The expulsive power of a new affection.

(John MacDuff, "Paul's Song of Songs")

"But you are not controlled by your sinful
 nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if
 you have the Spirit of God living in you."
     Romans 8:9

God has made gracious provision to secure,
on the part of His ransomed people, a holy
walk and obedience; and that, not through
their own strength, but through the strength
and power of His indwelling Spirit.

By that Spirit we are not only renewed, but
'led;' sweetly constrained to walk in harmony
with the divine will, and the impulses of our
regenerated natures. We have here what is
called the expulsive power of a new affection.

It is a plant which our Heavenly Father plants.

Not indigenous to the natural soil of the
human heart; it is of supernatural growth.

The power of sin becomes slowly weaker and
weaker. The power of grace, slowly, it may be
imperceptibly, becomes stronger and stronger.

Reader, have you in any feeble measure, been
able to realize the presence and power of this
indwelling Spirit; conscious of the surrender
of heart and life to Christ; implying the gradual
conquest of sin; the expulsion of whatever is
base and impure, corrupt and selfish, grasping
and covetous, unloving and unholy; our wills
blending in greater harmony with the divine?