THE GROWING LIFE | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 16.

THE GROWING LIFE.

Both natural and spiritual life are progressive. The body grows to manhood's prime, the soul grows in grace or grows in sin. As natural life never reaches a stationary point, neither does the development of character. Naturally, we grow in years; morally, we grow better or worse. Let us learn from nature's analogies. There are two forces operative in every life, one constructive, the other destructive. We live or die, as one or the other is triumphant. Whenever the plant reaches the limit of development, that moment it begins to decay, the destructive force is master. Whenever the Christian reaches the point that he ceases to

"grow in grace," to bring forth the "fruits of the Spirit," that moment he confronts the death line of the soul; spiritual death has laid hold upon him. But, while the grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth, because natural life is temporal, the gift of God to the soul is "life eternal;" and he who is the "resurrection and the life," declareth, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."—Selected.