Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/71

 springs not from knowing only, but from doing the Lord's will. These are the happy persons who dig deep and lay the foundation of their spiritual house upon a rock, against which temptation's storm and tempest can never prevail. It is in this heavenly, in this Salem and Zion of the soul, that man stands secure; for there the Lord "brake the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle" of the enemy. (Psalm lxxvi. 3.) O how tranquil and peaceful is the life of religion! it gives a zest even to all earthly enjoyments, and, as these fade, opens ina future world the joys that never die.

Iniquities are those false persuasions which lead us astray from truth, and thus separate from God. But sins are more direful, for they denote the evils of the will, the corruptions and pollutions of life, which, by hiding the Divine face of clemency and mercy from our sight, turn even mercy's face into a frown, and our blessings into curses. Religion, on the other hand, rebinds the soul to God, expels what is evil and false from the mind, makes all within tranquil and peaceful, brightens the intellect, and sanctifies the life by inscribing upon every affection and thought,.

HEN the Israelites were brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and when by the power and guidance of the Lord