ousness, then, of Christ's present life and of His close relation
to ourselves is to be won only by loving Him and living in Him and for
Him. Lower grades of faith there are on which most of us stand, and by
which, let us hope, we are slowly ascending to this assured and
ineradicable consciousness. Drawn to Christ we are by the beauty of His
life, by His evident mastery of all that concerns us, by His knowledge,
by the revelation He makes; but doubts assail us, questionings arise,
and we long for the full assurance of the personal love of God and of
the continued personal life and energy of Christ which would give us an
immovable ground to stand on. According to Christ's explanation given in
this passage to His disciples, this deepest conviction, this
unquestionable consciousness of His presence, is attained only by those
who proceed upon the lower grades of faith, and with true love for Him
seek to find their life in Him. It is a conviction which can only be won
experimentally. The disciples passed from the lower to the higher faith
at a bound. The sight of the risen Lord, the new world vividly present
to them in His person, gave their devotedness an impulse which carried
them at once and for ever to certainty. There are many still who are so
drawn by spiritual affinity to Christ that unhesitatingly and
unrepentingly they give themselves wholly to Him, and have the reward of
a conscious life in Christ. Others have more slowly to win their way
upwards, fighting against unbelief, striving to give themselves more
undividedly to Christ, and encouraging themselves with the hope that
from their hearts also all doubts will one day for ever vanish. Certain
it is that Christ's life can only be given to those who are willing to
receive it--certain it is that only those who seek to do His work seek
to be sustained by His life. If we are not striving to attain those ends
which He gave His life to accomplish, we cannot be surprised if we are
not sensible of receiving His aid. If we aim at worldly ends, we shall
need no other energy than what the world supplies; but if we throw
ourselves heartily into the Christian order of things and manner of
life, we shall at once be sensible of our need of help, and shall know
whether we receive it or not.

Christ's promise is explicit--a promise given as the stay of His friends
in their bitterest need: "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth M