Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/89

 it does not shine by a borrowed lustre from any other body; but possesses heat and light in itself. It is hence, in nature, the faithful emblem of the Lord the Creator; for God is pure love. God's pure love is shadowed forth in nature by the Sun's pure fire. The heat and light of the Sun, by the influence of which all nature is made living and fruitful, shews forth Jehovah's love and wisdom, by the operative power of which, heaven and the wide creation are made to teem with all that is living, joyous, and blessed. In God are love, wisdom, and life; hence He is the origin of all that live, move, and have any being! In the Sun are heat, light, and influence, and these pervade the whole system, to bless, enrich, and sustain the life of all. God as the Sun of Righteousness, is always the same: He loves all alike, and His love, ever perfect and pure, is described by the "Sun that rises alike upon the evil and the good." (Matt. v. 45.) So the sun in nature, knows no partiality, but shines with equal glory upon the rose and the nettle—the lily and the hemlock. The Divine Sun neither rises nor sets, but is always in the same altitude, ever pouring forth the vital ocean around. It is man's turning away from the Lord, that gives the appearance of the going down of the Divine Sun; as it is his turning to the Lord that makes known to him the rising of the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings. So the sun in nature neither rises nor sets, but it is the revolution of the earth upon its own axis—its turning alternately to and from the sun, that gives us the appearance of its rising and setting. When man turns with full purpose of heart to the Lord, so that Divine Love and Wisdom are received, then has the Sun of