_A HEALTHY PALATE_
"_How sweet are Thy words unto my taste._"
--PSALM cxix. 97-104.
Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the
bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest
grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of
palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it
is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is
like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it is
"as honey to the mouth"; to another the same word is as unwelcome as a
bitter drug. It is all a matter of palate.
But what is a man to do who has got a perverted palate, and who calls
sweet things bitter and bitter things sweet? He must get a new mouth! And
where is he to get it? Not by any ministry of his own creation; his own
endeavours will be impotent. A healthy moral palate depends upon the
purity of the heart. Our spiritual discernments are all determined by the
state of the soul. If the heart be pure, the mouth will be clean, and we
shall love God's law. If the soul-appetite be healthy, God's words will be
sweet unto our taste. And so does the good Lord give us new palates by
giving us new hearts. "Create within us clean hearts, O God, and renew
right spirits within us."