The Penn's Grove record., 1906-02-23

conspire its ruin. In other words.
souls are in the grip of a deadly dis
ease, which dwarfs and stunts them.
What is that disease? A correct dag
nosis is the first step to complete the
cure.
Suppose for a moment you have a
boy who, instead of growing into
health and strength, is pinched and
dwarfed and anemic in appearance.
You take the lad to a physician, and
he will tell you that that boy of yours
is really suffering from a wrong habit
of life. He is not being nOurished prop
erly. His digestive organs are being
overloaded with food which he cannot
assimilate. What the boy needs is not
more food. but less; not richer diet.
but simpler. Nature is being thwarted
by artificial living. and artificial living
is the seed-plot of disease. And the
physician will doubtless tell you that,
the boy being young, the cure is simple.
He will say: "Give nature a chance
by simplifying his daily diet" Well,
it is even so with the health Of the soul.
Our souls are starved and stunted by a
disease, which is created and aggra-
waited by a wrong mode Of life. we
are so gorging our minds with all the
elaborated and artificial forms Of liv-
ing. that the spiritual within us IS
stifed. Sin is the disease which kills
the soul. but sin is simply a product OF
that sordid selfish life which clogs the
great arteries of the soul. If dehber-
ately we follow a life which makes 10
provision for prayer and communion
with God, which cherishes evil habits
and nourishes actions which begin and
end in self, then we are deliberately
killing the soul within us. What, then,
is the price we have to pay if we want
to grow a soul? We must change the
mode of life which enthralls us. and
make provision, not for the things Of
the flesh, but of the spirit. In that
purer. sweeter, simpler atmosphere the
the soul will inevitably begin to grow.
The vitality Of your soul is wonderful.
its recuperative powers are marvellous,
but these powers must have their op-
p~ortunity. Here is a disease which is
stunning and slowly killing my soul
am 1 willing to fulfill the condition
which will eradicate that disease. and
make spiritual growth a reality
8. That leads to the third point
What is that condition? And who or
us, by his own strength, is sufficient to
meet that condition? We cannot GER
| tainly, by our own efforts, hope to re-
verse those natural tendencies within
us which war against our souls. we
| cannot, by any strivings OF our own.
force spiritual growth. If we are IN
able to add a cubit to u physical
| stature. much less can we add to our
spiritual growth. Yet, the call or
| Christ is to "grow in grace. and in His
likeness" What. then, is the secret OF
that growth? The Gospel of Christ IS
the answer. Our souls grow as they
come into living touch with Him. We
| cannot transform ourselves. but we are
transformed into His likeness. as we
reflect the spirit of Jesus, and we re-
fleet Jesus in the measure that We re-
| fleet on Him. Make Christ the theme
of your daily prayer and meditation.
and every moment you spend in HIS
presence is a springtide of splr1tua!
| growth within your soul. That growth
YOU cannot check: no sin can hinder 1t
if you are living in the atmosphere or
Christ's life. 1t is not u striylngs
and strugglings that add to the stature
of the soul: it is our faith, simple as
that of a little child which, laying hoid
of the love of God revealed in Christ,
builds up the soul. day by day, into his
grace and into His likeness.
Now. 1 ask, is there anything strange
or mysterious about that? Is spiritual
growth subject to laws any different
from those which govern any process
of mental development? Surely not.
To make any theme a subject OF daily
thought is to make that theme a potent
influence in your life. The more deeply
it laws hold of your mind the more pro
foundly it becomes a part of yourselI<
All you have to do is to fulfil the con-
ditiou of continuous thought, and the
| object of your thought reacts upon you
and becomes a dominant factor or
growth. We speak, for instance, OF a
man being possessed by some master
passion-it may be the love OF money,
or of power. or of sordid self-indul-
gehce. or of some higher interest, but
whatever it is, the result is the same.
Constant dwelling upon it moulds char-
acter into its likeness.
So it is with the soul that ~surrenders
| itself to the influence of Jesus. AS we
think of Him, and as we enter into the
shirt of His life. and breathe the at
Emosuhere of His love and purity, grad
ua1lv we are transformed. and the soul
within US leaps up into glad recogniloh
of its lawful Love. Every power we
have, every faculty we possess De
| comes interpenetrated by His spirit
and because His spirit Is life we V
also.