wonderful union, like the seed-vessel
and the seed: the one enshrines the other.

God builds up a shrine within us of His workmanship, from the day in
which Jesus was received. The seed-vessel is its picture. With the
old nature He can have nothing to do except to deliver it to death:
no improving can fit it for His purpose, any more than the leaf or
tendril, however beautiful, can be the receptacle of the seed. There
must be "a new creation" (R.V., margin), "the new man," to be the
temple of the Divine Life.

And as the petals drop off, and the growing seed-vessel comes into
view, we see a fresh individuality developed. Compare in these four
pages some of the seed-vessels of a single family--vetch and clover:
we found over thirty species of it in that one field of the
frontispiece. These will show something of their extraordinary
variety--we have bunches of horns great and small, and bunches of
imitation centipedes, and bunches of mock holly leaves, prickly coils
and velvety balls; mimic concertinas, and bits of quaint embroidery;
imitation snail-shells, croziers, pods with frills at the seams,
spiked caskets with curious indentations, clusters of stars, bladders
like soft paper, and plaited spirals wound into a tiny cocoanut,
that, untwisted, becomes a minature crown of thorns--are they not all
a visible expression of the thoughts that are more than can be
numbered? And the greater part spring from little unnoticeable
flowers, so alike in their yellow or pink that you have to look
closely in order to find out any difference! It is the seed-bearing
that gives them their individual character.

And the same God has manifold plans for our development too, as
vessels for His Christ-life. It is by the Divine indwelling that our
true, eternal personality dawns, and for the expression of the
special manifestation of Himself which is entrusted to each one of
us. The protoplasm that quickens each different seed is one and the
same essence, but in no two does it find the same expression. He
needs the whole Church to manifest His whole character and accomplish
His appointed ministry, and so the individual development must differ
widely in everything but the common vital principle. Life--eternal
life--is the essence of all--life receiving and life-giving. There is
no need to imitate the seed-vessel of a brother vetch!--only to draw
into our own the fulness of grace that we may develop into its full
individuality the mission e