The word which is translated 'heat' has a close connection with, if it
does not literally mean, 'naked' or 'bare.' Probably, as I have said,
it designates some inconspicuously leaved desert shrub, the particular
species not being ascertainable or a matter of any consequence. Leaves,
in Scripture, have a recognised symbolical meaning. 'Nothing but
leaves' in the story of the fig-tree meant only beautiful outward
appearance, with no corresponding outcome of goodness of heart, in the
shape of fruit. So I may venture here to draw a distinction between
leafage and fruit, and say that the one points rather to a man's
character and conduct as lovely in appearance, and in the other as
morally good and profitable.
This is the lesson of these two clauses--misdirected confidence in
creatures strips a man of much beauty of character, and true faith in
God adorns a soul with a leafy vesture of loveliness. Now, I have no
doubt that there start up in your minds at once two objections to that
statement: first, that a great many godless men do present fair and
attractive features of character; and secondly, that a great many
Christian men do not. I admit both things frankly, and yet I say that,
for the highest good, the perfect crowning beauty of any human
character, this is needed, that it should cling to God. 'Whatsoever
things are lovely and of good report' lack their supreme excellence,
the diamond on the top of the royal crown, the glittering gold on the
summit of the campanile, unless there is in them a distinct reference
to God.
I believe that I am speaking to some who would not profess themselves
to be religious men, and who yet are truly desirous of cultivating in
their character the Fair and the Good. To them I would venture to
say--brethren, you will never be so completely, so refinedly, so truly,
graceful as you might be, unless the roots of your character 'are hid
with Christ in God.'
'A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine,'
said good old George Herbert. And any act, however humble, on which the
light from God falls, will gleam with a lustre else unattainable, like
some piece of broken glass in the furrows of a ploughed field.
Sure I am that if we Christian people had a deeper faith, we should
have fairer lives. And I beseech you, my fellow-believers in Jesus
Christ, not to supply the other side with arguments against
Christianity, by showing that it is possible for a man to say and to
suppose that he sets his heart on God, and yet to bear but little
leafage of beauty or grace of character. Goodness is beauty; beauty is
goodness. Both are to be secured by communion and union with Him who is
fairer than the children of men. Dip your roots into the fountain of
life--it is the fountain of beauty as well as of life, and your lives
will be green.