JUNE 8TH, 1896

JUNE 8TH, 1896

The Soul’s Awakening.

The great turning point in the history of a soul is when it becomes consciously an object of divine love, Mercy and goodness are often apprehended long before there is any true knowledge of love. The perfectness of redemption may be known with clearness and certainty, and all the common difficulties and exercises of a convicted sinner may find such an answer that the conscience is in peace, and yet the heart may not have found its perfect rest in divine love.

It is well when our hearts learn to put things in this order — “who loved me, and gave himself for me”. Many know Christ as an infinite Benefactor, and are deeply grateful to Him for what He has done, without having realised that all has been the outflow of His measureless and everlasting love. In such cases there is no true response to His heart, and He looks in vain for the answering affection which the knowledge of His love would kindle.

The soul’s awakening is a wonderful epoch in its history, and by this I mean not conversion or peace, but the first consciousness of being loved by the Son of God. The effect is indescribable. To know Him in the greatness of His Person in the brightness of the Father’s throne — supreme in heavenly glory — and to know that there is a living eternal link of inconceivable love between Him and me! Such knowledge as this revolutionises the affections; throws the dim and worthless, though often cherished, idols of the earth into the shade to which they properly belong; and makes heaven supremely attractive because of the One who is there!