h ought to be continuous and progressive, is the foundation of all
strength, blessedness, goodness, in a human character; and if we have it
we have the germ of all possible excellence and growth, not because of
what it is in itself, for in itself it is nothing more than the opening
of the heart to the reception of the celestial influences of grace and
righteousness that He pours down. And, therefore, this is the thing that
a wise man will most desire for himself, and for those that are dearest
to him.

Depend upon it, whether it is what we want most or not, it is what God
wants most for us. He does not care nearly so much that our lives should
be joyful as that they should be righteous and full of faith; and He
subjects us to many a sorrow and loss and disappointment in order that
the life of nature may be broken and the life of faith may be strong. If
we rightly understand the relative value of outward and of inward
things, we shall be thankful for the storms that drive us nearer to Him;
for the darkening earth that may make the pillar of cloud glow at the
heart into a pillar of fire, and for all the discipline, painful though
it may be, with which God answers the prayer, 'Lord, increase our
faith.'

II. And now, next, notice how inseparably associated with a true faith
is love.

The one is effect that never is found without its cause; the other is
cause which never but produces its effect. These two are braided
together by the Apostle as inseparable in reality and inseparable in
thought. And that it is so is plain enough, and there follow from it
some practical lessons that I desire to lay upon your hearts and my own.

There are, then, here two principles, or rather two sides of one
thought; no faith without love, no love without faith.

No faith is genuine and deep which does not at once produce in the heart
where it is lodged an answering love to God. That is clear enough. Faith
is, as I have said, the recognition and the reception of the divine love
into the heart; and we are so constituted as that if a man once knows
and believes in any real sense the love that God has to him, he answers
it back again with his love as certainly as an echo which gives back the
sound that reaches it.

Our faith is, if I may so say, like a burning-glass, which concentrates
the rays of the divine love upon our hearts, and focuses them into a
point that kindles our hearts into flame. If we have the confidence that
God loves us,