Love — C.H. Spurgeon

The Prince of Preachers Charles Haddon Spurgeon has been called England's greatest contribution to the spread of the gospel in the 19th century. One of his contemporaries said that the chief secret of Spurgeon's attractiveness was the fact that in every sermon, no matter what the text or the occasion, he explained the way of salvation in simple terms.

Spurgeon's messages remain one of the great treasure houses of Christian literature, still bringing the light of the gospel and the comfort of the scriptures to hungry souls long after the preacher has passed into glory.

This is Charles Kelsch inviting you to listen to a message from the Prince of Preachers. C .H. Spurgeon preached this message on December 19th, 1858 at the music hall of the Royal Surrey Gardens. It is entitled, Love.

The Gospel Produces Holiness Through Divine Love

The text is found in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19. We love him because he first loved us. During the last two Sabbath days, I have been preaching the gospel to the unconverted. I have earnestly exhorted the very chief of sinners to look to Jesus Christ and have assured them that as a preparation for coming to Christ, they need no good works or good dispositions, but that they may come just as they are to the foot of the cross and receive the pardoning blood and the all-sufficient merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The thought has since occurred to me that some who are ignorant of the gospel might perhaps put this query. Is this likely to promote morality? If the gospel be a proclamation of pardon to the very chief of sinners, will not this be a license to sin?

In what respects can the gospel be said to be a gospel according to holiness? How will such preaching operate? Will it make men better? Will they be more attentive to the laws which relate to man and man?

Will they be more obedient to the statutes which relate to man and God? I thought, therefore, that we would advance a step further and endeavor to show this morning how the proclamation of the gospel of God, though in the commencement it addresses itself to men who are utterly destitute of any good, is nevertheless designed to lead these very men to the noblest heights of virtue, yea, to ultimate perfection in holiness.

The text tells us that the effect of the gospel received in the heart is that it compels and constrains such a heart to love God. We love Him because He first loved us. When the gospel comes to us, it does not find us loving God.

It does not expect anything of us, but coming with the divine application of the Holy Ghost, it simply assures us that God loves us, be we never so deeply immersed in sin. And then the after-effect of this proclamation of love is that we love Him because He first loved us.

The Harmony of Creation Broken by Sin

Can you imagine a being placed halfway between this world and heaven? Can you conceive of Him as having such enlarged capacities that He could easily discern what was done in heaven and what was done on earth?

I can conceive that before the fall, if there had been such a being, He would have been struck with the singular harmony which existed between God's great world called heaven and the little world, the earth.

Whenever the chimes of heaven rang, the great note of those massive bells was love. And when the little bells of earth were sounded, the harmonies of this narrow sphere rang out their note. It was just the same, love.

When the right spirits gathered around the great throne of God in heaven to magnify the Lord, at the same time there was to be seen the world, clad in its priestly garments, offering its sacrifice of purest praise.

When the cherubim and seraphim did continually cry, holy, holy, holy, Lord God of armies, there was heard a note, feebler perhaps, but yet a sweetly musical coming up from paradise, holy, holy, holy, Lord God of armies.

There was no jar, no discord. The thunder peals of heaven's melodies were exactly in accord with the whispers of earth's harmonies. There was glory to God in the highest, and on earth there was glory too.

The heart of man was as the heart of God. God loved man, and man loved God. But imagine that the same great spirit was still standing between heavens and the earth. How sad must he be when he hears the jarring discord and feels it great upon the ear.

The Lord saith, I am reconciled to thee, I have put away thy sin. But what is the answer of this earth? The answer of the world is, man is at enmity with God. God may be reconciled, but man is not. The mass of men are still enemies to God by wicked works.

When the angels praise God, if they listen to the sounds that are to be heard on earth, they hear the trump of cruel war. They hear the Bacchanalian shout and the song of the Lascivious. And what a discord is this in the great harmony of the spheres.

The fact is this, the world was originally one great string in the harp of the universe. When the Almighty swept that harp with his gracious fingers, there was nothing to be heard but praise. Now that string is snapped, and where it has been reset by grace, still it is not wholly restored to its perfect tune.

And the note that cometh from it hath but little of sweetness and very much of discord. But O bright spirit, retain thy place and live on. The day is hastening with glowing wheels, and the axle thereof is hot with speed.

The Future Restoration of Earth Under Christ's Reign

The day is coming when this world shall be a paradise again. Jesus Christ, who came the first time to bleed and suffer, that he might wash the world from its iniquity, is coming a second time to reign and conquer, that he may clothe the earth with glory.

And the day shall arrive when thou, O spirit, shall hear again the everlasting harmony. Once more the bells of earth shall be attuned to the melodies of heaven. Once more shall the eternal chorus find that no singer is absent, but that the music is complete.

But how is this to be? How is the world to be brought back? How is it to be restored? We answer, the reason why there was this original harmony between earth and heaven was, because there was love between them, Twain.

And our great reason for hoping that there shall be at last reestablished an undiscordant harmony between heaven and earth is simply this, that God hath already manifested his love towards us, and that in return hearts touched by his grace do even now love him.

And when they shall be multiplied and love reestablished, then shall the harmony be complete. Having thus introduced my text, I must now plunge into it. We shall notice the parentage, the nourishment, and the walk of love, and shall exhort all believers here present to love God, because he hath first loved them.

The Divine Parentage of Love to God

In the first place, the parentage of true love to God. There is no light in the planet, but that which cometh from the sun. There is no light in the moon, but that which is borrowed. And there is no true love in the heart, but that which cometh from God.

Love is the light, the life, and way of the universe. Now God is both life and light and way, and to crown all, God is love. From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, all our love to God must spring.

This must ever be a great uncertain truth, that we love him for no other reason than because he first loved us. There are some that think that God might be loved by simple contemplation of his works. We do not believe it.

We have heard a great deal about admiring philosophers, and we have felt that admiration was more than possible when studying the works of God. We have heard a great deal about wondering discoverers, and we have acknowledged that the mind must be base in deed which does not wonder when it looks upon the works of God.

And we have sometimes heard about a love to God which has been engendered by the beauties of scenery, but we have never believed in its existence. We do believe that where love is already born in the heart of man, all the wonders of God's providence and creation may excite that love again, it being there already.

But we do not, and we cannot believe, because we never saw such an instance, that the mere contemplation of God's works could ever raise any man to the height of love. In fact, the great problem has been tried, and it has been solved in the negative.

What saith the poet? What though the spicy breezes blow soft o 'er Java's isle, where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile? Where God is most resplendent in his works, and most lavish in his gifts, there man has been the vilest, and God is the most forgotten.

Others have taught, if not exactly in doctrine, yet their doctrine necessarily leads to it, that human nature may on itself attain unto love to God. Our simple reply is, we have never met with such an instance.

We have curiously questioned the people of God, and we believe that others have questioned them in every age, but we have never had but one answer to this question. Why hast thou loved God? The only answer has been, because He first loved me.

I have heard men preach about free will, but I have never yet heard of a Christian who exalted free will in his own experience. I have heard men say that men of their own free will may turn to God, believe, repent, and love.

But I have heard the same persons, when talking of their own experience, say that they did not so turn to God, but that Jesus sought them when they were strangers, wandering from the fold of God. A whole matter may look specious enough when preached, but when felt, it is found to be a phantom.

It may seem right enough for a man to tell his fellow that his own free will may save him. But when he comes to close dealing with his own conscience, he himself, however wild in his doctrine, is compelled to say, Oh yes, I do love Jesus, because He first loved me.

I have wondered at a Wesleyan brother, who has sometimes railed against this doctrine in the pulpit, and then has given out this very hymn, and all the members of the church have joined in singing it most heartily, while at the same time they were tolling the death knell of their own peculiar tenets.

For if that hymn be true, Arminianism must be false. If it be the certain fact that the only reason for our loving God is that His love has been shed abroad in our hearts, then it cannot be true anyhow that man ever did or ever will love God until, first of all, God has manifested His love towards him.

But without disputing any longer, do we not all admit that our love to God is the sweet offspring of God's love to us? Ah, beloved, cold admiration every man may have, but the warmth of love can only be kindled by the fires of God's Spirit.

Let each Christian speak for himself, and we shall all hold this great and cardinal truth that the reason of our love to God is the sweet influence of His grace. Sometimes I wonder that such as we should have been brought to God at all.

Is our love so precious that God should court our love, dressed in the crimson robes of a dying Redeemer? If we had loved God, it would have been no more than He deserved. But when we rebelled and yet He sought our love, it was surprising indeed.

It was a wonder when He disrobed Himself of all His splendors and came down and wrapped Himself in a mantle of clay. But methinks the wonder has excelled yet, for after He had died for us, still we did not love Him.

We rebelled against Him. We rejected the proclamation of the gospel. We resisted His Spirit. But He said, I will have their hearts, and He followed us day after day, hour after hour. Sometimes He laid us low, and He said, surely they will love Me if I restore them.

At another time He filled us with corn and with wine, and He said, surely they will love Me now. But we still revolted, still rebelled. At last He said, I will strive no longer. I am almighty, and I will not have it that a human heart is stronger than I am.

I will turn the will of man as the rivers of water are turned. And lo, He put forth His strength, and in an instant the current changed, and we loved Him, because we then could see the love of God, in that He sent His Son to be our Redeemer.

But we must confess, beloved, going back to the truth with which we started, that never should we have had any love towards God, unless that love had been sown in us by the sweet seed of His love to us.

If there be anyone here that hath a love to Christ, let him differ from this doctrine here, but let him know that he shall not differ hereafter. For in heaven they all sing praise to free grace, they all sing salvation to our God and to the Lamb.

The Nourishment of Love Through the Gospel

Love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. But after it is divinely born in our heart, it must be divinely nourished. Love is an exotic. It is not a plant that will flourish naturally in human soil.

Love to God is a rich and rare thing. It would die if it were left to be frostbitten by the chilly blasts of our selfishness. And if it received no nourishment but that which can be drawn from the rock of our own hard hearts, it must perish.

As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly bread. It cannot exist in this wilderness unless it is nurtured from above and fed by manna from high. On what, then, does love feed? Why, it feeds on love.

That which brought it forth becomes its food. We love him because he first loved us. The constant motive and sustaining power of our love to God is his love to us. And here let me remark that there are different kinds of food in this great granary of love.

When we are first of all renewed, the only food on which we can live is milk, because we are but babes and as yet have not strength to feed on higher truths. The first thing, then, that our love feeds upon, when it is but an infant, is a sense of favors received.

Ask a young Christian why he loves Christ, and he will tell you, I love Christ because he has bought me with his blood. Why do you love God the Father? I love God the Father because he gave his son for me.

And why do you love God the Spirit? I love him because he has renewed my heart. That is to say, we love God for what he has given to us. Our first love feeds just on the simple food of a grateful recollection of mercies received.

And, Mark, however much we grow in grace, this will always constitute a great part of the food of our love. But when the Christian grows older and has more grace, he loves Christ for another reason. He loves Christ because he feels Christ deserves to be loved.

I trust I can say I have in my heart now a love to God altogether apart from the matter of my personal salvation. I feel that even now I must love him, for his character is so unutterably lovely. His love to other people seems as if it would compel me to love him.

To think that he should love men at all is so great a thought that altogether apart from my interest in it, I trust I can say that I love Christ, having seen something of Christ in his offices and something of the rapturous beauties of his complex person.

I feel as if I could come to his feet and say, Sweet Lord, I love thee first because of thy gifts to me, but now I love thee because thou art altogether lovely. Thou hast entranced my soul with the look of thine eyes.

Thou hast enraptured my spirit with the glories of thy person. And now I love thee, not merely because I have eaten of thy bread and thou hast supplied my wants, but I love thee for what thou art. But Mark, at the same time, we must always mingle with this, the old motive.

We must still feel that we begin with that first stepping stone, loving Christ because of his mercies, and that although we have climbed higher and have come to love him with a love that is superior to that in motive, yet still we carry the old motive with us.

We love him because of his kindness towards us. Why, I do not think it is possible for a man filled with the love of Christ in his heart and girded by divine grace to soar to such a degree of love to Christ that if you could hear him speak, you would sit and wonder as though an angel spoke to you.

Did you ever read the divine letters of Rutherford? I do think, if there remains among men a remnant of the ancient inspiration that guided the pen of Solomon, it rested upon the head of Rutherford. If you read the sonnets of sweet George Herbert, oh, how sweetly does he sing of his master!

If there be any of the heavenly harps left by accident on earth, George Herbert found one, and he touched the living strings with such divine excellency of judgment that he made every string find out his master.

These men did not merely love Christ because of what he had done for them, but you will find in their sonnets and in their letters that their motive of love was that he had communed with them. He had showed them his hands and his side.

They had walked with him in the villages. They had lain with him on the beds of spices. They had entered into the mystic circle of communion. They felt that they loved Christ because he was all over glorious, and was so divinely fair that if all nations could behold him, sure they must be constrained to love him too.

This, then, is the food of love. But when love grows rich, and it does sometimes, the most loving heart grows cold towards Christ. Do you know that the only food that ever suits sick love is the food on which it fed at first?

I have heard say by the physicians that if a man be sick, there is no place so well adapted for him as the place where he was born. And if love grows sick and cold, there is no place so fit for it to go as the place where it was born, namely the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Love Is Revived at the Cross

Where was love born? Was she born in the midst of romantic scenery? Was she nursed with wondrous contemplations upon the lap of beauty? Ah, no! Was she born on the steps of Sinai, when God came from Sinai, the Holy One from Mount Paran, and melted the mountains with the touch of his feet, and made the rocks flow down like wax before his terrible presence?

Ah, no! Was love born on Tabor, when the Savior was transfigured, and his garment became whiter than wool, whiter than any fuller could make it? Ah, no! Darkness rushed o 'er the sight of those that looked upon him then, and they fell asleep, for the glory overpowered them.

Let me tell you where love was born. Love was born in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus swept great drops of blood. It was nurtured in Pilate's hall, where Jesus bared his back to the plowing of the lash, and gave his body to be spit upon and scourged.

Love was nurtured at the cross, amid the groans of an expiring God, beneath the droppings of his blood. It was there that love was nurtured. Bear me witness, children of God. Where did your love spring from, but from the foot of the cross?

Did you ever see that sweet flower growing anywhere but at the foot of Calvary? No. It was when you saw love divine, all loves excelling, outdoing its own self. It was when you saw love in bondage to itself, dying by its own stroke, laying down its life, though it had power to retain it and to take it up again.

It was there your love was born. And if you wish your love, when it is sick, to be recovered, take it to some of those sweet places. Make it sit in the shade of the olive trees. Make it stand on the pavements and gaze, while the blood is still gushing down.

Take it to the cross, and bid it look and see afresh the bleeding lamb. And surely this shall make thy love spring from a dwarf into a giant, and this shall fan it from a spark into a flame. And then, when thy love is thus recruited, let me bid thee give thy love full exercise, for it shall grow thereby.

Eternal Election and the History of Grace

You say, where shall I exercise the contemplation of my love to make it grow? O sacred dove of love, stretch thy wings and play the eagle now. Come, open wide thine eyes, and look full in the sun's face, and soar upward, upward, upward, far above the heights of this world's creation, upwards till thou art lost in eternity.

Remember that God loved thee from before the foundation of the world. Does not this strengthen thy love? Ah, what a bracing air is that air of eternity, when I fly into it for a moment, and think of the great doctrine of election, of that vast unmeasured love which from the days of old did all the chosen seed embrace like sheep within the fold.

It makes the tears run down one's cheek to think that we should have an interest in that decree and counsel of the Almighty Three, when every one that should be blood-bought had his name inscribed in God's eternal book.

Come, soul, I bid thee now exercise thy wings a little, and see if this does not make thee love God. He thought of thee before thou hadst a being, when as yet the sun and the moon were not. When the sun, the moon, and the stars slept in the mind of God like unborn forests in an acorn cup, when the old sea was not yet born, long ere this infant world lay in its swaddling bands of mist, then God had inscribed thy name upon the heart and upon the hands of Christ indelibly to remain forever.

And does not this make thee love God? Is not this sweet exercise for thy love? For here it is my text comes in, giving, as it were, the last charge in this sweet battle of love, a charge that sweeps everything before it.

We love God, because He first loved us, seeing that He loved us before time began, and when in eternity He dwelt alone, and when thou hast soared backward into the past eternity, I have yet another flight for thee.

Soar back through all thine own experience, and think of the way whereby the Lord thy God has led thee in the wilderness, and how He hath fed thee and clothed thee every day, how He hath borne with thine ill manners, how He hath put up with thy murmurings and all thy longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt, how He hath opened the rock to supply thee and fed thee with manna that came down from heaven.

Think of how His grace has been sufficient for thee in all thy troubles, how His blood has been a pardon to thee in all thy sins, how His rod and His staff have comforted thee. And when thou hast flown over this sweet field of love, thou mayest fly further on, and remember that the oath, the covenant, the blood, have something more in them than the past.

For though He first loved us, yet this doth not mean that He shall ever cease to love. For He is Alpha, and He shall be Omega. He is the first, and He shall be last. And therefore bethink thee, when thou shalt pass through the valley of the shadow of death, thou needst fear no evil, for He is with thee.

When thou shalt stand in the cold floods of Jordan, thou needest not fear, for death cannot separate thee from His love. When thou shalt come into the mysteries of eternity, thou needest not tremble. For I am persuaded that neither principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And now, soul, is not thy love refreshed? Does not this make thee love Him? Doth not a flight over those inimitable plains of the ether of love inflame thy heart, and compel thee to delight thyself in the Lord thy God?

Here is the food of love. We love Him, because He first loved us, and because in that first love there is the pledge and promise that He will love us even to the end. And now comes the third point, the walk of love.

Loving Christ by Loving His Church and People

We love Him. Children of God, if Christ were here on earth, what would you do for Him? If it should be rumored to-morrow that the Son of Man had come down from heaven as He came at first, what would you do for Him?

If there should be an infallible witness that the feet that trod the holy acres of Palestine were actually treading the roads of Great Britain, what would you do for Him? Oh, I can conceive that there would be a tumult of delighted hearts, a superabundance of liberal hands, that there would be a sea of streaming eyes to behold Him.

Do for Him, says one, do for Him. Did He hunger, I would give Him meat, though it were my last crust. Did He thirst, I would give Him drink, though my own lips were parched with fire. Was He naked, I would strip myself and shiver in the cold to clothe Him.

Do for Him, I scarcely know what I should do. I would hurry away, and I would cast myself at His dear feet, and I would beseech Him, if it would but honor Him, that He would tread upon me and crush me in the dust, if He would but be raised one inch the higher thereby.

Did He want a soldier, I would enlist in His army. Did He need that someone should die, I would give my body to be burned, if He stood by to see the sacrifice and to cheer me in the flames. O ye daughters of Jerusalem, would ye not go forth to meet Him?

Would ye not rejoice with the tabert and in the dance? Dance then, ye vice, like Miriam by the side of Egypt's waters, red with blood. We, the sons of men, would dance like David before the ark, exulting for joy, if Christ were come.

Ah, we think we love Him so much that we should do all that. But there is a grave question about the truth of this matter after all. Do you not know that Christ's wife and family are here? And if you love Him, would it not follow as a natural inference that you would love His bride and His offspring?

Ah, says one, Christ has no bride on earth. Has He not? Has He not espoused unto Himself His church? Is not His church the mother of the faithful, His own chosen wife? And did He not give His blood to be her dower?

And has He not declared that He will never be divorced from her, for He hates to put away, and that He will consummate the marriage in the last great day, when He shall come to reign with His people upon the earth?

And has He no children here? The daughters of Jerusalem, and the sons of Zion, who hath begotten Me these? Are not they the offspring of the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Child born, the Son given?

Surely they are. If we love Christ, as we think we do, as we pretend we do, we shall love His church and people. And do you love His church? Perhaps you love the part to which you belong. You love the hand.

It may be a hand that is garnished with many a brilliant ring of noble ceremonies, and you love that. You may belong to some poor, poverty-stricken denomination. It may be the foot, and you love the foot.

But you speak contemptuously of a hand, because it is garnished with greater honors, whilst perhaps ye of the hand are speaking lightly of those who are of the foot. Brethren, it is a common thing with us all to love only a part of Christ's body, and not to love the whole.

But if we love Him, we should love all His people. When we are on our knees in prayer, I fear that when we are praying for the church, we do not mean all that we say. We are praying for our church, our section of it.

Now, he that loves Christ, if he be a Baptist, he loves the doctrine of baptism, because he knows it to be scriptural. But at the same time, wherever he sees the grace of God to be in any man's heart, he loves him, because he is a part of the living church.

And he does not withhold his heart, his hand, or his house from him, because he happens to differ on some one point. I pray that the church in these days may have a more loving spirit towards herself.

We ought to delight in the advance of every denomination. Is the church of England rousing from its sleep? Is she springing like a phoenix from her ashes? God be with her! God bless her! Is another denomination leaving the van, and seeking by its ministers to entice the wanderer into the house of God?

God be with it! Is the primitive Methodist laboring in the hedge and ditch, toiling for his master? God help him! Is the Calvinist seeking to uphold Christ crucified in all his splendors? God be with him!

Does another man with far less knowledge preach much error, but still hold that by grace are ye saved through faith? Then God bless him, and may success be with him evermore! If ye loved Christ better, ye would love all Christ's church, and all Christ's people.

Serving Christ Through Mercy to the Needy

Do you not know that Christ hath now a mouth on earth, and hath left a hand on earth, and a foot on earth still? And that if ye would prove your love to him, ye would not think that ye cannot feed him.

Ye need not imagine that ye cannot feel his hand, or that ye cannot wash his feet. Ye can do all this to-day. He has left his poor and afflicted people, and their mouths are hungry, for they need bread, and their tongue is parched, for they need water.

You meet them. They come to you. They are destitute and afflicted. Do ye refuse them? Do ye know who it was ye denied at your door? Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me.

In rejecting the petition of the poor, when you might have helped them, you rejected Christ. Christ was virtually the man to whom you parsimoniously refused and needed alms, and your Savior was thus rejected at the door of one for whom he himself had died.

Do you want to feed Christ? Open your eyes, then, and you shall see him everywhere. In our back streets, in our lanes, in our alleys, in all our churches, connected with every branch of Christ's people, ye shall find the poor and the afflicted.

If ye want to feed Christ, feed them. But ye say that ye are willing to wash Christ's feet. Ah, well, then ye may do it. Has he no fallen children? Are there no brethren who have sinned and who are thus defiled?

If Christ's feet were foul, ye say ye would wash them. Then, if a Christian man is stepped aside, seek to restore him and lead him once more in the way of righteousness. And do you want to fill Christ's hands with your liberality?

His church is the treasure-house of his alms, and the hand of his church is outstretched for help, for she always needs it. She has a work to do which must be accomplished. She is straightened because your help is withheld from her.

Christ's Love Tested by Wealth and Suffering

Pour your gifts into her treasury, for all that she can give unto her is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, to stimulate your love, let me remind you that Christ Jesus had two trials of his love which he endured with firmness, but which are often too much for us.

When Christ was high and glorious, I marvel that he loved us. I have known many a man who loved his friend when he was in the same low estate. But he has risen, and he has disdained to know the man at whose table he had fed.

A lofty elevation tries the love which we bear to those who are inferior to us in rank. Now Christ Jesus, the Lord of heaven and the King of angels, condescended to notice us before he came on earth, and always called us brethren.

And since he has ascended up to heaven, and has reassumed the diadem, and once more sits down at the right hand of God, he never has forgotten us. His high estate has never made him slight a disciple.

When he rode into Jerusalem in triumph, we do not read that he disdained to confess that the humble fishermen were his followers. And now, though he reigns exalted high, his love is still as great. Still he calls us brethren, friends, still he recognizes the kinship of the one blood.

And yet, strange to say, we have known many Christians who have forgotten much of their love to Christ when they have risen in the world. Ah, said a woman who had been wont to do much for Christ in poverty, and who had had a great sum left her, I cannot do as much as I used to do.

But how is that? said one. Said she, when I had a shilling purse, I had a guinea heart. And now I have a guinea purse, I have only a shilling heart. It is a sad temptation to some men to get rich. They were content to go to the meeting-house and mix with the ignoble congregation while they had but little.

They have grown rich. There is a Turkish carpet in the drawing-room. They have arrangements now too splendid to permit them to invite the poor of the flock as once they did. And Christ Jesus is not so fashionable as to allow them to introduce any religious topic when they meet with their new friends.

Besides this, they say they are now obliged to pay this visit and that visit, and they must spend so much time upon attire, and in maintaining their station and respectability, they cannot find time to pray as they did.

The house of God has to be neglected for the party. And Christ has less of their heart than ever He had. Is this thy kindness to thy friend? And hast thou risen so high that thou art ashamed of Christ?

And art thou grown so rich that Christ in His poverty is despised? Alas, poor wealth! Alas, base wealth! Alas, vile wealth! It was well for thee if it should all be swept away, if a descent to poverty should be a restoration to the ardency of thine affection.

Christ's Faithfulness in the Trial of Suffering

But once again, what a trial of love was that when Christ began to suffer for us! There are many men, I doubt not, who are true believers and love their Saviour, who would tremble to come to the test of suffering.