeping. I write this chapter for the benefit of the dear souls who have received, or may receive the heavenly prize that they may know how to be kept.

1. Hold on to faith and do not depend upon feeling. Soon after you receive the baptism with the Spirit you have more or less feeling, -- sometimes overwhelming emotion. But such feeling is never permanent. When it departs, look out! Satan will be on hand to say to you: "There, your feelings are all gone, and God your keeper has deserted you; you have lost the blessing."

Do not believe the liar. "You must not begin to reason or doubt or in any way depend upon your feelings for the evidence of your sanctification, or suspend

your faith for a moment. If you do this you lay aside the only shield that can quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. It is by faith alone that the blessing is received and by faith it is kept. 'The just shall live by faith.'

."Let it never be forgotten that a state of purity is not dependent upon emotions, feelings, or manifestations, but upon the reception of Christ as our sanctification; and that emotions and feelings are mere attendants, depending largely upon the condition of the body, the flow of animal spirits, and especially upon the nervous sensibilities.

Complete submission to God and full trust in Jesus are attended with complete purification no matter what may be the peculiarities of experience". Tell Satan that feeling or no feeling you are still under the blood that perpetually "CLEANSES from all sin." "Remember, as ye received the Lord Jesus by faith, so walk ye in him."

"The devil will try to have you go on by feeling. and to make you think that because you have no feeling you have no experience. The feeling is a result of the experience, just as the flower is the product of the plant. As the plant is not dead when there is no flower, so the experience is not necessarily wanting when there is no tide of emotional exaltation. Learn to walk by faith and trust the needed feeling with the Lord.

Attend to the walking, and the Lord will attend to giving the 'oil of gladness' as much and as often as he pleases". Bishop Foster says: 'The life of holiness is eminently a life of faith; it can not continue a moment without faith. Faith is its very root and sap. Would you retain the state? Maintain the vital principle; watch against every approach of infidelity. Faith is the hand by which the holy soul clings to God and so is kept from sin".

(from "Holiness and Power" by Aaron Merritt Hills)