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Prophets and Kings
sin and moral corruption. The world is full of sickness, suffering, and
iniquity. Nigh and afar off are souls in poverty and distress, weighed
down with a sense of guilt and perishing for want of a saving influence.
The gospel of truth is kept ever before them, yet they perish because
the example of those who should be a savor of life to them is a savor of
death. Their souls drink in bitterness because the springs are poisoned,
when they should be like a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life.
Salt must be mingled with the substance to which it is added; it
must penetrate, infuse it, that it may be preserved. So it is through
personal contact and association that men are reached by the saving
power of the gospel. They are not saved as masses, but as individuals.
Personal influence is a power. It is to work with the influence of
Christ, to lift where Christ lifts, to impart correct principles, and to
stay the progress of the world’s corruption. It is to diffuse that grace
which Christ alone can impart. It is to uplift, to sweeten the lives
and characters of others by the power of a pure example united with
earnest faith and love.
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Of the hitherto polluted spring at Jericho, the Lord declared, “I
have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more
death or barren land.” The polluted stream represents the soul that is
separate from God. Sin not only shuts away from God, but destroys
in the human soul both the desire and the capacity for knowing Him.
Through sin, the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is
perverted, the imagination corrupted; the faculties of the soul are
degraded. There is an absence of pure religion, of heart holiness.
The converting power of God has not wrought in transforming the
character. The soul is weak, and for want of moral force to overcome,
is polluted and debased.
To the heart that has become purified, all is changed. Transforma-
tion of character is the testimony to the world of an indwelling Christ.
The Spirit of God produces a new life in the soul, bringing the thoughts
and desires into obedience to the will of Christ; and the inward man is
renewed in the image of God. Weak and erring men and women show
to the world that the redeeming power of grace can cause the faulty
character to develop into symmetry and abundant fruitfulness.
The heart that receives the word of God is not as a pool that evap-
orates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the