Christian's Secret of a Happy Life Author:Hannah Whitall Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. God's Side And Man's Side. MUCH misunderstanding arises, in reference to this subject of the life and walk of faith, from the fact that its two s... more »ides are not clearly seen. People are apt to think that there is only one side to it, and, dwelling exclusively upon the one they happen to see the most clearly, without even a thought of any other, it is no wonder that distorted views of the whole matter are the legitimate consequence. Now, there are two very decided and distinct sides to this subject, and, like all other subjects, it cannot be fully understood unless both of these sides are kept constantly in view. I refer of course to God's side and man's side; or, in other words, to God's part in the work of sanctification, and man's part. These are very distinct and even contrasting, but, although to a cursory observer they may sometimes so appear, they are not really contradictory. At one time this was very strikingly illustrated to me. There were two teachers of this interior life holding meetings in the same place, at alternate hours. One spoke only of God's part in the work, and the other dwelt exclusively upon man's part. They were both in perfect sympathy with each other, and realized fully that they were each teaching different sides of the same great truth; and this also wasunderstood by a large proportion of their hearers. But with some of the hearers it was different, and one lady said to me in the greatest perplexity, " I cannot understand it at all. Here are two preachers undertaking to teach just the same truth, and yet to me they seem flatly to contradict each other." And I felt at thetime that sheexpressed a puzzle that, Yery often, causes great difficulty in the minds of many honest inquirers after this truth. Suppose two friends go to see som...« less