A Goodly Heritage

 the living family  have to be FED. We have remarked that there is a growth of the members of the mystical body of Christ, and that to conduce to and promote this growth is to edify or build up the body of Christ. As in the natural, so in the spiritual body, this growth much depends on the nature and quality of the food supplied to it. Let the food given to the natural body be thin, watery, deficient in those peculiar elements of nutrition which supply the continual wasting of the bodily tissues, and in consequence, will be emaciation of the whole frame. This is especially the case in childhood and youth, when the growth of the whole body and of its various members is going on, and the future man or woman is being built up. The difference at that period of life between scanty, insufficient, unnutritious food, and an ample supply of sound, wholesome, nourishing diet is a matter of illness or health, debility or vigor, and, in their consequences, of death and life. So in t...

These words show just where Ephraim was in soul experience. He does not represent one destitute of spiritual light and life, but a quickened vessel of mercy, but one who was wrapping himself up in a garment, not of Christ's giving, nor of the Spirit's application. And there are many still who have the fear of God in their hearts who are wrapping themselves up in a covering which is not of God's Spirit. There is something more to be known than the bare doctrine of Christ's righteousness. That doctrine may even become a lying refuge if the mere letter of truth is sheltered in, and the Holy Ghost does not experimentally make it known to the soul. I.  THE SOUL EXPERIENCE INDICATED. "A following on to know the Lord." To know the Lord is the desire of every living soul. To know Him by His own Divine manifestations, by the gracious revelation of His grace, His love, His presence, His glory. To know the Lord is to know, experimentally and spiritually, the power of ...