Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/126

 real Sabbath where there is no peace; hence the wicked enjoy not the Sabbath, for "there is not peace, saith my God, to the wicked." So long as the external man is not reduced to obedience, and willing to serve the internal, there must be conflict; but so soon as the external begins to comply with the requirements of the internal, tranquillity is gradually formed; and the nature and quality of this tranquillity which produces the herb and plant of the field, are those rational and scientific principles from a celestial origin, which are plants fit to grow in the garden of God. This delightful state is further described by the Lord in Ezek. xxxiv. 25-27, 31: "I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderncss, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them, and the places round about my hill, a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God."

Man formed from the dust of the ground (Gen. ii. 7), can only be so far considered man, from the configuration. In reality, the external is not man, as, indeed, is declared in verse 5: "There was not a man to till the ground." To become a living man, it is necessary that the Lord should breathe into his nostrils the soul of lives—that is, the life which is of love, and the life which is of faith, and the power of perception to know and practise these.