THE RIVER AND THE ROCK-- FRANK L. COX

              THE RIVER AND THE ROCK

     " Love not the world, neither the things  that

        are in the world. If any man love the world,

    the love of the Father is not in him. For all that

        that is in the world, the lust of the flesh

    and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of

        life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

    And the world passeth away and the lust

         thereof: but he that doeth the will of

   God abideth forever. "  (1 John 2:15-17).

       In the sublime language we have read, 

   two basic ideas are set forth, which we shall 

       present in two figures. One is the river,

   the other the rock.

      The river represents things trasient-

   "the world and the lust thereof."  the world

      is outside us, lust within us. The world and

   the lust thereof "passeth away". We note

     that the tense is present. This means that

  these things are in the act of passing away

     even while we live. The world attracts us

  and allures us only for a time. Even before

     they are done with  it, men  cease to care

  for the world. Passions burn themselves

     out. Appetites and desires soon fail.

      The rock represents the man who obeys

   the will of God, who conforms his life to the

        divine pattern (1 Peter 2:21-23.)  The river

    passes on, but the rock remains---"abideth

        for ever".The same hopeful lesson is

    embedded in the parable of the two

        foundations, to which the Master gave 

    utterance (Matthew (7:24-27).
   

   As the  procession of the years moves on, the

     evil propensities outside us and inside us  

  pass away; but the man of God, like the 

     giant Gibraltar, stands in the current and

  defiies the changes of time. The house of

     his character shall never fail."

Let's let Christ live in us and build in us the

character that never fails.-Byrl Brockman