Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/256

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who perceive the doctrines of heavenly wisdom, and exemplify them in the deeds of a quiet and chastened charity. The other class belong to the Tyrians. They like to exhibit their precious stones before the world, to exhibit them in their dress and on their garments. And, supposing these precious stones, with the gold, to symbolize every kind and degree of truth and good exhibited in the letter of the Word of God, and embodied in the Ten Commandments, "on which hang all the law and the prophets," we may see that the Word of God itself is an Eden, and every precious stone is to be found within it; for, as the diamond appears as a fountain of light, the beryl, the jasper, and the others, imbibing and reflecting the varied hues from the light of the sun—so bright, so beautiful and glorious, does every truth appear to those who contemplate the Divine Word of the Lord. All these precious stones are given as the ornaments to Tyre. They are for those who desire and love them, more especially for those who love to communicate them. They are for those, therefore, who feel delight in instructing others in the knowledge of them; for those who take a pleasure in distributing the pearls of wisdom; for those "who go down to the sea in ships, and do business in great waters;" for those who make usefulness their object and end, and who labour from the real love of truth, and not from a sectarian or vain-glorious spirit. Tyre, then, in a state of perfection, was a city well pleasing to the Lord, and the workmanship of its tabrets and of its pipes was prepared in the day that it was created. For what are these tabrets and pipes, but figures of the affections and desires for truth created within us? All sounds are operative