nor fruit upon it. Had it continued in that state, it would be cut
down as a worthless thing. But it had a receptacle of life, and that
life is in the sun which imparts heat and light to everything. The sun
makes the earth warm; the watery vapors to ascend and form clouds
which give rain; the sap to rise and form itself into leaves, blossoms
and fruits. Every unconverted man and woman, just like that tree in
winter, is dead as to all divine or heavenly life in the soul. Let us
see: He is dead as to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He does not love
him. He lives just as if there were no God to love and obey; no hell
to shun; no heaven to obtain. He does not love the people of God as
such. But, notwithstanding all this, he has a capacity, such as God
has given to every man, to be made alive in Christ Jesus. Christ is
called the Sun of Righteousness. He is so called because he, like the
sun in our sky, rises and shines upon the evil and the good; and
whosoever opens his heart to the light of this Sun is filled with the
light of _truth_ and _love_, and made alive to walk in the way of
righteousness before him.

This light comes through his Word, the Gospel of our salvation, as it
is proclaimed by his faithful ministers, and falls upon every sinner.
If the sinner will open his ears to the voice, and his eyes to the
light, the promise in the text is that he "_shall live_." Jesus says:
"I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall have the
light of LIFE. In him is light, and the light is the LIFE of men." But
if the sinner, like the owl, closes his eyes to the light of truth,
and his ears to the voice of the Lord, he will abide in death, and,
like the owl, love darkness rather than light forever.

SUNDAY, July 19, Magdalena Wampler and John Miller's wife baptized.