What is it in the nature of the oak that causes it to send its root down
into the soil and to drink up of its substance? What is it in the nature
of the child that causes it so eagerly to eat and play? It is the demand
in their nature for growth, or that innate struggle to conform to type.
Manhood is sleeping in the child's bosom, and it wrestles and struggles to
rise to the fulness of that image. What causes the Christian heart to long
to root deeper into God; that makes the soul seek his embrace? It is that
instinctive struggle to conform to God's glorious image. The entire
process of development is delightful. Whenever the natural tendency toward
growth ceases, the soul is in an abnormal state, and loses relish for the
things necessary to growth.
Christian, see to it that you keep in your heart a desire, a longing, a
panting, or, if you would rather I will say, a demand, in your spiritual
being to be more devotional to God, and meet that demand by resting by
faith in him, by prayer, by meditation, by service. Do this, and you will
become more devotional. But I love the word "desire.
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