express their quality it is said, that adder's poison is under their lips. (Psalm cxl. 3.) How differently is the good man described as to his spiritual growth and life. He shall flourish like a palm tree, grow like a cedar in Lebanon, and bring forth good fruit in old age. (Psalm xcii. 12-14.) He is compared to the olive, vine, and fig tree, and the emanating sphere of his life to sweet and fragrant odours. Thus in the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley we can see the emblems of Him from whom all that is fragrant, heavenly, and good, proceed.
O my soul, consider that from thy words and actions, which in Scripture are called works, there goes forth constantly an emanating sphere, that faithfully proclaims the real state and quality of thy hidden life, as to interior affection and thought; and know for certainty that every man will be judged and rewarded according to his works, if evil treasure be in thy heart, and is there loved and cherished, the outward emanation thereof will be sure to proclaim, in the day of reckoning, as by a filthy odour, the iniquity and pollution which rule within.
But oh, how joyous the prospect of that humble Christian whose heart possesses the good treasure! The outward sphere of his life will be as an odour of rest to Jehovah; it will be congenial to the angels and to the purity of heaven, and be as the soft emanation of love and charity, imperceptibly leading him onward to the mansions of the blessed, and to the possession of joys that never die! As in the future world congenial spirits mingle together, so the sphere of the good man is instantly recognised by the good, and that of the evil by the evil.
