The Lord's Spiritual Garden

Providence, considered as the divine arrangement of things in relation to men, is the Lord's spiritual garden. It is to the spiritual growth what the earth is to the germination and growth of material products. If it be true, that the earth is the appointed instrumentality, through which and by which the seeds of things grow up, it is not the less true, though it may be less obvious, that the arrangements of Providence, spread out in the wide and variegated surface of things and events, constitute, in like manner, the instrumentality, the receptive and productive medium, in which the seed of the spiritual life is to be planted, to germinate and perfect itself.

The analogy is not limited to the productive medium. It extends to that which is produced, and also to the manner of production. The seed, which is planted in the earth, is a dead seed. So man's soul, when it is first cast into the soil of God's providence, is a dead seed. They are both alike dead, the material seed and the seed of immortality.

But neither the ground of nature nor that of providence, into which they are first received, would of itself alone reproduce them to a new life. To the natural seed, when planted in the earth, there must be applied the rain and the sunshine before it can be decomposed, incorporated with new elements, and vivified with new life and beauty. The earth, operating in connection with these exterior helps, takes off and removes the outer coats of the seed, until it reaches the central principle, which had been encrusted and shut out from all the benign influences of the sun and atmosphere, and with its fostering care rears it up from its embryo of existence to its developed and beautiful perfection. In like manner, when the seed of man's immortal spirit is planted in the midst of God's providences, it is not till the influences of the Holy Spirit are applied, that it is decomposed, if we may so express it, by a separation of the good and evil, and the eternal element, deprived of life by reason of sin, is made alive in the spiritual regeneration.

The analogy in the two cases is a very close one. The encircling system of providential arrangements, operating in connection with the aiding energy of God's Spirit, removes coat after coat of that selfishness which had enveloped and paralyzed every faculty; and reaching at last the central element of the soul, the principle of love, which had suffered this dreadful perversion, it restores it to that life, light, and beauty, from which it had wickedly fallen.

— A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 6, Chapter 6.

The Localities of Heaven and Hell

The Scriptures assert the doctrine of a local heaven, and also of a local hell. But  it  is not the locality or place which constitutes either the one or the other. Supreme love to God is the element or constituting principle of heaven. And nothing more is wanted than its opposite, viz., supreme selfishness, to lay the foundation of all the disorder and misery of hell.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CXIX.

Confession and Repentance

Confession of sin is an important duty; but there is no true confession of sin where there is not at the same time a turning away from it.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CXVIII.

Singleness of Heart

The desires and affections should all converge and meet in the same center, viz., in  the love of God's will and glory. When this is the case,  we  experience true simplicity or singleness of heart. The opposite of this, viz., a mixed motive, partly from God and partly from the world, is what is described in the Scriptures as a double mind. The double minded man, or the man who is not in true simplicity of heart, walks in darkness and is unstable in all his ways. "If thine eye be SINGLE, thy whole body shall be full of light."

— Religious Maxims (1846) CXVII.

Same Things, Different Character

A holy person often does the same things which are done by an unholy person, and yet, the things done in the two cases, though the same in themselves, are infinitely different in their character. The one performs them in the will of God, the other in the will of the creature.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CXVI.

The Love of the Cross

O Father! Let me bear the Cross,

Make it my daily food,

Though with it Thou dost send the loss

Of every other good.

Take house and lands and earthly fame;

To all I am resigned;

But let me make one earnest claim;

Leave, leave the Cross behind!

I know it costs me many tears,

But they are tears of bliss;

And moments there outweigh the years

Of selfish happiness.

The Cross is Love, to action given;

Love "seeking not its own;"

But finding truth and peace and heaven,

In good to others shown.

The Cross doth live in God's great life,

In Christ's dear heart doth shine;

And how, without its pains and strife

Shall God and Christ be mine?

— Christ in the Soul (1872) XXVIII.

Do Right

[CHRIST  IN  THE SOUL, is an expression, embracing all the mental or spiritual elements, which constitute the Christian character. It includes, therefore, the sentiment of rectitude, the soul's law of right, as well as the strictly religious affections.]

Go boldly on. Do what is right;
Ask not for private ease or good;
Let one bright star direct thy sight,
The polar star of rectitude.

Go boldly on. And though the road
Thy weary, bleeding feet shall rend,
Angels shall help thee bear thy load,
And God Himself thy steps attend.

Do  RIGHT.  And thou hast nought to fear;
Right hath a power that makes thee strong;
The night is dark, but light is near;
The grief is short, the joy is long.

Know, in thy dark and troubled day,
To friends of truth and right are given,
When strifes and toils have pass'd away,
The sweet rewards and joys of heaven.

— Christ in the Soul (1872) XXVII.