Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/150

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air and water are given freely and openly to every man, "without money and without price;" but bread is only to be acquired by labour, and at a price. "So also the spiritual things signified by air and water, namely—truth and knowledge—are the free gifts of the Lord. But the spiritual things signified by bread, namely, charity, or the good of our heavenly love, must be laboured for, bought, and made our own by labour; hence it is true, spiritually as well as naturally, that man can only "in the sweat of his face eat bread." It is charity, not faith, that is the one thing needful. It is charity, not faith, that is the end of the commandment. The knowledge of the Lord, and belief in His divinity, is indeed needful; but to our knowledge must be added charity, a life of usefulness: "If we know these things, happy are we if we do them,"


October Fourteenth.

JESUS—THE LIFE.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life."John xiv. 6.

THE immortality of the soul is based upon the grand doctrine that we are created in the image and likeness of God. We have two general receiving vessels, so to speak, into which life from the Lord is continually flowing; and from these two grand receiving vessels we may again say there are innumerable opening, expanding, and communicating valves, which convey the stream of life to every part of the structure of the soul. These two grand receiving vessels are the Will and the Understanding; and the valves which we