p. 4 | THE LIVING WORD by Lilian Otis McPherson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 16, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 42.

THE LIVING WORD.

By Lilian Otis McPherson

Its Nature and Work.

THE Word, as we have it in the Scriptures, is God’s thought for the redemption of man. As revealed in the earthly life of Jesus, the Word made flesh, it was God’s thought made audible and manifest. The Word in the Scriptures is but one phase of God’s thought, which is vast and unsearchable, for Paul, by inspiration, exclaims, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways ‘past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or ‘who hath been His counselor?’” This Word is, as it were, the capstone of His thought for the entire universe, disclosing the beauty, the grandeur, and the perfection of His character to His unnumbered worlds.

Ezekiel symbolized God’s thought for all His created beings by a wheel within a wheel. God’s eternal thought for the children of His love is the formation of a character like His own, represented by the outer wheel, perfect in its proportions. But sin marred the image of God in man, and the plan of salvation was introduced, and became the wheel within a wheel, for the restoration of God’s character. Because man wandered from the thought of God, the Father said to him, “My ‘thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. ‘ . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ‘ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” But God, in His infinite love, has provided a way in which fallen man may have God’s thought enthroned within, to become His flesh, His very being. Jesus, the only begotten Son, is the living Word. By receiving this living Word within the heart, we shall return to God’s thought for man; for it is written that we are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth ‘and abideth forever.” Because this Word is an incorruptible seed, it possesses creative energy, and will work in us “both to will and to ‘do of His good pleasure.”

The Word of Christ is the bread of life, which is furnished for every soul that lives. To refuse to eat this bread is death. He that neglects to partake of the Word of God “shall not see life.”

Not only are the words of Christ living bread, but they are living water as well, quenching the burning thirst of him who will drink and live. This living water is supplied in abundance; for Jesus says that it is “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” It is supplied for him who is athirst. The Spirit invites: “Come: . . . whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” With such a supply before us, need we hunger or thirst, and not be filled? Faith eats and drinks, and is satisfied. Receiving the Word is believing the Word, and this is eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood.

LILIAN OTIS MCPHERSON.