A Soul in Fellowship with God

The soul in union has peace because action is natural.

A natural life is that life which develops itself in accordance with the principles of its own nature, and which, in doing so, is true and harmonious to itself. The Divine life established in the soul works in the same “natural” way as life in nature.

The soul in union easily adapts itself to the demands of the moment in the Providence of God. While the inward fountain of love is always the same, and always full, the streams which flow from it, are repelled by opposition, or attracted by sympathy. The soul is one in union with the Divine nature but diversified in manifestation. Under the impulses of the life from God he becomes all things to all men, without losing the identity of his character as a child of God. He can sit down and eat with sinners, or receive the hospitality of the Pharisees, and in both cases unite the propriety of love with the faithfulness of duty. In his simplicity he is the companion of children and in his wisdom the counsellor of age. All this seems to imply contradiction and to require effort, but its ease and promptness is the working of a Divine life within. The want of understanding this has sometimes perplexed those who have been led by the Holy Spirit into the higher forms of experience. The thought arises in their minds that perhaps nothing at all is happening—indeed, that nothing has happened at all—because the awareness of their own activity has vanished, due to God’s working. They doubt because all is so easy and natural. For the life of God operates much in the same way as the instinct in the lower animals. They move as they are moved by an instinctive power within them.