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043 - Wandering Thoughts · Sermons on Several Occasions, First Series

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  Speaker 1: Section forty two of Sermons on Several Occasions First series.
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  Speaker 1: This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Greg Giordano. Sermons on Several Occasions,
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  Speaker 1: First series by John Wesley. Wandering thoughts bringing into captivity
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  Speaker 1: every thought to the obedience of Christ Second Corinthians ten five.
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  Speaker 1: But will God so bring every thought into captivity to
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  Speaker 1: the obedience of Christ, that no wandering thought will find
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  Speaker 1: a place in the mind, even while we remain in
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  Speaker 1: the body. So some have vehemently maintained, YEA, have affirmed
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  Speaker 1: that none are perfected in love, lest they are so
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  Speaker 1: far perfected in understanding, that all wandering thoughts are done away,
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  Speaker 1: unless not only every affection and temper be wholly and
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  Speaker 1: just and good, but every individual thought which arises in
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  Speaker 1: the mind be wise and regular. This is a question
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  Speaker 1: of no small importance. Or how many of those who
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  Speaker 1: fear God YEA, and love Him perhaps with all their heart,
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  Speaker 1: have been greatly distressed on this account? How many, by
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  Speaker 1: not understanding it right, have not only been distressed, but
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  Speaker 1: greatly hurt in their souls cast into unprofitable yea mischievous
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  Speaker 1: reasonings that has slackened their motion towards God and weakened
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  Speaker 1: them in running the race set before them. Nay, many,
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  Speaker 1: through misapprehensions of this very thing, have cast away the
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  Speaker 1: precious gift of God. They have been induced first to
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  Speaker 1: doubt of, and then to deny of the work God
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  Speaker 1: had wrought in their souls, and hereby have grieved the
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  Speaker 1: spirit of God till he withdrew and left them in
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  Speaker 1: utter darkness. How is it, then, that, admits the abundance
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  Speaker 1: of books which have been lately published almost on all subjects,
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  Speaker 1: we should have none upon wandering thoughts, at least none
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  Speaker 1: that will all satisfy a calm and serious mind. In
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  Speaker 1: order to do this in some degree, I purpose to inquire,
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  Speaker 1: what are the several sorts of wandering thoughts? What are
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  Speaker 1: the general occasions of them? Which of them are sinful?
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  Speaker 1: And which not? Which of them we may expect and
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  Speaker 1: pray to be delivered? From my purpose to inquire, first,
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  Speaker 1: what are the several sorts of wandering thoughts? The particular
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  Speaker 1: sorts are innumerable, but in general they are of two sorts.
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  Speaker 1: Thoughts that wander from God, and thoughts that wander from
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  Speaker 1: the particular point we have in hand. With regard to
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  Speaker 1: the former. All our thoughts are naturally of this kind,
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  Speaker 1: but they are continually wandering from God. We think nothing
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  Speaker 1: about him. God is not in all our thoughts. We
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  Speaker 1: are one and all, as the Apostle observes, without God
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  Speaker 1: in the world. We think of what we love, but
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  Speaker 1: we do not love God. Therefore we think not of Him.
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  Speaker 1: Or if we are now and then constrained to think
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  Speaker 1: of Him for a time, yet as we have not
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  Speaker 1: pleasure therein, and nay, or rather, as these thoughts are
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  Speaker 1: not only insipid, but distasteful and irksome to us, we
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  Speaker 1: drive them out as soon as we can, and return
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  Speaker 1: to what we love to think of, So that the
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  Speaker 1: world and the things of the world, what we shall eat,
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  Speaker 1: what we shall drink, what we shall put on, what
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  Speaker 1: we shall see, what we shall hear, what we shall gain,
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  Speaker 1: how we shall please our senses or our imagination takes
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  Speaker 1: up all our time and engrosses all our thought. So
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  Speaker 1: long therefore, as we love the world, that is, so
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  Speaker 1: long as we are in our natural state, all our
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  Speaker 1: thoughts from morning to evening, and from evening to morning
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  Speaker 1: are no other than wandering thoughts. But many times we
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  Speaker 1: are not only without God in the world, but also
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  Speaker 1: fighting against Him, as there is in every man by
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  Speaker 1: nature a carnal mind, which is an enmity against God.
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  Speaker 1: No wonder therefore the men abound with unbelieving thoughts, either
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  Speaker 1: saying in their hearts there is no God, or questioning,
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  Speaker 1: if not denying his power or wisdom, his mercy, or
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  Speaker 1: justice or holiness. No wonder that they so often doubt
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  Speaker 1: of His providence, at least of its extending to all events,
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  Speaker 1: or that, even though they allow it, entertain murmuring or
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  Speaker 1: repining thoughts. Nearly related to these, and frequently connected with them,
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  Speaker 1: are proud and vain imaginations. Again, sometimes they are taken
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  Speaker 1: up with angry, malicious, or revengeful thoughts, at other times
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  Speaker 1: with airy scenes of pleasure, whether of sense or imagination,
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  Speaker 1: whereby the earthly sensual mind becomes more earthy and sensual. Still,
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  Speaker 1: now by all these they make flat war with God.
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  Speaker 1: These are wandering thoughts of the highest kind. Widely different
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  Speaker 1: from these are the other sort of wandering thoughts, which
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  Speaker 1: the heart does not wander from God, but the understanding
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  Speaker 1: wanders from the particular point it had then in view.
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  Speaker 1: For instance, I sit down to consider those words in
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  Speaker 1: the verse preceding the text, The weapons of our warfare
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  Speaker 1: are not carnal, but mighty through God. I think this
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  Speaker 1: ought to be the case with all that are called Christians.
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  Speaker 1: But how far it is that otherwise? Look round into
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  Speaker 1: almost every part of what is termed the Christian world.
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  Speaker 1: What manner of weapons are these using? And what kind
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  Speaker 1: of wor fair are they engaged? While men like fiends
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  Speaker 1: each other terror in all the hellss rage of war?
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  Speaker 1: See how these Christians love one another? Wherein are they
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  Speaker 1: preferable to Turks and Pagans? What abomination can be found
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  Speaker 1: among Omedans or Heathens which is not found among Christians? Also,
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  Speaker 1: thus my mind runs off before I am aware one
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  Speaker 1: circumstances to another. Now, all these are in some sense
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  Speaker 1: wandering thoughts. For although they do not wander from God,
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  Speaker 1: much less fight against him, yet they do wander from
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  Speaker 1: the particular point I had in view. Such is the nature,
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  Speaker 1: Such are the sorts to speak rather usefully than philosophically,
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  Speaker 1: of wandering thoughts. What are the general coccasions of them?
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  Speaker 1: This we are, in the second place to consider and
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  Speaker 1: it is easy to observe the occasion of the wandering
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  Speaker 1: sort of thoughts which oppose or wander from God are
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  Speaker 1: in general sinful tempers. For instance, why is not God
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  Speaker 1: in all the thoughts, in any of the thoughts of
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  Speaker 1: a natural man? For a plain reason? Be he rich,
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  Speaker 1: are poor, learned, or unlearned? He is an atheist, though
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  Speaker 1: not vulgarly so called. He neither knows nor loves God.
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  Speaker 1: Why are his thoughts continually wandering after the world? Because
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  Speaker 1: he is an idolater. He does not indeed worship an
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  Speaker 1: image or bout down to the stock of a tree.
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  Speaker 1: Yet is he sunk into equally damnable idolatry. He loves,
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  Speaker 1: that is, worships of the world. He seeks happiness in
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  Speaker 1: the things that are seen, in the pleasures that perish
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  Speaker 1: in the using. Why is it that his thoughts perpetually
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  Speaker 1: wandering from the very end of his being, the knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of God in Christ. Because he is an unbeliever, because
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  Speaker 1: he has no faith, or at least no more than
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  Speaker 1: a devil. So all these wandering thoughts easily and naturally
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  Speaker 1: spring from that evil root of unbelief. The case is
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  Speaker 1: the same in other instances, pride, anger, revenge, vanity, lust, covetousness.
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  Speaker 1: Every one of them occasions thoughts suitable to its own nature,
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  Speaker 1: And so does every sinful temper which the human mind
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  Speaker 1: is capable. The particulars it is hardly possible, nor or
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  Speaker 1: is it needful to enumerate. It suffices to observe that
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  Speaker 1: as many evil tempers as find a place in any soul,
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  Speaker 1: so many ways that soul will depart from God by
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  Speaker 1: the worst kind of wandering thoughts. The occasions of the
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  Speaker 1: latter kind of wandering thoughts are exceeding. Various multitudes of
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  Speaker 1: them are occasioned by the natural union between the soul
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  Speaker 1: and body. How immediately and how deeply is the understanding
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  Speaker 1: affected by a diseased body. Let but the blood move
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  Speaker 1: irregularly in the brain, and all regular thinking is at
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  Speaker 1: an end. Raging madness ensues, and then farewell to all
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  Speaker 1: evenness of thought. YEA, let only the spirits be hurried
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  Speaker 1: or agitated to a certain degree, and a temporary madness,
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  Speaker 1: a delirium, prevents all subtled thought, and is not the
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  Speaker 1: same regularity of thought in a measure occasioned by every
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  Speaker 1: nervous disorder. So does the corruptible body press down the
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  Speaker 1: soul and cause it to muse about many things? Does
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  Speaker 1: it only cause this in the time of sickness or
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  Speaker 1: preaternatural disorder? Nay, but more or less at all times,
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  Speaker 1: even in a state of perfect health. Let a man
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  Speaker 1: be ever so healthy, he will be more or less
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  Speaker 1: delirious every four and twenty hours. Or does he not sleep?
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  Speaker 1: While he sleeps? Is he not liable to dream? And
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  Speaker 1: who then is master of his own thoughts? Are able
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  Speaker 1: to preserve the order and consistency of them? Who can
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  Speaker 1: then keep them fixed to any one point, or prevent
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  Speaker 1: their wandering from pole to pole. But suppose we are awake,
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  Speaker 1: Are we always so awake that we can steadily govern
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  Speaker 1: our thoughts? Are we not unavoidably exposed to contrary extremes
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  Speaker 1: by the very nature of this machine the body? Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: we are too heavy, too dull, and languid, to pursue
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  Speaker 1: any chain of thought. Sometimes, on the other hand, we
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  Speaker 1: are too lively. The imagination, without leave starts to and
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  Speaker 1: fro and carries us away hither and thither, whether we
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  Speaker 1: will or no. And all this from the merely natural
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  Speaker 1: motion of the spirits or vibration of the nerves farther.
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  Speaker 1: How many wanderings of thoughts may arise from these various
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  Speaker 1: associations of our ideas, which are made entirely without our
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  Speaker 1: knowledge and independently on honor our choice. How these connections
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  Speaker 1: are formed we cannot tell. But they are formed in
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  Speaker 1: a thousand different manners. Nor is it in the power
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  Speaker 1: of the wisest or holiest of men to break those
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  Speaker 1: associations or prevent what is the necessary consequences of them?
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  Speaker 1: And matter of daily observation the fire, but touch one
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  Speaker 1: end of the train, and it immediately runs on to
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  Speaker 1: the other. Once more, let us fix our attention as
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  Speaker 1: studiously as we are able on any subject. It let
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  Speaker 1: either pleasure or pain arise, especially if it be intense,
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  Speaker 1: and it will demand our immediate attention and attach our
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  Speaker 1: thoughts to itself. It will interrupt the steadiest contemplation and
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  Speaker 1: divert the mind from its favorite subject. These occasions of
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  Speaker 1: wandering thoughts lie within are wrought into our very nature.
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  Speaker 1: But they will likewise naturally and necessarily arise from the
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  Speaker 1: various impulse of outward objects. Whatever strikes upon the organ
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  Speaker 1: of sense, the eye or ear will raise a perception
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  Speaker 1: in the mind and accordingly, but if we see or hear,
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  Speaker 1: will break in upon our former train of thought. Every
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  Speaker 1: man therefore that as anything on our sight or speaks
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  Speaker 1: anything on our hearing, occasions our mind to wander more
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  Speaker 1: or less from the point it was thinking of it before.
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  Speaker 1: And there is no question but those evil spirits, who
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  Speaker 1: are continually seeking whom they may devour, make use of
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  Speaker 1: all the foregoing occasions to hurry and distract our minds,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes by one, sometimes sometimes by another. Of these means,
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  Speaker 1: they will harass and perplex us, and so far as
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  Speaker 1: God permits, interrupt our thoughts, particularly when they are engaged
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  Speaker 1: on the best subjects. Nor is this at all strange.
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  Speaker 1: They will understand the very springs of thought, and know
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  Speaker 1: on which the bodily organs, the imagination, the understanding, and
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  Speaker 1: every other faculty of the mind more immediately depends, And
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  Speaker 1: hereby they know how by affecting those organs, to effect
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  Speaker 1: the operations dependent on them. Add to this that they
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  Speaker 1: can inject the thousand thoughts without any of the preceding means,
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  Speaker 1: being as natural for spirit to act upon spirit as
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  Speaker 1: for matter to act upon matter. These things being considered,
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  Speaker 1: we cannot admire that our thoughts so often wanders from
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  Speaker 1: any point which we have in view. What kind of
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  Speaker 1: wandering thoughts are sinful? And what not? Is the third
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  Speaker 1: thing to be inquired into. And first, all those thoughts
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  Speaker 1: which wander from God, which leave Him no room in
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  Speaker 1: our minds, are undoubtedly sinful. For all these imply practical atheism,
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  Speaker 1: and by these we are without God in the world.
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  Speaker 1: And so much more are all those which are contrary
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  Speaker 1: to God, which implied opposition or enmity to Him. Such
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  Speaker 1: are all murmuring, discontented thought, which say, in effect, we
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  Speaker 1: will not have THEE to rule over us all unbelieving thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: whether with regard to His being, his attributes, or his providence,
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  Speaker 1: I mean his particular providence over all things, as well
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  Speaker 1: as all persons in the universe, that without which not
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  Speaker 1: a sparrow falls to the ground, which the hairs of
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  Speaker 1: our head are all numbered. For as to a general providence,
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  Speaker 1: vulgarly so called hutter, distinguished from a particular is only
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  Speaker 1: a decent, well sounding word which means just nothing. Again,
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  Speaker 1: all thoughts which spring from sinful tempers are undoubtedly sinful.
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  Speaker 1: Such for instance, of those that spring from revengeful temper
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  Speaker 1: pride or lust or vanity. An evil tree cannot bring
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  Speaker 1: forth good fruit. And therefore if the treat be evil,
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  Speaker 1: so must the fruit be also. And so must those
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  Speaker 1: be which either produce or feed any sinful temper, those
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  Speaker 1: which either give rise to pride or vanity, to anger,
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  Speaker 1: or love of the world, or confirm and increase these
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  Speaker 1: or any other unholy temper, passion, or affection. But not
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  Speaker 1: only whatever flows from evil is evil, but also whatever
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  Speaker 1: leads to it, whatever tends to alienate the soul from God,
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  Speaker 1: and to make or keep it earthly, sensual, and devilish. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: even those thoughts which are occasioned by weakness or disease,
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  Speaker 1: by the natural mechanism of the body, or by the
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  Speaker 1: laws of vital union, whoever innocent they may be in themselves,
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  Speaker 1: do nevertheless become sinful when they either produce or cherish
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  Speaker 1: and increase in us any sinful temper. Suppose the desire
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  Speaker 1: of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the
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  Speaker 1: pride of life. In like manner, the wandering thoughts which
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  Speaker 1: are occasioned by the words or actions of other men,
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  Speaker 1: if they cause or feed any wrong disposition, then commence sinful,
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  Speaker 1: and the same we may observe of those which are
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  Speaker 1: suggested or injected by the devil, when they administer to
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  Speaker 1: any earthly or devilish temper, which they do whenever we
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  Speaker 1: give place to them, and hereby make them our own,
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  Speaker 1: than they are equally sinful the tempers to which they
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  Speaker 1: minister blood. Abstracting from these cases wandering thoughts in the
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  Speaker 1: latter sense of the word that his thoughts, wherein our
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  Speaker 1: understanding wanders from the point has in view, are no
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  Speaker 1: more sinful than the motion of the blood in our
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  Speaker 1: veins or the spirits in our brain. If they arise
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  Speaker 1: from an infirm constitution, or from some accidental weakness or
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  Speaker 1: distemper they are as innocent as it is to have
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  Speaker 1: a weak constitution or a distempered body. And surely no
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  Speaker 1: one doubts, but a bad state of nerves, a fever
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  Speaker 1: of any kind, and either transient or lasting delirium may
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  Speaker 1: consist with perfect innocence, and they should arise in a
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  Speaker 1: soul which is united to a healthful body. Are that
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  Speaker 1: from the natural union between the body and soul, or
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  Speaker 1: from any of ten thousand changes which it may occur
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  Speaker 1: in those organs of the body. A minister to thought.
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  Speaker 1: In any of these cases, they are as perfectly innocent
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  Speaker 1: as to causes from which they spring, And so they
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  Speaker 1: are when they spring from the casual, involuntary associations of
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  Speaker 1: our thoughts. If our thoughts wander from the point we
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  Speaker 1: had in view by means of other men, variously affecting
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  Speaker 1: our senses, they are equally innocent still, For it is
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  Speaker 1: no more a sin to understand what I see and hear,
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  Speaker 1: and in many cases cannot help seeing, hearing, and understanding,
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  Speaker 1: than it is to have eyes and ears. And if
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  Speaker 1: the devil inject's wandering thoughts are not those thoughts evil,
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  Speaker 1: they are troublesome in that sense evil, but they are
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  Speaker 1: not sinful. I do not know that he spoke to
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  Speaker 1: our Lord with an audible voice. Perhaps he spoke to
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  Speaker 1: his heart only when he said, all these things, will
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  Speaker 1: I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
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  Speaker 1: But whether he spoke inwardly or outwardly, our Lord doubtless
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  Speaker 1: understood what he said. He had therefore a thought correspondent
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  Speaker 1: to those words, But was a sinful thoughts we know
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  Speaker 1: it was not in him. Was no sin, either in
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  Speaker 1: action or a word or thought, nor is there any
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  Speaker 1: sin in the thousand and thoughts of the same kind
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  Speaker 1: which Satan may inject into any of our Lord's followers.
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  Speaker 1: It follows that none of these wandering thoughts, whatever unwary
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  Speaker 1: persons have affirmed thereby grieving whom the Lord had not grieved,
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  Speaker 1: are inconsistent with perfect love. Indeed, if they were, then
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  Speaker 1: not only sharp pain, but sleep itself, and be inconsistent
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  Speaker 1: with it sharp pain. For whenever this supervenes whatever we
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  Speaker 1: are before thinking of, it will interrupt our thinking, and
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  Speaker 1: of course draw our thoughts into another channel. Yea, and
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  Speaker 1: sleep itself, as it is a state of insensibility and stupidity,
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  Speaker 1: and such as is generally mixed with the thoughts wandering
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  Speaker 1: over the earth, loose, wild and incoherent it. Certainly these
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  Speaker 1: are consistent with perfect love. So then are all wandering
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  Speaker 1: thoughts of this kind? What has been observed is easy
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  Speaker 1: to give a clear answer to the last question. What
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  Speaker 1: kind of wandering thoughts we may expect and pray to
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  Speaker 1: be delivered from? From the former sort of wandering thoughts
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  Speaker 1: those who are in the heart wanders from God from
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  Speaker 1: all their contrary to His will, or to leave us
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  Speaker 1: without God in the world. Every one is perfected in
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  Speaker 1: love is unquestionably delivered this deliverance. Therefore we may expect this.
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  Speaker 1: We may we ought to pray for wandering thoughts of
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  Speaker 1: this kind imply unbelief, if not enmity against God. But
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  Speaker 1: both of these He will destroy, bring utterly to an end.
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  Speaker 1: And indeed from all sinful wandering thoughts we shall be
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  Speaker 1: absolutely delivered. All their perfected in love are delivered from these,
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  Speaker 1: else they are not saved from sin. Men and devils
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  Speaker 1: will tempt them all manner of ways, but they cannot
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  Speaker 1: prevail over them. With regard to the latter sort of
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  Speaker 1: wandering thoughts, the case is widely different. Till the cause
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  Speaker 1: is removed, we cannot in reason to expect the effect
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  Speaker 1: should cease. But the causes or occasions of these will
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  Speaker 1: remain as long as we remain in the body. So
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  Speaker 1: long therefore we have all reason to believe the effects
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  Speaker 1: will remain. Also, to be more particular, suppose a soul, however,
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  Speaker 1: wholly to dwell in a distempered body, suppose the brain
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  Speaker 1: be so thoroughly disordered as that raging madness follows. Will
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  Speaker 1: not all the thoughts be wild and unconnected as long
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  Speaker 1: as that disorder continues. Suppose a fever occasions at temporary madness,
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  Speaker 1: which we determined delirium. Can there be any just connection
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  Speaker 1: of thought till that delirium is removed? YEA suppose of
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  Speaker 1: what is called a nervous disorder de rise to so
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  Speaker 1: high a degree as to occasion at least that partial badness,
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  Speaker 1: whether not be a thousand wandering thoughts, And must not
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  Speaker 1: these irregular thoughts continue as long as the disorder which
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  Speaker 1: occasions them. Will not the case be the same with
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  Speaker 1: regard to those thoughts but necessarily arise from violent pain.
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  Speaker 1: They will more or less continue while that pain continues
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: by the unviolable order of nature. This order, likewise will
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: obtain where the thoughts are disturbed, broken, or interrupted by
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: any defect of the apprehension, judgment, or imagination flowing from
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the natural constitution of the body. And how many interruptions
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: may spring from the unaccountable involuntary association of our ideas.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Now all these are directly or indirectly caused by the
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: in corruptible body pressing down the mind. Nor therefore can
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: we expect them to be removed till this corruptible shall
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: be put on in corruption. And then only when we
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: lie down in the dust shall we be delivered from
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: those wandering thoughts which are occasioned by what we see
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  Speaker 1: and hear among those by whom we are now surrounded.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: To avoid these, you must go out of the world
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: for as long as we remain therein as long as
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: there are men and women round about us, we have
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: eyes to see and ears to hear. The things which
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: we daily see and hear will certainly affect our mind,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and will more or less break in upon and interrupt
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: our preceding thoughts. And as long as evil spirits roam
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: to and fro in a miserable, disordered world, so long
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: they will assault, whether they can prevail or know every
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: inhabitant of flesh and blood, they will trouble, even those
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: whom they cannot destroy, they will attack if they cannot conquer.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: And from these attacks of our restless, unwearied enemies, we
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: must look not for an entire deliverance till we are
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: lodged where the wicked cease from troubling, and from where
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the weary are at rest, To sum up the whole,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to expect deliverance from those wandering thoughts which are occasioned
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: by evil spirits is to expect that the devil shall
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: die or fall asleep, or at least should no more
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: go about as a roaring lion. To expect a deliverance
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: from those which are occasioned by other men is to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: expect either that men should cease from the earth, or
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: that we should be absolutely secluded from them and have
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: no intercourse with them, or that, having eyes, we should
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: see neither here with our ears, but be as senseless
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: as stocks or stones. And to pray for deliverance from
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: those which are occasioned by the body is in effect
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to pray that we may leave the body. Otherwise it
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: is praying for impossibilities and absurdities. Praying that God would
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: reconcile contradictions by continuing our union with a corruptible body
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: without the natural necessary consequences of that union. It as
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: if we should pray to be angels in men mortal
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and immortal at the same time. Nay, but when that
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: which is immortal has come, mortality is done away. Rather,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: let us pray both that the spirit and with the
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: understanding that all these things may work together for our good,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: that we may suffer all the infirmities of our nature
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: all the interruptions of men, all the assault and suggestions
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of evil spirits, and in all be more than conquerors.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Let us pray that we may be delivered from all sin,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: that both the roots and branch may be destroyed, that
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: we may be cleansed from all pollution of flesh and spirit,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: from every evil temper and word and work. That we
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: may love the Lord, our God with all our heart,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: with all our mind, with all our soul, with all
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: our strength, that all the Spirit may be found in us,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: not only love, joy, peace, but also long suffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, temperance.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Pray that all these things may flourish and abound, may
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: increase in you more and more, till an abundant entrance be
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: ministered unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. End of section forty two. Recording by Greg Giardano,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: new Portraiti, Florida,