Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/199

 possesses therefore all power both in heaven and in earth. (Matt. xxviii. 18.)

As we can acknowledge God, without any difficulty, to be good, wise, and perfect, but to explain the esse of His being is not possible (for finite minds can never fully scan the bright perfections of the Infinite); so we can recognise life as exhibited in the forms that bask in the sunshine of this bright and breathing world, much better than we can describe what it is. Still we may praise God for his universal goodness. God, who is Life itself, is the All-in-all of his lovely creation, since creation void of God is creation void of life, which is a nonentity. Life, then, as far as human thought can express it, is the creative power or breath of Jehovah, originating in Him, and in going forth from Him fills all created forms with animated joy and gladness. The great truth to be acknowledged, is, that man, though the noblest work of God, and the most perfect of all forms, because the image and likeness of his Maker, is not life itself, but only a recipient of life, dependent each moment on the One Life for all that he has and is. We do not live of and by ourselves: no! it is "in God we live, move, and have our being." Life, as it is in God, is not at all changed or altered, but is varied in its effects by the recipient. A full reception of life from the Lord produces peace and all that is blessed; an imperfect one, restlessness and anxiety. It is the same in bodily life; for when the animal structure receives the in-flowing life in a perfect manner, the body is at ease and tranquillity; but if obstruction, by disease or otherwise, be offered to the progress of life, there is instantly felt sadness and pain.