| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 16 |
Page 6 |
Henry van Dyke tells of two streams that emptied into the sea.
One was a sluggish rivulet, in a wide, fat, muddy bed; and every day the tide came in and drowned out the poor little stream, and filled it with bitter brine. The other was a vigorous, joyful, brimming mountain river, fed from the unfailing spring among the hills; and all the time it swept the salt water back before it, and kept itself pure and sweet; and when the tide came, it only made the fresh water rise higher and gather new strength by the delay; and ever the living stream poured forth into the ocean its tribute of living water — the symbol of that influence which keeps the ocean of life from turning into a Dead Sea of wickedness.
But there is no way to save our lives from being swallowed up in the bitter floods of sin in this world but by having them full of divine life. A feeble stream of spiritual life has no power to resist the evil of the world. Only the abundant life can keep itself pure and sweet.
A wild gypsy girl was sitting for her picture in an artist’s studio in Germany. Opposite to her as she sat hung an unfinished picture of the crucifixion. One day the girl asked, “Master, who is that?”
“That is Jesus Christ, Son of Mary,” replied the painter.
“Was He a very bad man, that they treated Him so cruelly?”
“On, no! He was the best Man that ever lived,” said the artist, carelessly.
“Tell me more about Him,” pleaded the girl, who had never heard of Jesus before.
Day after day as the girl came to the studio her eyes remained fixed upon the picture of the Christ on His cross. When her sittings were ended and she was going away, she whispered: “Master, how can you help loving Him who, you say, died for you? If anybody had loved me like that, oh, I’d like to die for him.”
Has not the love of Christ for you power to win you to love Him?
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