THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT Part 2
The wisdom of the fathers
THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT???Part 4
At one time when we talked with a dear friend who had been struggling for years to enter into a satisfactory spiritual experience, she told us how disappointed and unsatisfied her heart was. As we looked at her earnest face it seemed to us that there must be something in the way, and we asked her if there were not some reservation in her entire consecration. We did not need to wait for the answer for it bespoke itself. We then asked her if she would not be brave enough to let the last cord go, to give herself unreservedly to Christ at any cost, and especially to let go the thing that she shrank most at the thought of surrendering. She looked so sadly in our face, and answered, "I have not the courage."?
Alas! it is the old and oft-repeated story; and yet those cowardly hearts who shrink from God's gentle sword will yet have to bear sufferings inconceivably more severe, and to be pierced with sorrows that make one's heart ache even to think of. The brave heart that dares to die once for all and forever is the wise heart, the happy heart, the heart that finds "the yoke easy and the burden light." Beloved, will you dare to die, or rather to yield unto death that thing in your heart, your life, your will, which constitutes the strength of your natural life, and the axis around which all your being is enfolded?
(from "The Holy Spirit or the Power from on High" by A. B. Simpson)