Hosea 14:5-7 I will be as the dew to Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.… I. SUCH FRAGRANCE IS THE PRODUCT OF INTERNAL GRACE AND DIVINE FAVOUR. Vain is the hope to be able to diffuse a sweetening and hallowing influence unless God is in us in His sweetening and sanctifying life. The botanist tells us that the perfume of flowers depends upon the volatilisation of an essential oil which they secrete in their most hidden recesses, whether a sweet oil diffusing rich fragrance or a nauseous oil that exhales itself in repulsive smell. Still the possession of this oil is one thing, its volatile character another. Turning from the figure to the lesson it embodies, it manifestly suggests two things: first, the necessity of possessing internal graces, being filled with the fulness of God, and then, that these graces should become external influences, as they dispose themselves in pleasing and effective forms. Such influences are the holy fragrance of the devout life, arresting attention, awakening inquiry, and inspiring fondness, being neither heard nor seen but powerfully felt. Appearance and sweetness do not always go together. To the eye the richly-hued dahlia is more fascinating than the spray of mignonette, which can scarcely lay claim to be regarded as a flower. But which is it that gives the greatest sense of sweetness? True spiritual influence is more a felt than a seen power. There are parallels in human life to the dahlia and the mignonette: the beauty that expends itself in colour — not to be despised — and that still greater beauty that touches us with pleasing and arresting force, though still unseen — the subtle, penetrating, and captivating influence whose presence is a felt reality. It is so in the life of many a humble, modest, retiring disciple of Jesus Christ's, who dread nothing more than conspicuous publicity, who would blush to find themselves famous, and yet whose presence gives a healthy, fragrant character to the workshop, warehouse, office, or in whatever circle they are found. Their life is a diffusion of Divine sweetness. To scatter a Divine aroma in the community, to diffuse a holy fragrance in our life, grace must be obtained from God, and our virtues must be of a diffusive nature. II. SPIRITUAL FRAGRANCE MEANS AGAIN THE HARMONIOUS BLENDING OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. As the fragrance of Lebanon was the blended odours diffused by the various fragrant plants that grew on that mountain range, so the spiritual fragrance of the Christian Church is the harmonious unity and co-operation of its members, and in the case of the individual believer it is the union of the several virtues that go to make up Christian character. There is a spiritual deformity that hinders the diffusion of spiritual influence, where only one grace, or set of graces, is cultivated to the neglect of all the test, and symmetry is lost and beauty and sweetness consequently absent. Christian character, to. prove an influence, must be symmetrical and complete. "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge," etc. Men may admire bold. ness, revere meekness, take pleasurable notice of sturdy faith, applaud charity, speak of kindness, and trust honesty when beheld singly; but it is when they are joined together in one character that men are afraid of committing evil in its presence, and are inspired by it to holy effort. III. THE EMBLEM SUGGESTS AGAIN UNCONFINED EXPANSION. Lebanon loads the passing breezes with a rich profusion of flagrance to be carried anywhere and everywhere — a fragrance that defies the artificial limitations of men's erecting. A high wall may shut in the colour, but the fragrance will overleap it and scatter itself in ever-widening directions. (E. Aubrey.) Parallel Verses KJV: I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. |
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