A MISSION OF THE ANGEL SORROW.
By Prof. A. Phelps
OFTEN, to deepen our knowledge of Christ in prayer, is the mission of the angel sorrow. The truth is, that we never feel Christ to be a reality until we feel him to be a necessity. Therefore God makes us feel that necessity. He tries us here, and he tries us there. He chastises us on this side, and he chastises us on that side. He probes one sin, and another, and a third, which have lain rankling in our deceived hearts. He removes, one after another, the objects in which we have been seeking the repose of idolatrous affections. He afflicts us in ways we have not anticipated. He sends upon us the chastisements which he knows we shall feel most keenly. He pursues us when we would fain flee from his hand, and if need be, he shakes to pieces the whole frame-work of our plans of life, by which we have been struggling to build together the service of God and the service of self, till at last he makes us feel that Christ is all that is left to us. . . . On the basis of that single experience of Christ as a reality because a necessity, there arises an experience of blessedness in communion with God which prayer expresses like a revelation. Such devotion is a jubilant psalm.—Prof. A. Phelps