Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/307

 struction—his first meal, or mess of pottage. The great pot that Elisha commanded to be set on for the people, contained its own proper food, and as such was the representative emblem of that great vessel that contains the spiritual food given to nourish the soul unto everlasting life. The Word of God is this great and grand vessel: it contains within itself all the doctrines of truth, goodness, faith, and life, which are spiritual meat and drink, the food given in mercy by the Lord, to nourish a growth in the Divine Life. Our food, to be mentally good and nutritious, must be extracted from this vessel alone; nothing must be put into it from any foreign source—all its fruits are gathered from Christ the true Vine! no wild gourds gathered from a wild vine must mingle here; for these are the evils and falsities of the world that corrupt the life and pervert the judgment. These, by mingling with the truths and goods of God's Word, profane the heavenly food, and destroy its life and purity by introducing death into the pot. In the WORD, are contained the pure doctrines and truths of heaven! in this our food is all prepared, and from it alone we should, for religious purposes, extract our daily bread. When wild gourds are shred into the pot, then evils and errors are mixed with the truths of heaven, and the food or instruction, from such mixture, becomes poisonous and deadly. A religious doctrine, if entirely false in all its bearings, may easily be detected and its deadly effects avoided; but if mingled with truth, the falsehood becomes somewhat plausible, the understanding is deceived, and the will is polluted. To counteract this, Elisha threw in fine flour, to teach us that when celestial love, the meal or flour, is thrown