The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

THE TEN LEPERS 275
day, and revel in the sight of a beautiful landscape,
and listen to the birds, and watch the dappled
shadows in the woodlands. Does it make no
difference whether you take it all as a mere
physical fact, or, on the other hand, recognise the
presence of the beneficent Spirit who pervades all
things and fills them with His glory, and makes
them glow with light and colour till you worship
in your heart, whispering, " This is none other than
the house of God, this is the gate of heaven "
You are surrounded by a happy home and circle
of friends, and your days are full of innocent sources
of satisfaction ;
your cup of life is full, and runneth
over. Is it nothing whether, on the one hand, you
simply take these blessings for granted, using them
as mere things, whose sweetness is
the
to be extracted to
full, but having no meaning beyond that which
meets your eye and sense ; or whether you see in it
all a manifestation of the goodness of the Creator
and Sustainer of your life, and an appeal to Him
from you to hallow these blessings by a thankful
spirit and an unselfish response
And when we rise into the region of the spirit, and
deal with the realities of the soul, we are met with
the fact that, apart from faith in the good God, the
Saviour of men, these things have no meaning at
all, or only a dwarfed and stunted meaning at
best. Religion without gratitude is body without
soul, form without reality. For religion on our side
is response to the love and grace of God, and that
response must in the first place take the shape of
thanksgiving and praise for what God is to us, and
what He has done for us.