Give every man his due; try to praise and recommend every
one whom you can; and trust to God to make your doing your duty as
clear as the light, and your brave actions as the noonday.
So, you see, all through, a man's flesh might be lusting, and would
be lusting, against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;
and see, too, how in each case, the flesh is tempting the man to be
cowardly, brutal, vain, selfish, and wrong in some way, and the
Spirit is striving to make him forget himself, and think of his
comrades and his duty.
Now when a man is led by the Spirit, if he is tempted to do wrong,
he does not say, I will not do this wrong thing, but I cannot. I
cannot do what you want me. I like to hear a man say that. It is a
sign that he feels God's voice in him, which he must obey, whether
he likes or not; as Joseph said when he was tempted. Not, I had
rather not, or I dare not: but, How _can_ I do this great
wickedness against my master, who has trusted me, and put everything
into my hand, and so, by being a treacherous traitor, sin against
God?
Now, is this Spirit part of our spirits, or not? I think we confess
ourselves that it is not. St. Paul says that it is not. For he
says, there is one Spirit--that is, one good Spirit--of whom he
speaks as the Spirit; and this, he says, is the Spirit of God, and
the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit which inspires the spirits of
all noble, Christ-like, God-like men.
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