Luke 2:22-24 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem… In one of the public enclosures of Philadelphia the fountain was recently left to play all night. During the hours of darkness a sharp frost set in; and those who passed by next morning found the water, still playing indeed, but playing over a mass of gleaming icicles. But that was not all. The wind had been blowing steadily in one direction through all these hours, and the spray had been carried on airy wings to the grass which fringed the pool in which the fountain stood. On each blade of grass the spray had fallen so gently as hardly to bend it, descending softly and silently the whole night long. By slow and almost imperceptible processes each blade became coated with a thin layer of ice; by the same noiseless processes each layer grew thicker, until in the morning what before had been a little patch of swaying grass was a miniature battle-ground of upright, crystal spears, each holding within it, as its nucleus, a single blade of grass, now cold, rigid, and dead. In human life, in like manner, it may seem a light thing leave a young heart outside of Christ's fold, and exposed to the "cold winds of the world's great unbelief." There is no violent transformation of the character in such a case. Yet silently and surely the world's frost settles upon the flowers of the heart, covering them with the chill spray of doubt, binding them with soft bonds which harden into chains of ice, encasing them in a coat of crystal mail, polished, cold, and impenetrable. You have met persons in whose heart this freezing process has been accomplished. You have seen beneath the icy surface the nucleus of good which might have grown to so fair a harvest, just as you have seen the dead blade of grass preserved at the core of the icicle. You can do little now for either the person or the plant: nothing but heaven's sunshine can melt the ice which holds them in its deadly thrall. But you can take care that none of those for whom you are responsible will be left out in the world's cold, to suffer so deadly a change. You can bring them within the warm influences of Christian life, where no frost will gather upon them, and where the soul's highest powers will be gently wooed to their best growth. Parallel Verses KJV: And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; |
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