Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/255

 holiness. We shall see it to be our duty to observe the divine commands, because they are in themselves good, and because they are enjoined by a good and holy God; and though our spiritual perceptions may not be opened—though we may have no wine—yet if the Lord and his disciples are present, when our minds are further instructed and opened, and our desires are excited for spiritual truth, the Lord will not fail to turn our water into wine.

HE doctrine of degrees is a very beautiful theory. In every state man ascends from that which is low to that which is exalted, by degrees; and the highest state of an inferior degree must be reached, before man is prepared for the lowest state of the degree just above it. Thus no man becomes in the lowest degree spiritual, until he has ascended by a life of moral good and truth to the highest degree of the natural; and even in the practice of natural good and truth, it must still be borne in mind that the ability is from the Lord, and must be acknowledged as derived constantly from Him. So long as the affection for goodness continues to operate, man continues to ascend. But we often find that the rational mind, while in the pursuit and practice of moral goodness, trusts too much to itself, and is too much elated with the