How then are we to have this transcendent living
whole conveyed into our souls? We brace our wills to secure it. We try
to copy those who have it. We lay down rules about it. We watch. We
pray. But these things alone will not bring love into our nature. Love
is an _effect_. And only as we fulfill the right condition can we have
the effect produced. Shall I tell you what the _cause_ is?
If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John you
find these words: "We love because He first loved us." "We love," not
"We love _Him_." That is the way the old version has it, and it is
quite wrong. "_We love_--because He first loved us." Look at that word
"because." It is the _cause_ of which I have spoken. "_Because_ He
first loved us," the effect follows that we love, we love Him, we love
all men. We cannot help it. Because He loved us, we love, we love
everybody. Our heart is slowly changed. Contemplate the love of
Christ, and you will love. Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ's
character, and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness
to tenderness.
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