The man, I say, who has set his heart on
being good, has set his heart on the one thing which is in his own power;
the one thing which depends wholly and solely on his own will; the one
thing which he can have if he chooses, for it is written, "If ye then
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"
Moreover, he has set his heart on the one thing which cannot be taken
from him. God will not take it from him; and man, and fortune, and
misfortune, cannot take it from him. Poverty, misery, disease, death
itself, cannot make him a worse man, cannot make him less just, less
true, less pure, less charitable, less high-minded, less like Christ, and
less like God.
Therefore he is at peace, for he is, as it were, intrenched in an
impregnable fortress, against all men and all evil influences. And that
castle is his own soul. And the keeper of that castle is none other than
Almighty God, Jesus Christ our Lord, to whose keeping he has committed
his soul, as unto a faithful and merciful Saviour, able to keep to the
uttermost that which is committed to Him in faith and holiness.
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