The Secret of Moral Beauty
Psalm 110:3
Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning…


If you would make your life truly graceful, truly beautiful, you must go back to conscience, principle, conviction; there must be within you reality, a true godliness and a true consecration to God and to man. You often meet with people whose beauty disappoints you — I mean their moral beauty. They are excellent people, charming people, but somehow or other you are not satisfied with them. What is the matter? There is more amiability than energy. You never like to speak discouragingly about nice people, because there are so few of them; but really some people who are exceedingly amiable are exceedingly unsatisfying. What is the matter with them? It is this — lack of depth, reality, force. They have got more graciousness than they have grit. They make a great many gracious concessions that at last question their conscientiousness. They have a supply of amiability about them that makes you suspect a flabbiness within. No amiability is really satisfactory to men except as it springs from deep, radical, organic conscientiousness, conviction, and devotion. To see lilywork upon a pillar is admirable, but frosted work on a bride-cake is another thing altogether. And I say to you that if you would make your character as you are anxious to make it — graceful, noble, beautiful — there is no way for you but to go back to the roots and foundations of life. If you wish to make yourself right, I say to you: Don't paint your face; see to it that there is health in the central organs. Don't revise your etiquette; see to it that you are transformed in the spirit of your mind. Out of the heart are the issues of life, and out of the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit spring at last the real majesty and sweetness of human character.

(W. L. Watkinson.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

WEB: Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.




The Power of Recognizing Power
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