Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/47



N these words of the Lord we are taught a lesson at once both serious and impressive. It points out correctly the source whence good and evil things proceed; the source is the heart. O God! what a depth of wisdom can we now discover in the words, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (ver. 34.) Out of the heart are the issues of life; and who can doubt but that such as the heart is, whether good or evil, such will be the issues? The spititual emanation or sphere—as odours from flowers—will proclaim outwardly the quality of the life within. We know that in the vegetable world a poisonous effuvium or emanation proceeds constantly from the deadly nightshade, and other deleterious plants; and that the rose, lily, violet, and other flowers send forth delicious and fragrant odours as outward effects of their respective causes or qualities within; and as truth, in all the modes of its manifestation, is once harmonious whole, so there can be no doubt but that from the evil heart comes forth a sphere or emanation, at once evil and deadly, corresponding to the source whence it issues. This source is called evil treasure, from which nothing can come but evil things. Hence the wicked man in Scripture, although said to flourish, it is only as the spreading forth of a green bay tree,— a tree full of poison. (Psalm xxxvii. 35.) The words of the wicked are deceitful and treacherous, and to