Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/174



ELESTIAL love to the Lord is the highest love of man; it is the root and spring of every blessing; it begets charity or love to man; softens down all the asperities of life, and breathes nothing but mercy and benevolence wherever it goes. This celestial love is in Scripture language called the mountain of Jehovah; it is in this supreme affection of the soul that Jehovah dwells; it is the principle in man on which the church is founded, and upon which it is built; it is hence called "Mount Zion—beautiful for situation, and the joy of the whole earth."

These pure celestial affections of the soul, whose first breathings are in ardent love to the Lord, are the mountains of which the Scriptures speak as bringing peace unto the people; for nothing can stop the sweet flow of peace among the community whose highest and best affections are fixed upon the Lord: and it is these mountains, the principles of celestial love, that are said to drop down new wine: and when we reflect that wine in Scripture is put to signify the divine truth, originating in pure celestial goodness, we may at once see the beauty of the divine language—"the mountains shall drop new wine." This spiritual truth is as the very droppings of heaven. It is the truth of revelation, pure in itself, and free from