The Sunflower and the Aqueduct

“As ihefioiver of the sun doth follow the sun, and openeth and shutteih according to the absence of that hnnmary; so doth the heart of a Christia7i move after GodJ’ The divine nature within us followeth hard after the divine nature, and longeth to drink in its warmth and light. Everything acteth according to its nature. We say, ‘Aqua in tantum ascendit’; a?td it is trice that 7ieither water 7ior nature riseth higher thaji its spring-head and cejttre.”

So when self is our principle and end, we rise no higher than ourselves; but when God becometh the life of our soul we follow after him, and rise far above the highest point to which nature could conduct us. His grace in us strives to rise to the point frorri which it came, and it will never rest till it does so. This argues a high destiny for the believer, and is the foretaste of it. Hence the need to have a good and true beginning, and to draw our life from the eternal fountains above; for, apart from this, there will be no rising up to heaven.

How sweet it is to find our mind and heart turning Godward, as the heliotrope seeks the sun! To find our joys begin and end with manifestations of Jesus’ love! It is well to pine till the Lord’s face be revealed, and only to flourish when he imparts his gracious influences. It is wise to turn away from all things in which God is not evidently present, but carefully to follow each movement of his shining face that we may always front his love, and bask in the beams of his favour.

Whatever partakes largely of the light of Jesus should be prized by us, whether it be fashioned after our own favourite model or no: the sun is there, and we must turn to it. ‘’Anything of Jesus’’ should be a sufficient attraction to us. A gleam of his sunlight should be prized, for it is far more than we deserve; and we should joyously receive it as the crocus drinks in the rich gold of the spring sun, and brims its cup therewith. What will it be to dwell above where the light no more goeth down, and the flowers feel no cold drops of the night?