A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females | Page 5

instruction from the objects around him. He directed her attention away from the
water which can only quench animal thirst, to that living water which refreshes the soul.
But she, not understanding him, wished to know how he could obtain living water from a
deep well, without anything to draw with. In order to show the superiority of the water of
life, he told her that those who drank it should have it in them, constantly springing up of
itself, as if the waters of the well should rise up and overflow, without being drawn. The
very idea of a living spring seems to cut off the hope of backsliders. You remember the
cold spring that used to flow from the rock, before our father's door. The severest drought
never affected it, and in the coldest season of a northern winter it was never frozen. Oft,
as I rose in the morning, when the chilling blasts whistled around our dwelling, and
everything seemed sealed up with perpetual frost, the ice and snow would be smoking
around the spring. Thus, like a steady stream, let your graces flow, unaffected by the
drought or barrenness of others, melting the icy hearts around you.
This "living water," in the soul, is intended to represent the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
In the new birth, there is formed a holy union between the Spirit of God and the faculties
of the soul, so that every correct feeling, with every good act, is produced by the Holy
Spirit acting in unison with those faculties. Hence, our bodies are called the temple of the
Holy Ghost, and he is said to dwell in us. What a solemn truth! What holy fear and
carefulness ought we to feel continually; and how softly should we walk before the Lord
of Hosts!
"The righteous," says David, "shall flourish like a palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon." But if the cedar should cease to grow as soon as it springs up, it would never
become a tree. It must wither and die.--Again; it is said, "Ye shall _go forth and grow up
as calves of the stall_." A healthy calf, that is fed in the stall, cannot but grow and thrive.
And surely the Lord has furnished us, in his holy word, abundant food for our spiritual
growth and nourishment. If the calf is diseased, or if he refuses to eat, he will pine away
and die; and so with us. The apostle Paul speaks of growing up into Christ, in all things;
and of increasing in the knowledge of God. By this he evidently means, that experimental
knowledge of God in our hearts, by which we are changed into his image. The apostle
Peter exhorts us to "grow in the grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ." Again, he directs us to feed upon the sincere and simple truths of the
gospel, as the infant is nourished by its mother's milk, and to grow thereby. As
conversion is called being "born again," the young convert is very properly compared to a

"new-born babe." As a babe is least when first born, so the Christian, when first
converted, has the least grace; unless, indeed, he becomes diseased, and pines away, like
a sickly infant. And such is truly the deplorable case of the backslider.
The motives which urge us to seek and maintain an elevated standard of piety are the
highest that can be presented to our minds. _The glory of God requires it._ This is the
greatest possible good. It is the manifestation of the divine perfections to his intelligent
creatures. This manifestation is made by discovering to them his works of creation,
providence, and grace, and by impressing his moral image upon their hearts. In this their
happiness consists. In promoting his own glory, therefore, God exercises the highest
degree of disinterested benevolence. Nothing can add to his happiness; nothing can
diminish it. If the whole creation were blotted out, and God were the only Being in the
universe, he would still be perfectly glorious and happy in himself. There can be,
therefore, no selfishness in his desiring his own glory. It is the good of the creature alone
that is promoted by it. A desire to glorify God must, then, be the ruling principle of all
your conduct, the moving spring of all your actions. But how is the glory of God
promoted by your growth in grace?
1. It is manifested to yourself, by impressing his image upon your heart; and by giving
you a spiritual discovery of the excellence, purity and loveliness, of his moral character.
2. It is manifested to others, so far as you maintain a holy life and conversation; for
thereby the moral image of