Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken lights of Thee;
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.

If one travels on the continent, one can see (I think it is at Avignon)
the ruins of the ancient Roman aqueduct; but the Rhine and the rest of
the rivers of God flow on still, full of water.

Let names and sects and parties fall,
That Jesus may be all in all.

As we learn to live the life of dependence upon the Lord, we must not
be surprised if a great deal of our early theology drops off: it does
not always sit down with us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Instead of Solomon's pools and aqueducts there is given to us a pure
river of water of life, gleaming as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb; and I think we may say of those who
receive the life of God in this immediate and wonderful manner, that
"not even Solomon, in all his glory, was so well supplied as one of
these."

Finally, we may say, that the Life is one of absolute dependence, and
is conditioned on the sovereignty of God and of the Lamb. Grace and
the Holy Ghost are the portions of the dependent soul: they only flow
from the throne of God and of the Lamb. I am amazed to find how much
of true religion may be resolved into that one word "dependence." I
can remember the time when I could not enter into the Psalm, "Lord, my
heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself
in great matters, nor in things too high for me"; nor sing the verse,
"I would be treated as a child, and guided where I go." Now it is, I
hope, different. Moreover, we are sure that this spirit of dependence
is one of the main features of the angelic life; we cannot imagine it
otherwise; for the source of the river is the throne.

We sang in our hymn the lines--

I know Thou hast my heart,
And I have heaven;

but we can only sing the second line where we have said or sung the
first.

IV

HEART ENLARGEMENT

"I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shall enlarge my
heart."--Ps. cxix. 32.

If we were to study the names of the different sects and parties that
make up the "Ishmael" of God, we should find them to be singularly
unsuggestive of such a thing as the existence of a spiritual life; nor
could we easily infer from the nomenclature of so-called Christendom
that "there is a spirit in man, and that the inspiration of the
Almighty giveth