Jeremiah 31:12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine… The prophet is predicting the time when Israel's captivity shall end and prosperity shall crown adversity and want and poverty shall be no more. The prospect describes not only material, but also spiritual abundance, and both conditions are to be realised through painstaking diligence. The soul — what is it? That which is the highest and noblest part of our nature; which is the seat of reason, affection, conscience, and will; which gives us affinity with things unseen and Divine. We are strangely indifferent at times to the interests of this valuable possession. We have gymnasiums and systems of calisthenics and rules of diet and habit for the body; we are very eager to devise the most expeditious methods of promoting the education of the mind; but we do not give a commensurate emphasis to the discipline of the spiritual. But as a man cannot have a sound and well-grown body or a mature and well-equipped mind without training, so is it impossible for him to have a healthy, thoroughly developed soul without process of cultivation. Let us inquire as to what means are necessary for the unfolding of the spiritual nature. 1. First of all we may mention the need of religious thinking. He is the best business man who can not only adapt himself to the routine and mechanism of his work, but can also discern the underlying principles of it, appreciate its wider relations and foresee its possibilities, who is not only the business actor, but the business thinker. Likewise one must consider religious facts and principles and truths in order that he may appropriate them and become wisely, fundamentally religious. Theology is, as it always has been, the most commanding of sciences; for it is man's thought about God, and man is always restlessly inquisitive in his attempts to search out the secrets of the Infinite. If one is to be large minded he must think large thoughts, and the greatest ideas that can enter the mind are the religious ideas. Again, it is to be urged that this religious intelligence is important for the sake of religious conduct. We hear it said that it matters not much what a man thinks, provided he does what is right, a statement which is entirely lacking in wisdom, because there is an inevitable sequence of cause and effect between thinking and doing. To give a single instance, whatever righteousness there was in the Jewish life was the reflection of the Ten Commandments — the Jewish conception of righteousness. We must see that our religious thinking has its basis in Scripture. We must take our start in the accepted record, if we would be true and wise, for Christianity is, first of all, not a philosophy, but a history. And the stimulus which the Bible gives us will come not only from being acquainted with its facts and principles and truths, but from breathing the atmosphere which emanates from its pages. It is a book instinct with life. 2. Another means of religious culture is prayer. No man can be truly religious if he does not pray, for religion is a personal relationship between man and God; and prayer is the one supreme act by which the door is opened, and one stands in the conscious presence of his Maker. 3. Still another means must be adopted in the cultivation of the spiritual life, and that is public worship. 4. To all other means implied in the spiritual culture there must be added rightness of action. No man can be truly religious whose devoutness is not rooted in integrity. There is a religiousness which easily lifts itself into ecstasies, which has no connection with the life. "A new commandment I give unto you," Christ declares, "that ye love one another." Oh, to live out of ourselves; to spend and be spent; to plan and work that we may do good to our homes, to our Church, to our community, and to all our fellow-men — that is to make our spiritual life real and abundant. May we ever be refreshed by that Divine presence, that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, and that our souls may be luxuriant and fruitful as a watered garden. (H. P. Dewey.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. |
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