Prayer is not an act of worship merely, the bending of the knee on set
occasions, and offering petitions in need. It is an attitude of soul,
opening the life on the Godward side, and keeping free communication
with the world of spirit. And so, it is possible to pray always, and
to keep our friendship ever green and sweet: and God comes back upon
the life, as dew upon the thirsty ground. There is an interchange of
feeling, a responsiveness of love, a thrill of mutual friendship.
You must love Him, ere to you
He shall seem worthy of your love.
The great appeal of the Christian faith is to Christian experience.
Loving Christ is its own justification, as every loving heart knows.
Life evidences itself: the existence of light is its own proof. The
power of Christ on the heart needs no other argument than itself. Men
only doubt when the life has died out, and the light has waned, and
flickered, and spent itself. It is when there is no sign of the spirit
in our midst, no token of forces beyond the normal and the usual, that
we can deny the spirit. It is when faith is not in evidence that we
can dispute faith. It is when love is dead that we can question love.
The Christian faith is not a creed, but a life; not a proposition, but
a passion. Love is its own witness to the soul that loves: communion
is its own attestation to the spirit that lives in the fellowship. The
man who lives with Jesus knows Him to be a Lover that cleaves closer
than a brother, a Friend that loveth at all times, and a Brother born
for adversity.
It does not follow that there is an end of the question, so far as we
are concerned, if we say that we at least do not know that friendship,
and cannot love Him. Some even say it with a wistful longing, "Oh,
that I knew where I might find Him." It is true that love cannot be
forced, that it cannot be made to order, that we cannot love because we
ought, or even because we want. But we can bring ourselves into the
presence of the lovable. We can enter into Friendship through the door
of Discipleship; we can learn love through service; and the day will
come to us also when the Master's word will be true, "I call you no
longer servant, but I call you friend." His love will take possession
of us, till all else seems as hatred in comparison. "All lovers blush
when ye stand beside Christ," says Samuel Rutherford; "woe unto all
love but the love of Christ. Shame forevermore be upon all glory but
the glory of Christ; hunger forevermore be upon all heaven but Christ.
I cry death, death be upon all manner of life but the life of Christ."
To be called _friends_ by our Master, to know Him as the Lover of our
souls, to give Him entrance to our hearts, is to learn the meaning of
living, and to experience the ecstasy of living. The Higher Friendship
is bestowed without money and without price, and is open to every heart
responsive to God's great love.
'T is only heaven that is given away,
'T is God alone may be had for the asking.