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The New Zealand Evangelist

Fruits of the Gospel.—

Fruits of the Gospel.—

In Eastern poetry they tell of a wondrous tree, on which grew golden apples and silver bells—and every time the breeze went by and tossed the fragrant branches, a shower of these golden apples fell, and the living bells—they chimed and tinkled forth their airy ravishment. On the Gospeltree there grow melodious blossoms,—sweeter bells than those which mingled with the pomegranates on Aaron's vest,—holy feelings, heaven taught joys; and when the wind blowing where he listeth, the south wind waking,—when the Holy Spirit breathes upon that soul,—there is the shaking down of mellow fruits, and the flow of healthy odours all around, and the gush of sweetest music, whose gentle tones and joyful echoings are wafted through all the recesses of the soul. Difficult to name, and too ethereal to define these joys are on that account but the more delightful. The sweet sense of forgiveness; the conscious exercise of all the devout affections, and grateful and adoring emotions God-ward; the lull of sinful passions, itself ecstatic music; an exulting sense of the security of the well-ordered covenant; the gladness of surety-righteousness, and the kind spirit of adoption encouraging you to say, “Abba, Father;”—all the happy feelings which the Spirit of God increases or creates, and which are summed up in that comprehensive word, “Joy in the Holy Ghost.”