November 2
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeFifteenth Saturday after Trinity
If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Romans 8:13.
THE Divine inworking is the ground of our working. It is because God "inworketh" that man "worketh out" his salvation, and that with awe, "with fear and trembling," lest he miss that for which God so largely endows him. The power is of God; the last act is man's, as enabled by God. There has then been a subtle Pelagianism in that fear of speaking of the value which God gives to the works of man, wrought by His own grace in man. The dread to own them implies a lurking suspicion that they are, after all, man's own works. For the fear is, not lest a man should exalt himself that he is a chosen vessel of the grace of God, but lest it were impossible to own that God looks graciously on the works which He gives power to do, that no work done by His grace, in other words, no use of His grace is too poor to escape His Eye of love. The very poorest deed of self-denial, or love, or faithfulness in our condition of life, done by the grace of God to His glory, is laid up by Him, and increases the store of our everlasting reward. The fear is, lest we should not be able to believe this large bounty of our God, and yet to remember that all is of His bounty.
Great High Priest, Who deignedst to be Once the Sacrifice for me, Take this living heart of mine, Lay it on Thy holy shrine.
Love I know accepteth nought, Save what Thou, O Love, hath wrought; Offer Thou my sacrifice, Else to God it cannot rise.