[_May 4._]
Draw yet nearer, O, my soul! with thy _most fervent love_. Here is matter
for it to work upon, something worth thy loving. O see what beauty
presents itself! Is not all the beauty in the world united here? Is not
all other beauty but deformity? Dost thou now need to be persuaded to
love? Here is a feast for thine eyes and all the powers of thy soul; dost
thou need entreaties to feed upon it? Canst thou love a little shining
earth, a walking piece of clay? And canst thou not love that God, that
Christ, that glory, which are so truly and unmeasurably lovely? Thou
canst love thy friend because he loves thee; and is the love of a friend
like the love of Christ? Their weeping or bleeding for thee does not ease
thee, not stay the course of thy tears or blood; but the tears and blood
that fell from thy Lord have a sovereign, healing virtue. O my soul! If
love deserves and should beget love, what incomprehensible love is here
before thee! Pour out all the store of thy affections here, and all is
too little—O that it were more! O that it were many thousand times more!
Let him be first served that served the first. Let him have the first
born and strength of thy soul, who parted with strength, and life and
love for thee.
O my soul! dost thou love for _excellency_? Yonder is the region of
light; this is the land of darkness. Yonder twinkling stars, that shining
moon and radiant sun, are all but lanterns, hung out of thy Father’s
house, to light thee while thou walkest in this dark world. But how
little dost thou know the glory and blessedness that are within.
Dost thou love for _suitableness_? What person more suitable than
Christ—his god-head and humanity, his fullness and freeness, his
willingness and constancy, all proclaim him thy most suitable friend.
What state more suitable to thy misery than mercy, or to thy sin and
pollution than honor and perfection? What place more suitable to thee
than heaven? Does this world agree with thy desires? Hast thou not had a
sufficient trial of it, or dost thou love for interest and near relation?
Where hast thou better interest than in heaven, or nearer relation than
there?
Dost thou love for _acquaintance and familiarity_? Though thine eyes
have never seen thy Lord, yet thou hast heard his voice, received his
benefits, and lived in his bosom. He taught thee to know thyself and him;
he opened thee that first window, through which thou sawest into heaven.
Hast thou forgotten since thy heart was careless and he awakened it;
hard, and he softened it; stubborn, and he made it yield; at peace, and
he troubled it; whole, and he broke it; and broken, till he healed it
again? Hast thou forgotten the times when he found thee in tears; when he
heard thy secret sighs and groans, and left all to come and comfort thee?…
Methinks I hear him still saying to me, “Poor sinner, though thou hast
dealt unkindly with me, and cast me off, yet I will not do so by thee;
though thou hast set light by me and all my mercies, yet they and myself
are thine. What wouldst thou have that I can give thee? And what dost
thou want that I can not give thee? If anything I have will give thee
pleasure, thou shalt have it. Wouldst thou have pardon? I freely forgive
thee all the debt. Wouldst thou have grace and peace? Thou shalt have
both. Wouldst thou have myself? Behold I am thine, thy friend, thy Lord,
thy brother, husband and head. Wouldst thou have the Father? I will bring
thee to him, and thou shalt have him, in and by me.” These were my Lord’s
reviving words.
* * * * *
If _bounty and compassion_ be an attractive of love, how immeasurably,
then, am I bound to love him! All the mercies that have filled up my
life, all the places that ever I abode in, all the societies and persons
I have been conversant with, all my employments and relations, every
condition I have been in, and every change I have passed through, all
tell me that the fountain is overflowing goodness. Lord, what a sum of
love am I indebted to thee! And how does my debt continually increase!
How should I love again for so much love? But shall I dare to think of
requiting thee, or of recompensing all thy love with mine? Will my mite
requite thee for thy golden mines, my faint wishes for thy constant
bounty; mine, which is nothing, or not mine, for thine, which is infinite
and thine own? Shall I dare to contend in love with thee, or set my
borrowed languid spark against the sun of love?
* * * * *
No, Lord, I yield; I am overcome. O blessed conquest. Go on victoriously
and still prevail, and triumph in thy love. The captive of love shall
proclaim thy victory; when thou leadest me in triumph from earth to
heaven, from death to life, from the tribunal to the throne! myself, and
all that see it, shall acknowledge thou hast prevailed, and all shall
say, “Behold how he loved him.”—_From Baxter’s “Saint’s Rest,” abridged
by Fawcett._
[_May 11._]
For we, being accustomed to a careless and perfunctory performing of
these duties, can not but find it a hard and difficult matter to keep
our hearts so close unto them as to perform them as we ought to do, and
so as that we may be really said to do them. For we must not think that
sitting in the church while the word of God is preached, is hearing
the word of God, or being present there while prayers are read is real
praying; no, no, there is a deal more required than this to our praying
to the great God aright; insomuch that, for my own part, I really think
that prayer, as it is the highest, so it is the hardest duty that we can
be engaged in; all the faculties of our souls as well as members of our
bodies being obliged to put forth themselves in their several capacities,
to the due performance of it.
And as for these several graces and virtues with which our souls must be
adorned withal, before they ever can come to heaven, though it be easy
to talk of them, it is not so to act them. I shall instance only in some
few, as to love God above all other things, and other things only for
God’s sake; to hope on nothing but God’s promises, and to fear nothing
but his displeasure; to love other men’s persons so as to hate their
vices, and so to hate their vices as still to love their persons; not
to covet riches when we have them not, nor trust on them when we have
them; to deny ourselves that we may please God, and to take up our cross
that we may follow Christ; to live above the world whilst we are in it,
and to despise it whilst we use it; to be always upon our watchguard,
strictly observing not only the outward actions of our life, but the
inward motions of our hearts; to hate those very things which we used to
love, and to love those very duties which we used to hate; to choose the
greatest affliction before the least sin, and to neglect the getting of
the greatest gains rather than the performing of the smallest duty; to
believe truths which we can not comprehend, merely upon the testimony of
one whom we never saw; to submit our own wills to God’s and to delight
ourselves in obeying him; to be patient under sufferings, and thankful
for all the troubles we meet with here below; to be ready and willing to
do and suffer anything we can for him who hath done and suffered so much
for us; to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, relieve the indigent, and
rescue the oppressed to the utmost of our power; in a word, to be every
way as pious toward God, as obedient to Christ, as loyal to our prince,
as faithful to our friends, as loving to our enemies, as charitable to
the poor, as just in our dealings, as eminent in all true graces and
virtues, as if we were to be saved by it; and yet by no confidence in
it, but still look upon ourselves as unprofitable servants, and depend
upon Christ, and Christ alone for pardon and salvation.—_From “Private
Thoughts upon Religion and a Christian Life,” by Bishop Beveridge._
[_May 18._]
Now, upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two
Shining Men again, who there waited for them. Therefore, being come out
of the river, they saluted them, saying: “We are ministering spirits,
sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation.” Thus
they went toward the gate.
Now, you must note that the city stood upon a mighty hill; but the
pilgrims went up that hill with ease, because they had these two men to
lead them up by the arms; they had likewise left their mortal garments
behind them in the river; for though they went in with them, they came
out without them. They therefore went up here with much agility and
speed, though the foundation upon which the city was framed was higher
than the clouds; they therefore went up through the regions of the air,
sweetly talking as they went, being comforted because they safely got
over the river, and had such glorious companions to attend them.
The talk that they had with the Shining Ones was about the glory of the
place; who told them that the beauty and glory of it was inexpressible.
There, said they, is “the Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the
innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect.”
You are going now, said they, to the paradise of God, wherein you shall
see the tree of life, and eat of the never fading fruits thereof; and,
when you come there, you shall have white robes given you, and your
walk and talk shall be every day with the King, even all the days of
eternity. There you shall not see again such things as you saw when you
were in the lower region, upon the earth, to-wit: sorrow, sickness,
affliction and death; “for the former things are passed away.” You are
going now to Abraham, to Isaac, and to the prophets, men that God hath
taken away from the evil to come, and that are now resting upon their
beds, each one walking in his righteousness. The men then asked, What
must we do in the holy place? To whom it was answered: You must there
receive the comfort of all your toil, and have joy for all your sorrow;
you must reap what you have sown, even the fruit of all your prayers,
and tears, and sufferings for the King by the way. In that place you
must wear crowns of gold, and enjoy the perpetual sight and visions of
the Holy One; for there you shall see him as he is. There also you shall
serve him continually with praise, with shouting and thanksgiving, whom
you desired to serve in the world, though with much difficulty, because
of the infirmity of your flesh. There you shall enjoy your friends again
that are gone thither before you, and there you shall with joy receive
even every one that follows into the holy place after you. There also you
shall be clothed with glory and majesty, and put into an equipage fit to
ride out with the King of Glory.… Also when he shall again return to the
city, you shall go too, with sound of trumpet and be ever with him.—_From
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress._
[_May 25._]
If we can make this with ourselves: I was in times past dead in
trespasses and sins, I walked after the prince that ruleth in the air,
and after the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience; but
God, who is rich in mercy, through his great love, wherewith he loved
me, even when I was dead, hath quickened me in Christ. I was fierce,
heady, proud, high minded, but God hath made me like a child that is
newly weaned. I loved pleasures more than God; I followed greedily the
joys of this present world; I esteemed him that erected a stage or
theater more than Solomon which built a temple to the Lord; the harp,
viol, timbrel, and pipe, men singers and women singers were at my feast;
it was my felicity to see my children dance before me; I said of every
kind of vanity, O how sweet art thou unto my soul! All which things are
now crucified to me, and I to them; now I hate the pride of life, and
the pomp of this world; now I take as great delight in the way of thy
testimonies, O Lord, as in all riches; now I find more joy of heart in
my Lord and Savior, than the worldly minded man when “his possessions do
much abound;” now I taste nothing sweet but the bread which came down
from heaven, to give life unto the world; now my eyes see nothing but
Jesus rising from the dead; now my ears refuse all kinds of melody, to
hear the song of them that have gotten the victory of the beast and of
his image, and of his mark, and of the number of his name, that stand on
the sea of glass, “having the harps of God, and singing the song of Moses
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous
are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, O King of
saints.” Surely, if the Spirit have been thus effectual in the sacred
work of our regeneration with newness of life, if we endeavor thus to
form ourselves anew, then we may say boldly with the blessed apostle, in
the tenth to the Hebrews: We are not of them that withdraw ourselves to
perdition, but which follow faith to the salvation of the soul.…
The Lord of his infinite mercy give us hearts plentifully fraught with
the treasure of this blessed assurance of faith unto the end.—_From
Hooker._
* * * * *
All men have a rational soul and moral perfectibility; it is these
qualities which make the poorest peasant sacred and valued by me. Moral
perfectibility is our destiny, and here are opened up to the historian a
boundless field and a rich harvest.—_Forster._