upon our hearts. And so
notice what my text goes on to adduce as needful for Christ's love to
have its effect--namely, 'because we thus judge,' etc. Then my
estimate, my apprehension of the love of Christ must come in between
its manifestation and its power to grip, to restrain, to impel me. If
I may use such a figure, He stands, as it were, bugle in hand, and
blows the sweet strains that are meant to set the echoes flying. But
the rock must receive the impact of the vibrations ere it can throw
back the thinned echo of the music. Love must be believed and known
ere it can be responded to.

Now the only answer and echo that hearts desire is the love of the
beloved heart. We all know that in our earthly life. Love is as much
a hunger to be loved as the outgoing of my own affection. The two
things are inseparable, and there is nothing that repays love but
love. Jesus Christ wishes each of us to love Him. If it is true that
He loves me, then, intertwisted with the outgoing of His heart
towards me is the yearning that my heart may go out towards Him. Dear
brethren, this is no pulpit rhetoric, it is a plain, simple fact,
inseparable from the belief in Christ's love--that He wishes you and
every soul of man to love Him, and that, whatever else you bring, lip
reverence, orthodox belief, apparent surrender, in the assay shop of
His great mint all these are rejected, and the only metal that passes
the fire is the pure gold of an answering love. Brethren! is that
what you bring to Jesus Christ?

Love seeks for love, and our love can only be an echo of His. He
takes the beginning in everything. If I am to love Him back again, I
must have faith in His love to me. And if that be so, then the true
way by which you, imperfect Christian people, can deepen and
strengthen your love to Jesus Christ is not so much by efforts to
work up a certain warmth of sentiment and glow of affection, as by
gazing, with believing eyes of the heart, upon that which kindles
your love to Him. If you want ice to melt, put it out into the
sunshine, If you want the mirror to gleam, do not spend all your time
in polishing it. Carry it where it can catch the ray, and it will
flash it back in glory. 'We love Him because He first loved us.' Our
love is an echo; be sure that you listen for the parent note, and
link yourselves by faith with that great love which has come down
from Heaven for us all.

But how can I speak about echoes and responses when I know th