KEPT IN THE LOVE OF GOD

KEPT IN THE LOVE OF GOD

God has most wisely and sweetly appointed everything that is. If each of us had the cross, putting away in him what has been put away in it by Christ in agony, every arrangement of God for us would be not only bearable but sweet; this I am convinced of.

I think our strength and rest depend on our keeping before our souls, not the greatness of what is against us, but the greatness of that which is for us. Satan is overcome by a Man in whom we are “more than conquerors”. I believe if you want Christ’s company and the blessings of it, you must walk out solitary in the dark night into the desert place, stretching out your hand for Him, feeling for Him, and then He will appear and grasp it and will shed the light and joy of His society on you and on your path and place; and this once known can never be forgotten, though it may be overlooked, and it is never imitated, though it may have many rivals! How bright it makes this dying scene when you meet in it what will last for ever! As I look back I see the different grappling irons that would detain the balloon from soaring up. I feel so much the difficulty of getting the heart out of the world. Everyone seems to have something to tie him down, and to win Christ seems so little one’s unceasing pursuit;

^[p. 437] consequently hearts are so little filled with the streams of blessing which flow from Him. I long to see you, not only intelligent in His mind and seeing what suits Him, but your heart giving out His enjoyments as one refreshed with new wine. Oh, how I feel the blessedness of being entitled to have done with all that that can dishonour Him! I feel the soul and mind ought to devote themselves in simple-heartedness to Christ. It often saddens me that so very few are really devotedly following the Lord, of the true servant type, keeping yourselves in the love of God, till He present you faultless before His glory with exceeding joy.