Secret Power; or, The Secret of Success in Christian Life and WorkMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
Secret Power; or, The Secret of Success in Christian Life and Work
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Baptism in the Holy Spirit; Christian life; Holy Spirit
There are a good many people trying to get this love; they are trying
to produce it of themselves. But therein all fail. The love implanted
deep in our new nature will be spontaneous. I don't have to learn to
love my children. I can not help loving them. I said to a young miss
some time ago, in an inquiry meeting, who said that she could not love
God; that it was very hard for her to love Him--I said to her, "Is it
hard for you to love your mother? Do you have to learn to love your
mother?" And she looked up through her tears, and said, "No; I can't
help it; that is spontaneous." "Well," I said, "when the Holy Spirit
kindles love in your heart, you can not help loving God; it will be
spontaneous." When the Spirit of God comes into your heart and mine,
it will be easy to serve God.
The fruit of the Spirit, as you find it in Galatians, begins with
love. There are nine graces spoken of in the sixth chapter, and of the
nine different graces Paul puts love at the head of the list; love is
the first thing--the first in that precious cluster of fruit. Some one
has put it in this way: that all the other eight can be put in the
word love. Joy is love exulting; peace is love in repose; long
suffering is love on trial; gentleness is love in society; goodness is
love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love at
school; and temperance is love in training. So it is love all the way;
love at the top; love at the bottom, and all the way along down these
graces; and if we only just brought forth the fruit of the Spirit,
what a world we would have; there would be no need of any policemen; a
man could leave his overcoat around without some one stealing it; men
would not have any desire to do evil. Says Paul, "Against such there
is no law;" you don't need any law. A man who is full of the Spirit
don't need to be put under law; don't need any policemen to watch him.
We could dismiss all our policemen; the lawyers would have to give up
practicing law, and the courts would not have any business.
THE TRIUMPHS OF HOPE.
In the fifteenth chapter of Romans, thirteenth verse, the Apostle
says: "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy
Ghost." The next thing then is hope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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