True Christianity: A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc.Arndt, Johann
Religion
True Christianity: A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc.
Arndt, Johann
Christian life; Christianity
9. Again, when the other faculties of the body and mind are faint and
wearied, love faints not. Love is never weary, never ceases. Prophecy may
pass away, tongues may cease, and sciences may be destroyed; arts may be
lost, the knowledge of mysteries may vanish; yea, faith itself at last may
fail also: but yet “love never faileth,” nor can fail: for when all that
is imperfect is happily removed, then love alone abides forever, and
attains its full perfection. 1 Cor. 13:8.
10. To render anything pleasing to Almighty God, it is necessary that it
proceed from him; since he approves of nothing but what he himself works
in us. Now, God is love; it therefore follows, that all that we do, ought
to proceed from a divine faith, in order that it may be pleasing to God;
and from pure love, that it may prove profitable to men. This love must be
_pure_, without any regard to self-honor, self-interest, and those mean
designs which sometimes intrude into a Christian’s actions. In like manner
our _prayers_ should spring from a principle of love, that they may have
the more ready admittance to the God of love. Consider, therefore, how
that man’s prayer can be acceptable to God, who is full of wrath and
rancor, hatred and malice? Were such a one to repeat the whole Psalter
every day, it would be but an abomination before the Lord. True worship
consists in spirit (John 4:23, 24), in faith, in love, not in a long
recital of words. Remember the example of Christ, who, from a merciful
heart, cried, “Father, forgive them.” Luke 33:34. A man that does not love
God, is also unwilling to pour out his heart in prayer and supplication:
but to him who is affected with a sense of divine love, the duty of prayer
is easy and delightful. A man that has a cordial love to God, readily
serves him; but he that is void of this love, does not serve him at all,
though he may submit to much toil and drudgery, and even heap one mountain
upon another.
11. Upon the whole, then, nothing is more agreeable to human nature,
nothing better and more profitable, than this divine love, which,
therefore, should be stirred up in the heart of man, and when once raised
into a flame, should be carefully preserved from being ever quenched.
12. Faith should work all things in a Christian through love; and love
should be the agent of faith, as the body is the agent of the soul. The
soul sees and hears, speaks and acts, through the body, to which she is
united; so, O man! should the love of God, springing from faith, do all
things in and through thee. Whether thou eat or drink, hear or speak,
commend or reprove, let all be done _in love_, after the example of
Christ, in whom resided nothing but pure love. If thou beholdest thy
neighbor, behold him with the eyes of a compassionate friend; if thou
hearest him, hear him with love and tenderness; and if thou speakest with
him, let thy speech be seasoned with love and Christian affection.
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