The Soul of the Christ Life

“It is much easier to convince a human soul of its natural impurity, than to convince it of its natural hardness and utter destitution of heavenly and Divine tenderness.  The very essence of the gospel is Divine tenderness and sweetness of spirit.  Even among intensely religious people, nothing is rarer to find than a continuous and all-pervading spirit of tenderness.

“Tenderness of spirit is not the tenderness of mind and manner which result from high culture and a beautiful social training, though these are valuable in life.  No, it is a supernatural work throughout the whole spiritual being.  It is an exquisite interior fountain of God’s own sweetness and tenderness of nature, opened up in the inner spirit to such a degree that it completely inundates the soul, overflowing all the mental faculties and saturating with its sweet waters the manners, expressions, words, and tones of the voice; mellowing the will, softening the judgment, melting the affections, refining the manners, and molding the whole being after the image of Him who was infinitely meek and lowly in heart.

“Tenderness of spirit cannot be borrowed or put on for special occasions; it is emphatically supernatural, and must flow out incessantly from the inner fountains of life.

“Deep tenderness of spirit is the very soul and marrow of the Christ life.  What specific gravity is to the planet, what beauty is to the rainbow, what perfume is to the rose, what marrow is to the bone, what rhythm is to poetry, what the pulse is to the heart, what harmony is to music, what heat is to the human body—all this, and much more, is tenderness of spirit to religion.  It is possible to be very religious and staunch, and persevering in all Christian duties; possible, even, to be sanctified, to be a brave defender and preacher of holiness, to be mathematically orthodox and blameless in outward life, and very zealous in good works, and yet to be greatly lacking in tenderness of spirit—that all-subduing, all-melting love, which is the very cream and quintessence of heaven, and which incessantly streamed out from the voice and eyes of the blessed Jesus.”   --Lettie Cowman

I would that I could be

A wound-dresser

Of souls—

Reaching the aching heart,

The tortured mind, calming them as the night

Calms tired bodies

When she drops the mantle of sleep

Over the world.

As each cold, glittering star

So might I stand in mine,

But with the warmth of a smile

On my face,

And in my eyes

An image of the Soul Divine.

-L.C.