FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   >>  
ocess of mirror-making among the ancients. They hadn't the glass mirrors of our day, but a mirror of highly polished metal. A piece of coarse metal would be placed upon a stone and the workmen would begin to polish it; at first it made no reflection at all, but when polished for awhile would give a distorted and perverted reflection; but in the process of polishing, that reflection would grow clearer and clearer, when finally a man could behold his face in it perfectly reflected. And so with us. When taken into the great spiritual laboratory of Christianity we are blocks in the rough, but in the polishing process of the church and spiritual surroundings we begin to reflect the image of our Master, and when we have completed the work, we reflect him as perfectly as a human being can. Take, for illustration, the brothers Peter and John. At first they were called Boanerges, sons of thunder; they wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy men who differed from them; but in the great laboratory of the Christian life they grew more and more Christlike, transformed by the Spirit of God, until at last we see the old apostle John at Ephesus, beautified and ennobled, sitting in his chair and lifting up trembling hands, and saying to the young disciples: "Little children, love one another, for love is of God." We see the transforming power of the spiritual atmosphere of the church and the Christian life upon human nature. Christian, with this illustration before you, how can you excuse yourself for keeping out of the spiritual atmosphere of God, for staying away from the communion and the spiritual convocation of God's people? Is it a burden and a duty to attend the house of God, or is it a pleasure gladly and joyfully anticipated? When you rise on the Lord's Day morning, do you say, "Must I go to church to-day?" or do you say: "You may sing of the beauty of mountain and dale, The water of streamlet and the flowers of the Vale, But the place most delightful this earth can afford, Is the place of devotion, the house of the Lord"? 5. The last work of the Spirit which the word of God mentions is the "_quickening of our mortal bodies_." "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom. 8:11). This Spirit which has ever been with us, watching over us, will never le
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   >>  



Top keywords:
Spirit
 

spiritual

 

Christian

 
reflection
 

church

 

laboratory

 

reflect

 

illustration

 

mortal

 

bodies


raised

 
atmosphere
 

clearer

 
polished
 
process
 

mirror

 

polishing

 

perfectly

 

mirrors

 

excuse


morning

 

keeping

 

mountain

 

beauty

 

highly

 
attend
 

communion

 

burden

 

people

 

pleasure


anticipated

 

convocation

 
joyfully
 

staying

 

gladly

 

dwelleth

 

quicken

 

Christ

 

watching

 

delightful


afford
 
flowers
 

devotion

 

making

 

ancients

 
quickening
 

mentions

 
streamlet
 
called
 

distorted