THE WORD MADE FLESH by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 23, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 34.

THE WORD MADE FLESH.

By T.

THE influence of words is not comprehended as it should be. We do not, as a general thing, realize that there is a real power in simple words.

And yet, when we stop to think about it, we are made to sense the fact that our words may bring good cheer that gives healing and life to a weary soul; or, on the contrary, we may speak words that fill the heart of the hearer with sadness and desponding gloom.

Words are nothing more than the articulate sounds or the written expressions by which an idea is carried from one mind to another. And it is the ideas that we harbor in our minds that form our characters. Hence the great necessity for thinking right; to have pure and exalted ideas and ideals if we would be pure and noble and Christlike. "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Prov. 23:7.

"A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil men out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matt. 12:35-37.

Words are but the expression of the character within. A man will talk about what he thinks about. He will do this in spite of himself. And so "by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

That which we read most will have a molding effect upon our lives. It is next to impossible to read anything without in some way having it affect and change us from what we would have been if we had never read it. And if we are particular to know only the good, and to confine our reading and thinking to that, we may be sure that our characters will be right.

Every one acknowledges that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly beautiful, and perfectly strong. Men who are not believers in Christianity will vie with each other in extolling the virtues of the Christ-life.

This perfect, this great, this beautiful life of the Master was builded, in all its symmetrical characteristics, by the Word of God. The Saviour's life is a perfect expression of the Word of God. Christ spoke the words of God so as to perfectly express the ideas of God. And Christ lived the words of God so as to perfectly express the character of God. Hence it is written, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." John 1:14.

We read the expression, "The Word was made flesh," and then proceed at once to make a great mystery of it without comprehending

the divine truth that these words so beautifully express. God had expressed Himself to mankind in His spoken and written Word, but this was persistently misconstrued, and hence was not understood. Then the loving Father came still closer and expressed Himself in the literal person of His own Son.

In this act of giving Christ, it is as if the Father said to the world: "You have refused to receive the depth and power of My words, now I give you My Son. He is My Word in actual human life. I have clothed Him with your weak human flesh. Yet, behold His life —His character! All this beautiful life of Jesus, My Son, is sustained by the power of My Word."

The Word was truly made flesh in Christ. But this was only that we might see the power and beauty of it, so that we would yearn to have the same Word made flesh in us. It does not express it strong enough for us to say that it is possible for us to have the character of Christ by feeding upon the words of God. We should know of a surety that the beautiful character of Christ is the invariable and sure result when we feed upon the living Word of God. There is no chance for failure, because God Himself sees to it that the character appears in response to His indwelling Word.

O, we do not begin to realize the power and efficiency of the Word of God. We do not feed upon that Word. We choose the husks of the world instead. Then let us come to the living fountain of the Word, and by ever drinking its knowledge, its power, and its purity we will be assimilated by divine grace into the likeness of Christ, our Elder Brother.