The Expulsive Power of the Spirit

“But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” — Marvr, xii. 28,

“Tis no proof of being in God’s kingdom ey ) that a man is free from some of his mmasite past vices. It is not enough that the devils should be cast out; they must be cast out by Christ’s Spirit. Other things than that can expel them. A man may lose his passions by becoming cold, he may grow dead to temptation by growing dead altogether. There are two kinds of calm in the moral world; there is a calm of summer heat, and there is a calm of ice-bound winter. Both have expelled from their seas the demon of the storm, but from how different a cause! The one peace has come from nature’s fulness, the other from nature’s barrenness; the one from the warmth of love, the other from the paralysis of selfishness.

Son of Man, it is by Thy Spirit alone that I wish my demons to be expelled. I would not be freed from vice by being freed from impulse;

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I would not be made pure by being made an icicle. I would be pure as Thou art pure — not by receiving less life, but by getting more. I would be holy as Thou art holy — not by diminishing the impulses of nature, but by the overmastering strength of one impulse — Love. Love, more love, 7zy love, it is that that I want — not life made feebler or more inert, but life more abundantly, Life Eternal. I pray that my flight from temptation be not in the winter — not prompted by mere iceboundness, mere inability to feel. I pray that my flight may be in the summer of Thy love, that I may be tempted from evil by the very temptation to goodness. Sin is a spirit and spirit can only be conquered dy spirit. The expulsion of Satan from my heart is worthless if he be not expelled by Thee. Come into my heart, Thou Love unspeakable, and put 7hy chains about him, and lead him captive at Thy will; if Thy Spirit shall cast him out, I shall know that the kingdom has come.