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.… First the growth of our inner virtues, then the growth of our outer graces. First deep-rooted convictions, pure desires, holy affections, honest motives; then manifest activities, wide sympathies, and powerful influences, the natural and irresistible outcome. I. TO THE MANIFEST AND VISIBLE IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Grace, which is the New Testament term for the Divine blessings, cannot be concealed. Besides, we cannot absorb more unless we produce with what we have. We must give God out in our life, if we would take in more of God into our spirit. God has not meant that we should be reservoirs to store, but channels to communicate. It is as false as it is selfish to suppose that, God being ours, He is ours to conserve for ourselves, as if the ideal of religion consisted in getting as much from Him for our own aggrandisement aa we can contain. Then verily would our portion be small. Not how much of enjoyment can we derive in the sanctuary makes us religious, but how much of God can we exhibit in our homes and its duties, in the workshop, in the office, and in the street. Religion is not personal enjoyment so much as a relative blessing. The ideal is not our own enriching as being blessed in being means of enriching others. II. A TRUTH NOT LESS APPLICABLE TO OUR INFLUENCE THAN TO OUR ACTS. Society has mistakenly joined the epithet "influential" to mere worldly position and material wealth, and calls him the influential man who possesses these. But the standard is a low one, and neither true to history or experience. True influence, an influence that lives and elevates the race, is that which emanates from goodness and is joined to disinterested piety. Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and others are but mere names in history as compared with the living influence of the disciples. Their branches spread and are spreading still. III. THEN, AGAIN, PROGRESS IS CHARACTERISTIC OF OUR VISIBLE GRACES WHEN GOD IS OURS. This sentence in its literal form presents to us a complex figure, seemingly contradictory — "His branches or sucking offshoots shall go on." And having God as ours even now progress is characteristic of our life as we go "from strength to strength," adding virtue to virtue. Our life's history is a "going on." From grace to grace; from effort to effort; from experience to experience; from achievement to achievement. The branches are going on. Desires are becoming more holy, devotion's fires burn brighter and stronger, zeal becomes increasingly fervent, and religion is more transparent. (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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