Thus we see that men may have excellent gifts of morality, and yet all these are but flowers that grow on brambles, far different from those graces of this other spirit that we speak of which only grows upon the tree of life. As many a fair flower may grow out of a stinking root, so many sweet dispositions and fair actions may be where there is only the corrupt root of nature. It is true, learning and morality are lovely; they are great blessings of God. But there is a pearl of price which is beyond them all which the true wise merchant will labor to get and will be content to sell all to obtain, as in Matthew 13:45-46. And this pearl of great price comes to be so excellent above all that learning and morality or any common gifts can make it. (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print. 120)
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Fair flowers and stinking root!
Thus we see that men may have excellent gifts of morality, and yet all these are but flowers that grow on brambles, far different from those graces of this other spirit that we speak of which only grows upon the tree of life. As many a fair flower may grow out of a stinking root, so many sweet dispositions and fair actions may be where there is only the corrupt root of nature. It is true, learning and morality are lovely; they are great blessings of God. But there is a pearl of price which is beyond them all which the true wise merchant will labor to get and will be content to sell all to obtain, as in Matthew 13:45-46. And this pearl of great price comes to be so excellent above all that learning and morality or any common gifts can make it. (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print. 120)
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