Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/42

 gates." (Deut, xi. 20.) Blessed is the man who thus obeys! while of the hardened sinner who receives not the truth of heaven, but is utterly careless of all that is holy and true, the Lord says, "Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake." (Amos ix. 1.) It is indeed a safe state for man, when his external life, involving all of affection and thought, is imbued with the truth of heaven, when his lintel and door-posts are marked with the blood of the Lamb! He has kept the Passover—destruction has passed from him, and his external life is preserved.

T is well known to all who are acquainted with Holy Writ, that the names Judah and Jerusalem are mentioned in Scripture to signify the Church of God: Judah denoting love ruling therein, and Jerusalem truth. As the Lord is infinite in love to all, making his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, so He can only be known in his true character from love: for Divine wisdom is nothing but Love appearing in its own brightness. Hence it is written, "In Judah God is known " (Psalm lxxvi. 1), and "He dwelleth at Jerusalem" (Psalm cxxxv. 21); teaching us that in the Church, God is known from love, while His presence shines forth in truth. Now, in this chapter a siege against Judah and Jerusalem is described, and in this