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of weariness, loneliness, and dissatisfaction will then cease. Satisfying
joys will give vigor to the mind and health and vital energy to the body.
If physicians and workers flatter themselves that they are to find
a panacea for the varied ills of their patients by supplying them with
a round of amusements similar to those which have been the curse
of their lives, they will be disappointed. Let not these entertainments
be placed in the position which the living Fountain should occupy.
The hungry, thirsty soul will continue to hunger and thirst as long as
it partakes of these unsatisfying pleasures. But those who drink of
the living water will thirst no more for frivolous, sensual, exciting
amusements. The ennobling principles of religion will strengthen the
mental powers and will destroy a taste for these gratifications.
The burden of sin, with its unrest and unsatisfied desires, lies at
the very foundation of a large share of the maladies the sinner suffers.
Christ is the mighty healer of the sin-sick soul. These poor afflicted
ones need to have a clearer knowledge of Him whom to know aright is
life eternal. They need to be patiently and kindly yet earnestly taught
how to throw open the windows of the soul and let the sunlight of
God’s love come in to illuminate the darkened chambers of the mind.
The most exalted spiritual truths may be brought home to the heart by
the things of nature. The birds of the air, the flowers of the field in
their glowing beauty, the springing grain, the fruitful branches of the
vine, the trees putting forth their tender buds, the glorious sunset, the
crimson clouds predicting a fair morrow, the recurring seasons—all
these may teach us precious lessons of trust and faith. The imagination
has here a fruitful field in which to range. The intelligent mind may
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contemplate with the greatest satisfaction those lessons of divine truth
which the world’s Redeemer has associated with the things of nature.
Christ sharply reproved the men of His time because they had not
learned from nature the spiritual lessons which they might have learned.
All things, animate and inanimate, express to man the knowledge of
God. The same divine mind that is working upon the things of nature is
speaking to the minds and hearts of men, and creating an inexpressible
craving for something they have not. The things of the world cannot
satisfy their longing. To all these thirsting souls the divine message
is addressed: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely.”