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A short method of prayer, and Spiritual torrents, tr. by A.W. Marston

54

 
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54 A SHORT METHOD OF PRAYER.

is the unity of the object which is attracted : " We will run ;" there is the correspondence of all the powers and sensibilities which follow in the train of the centre of the heart.

It is not then a question of remaining in idleness, but of acting in dependence upon the Spirit of God, who animates us, since it is in Him that " we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts xvii. 23). This calm dependence upon the Spirit of God is absolutely necessary, and causes the soul in a short time to attain the simplicity and unity in which it was created. It was created one and simple, like God. In order, then, to answer the end of our crea-tion, we must quit the multiplicity of our own actions, to enter into the simplicity and unity of God, in whose image we were created (Gen. i. 27). The Spirit of God is "one only," "yet manifold" (Wisdom of Solomon vii. 22), and its unity does not prevent

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its multiplicity. We enter into God's unity when we are united to His Spirit, because then we have the same Spirit that He has ; and we are multiplied outwardly, as regards His dispositions, without leav-ing the unity.