Experience and Faith

Forty-three years ago the Spirit of God in grace led me to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I have had many up-and-downs since then, as the old folks used to sing in a colored camp meeting I attended:
“I am sometimes up and sometimes down,
But still my soul am heavenly bound.”
I have had varied experiences, but the wonderful thing is this, the Holy Spirit of God has never given me up; and if at times I have been wayward and willful and did not immediately bow before God and repent of my waywardness and willfulness, then I found I had to come under the rod, my Father’s rod, and He whipped me into subjection until I came to the place where I was ready to confess my failure and be restored to fellowship with Him. But I was just as truly His child while getting a good whipping as I was when the effects of it had restored me to fellowship. Your child does not cease to be your child when you have him over your knee and are using the slipper on him. It is because he is your child, and because you want him to grow up to be a well-behaved boy, that you do that. And so we believe in the perseverance of the Holy Spirit of God, that having begun the work He will carry it on to completion.