The volcano is quiet and silent for years.
No fires and lava pour forth from its crater.
Meanwhile, people venture up its slopes,
and lay out their gardens, and build
their villas, and plant their vineyards.
And flowers bloom, and fruits hang
in purple clusters, and beauty covers
the once fire-swept, lava-furrowed
mountain slopes.
But has the volcano really been
tamed? Have its fires been put out?
Is all permanently peaceful in
the volcano's heart?
Just so is the heart of a man,
who has merely trained himself
into good moral and ethical habits.
What the best mere self-culture
can do for a life--
is no more than the planting
of flowers and vineyards
on the volcano's sides--
while all its fires still burn
within, ready to break forth
again any day in all their old fury!
Good manners are not saving
religion. The heart must be changed.
The heart of stone, must be made
a heart of flesh. The heart that
hates GOD, and holiness and purity--
must become a heart that loves GOD,
HIS holy ways, and HIS holy Word.
a new spirit within you; and I will
remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put MY SPIRIT within you
and cause you to walk in MY
statutes, and you will be careful
to observe MY ordinances."
Ezekiel 36:26-27
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