p. 357 | THE WORD INDWELLING

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 23.

THE WORD INDWELLING.

THE words of Christ are spirit and life. A little grain of musk hidden in one corner of a large drawer filled with garments will soon pour its pungent odor through the whole drawer, saturating every thread. So does the word of God, truly hidden in a human heart, touch and saturate with its holy sweetness the whole life. In a German tale a wonderful lamp set in a fisherman’s hut changes the rude hovel and all its poor furniture to silver. The divine word is a heavenly lamp which, when set in a sinful human life, transforms it all from glory to glory, until it stands at last in transfigured beauty before God.

One invariable effect of this indwelling will be the cleansing of the life. We must be clean to be “polished shafts” in God’s hands for his use. An old writer said: “Be thyself blameless of that which thou rebukest. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blot.” And no earthly word will cleanse us, because in the purest human word there is sin, which will leave stain on the life our hand touches. But the word of God is cleansing. It keeps us from sin and purifies the heart’s fountains.

Another effect of this indwelling is transformation into the likeness of Christ. Every fragment of divine truth which comes to us we should instantly turn into life. Every divine word that we ponder deeply opens to us a vision of beauty or excellence, something very lovely, a little of Christ’s own image; and we should at once strive to paint the vision on our own life, to realize the beauty in ourselves. The Bible is not rightly used if we do not thus try to get every word of it which we learn transmuted into life and character. To do this requires the closest vigilance over ourselves and the most loyal fidelity to divine truth.—Selected.