Love to the Uttermost: Expositions of John XIII.-XXI.Meyer, F. B. (Frederick Brotherton)
Religion
Love to the Uttermost: Expositions of John XIII.-XXI.
Meyer, F. B. (Frederick Brotherton)
Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
All this is much: but how much more to be told that this glorious
Christ, the Fellow of Jehovah, who with the Father and the Spirit is
God; the Organ of creation; the Mouthpiece of the Godhead; the Mediator
of Redemption; the Monarch of all worlds; the Supreme Teacher, Guide,
and Saviour of men--is prepared to repeat the experiences of Bethlehem,
and make His abode in man! "_We_ will come unto Him, and make our
abode with Him."
(3) _Learn to revere the work of God in the souls of others._--"For thy
meat," said the apostle, "destroy not the soul for whom Christ died."
He might have added, "and in whom Christ lives." Weak and erring,
trying and vexatious, that fellow-believer may be, yet there is a
chamber in his nature in which God has already taken up His abode. The
conflict between the light and darkness, the Christ-spirit and the
self-spirit, may be long and arduous, but the issue is certain. Help,
but do not hinder the process. Be reverent, careful, mindful of the
presence of God.
_Be hopeful for thyself._--When an art-student asked Mr. Ruskin whether
he would ever be able to paint like Turner, the great critic replied,
"It is more likely that you will become Emperor of all the Russias!"
But God never daunts a soul with such discouragement. He first sets
before it a great ideal--the faith of Abraham, the meekness of Moses,
the prayer of an Elijah, the love of a John--and then, as the source of
all perfection, enters the soul, to be in it all that He has taught it
to desire.
_Count on the indwelling of His power._--The merchant of to-day has
facilities granted to no previous age. The cablegram, telegram, and
telephone put him in communication with the markets of the world: steam
and electricity are his willing slaves in manufacture: machinery with
its unwearying iron fingers toils for him. A single human brain, which
knows how to avail itself of these resources, can multiply its
conceptions indefinitely. How vast the space between the untutored
savage, doing everything with his hands, and the merchant prince, who
has but to press the ivory-plated pushes fixed upon the walls of his
room! But not less is the difference between the work we can
accomplish by our natural resources, and that which we achieve when we
recognize that what is impossible to us is possible to Him who has come
in to abide. I cannot; but God is within me, and He can.
II. THE CONDITIONS OF THE DIVINE IMMANENCE.--(1) Love to Christ.--"He
that loveth Me shall. . . ." We would love Him, but how? Do not think
of your love, but of His. "Love is of God." Open the shutters of your
being toward the love of God; we love because He first loves. Love is
the reflection from us of what we have first received from God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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