AFFECTION FOR CHRIST SEEKS ASSOCIATION WITH HIM
[p. 191] AFFECTION FOR CHRIST SEEKS ASSOCIATION WITH HIM
I was very glad of the subject you touched on in your letter. I am sure everything depends on our personal association with Christ; you must make a difference between your affection for Him and your association with Him. In your affection you are occupied with what you feel about Him, and this is gratifying as something found in oneself. I do not say this as condemning it; I think this affection ought to be in my heart, but when I first begin to know that it is there I like to find it. I know it is right, and I am rightly pleased, but if affection does not lead me to seek association with Him, it will not continue fresh. It springs up, but its true effect is springing up to Him, making me seek association with Him who is the object of my affection. If the association be obtained, the affection is satisfied, and then it is not so much the affection that is before me as the result of association with Him, which is regarding everything as it is regarded by Him; Himself and what suits Him becoming the standard and measure of everything. This is the result of association with Him. The more you are with Him the less you like anything which is not of Him and like Him. The man of this world, the ways of the world become, you hardly know how, daily more distasteful to you because He Himself in His blessed superiority is each day more the company of your heart. The affection is deepened and satisfied, though it is not so prominent as it once was, and there is no less interest in Him personally; on the contrary, there is the sense that one can never get enough of Him. The affection will decline or remain inactive if you do not seek association with Him. Every grace seeks its own result; and if its result or practice is not reached, it is sure to drop, or be inactive. You must see that your affection is active, and this is done by seeking association with Him, and the result of that, as I have said, will be a withdrawing from every thing that is not like Him and of Him. The Lord bless you abundantly, as I judge He will when He [p. 192] leads you to see where there has been any check to the desires of your heart. His showing it to you is proof how He is interested about you.