Gold Cord by Amy Carmichael

I'm reading "Gold Cord" by Amy Carmichael. Its the autobiographical account of the Dohnavur Fellowship in Southern India. Here is something that stuck out from my reading last night.


p.96:

“For all such conditions [a variety of concerns and fears in the night that cause us not to sleep] we found just one sure antidote – the peace of God. Let the will close down the door on the old life with its allures, its pictured memories, let the last thoughts before falling asleep be set on Him, the Eternal Keeper who neither slumbers or sleeps, let some hymn or psalm or calming promise or assurance fill the last conscious moments, and the spell will be broken. An old prayer (Sir Thomas Browne’s) is as sure of an answer in an Indian room tonight as it was in an English home three hundred years ago:
While I do rest, my soul advance,
Make me to sleep a holy trance
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought.
“And now and here, as always everywhere, there is One whom the winds and waves obey, and He draws near to the frightened soul and says, “It is I; be not afraid.” And when He is as near as that, the weakest of His little children sleeps peacefully, and is almost sure to waken into some holy thought.”


p.97:

“Shall I,” said the bear’s cub to his mother, “move my right paw first or my left, or my two front paws together, or the two hind ones, or all four at once, or how?”
“Leave off thinking, and walk,” grunted the old bear.

My word to you today, dear one, is this, “Leave off thinking, “How?” and just live. Rest in His comfort, receive His grace. Leave off thinking and you’ll be able to do it.

Love, Tiff