The blessing is too big to contain, but just bursts
out and overflows through the life, the looks, the conversation,
the very tones of the voice, and gladdens and refreshes and
purifies wherever it goes. Jesus calls it "rivers of living
water" (John vii. 38).
There is an overflow of _love_. Sin brings in an overflow of
hate, so that the world is filled with wars and murders,
slanders, oppression, and selfishness. But this blessing causes
love to overflow. Schools, colleges, and hospitals are built;
shelters, rescue homes, and orphanages are opened; even war
itself is in some measure humanised by the Red Cross Society and
Christian commissions. Sinners love their own, but this blessing
makes us to love all men--strangers, the heathen, and even our
enemies.
There is an overflow of _peace_. It settles old quarrels and
grudges. It makes a different atmosphere in the home. The
children know it when father and mother get the Comforter. Kindly
words and sweet goodwill take the place of bitterness and strife.
I suspect that even the dumb beasts realise the overflow.
I heard a laughable story of a man whose cow would switch her
tail in his face, and then kick over the pail when he was milking
her, after which he would always give her a beating with the
stool on which he sat. But he got the blessing, and his heart was
overflowing with peace. The next morning he went to milk that
cow, and when the pail was nearly full, swish! came the tail in
his face, and with a vicious kick she knocked over the pail, and
then ran across the barn-yard.
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