splendor is reflected; the rays of the light that shine from the mirror irradiate the countenance of him that looks from a distance; and looking into it he is transformed by its glory more and more into the likeness of the original that is there. We learn, from this idea of the apostle, that Christians are very much made by what they come into contact with. I read somewhere of a very illustrious painter who never would gaze at an ugly or an imperfect painting for a single moment, lest it should exercise a deteriorating influence upon his own beautiful conceptions. I think there was truth in that; that which we look at oftenest transfers itself, in a manner, to us. There seems to be a moral daguerreotype or calotype process as well as a mechanical and a material one; as if the moral character we most constantly contemplate, and are brought most continually into contact with, exercised upon us its own peculiar character. The man who is always making money the miser you can see that he has been in contact with money, and with nothing else. Notice the man, again, who has been in contact with the grand scenes of creation, he gives evidence of it by the expansion of his countenance. Everybody knows that what we are brought most frequently into contact with, does exercise upon the countenance as well as upon the affections, the sympathies, and the passions, a very distinct influence. And, if this be so, how important that we should be as much as possible in contact with all that ennobles, elevates, sanctifies, adorns! When you come into contact with something very grand-something like sublimity; if for instance, with the majestic ocean, when it rolls its waves to the strand against which it beats, you are so struck with the sublimity of the scene that you cannot think of any of the poor and paltry transactions of this present world. If you are brought into the presence of vast mountain scenery, you are so elevated by its grandeur. that all little and paltry recollections are dissolved and disappear. So when you come into contact with the great, the infinite, the glorious God, and drink deeply into his spirit, and catch upon your soul a portion of his glory, you are moulded silently, but surely, into his likeness; earthly cares, and earthly thoughts, and earthly anxieties, are lost and forgotten; and you can only think what you feel so profoundly of the brightness, and magnificence, and glory of the Being to whom you are brought near. And thus, beholding in God's Word, as in a glass, the glory of God in the countenance of Jesus Christ, you are transformed progressively from glory to glory, from strength to strength, till at last you appear before God in Zion. And lastly, even this is not done by the Word alone, but the Spirit also; as if the most effective mirror — God's Word - reflecting most purely Christ's glory, were not enough to transform us without its application by the Spirit of God. The word of God will be the savor of death, except the Spirit, promised to every one that asks, is pleased to make it the savor of life. May God make these truths with which we have been brought into contact, in the study of this Book, as rays of his glory, transforming us from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Amen. Love the Lord, and thou shalt see him, Do his will, and thou shalt know How the Spirit lights the letter, How a heavenly glory shines, In his acts of love and mercy, From the Gospel's simplest lines. |