LOVE GIVES CHARACTER TO GIFTS, NOT GIFTS TO LOVE

^[p. 54] LOVE GIVES CHARACTER TO GIFTS, NOT GIFTS TO LOVE

Gifts speak to me of the love which gives them their character. The love is not lessened because it is expressed. It has spoken by its gifts, and they speak to me of it, but not to give me the idea that it has entirely expressed itself, like the silkworm conferring its gift and not surviving; nay, rather they assure me that it lives, and that it is in thought eternal and unalterable. This is divine love, it expresses itself by the greatness of its gifts; but it never lessens or diminishes its energy or thought of me because it has given so much. It remains rich in its own enjoyment in giving, and in my joy in possessing. The gift expresses to me the nature of the thought, but it is the thought which gives the highest character to the gift; and this remains for me to fall back on and enjoy, even if the gift perishes. We do not keep sufficiently in mind the thought that God has respecting us. We are pleased and gratified with His gifts, and, to a certain extent, we feel that it is from His love that they come; but His thought, and the interest in us from which they spring, often does not engage our hearts as much as the expressions themselves. He rejoices to give. I seek to study the love He has for me, and I see what and how He would tell me of His thought about me even on a low level; but the more spiritual and heavenly His gifts, the more I learn of His interest about me on the highest level. Invalid children receive from their parents indulgences and toys which stronger and happier ones do not require. I think many children of God do not study the love of their Father; they seek only what they think suits themselves. They consult not His thought and interest about them. Whatever they like they are thankful for, but they do not at all know the thought of His heart about them. They form an idea of His love from the gifts or acts, instead of knowing that His love gives a ^[p. 55] character to the gifts or acts. The greatest gift that He confers now, is affording us ability and opportunity for serving Christ; and the nearer we are to Him, and the better we know His love, the more shall we admit this, and seek this as the happiest and fullest expression of His love for us. Blessed be His name, we are made for His glory; and He in His own blessed way is making each of us a certain, not a random, stone in the temple which is growing unto the Lord.

Some of His gifts are with the intent that I should feel their insufficiency, like a ship full of fish to Peter, and he in the presence of God, a sinner (Luke 5). His gifts are cypher to my own heart. I read them as I know His love. Another may attempt to read them, but no one can know the true meaning of the gifts of any one who loves you, but one who knows the nature and thought of the love. The same gifts may be given to a dozen, and yet speak quite differently to each.