. Spiritual Beauty by J. R. Miller. Worship the Lord in
the beauty of His holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth. Psalm 96 9. Let the beauty of
the Lord our God be upon us. Psalm 90 17. Paul enjoins us that whatsoever
things are lovely shall be in the vision of life into which
we aim to fashion our character. We are to follow in the footsteps
of our Master. Jesus himself was altogether
lovely, Song of Songs 516. Humanity was made to be beautiful. God's ideal for man was spotless
loveliness. Man was made at first in God's
image. But sin has left its foul trail
everywhere. We see something of its debasement
wherever we go. What ruins sin has wrought! All of Christ's work of grace
is towards the restoration of beauty of the Lord in His people. Spiritual beauty is holiness. Nothing unclean is lovely. Character
is Christlike only when it is beautiful. All the precepts of
the Bible are towards the fashioning of beauty in every redeemed life. We are to put away all that is
sinful, all marring, every blot and blemish, every unholy desire,
feeling, and affection, everything that would defile and put on
whatsoever is lovely and Christlike. The one great work of Christ
in Christian lives is the fashioning of holiness in them. We are to
grow away from our deformities, our faults, our infirmities,
our poor, draught, stunted life into spiritual beauty. The mark
set before us is the likeness of Christ, which at last we shall
attain. We know that when He appears,
we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is, and
everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as
He is pure. 1 John 3, 2 and 3.