Growth is to be felt as well as seen. Our advancement in the Divine life is not always proclaimed as the addition of cubits to a man's stature may be told, or by such tokens as are hailed as proofs of material increase. No ; but by other media and through an appeal to other senses. For, just as in the palmy days of the Temple service at Jerusalem there were gorgeous ceremonies of worship that riveted the worshipper's eye and touched the worshipper's soul, while only the pungent sweetness of the frank- incense, as it filled the courts of the sanctuary, could fix the blind man's attention and move his heart : so in the great service of life the precious fragrance of a holy walk and conversation will indicate the presence of a hidden sanctity, and tell of growth God ward and heavenward even more convincingly than any other evidence of which we can boast.
T| Nature's forces carry their atmosphere. The sun gushes forth light unquenchable ; coals throw off heat ; violets are larger in influence than bulk ; pomegranates and spices crowd the house with sweet odours. Man also has his atmosphere. He is a force- bearer and a force-producer. He journeys forward, exhaling influences. Scientists speak of the magnetic circle. Artists express the same idea by the halo of light emanating from the Divine head. Business men understand this principle; those skilled in promoting great enterprises bring the men to be im- pressed into a room and create an atmosphere around them. Had we tests fine enough we would doubtless find each man's personality the centre of outreaching influences. He himself may be utterly unconscious of this exhalation of moral forces, as he is of the coatagion of disease from his body. But if light is in him,
1 Alice W. Bailey.
318 THE BLESSING OF THE DEW
he shines ; if darkness rules, he shades ; if his heart glows with love, he warms ; if frozen with selfishness, he chills ; if corrupt, he poisons ; if pure-hearted, he cleanses. We watch with wonder the apparent flight of the sun through space, glowing upon dead planets, shortening winter and bringing summer, with birds, leaves, and fruits. But that is not half so wonderful as the passage of a human heart, glowing and sparkling with ten thousand effects, as it moves through life. Gentle as is the atmosphere about us, it presses with a weight of fourteen pounds to the square inch. No infant's hand feels its weight ; no leaf of aspen or wing of bird detects this heavy pressure, for the fluid air presses equally in all directions. Just so gentle, yet so powerful, is the moral atmosphere of a good man as it presses upon and shapes his kind.1
Tf In his reply to the addresses of appreciation which were delivered at the meeting held to celebrate his seventieth birthday, Dr. Miller said : " My one purpose is to fill the years so full of humble, loving service that every birthday shall mark a year of complete consecration to the Master. I feel as Louis Kossuth said : ' I would like my life to resemble the dew, which falls so noiselessly through the night, and just as silently passes away, soon as the rays of the morning's sun beam upon the earth. Unnoticed by men's eyes, save for an occasional iridescent sparkle here and there upon some blade of grass, it is drawn upward and passes away — but all that it has touched is freshened and beauti- fied by its silent yet potent presence.'"2
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be ; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere :
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night, — It was the plant and flower of Light. In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures life may perfect be.3
1 N. D. Hillis, The Investment of Influence, 13.
s J. T. Faris, Jesus and I are Friends: The Life of Dr. J. H. Miller, 251.
3 Ben Jonson
A Meeting with God.
v>
Literature.
Beeching (H. C), Inns of Court Sermons, 96.
Brown (H. S.), Manliness and Other Sermons, 24.
Campbell (R. J.), Thursday Mornings at the City Temple, 89.
Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 23.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Septuagesima to Asn-
Wednesday, 209. Kingsley (C), All Saints' Day Sermons, 9. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., v. 301. Liddon (H. P.), Advent in St. Paul's, 317. Robinson (F.), College and Ordination Addresses, 142. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xvi. (1870), No. 923 ;
li. (1905), No. 2965. Stewart (J.), Outlines of Discourses, 287. Stowell (H.), Sermons, 297. Stuart (J.), Sermons, 255.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), i. (1860), No. 303. Christian World Pulpit, xiv. 385 (H. P. Liddon). Churchman's Pulpit : General Advent Season, i. 135 (F. E. Lawrence) ;
Sermons to the Young, xvi. 4 (J. Edmond). Literary Churchman, xxxi. (1885) 501 (S. Pascoe). National Preacher, viii. 233 (R. S. Storrs) ; xxx. 183 (D. H. Coyner).
A Meeting with God.
Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.— Amos iv. 12.
1. The writings of the prophet Amos have a peculiar interest to the student of the Bible. They are the earliest extant Hebrew prophecy of any length upon the date of which scholars are agreed. But it is not to students alone that the writings are interesting. Amos himself was not a scholar. He was a shepherd and a fruit-dresser. He had not been educated among the sons of the prophets. He had been trained in the school of nature. Hence it is that his writings reflect more closely the life and thought of the nation to which he belonged, and have a deeper interest for the ordinary man than they would have had if they had been composed by a divine in his study.