will but notice one part of it viz., Christ s mani
festations, as being a mighty incentive to affection.
Our blessed Lord, at intervals more or less fre
quent, is graciously pleased to shed abroad in the
soul a most enchanting and rapturous sense of his
love. He opens the ear of the favoured saint to
hear the sweet canticles of the bridegroom s joy,
and softly he singeth his song of loves. He mani
fests his heart to the heart of his chosen ones, so
that they know him to be the sweetest, firmest, and
most ardent of lovers. They feel that he loves as
LOVE S LOGIC. 295
a head, as a father, as a friend, as a kinsman, as a
brother, as a husband ; they behold the love of all
relationships united and exceeded in the love of
Christ. They are confident that he loves them
more than they love themselves ; yea, that he loves
them above his own life. This tends to raise their
souls towards him ; he becomes wholly delectable
unto them, and is enshrined upon the highest
throne of their hearts. Possessed with a sense
of the love of their dying Lord, they feel that had
they a heart as wide as eternity, it could not con
tain more love than they desire to give him. Thus
are they impelled to daring service and patient
suffering for his sake. " There is a power in this
love which conquers, captivates, and overpowers
the man, so that he cannot but love. God s love
hath a generative power ; our love is brought forth
by his love."* Say, poor soul, what get you in
Christ whenever you go to him ? Can you not say,
Oh ! I get more love to him than I had before ; I
never approached near to him but I gained a large
draught and ample fill of love to God. Out of his
fulness we receive grace for grace, and love for
love. In a word, by faith we behold the glory
of the Lord as in a glass, and are changed into the
same image and the image of God is love. No
way so ready for begetting love to Christ as a
* E. Erskine.
296 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
sense of the love 0f Christ. The one is a loadstone
to attract the other. As fire grows by the addi
tion of fuel, so does our love to Christ increase by
renewed and enlarged discoveries of his love to us.
Love is love s food. If, as parents, we make known
our love to our children, and deal wisely with
them, it is but natural that their affections should
become more and more knit to us ; so it seems but
as in the common course of things that where much
of divine love is perceived by the soul, there will
be a return of affection in some degree propor
tionate to the measure of the manifestation. As
we pour water into a dry pump when we desire to
obtain more so must we have the love of Christ
imparted to the heart before we shall feel any
uprisings of delight in Him. Hence the import
ance of the apostolic prayer, that we may be able
to understand with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height, and to know
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
Beloved fellow Christian, pray for more open dis
coveries of the love and loveliness of Christ, and
thus shall thy languid passions move more readily
in the paths of obedience. We have all too much
cause to mourn the poverty of our love ; let us not
be slow to seek the help of the God of Israel to
enable us to profit by all the condescending mani
festations with which the Lord sees fit to favour
us.
297
VI. LOVE TO THE PERSON OF JESUS is a most
delightful state of divine life. It will be observed
that the Song of the Spouse, which is doubtless
intended to be the expression of the highest order
of love, is composed rather of descriptions of the
person of the Bridegroom than of any relation of
the deeds which he performed. The whole lan
guage of the Book of Canticles is love, but its most
overflowing utterances are poured forth upon the
sacred person of the Well-beloved. How do the
words succeed each other in marvellous and melo
dious succession when the Church pours forth
the fulness of its heart in praises of his beau
ties ! " My beloved is white and ruddy, the
chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the
most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a
raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the
rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers :
his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his
belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sock
ets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet :
yea, he is altogether lovely." * Here it is not the
crown, but the head* which is the theme of song;
* Sol. Song v. 10 16.
13*
298 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
not the garment, but the unrobed body ; not the
shoes, but the feet. The song does not celebrate
his descent from the king of ages, nor his lordship
over the ministers of fire, nor his perpetual priest
hood, nor his unbounded sovereignty ; but it finds
music enough in his lips, and beauty sufficient in
his eyes without the glories which his high offices
and omnipotent grace have procured for him.
This indeed is true love ; though the wife regards
her husband s gifts, and honours his rank and titles,
yet she sets her affection upon his person, loves
him better than his gifts, and esteems him for his
own sake rather than for his position among men.
Let us here observe, lest we should be misunder
stood, that we do not for a moment intend to insi
nuate that in the earlier states of the sacred grace
of love, there is any lack of love to his person.
We know that the first gushing of the fount of
love is to Christ, and at all times the soul goes out
towards him; but we make a distinction which we
think will be readily perceived, between love to
the person, for the sake of benefits received and
offices performed, and love to the person for the
person s sake. To suppose that a believer loves
the office apart from the person is to suppose an
absurdity, but to say that he may love the person
apart from the office is but to declare a great fact.
"We love Him at all times, but only the heavenly-
minded love him for his own person s sake.
299
What a precious subject for contemplation is the
glorious being who is called Emmanuel, God with
us, and yet " the I am," God over all !" The
complex person of the mediator, Jesus Christ, is
the centre of a believer s heart. He adores him in
all the attributes of his God-head, as very God of
very God Eternal, Infinite, Almighty, Immutable.
He bows before him as " God over all, blessed for
ever," and pays him loving homage as the everlast
ing Father, Prince of peace ; and at the same
time he delights to consider him as the infant
of Bethlehem, the Man of sorrows, the Son of man,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, tempted in
all points like as we are, and owning kindred with
the children of men. As man yet God, creature
yet Creator, infant and Infinite, despised yet exalt
ed, scourged though Omnipotent, dying yet eter
nal, our dear Redeemer must ever be the object
of wondering affection. Yea, when faith is dim,
and the Christian is in doubt as to his possession of
his Lord, he will at times be able to feel that his
thoughts of his Master s person are as high as ever.
" Though he slay me, I must love him. If he will
not look upon me, I cannot but bless him still. He
is good and glorious, even though he damn me for
ever. I must speak well of him, even if he will
not permit me to hope in his mercy ; for he is g,
glorious Christ, and I will not deny it, though he
should now shut up his bowels against an unworthy
300 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUK.
creature like myself." This is the sentiment of
the quickened child of God, when his heart is
thoroughly occupied with a full and faithful view
of his Divine Lord.
O the savour of the name of Jesus, when heard
by the ear which has been opened by the Spirit ! O
the beauty of the person of Jesus, when seen with
the eye of faith by the illumination of the Holy
One of Israel ! As the light of the morning, when
the sun ariseth, as " a morning without clouds," is
our Well-Beloved unto us. The sight of the burn
ing bush made Moses put off his shoes, but the
transporting vision of Jesus makes us put off all
the world. When once He is seen we can discern
no beauties in all the creatures in the universe.
He, like the sun, hath absorbed all other glories
into his own excessive brightness. This is the
pomegranate which love feeds upon, the flagon
wherewith it is comforted. A sight of Jesus
causes such union of heart with him, such goings
out of the affections after him, and such meltings
of the spirit towards him, that its expressions often
appear to carnal men to be extravagant and forced,
when they are nothing but the free, unstudied, and
honest effusions of its love. Hence it is that the
Song of Solomon has been so frequently assailed,
and has had its right to a place in the canon so
fiercely disputed. The same critics would deny the
piety of Rutherford, or the reverence of Herbert.
LOVE S LOGIC. 301
They are themselves ignorant of the divine passion
of love to Jesus, arid therefore the language of the
enraptured heart is unintelligible to them. They
are poor translators of love s celestial tongue who
think it to be at all allied with the amorous super
fluities uttered by carnal passions. Jesus is the
only one upon whom the loving believer has fixed
his eye, and in his converse with his Lord he will
often express himself in language which is meant
only for his Master s ear, and which worldlings
would utterly contemn could they but listen to it.
Nevertheless love, like wisdom, " is justified of her
children."
Heaven itself, although it be a fertile land, flow
ing with milk and honey, can produce no fairer
flower than the Kose of Sharon ; its highest joys
mount no higher than the head of Jesus ; its
sweetest bliss is found in his name alone. If we
would know heaven, let us know Jesus ; if we
would be heavenly, let us love Jesus. Oh that we
were perpetually in his company, that our hearts
might ever be satisfied with his love ! Let the
young believer seek after a clear view of the per~
son of Jesus, and then let him implore the kindling
fire of the Holy Spirit to light up his whole soul
with fervent affection. Love to Jesus is the basis
of all true piety, and the intensity of this love will
ever be the measure of our zeal for his glory. Let
us love him with all our hearts, and then diligent
302 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
labour and consistent conversation will be sure
to follow.
VII. RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST, when fully felt
and realised, produces a peculiar warmth of affec
tion towards Him. The Holy Spirit is pleased, at
certain favoured seasons, to open up to the under
standing and reveal to the affections the nearness
of Jesus to the soul. At one time we are blessed
with a delightful sense of brotherhood with Christ.
" The man is thy near kinsman," sounds like news
from a far country. " In ties of blood with sinners
one," rings in our ears like the music of Sabbath
bells. "We had said, like the spouse, " O that thou
wert as my brother!" and lo ! the wish is gratified.
He stands before us in all his condescension, and
declares he is not ashamed to call us brethren.
Unveiling his face, he reveals himself as the Son
of man, our kinsman near allied by blood. He
manifests himself to our rejoicing spirit as " the
first-born among many brethren," and he reminds
us that we are "joint-heirs with him," although he
is " heir of all things." The fraternity of Jesus
cannot fail to quicken us to the most ardent affec
tion, and when he himself thus confesses the
relationship, our soul is melted at his speech.
That sweet name "brother" is like perfume to the
believer, and when he lays hold upon it, it imparts
its fragrance to him. "We have sometimes had
LOVE S LOGIC. 303
t
such a sense of satisfaction in meditation upon this
heavenly doctrine, that we counted all the honours
and glories of this world to be but loss compared
with the excellency of it. For this one fact of
brotherhood with Christ we could have bartered
crowns and empires, and have laughed at the
worldly barterer as a fool, infinitely more mad
than Esau when he took a pitiful mess of pottage
as the purchase-price of a mighty birthright. God
the Holy Ghost has made the fulness of the doc
trine of the relationship of Jesus roll into our soul
like a river, and we have been entirely carried
away in its wondrous torrent. Our thoughts have
been entirely absorbed in the one transcendently
glorious idea of brotherhood with Jesus, and then
the emotions have arisen with great vehemence,
and we have pressed Him to our bosom, have
wept for joy upon his shoulder, and have lost
ourselves in adoring love of him who thus dis
covered himself as bone of our bone, and flesh of
our flesh. We feel we must love our brother, even
nature joins her voice with grace to claim the
entire heart ; and verily, in seasons of such gracious
manifestations, the claim is fully met, and the right
gladly acknowledged.
Another delightful relationship of the Lord
Jesus is that of Husband, and here he is indeed
to be beloved. Young Christians are married to
Christ, but they have not in most cases realised
304: THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUK.
the gracious privilege ; but the more enlightened
believer rejoices in the remembrance of the mar
riage union of Christ and his spouse. To him the
affection, protection, provision, honour, and inti
macy involved in the divine nuptials of the blessed
Jesus with his elect are well-springs of constant
joy. " Thy Maker is thy Husband " is to him a
choice portion of the Word, and he feasts upon it
day and night, when the gracious Spirit is pleased
to enable him to lay hold upon it by faith. A
tranquil, confident frame will immediately result
from a satisfactory persuasion of this glorious truth,
and with it there will be a fervency of affection
and a continued union of heart to Christ Jesus,
which is hardly attainable in any other manner.
In his conjugal relation to his Church, the Lord
Jesus takes great delight, and desires that we
should see the glory of it. He would have us con
sider him in the act of betrothing and espousing
his Church unto himself : " Go forth," saith he,
" O ye daughters of Jerusalem, and behold King
Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother
crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the
day of the gladness of his heart." *
" It is the gladness of the heart of Christ, raid
the joy of his soul, to take poor sinners into rela
tion with himself;"! and if so, it cannot fail to be
* Sol. Song. iii. 11. -j. Owen.
305
an equal source of rejoicing to those who are
thus favoured. Meditate much on thy divine rela
tionships, and thine heart shall be much warmed
thereby.
Yin. A persuasion of our UNION to Jesus must
also stir up the passions to a holy flame. We are,
by the decree of God, made one with our Covenant
Head the Lord Jesus. From before all worlds this
eternal union was most firmly settled upon a sub
stantial basis ; but our personal knowledge of it is
a thing of time, and is vouchsafed to us in the
appointed season by God the Holy Ghost. How
swiftly doth the heart pursue its Lord when it has
learned its oneness to Him ! What man will not
love his own flesh? who wall not love himself?
ISTow, when the soul perceives the indissoluble
union which exists between itself and the Saviour,
it can no more resist the impulse of affection than
a man can forbear to love his own body. It is
doubtless a high attainment in the divine life to be
fully possessed with a sense of vital union to Christ,
and hence the love arising from it is of a peculiarly
rich and vehement character. Some pastures give
richness to the flesh of the cattle which feed upon
them : truly, this is a fat pasture, and the affection
which feedeth upon it cannot be otherwise than
excellent to a superlative degree. In fine, as an
abiding sense of oneness with the Lord is one of
306 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
the sweetest works of the Spirit in the souls of the
elect, so the love springing therefrom is of the very
highest and most spiritual nature. None can sur
pass it ; yea, it is questionable whether so high a
degree of affection can be obtained by any other
means, however forcible and inflaming. But set
it down as a rule that we ought never to halt or sit
down in any attainment of nearness to Jesus until
we have brought it to such a measure that no more
can be enjoyed, and until we have reached the
utmost possible height therein. If there be an
inner chamber in which the king doth store his
choicest fruits, let us enter, for he bids us make free
with all in his house ; and if there be a secret
place where he doth show his loves, let us hasten
thither and embrace Him whom our soul loveth,
and there let us abide until we see him face to face
in the upper skies.
But what will be the love of Heaven ? Here we
utterly fail in description or conception. The best
enjoyments of Christ on earth are but as the dip
ping our finger in water for the cooling of our
thirst ; but heaven is bathing in seas of bliss : even
BO our love here is but one drop of the same sub
stance as the waters of the ocean, but not compara
ble for magnitude or depth. Oh, how sweet it will
be to be married to the Lord Jesus, and to enjoy
for ever, and without any interruption, the hea
venly delights of his society ! Surely, if a glimpse
307
of him melteth our soul, the full fruition of him
will be enough to burn us up with affection. It is
well that we shall have more noble frames in hea
ven than we have here, otherwise we should die
of love in the very land of life. An honoured
saint was once so ravished with a revelation of his
Lord s love, that feeling his mortal frame to be
unable to sustain more of such bliss, he cried,
" Hold, Lord, it is enough, it is enough !" But
there we shall be able to set the bottomless well of
love to our lips, and drink on for ever, and yet feel
no weakness. Ah, that will be love indeed which
shall overflow our souls for ever in our Father s
house above ! Who can tell the transports, the
raptures, the amazements of delight which that
love shall beget in us? and who can guess the
sweetness of the song, or the swiftness of the obe
dience which will be the heavenly expressions of
love made perfect? E"o heart can conceive the
surpassing bliss which the saints shall enjoy when
the sea of their love to Christ, and the ocean of
Christ s love to them, shall meet each other and
raise a very tempest of delight. The distant pros
pect is full of joy : what must be the fruition of it?
To answer that question we must w T ait all the days
of our appointed time till our change come, unless
the Lord himself should suddenly appear in the
clouds to glorify us with himself throughout
eternity.
308 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
Beloved fellow-heirs of the same inheritance, we
have thus reviewed some of the causes and phases
of the Christian grace of love ; let us now ask our
selves the question, How is it with our love ? Is it
hot or cold ? Is it decaying or increasing ? How
stands the heart, God- ward and Christ-ward? Is
it not far too slow in its motions, too chilly in its
devotion? We must admit it is so. Let us use
the various arguments of this chapter as levers for
lifting our heavy hearts to greater heights of affec
tion, and then let us unitedly cry
" Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
With all thy quickening powers ;
Come, shed abroad the Saviour s love,
And that shall kindle ours."
It may be that the sneering critic has been
offended with all this discourse concerning love,
and has turned upon his heel, protesting with
vehemence that he is of a philosophic spirit, and
will never endure such sickly sentimentalism. To
him religion is thought, not emotion. It is a cold,
speculative, unfeeling divinity which he believes,
and its effects upon his mind are the reverse of
enthusiastic.
Reason, " heavenly Reason," is his God, and
Feeling must lie dormant beneath the throne of
his great deity. We beg to remind him that the
religion of the cross was intended to stir the soul
LOVE S LOGIC. 309
with deep emotion, and that where it is truly
received it accomplishes its end ; but that if the
passions be not moved by it, there is a strong pre
sumption that is has never been in true operation.
"We do not wonder that, to the man who views
religion as a mere compendium of truths for the
head, it is a powerless thing, for it is intended to
work in another manner. Wine may serve to
cheer the heart, but who would expect to feel its
exhilarating influence by pouring it upon his head.
The holy Gospel makes its first appeal to man s
heart, and until it be heard in that secret chamber
it is not heard at all. So long as mere reason is
the only listener, the melody of the cross will be
unheard. Charm we never so wisely, men cannot
hear the music until the ears of the heart are
opened. Yinet* has thus expressed himself upon
this subject : " Ah ! how can reason, cold reason,
comprehend such a thing as the substitution of the
innocent for the guilty ; as the compassion which
reveals itself in severity of punishment in that
shedding of blood, without which, it is said, there
can be no expiation? It will not make, I dare
affirm, a single step towards the knowledge of that
divine mystery, until, casting away its ungrateful
speculations, it yields to a stronger power the task
of terminating the difficulty. That power is the
* See his Vital Christianity.
310 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.
heart, which fixes itself entirely on the love that
shines forth in the work of redemption ; cleaves
without distraction to the sacrifice of the adorable
victim ; lets the natural impression of that unparal
leled love penetrate freely, and develop itself gra
dually in its interior. Oh, how quickly, then, are
the veils torn away, and the shadows dissipated for
ever ! How little difficulty does he who loves find
in comprehending love !" To the heart all divine
mysteries are but simplicities, and when reason is
measuring the apparently inaccessible heights, love
is already shouting on the summit. Let tKe cold,
calculating worshipper of intellect reserve his
sneers for himself. Experience is one of the
highest of sciences, and the emotions claim a high
precedence in the experience which is from God.
That which these boasters contemn as an old wives
story, is not one half so contemptible as themselves
yea, more, the pious feelings at which they jeer
are as much beyond their highest thoughts as the
sonnets of angels excel the gruntings of swine.
It has become fashionable to allow the title of
"intellectual preachers" to a class of men, whose
passionless essays are combinations of metaphysical
quibbles and heretical doctrines ; who are shocked
at the man who excites his hearers beyond the
freezing-point of insensibility, and are quite elated
if they hear that their homily could only be under
stood by a few. It is, however, no question whe-
311
ther these men deserve their distinctive title ; it
may be settled as an axiom that falsehood is no
intellectual feat, and that unintelligible jargon is
no evidence of a cultured mind. There must be
in our religion a fair proportion of believing, think
ing, understanding, and discerning, but there must
be also the preponderating influences of feeling,
loving, delighting, and desiring. That religion is
worth nothing which has no dwelling in man but
his brain. To love much is to be wise ; to grow in
affection is to grow in knowledge, and to increase
in tender attachment is to be making high profi
ciency in divine things. ^
Look to thy love, O Christian 1 and let the car
nal revile thee never so much, do thou persevere
in seeking to walk with Christ, to feel his love,
and triumph in his grace.
TO THE UNCONVERTED KEADEK.
FRIEND, This time we will not preach the
terrors of the law to thee, although they are thy
deserts. We wish .thee well, and if threatening
will not awaken thee, we will try what wooing
may accomplish, and oh ! may the Holy Spirit
bless the means to thy soul s salvation.
The Lord Jesus hath purchased unto himself a
number beyond all human count, and we would
have thee mark who and what they were by
nature.
The blood-bought ones, before their regenera
tion, were in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds
of iniquity; they were aliens from the common