Evening, June 5
Go To Morning Reading
“He that loveth not knoweth not God.”
1 John 4:8
The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in the love
of Christ, and the yielding of his affections to Christ in return.
First, faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling the soul to say
with the apostle, “Christ loved me and gave himself for me.” Then love gives the countersign, and stamps upon the heart gratitude
and love to Jesus in return. “We love him because he first loved us.” In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian
religion, this double mark was clearly to be seen in all believers
in Jesus; they were men who knew the love of Christ, and rested upon
it as a man leaneth upon a staff whose trustiness he has tried. The
love which they felt towards the Lord was not a quiet emotion which
they hid within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls, and
which they only spake of in their private assemblies when they met
on the first day of the week, and sang hymns in honour of Christ Jesus
the crucified, but it was a passion with them of such a vehement and
all-consuming energy, that it was visible in all their actions, spoke
in their common talk, and looked out of their eyes even in their commonest
glances. Love to Jesus was a flame which fed upon the core and heart
of their being; and, therefore, from its own force burned its way
into the outer man, and shone there. Zeal for the glory of King Jesus
was the seal and mark of all genuine Christians. Because of their
dependence upon Christ’s love they dared much, and because of their love to Christ they did much, and it is the same now. The children of God are ruled in their
inmost powers by love—the love of Christ constraineth them; they rejoice that divine love
is set upon them, they feel it shed abroad in their hearts by the
Holy Ghost, which is given unto them, and then by force of gratitude
they love the Saviour with a pure heart, fervently. My reader, do
you love him? Ere you sleep give an honest answer to a weighty question!