Come, dear readers, let each one of us speak for himself of the
wonderful love, not of Jonathan, but of Jesus. We will not relate
what we have been told, but the things which we have tasted and
handled-of the love of Christ. Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful
when I was a stranger wandering far from Thee, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind. Thy love restrained me from committing
the sin which is unto death, and withheld me from self-destruction.
Thy love held back the axe when Justice said, "Cut it down! why
cumbereth it the ground?" Thy love drew me into the wilderness,
stripped me there, and made me feel the guilt of my sin, and the
burden of mine iniquity. Thy love spake thus comfortably to me when,
I was sore dismayed--"Come unto Me, and I will give thee rest." Oh,
how matchless Thy love when, in a moment, Thou didst wash my sins
away, and make my polluted soul, which was crimson with the blood of
my nativity, and black with the grime of my transgressions, to be
white as the driven snow, and pure as the finest wool. How Thou didst
commend Thy love when Thou didst whisper in my ears, "I am thine and
thou art Mine." Kind were those accents when Thou saidst, "The Father
Himself loveth you." And sweet the moments, passing sweet, when Thou
declaredst to me "the love of the Spirit." Never shall my soul forget
those chambers of fellowship where Thou has unveiled Thyself to me.
Had Moses his cleft in the rock, where he saw the train, the back
parts of his God? We, too, have had our clefts in the rock, where we
have seen the full splendours of the Godhead in the person of Christ.
Did David remember the tracks of the wild goat, the land of Jordan
and the Hermonites? We, too, can remember spots to memory dear, equal
to these in blessedness. Precious Lord Jesus, give us a fresh draught
of Thy wondrous love to begin the month with. Amen.
