OCT 03
October 3.
"The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." John 6:63
God's own life is in the words of Scripture. Put a handful of flower-seeds in your window-box, under the sunshine, and they will soon become lovely flowers. Put the truths of the gospel into a human heart, and soon the life will begin to grow into the beauty of Christ. Its effects will be seen in the disposition, in the character, in the conduct, in all the daily acts.
At an auction, a crude jar of common earthenware was bought by a seller of perfumes for a penny. But he filled it with attar of roses , and soon every particle of the substance of the jar had partaken of the sweetness. The fragrance within it had permeated it. Long, long afterward, when emptied and broken, every smallest fragment was still sweet with the precious perfume.
So it is, when even the most common life is filled with the Word of Christ. It flows out, as it were, in the character, in the feelings and affections, in the thoughts and desires, in the tempers and dispositions, until the whole being is permeated, filled with the spirit of Christ. For where the Word of Christ dwells—the Holy Spirit dwells; and where the Holy Spirit dwells—is the kingdom of heaven, heaven begun in a human life. We see the effects of this indwelling—in the gentleness, the sweetness, the purity of heart, the truth, the patience, the love, which the Word of Christ always produces.