Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/303

 contemplate the one life, his Creator, he is immortal,—the close of his life in the natural world being but the beginning of his life in the spiritual.

O man! thou blessed child of the Divine Father, raise thy voice in praise of Him whose mercy endureth for ever.

HESE words are part of a parable by which the Lord was pleased to instruct the Scribes and Pharisees. Their minds were so sensual and worldly that they could not bear a direct application of divine truth; hence in accommodation to their necessities, the Lord mercifully covered over, by parables, the truth that, if unclothed, would have dazzled without illuminating. Truth, in scriptural language, when named as the clothing of spiritual goodness, is called a garment: a new garment is that truth which is seen to relate to the new life of regeneration; an old garment is mere knowledge not connected with the inward life. They are perfectly distinct;—the one may lead to the other, but the old can never become the new. As no one putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old one, so our Lord says, no man putteth new wine into old bottles; but new wine must be put into new bottles that both may be preserved. The new wine is here put to denote the spiritual truth of heaven, such as is received into the inmost of the mind, such as nourishes the affections, strengthens the judgment, and opens the joys of heaven to the de-