The Gospel has been planted in our hearts that it may develop its beauty in our lives. We have but to yield ourselves to the blessed culture of the grace of God, and to be subject to the Lord Himself, whose tillage we are, and the blessedness of the Gospel will soon be seen. The meekness and gentleness of Christ will not be mere phrases on our lips, but beautiful realities in our lives. The Gospel brought forgiveness to us, so shall we forgive others; it brought peace into our souls, so we shall be peaceable; it set us in righteousness before God, so we shall be practically righteous in our ways; it has brought to us the knowledge of God’s love, so we shall love one another and do good to all men. And these flowers of grace will not bloom and wither in a day as so many flowers in our gardens do; they are everlasting flowers. God Himself will preserve them, for they glorify Him, and that which glorifies Him, because it is the fruit of His own word, will live and abide for ever. The poet Gray has tunefully said,
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
But these flowers of grace that adorn the Gospel in the lives of God’s people are not in that category. God sees them and delights in their fragrance even if nobody else cares. But others see them too, and many a weary Christian has been refreshed and blessed by their fragrance. A schoolmistress said to a friend of mine, “Your garden gives pleasure to many. I bring my girls past it every day, for I like them to appreciate beautiful things.” She spoke of a fading earthly garden, but these are heavenly flowers in the Lord’s garden which bless the soul. They flourished well in the young assembly at Antioch. And Barnabas, who had travelled all the way from Jerusalem to see what God had wrought there, was glad when he saw the grace of God. The Gospel was thus made visible there (Acts 11).
J. T. Mawson