n Rom. xv. 30, "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the
Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the _love of the Spirit_, that ye strive
together with me in your prayers to God for me." Here we have "_love_"
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The reader would do well to stop and ponder
those five words, "_the love of the Spirit_." We dwell often upon the love
of God the Father. It is the subject of our daily and constant thought. We
dwell often upon the love of Jesus Christ the Son. Who would think of
calling himself a Christian who passed a day without meditating on the
love of his Saviour, but how often have we meditated upon "_the love of
the Spirit_"? Each day of our lives, if we are living as Christians ought,
we kneel down in the presence of God the Father and look up into His face
and say, "I thank Thee, Father, for Thy great love that led Thee to give
Thine only begotten Son to die upon the cross of Calvary for me." Each day
of our lives we also look up into the face of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ, and say, "Oh, Thou glorious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Thou Son of
God, I thank Thee for Thy great love that led Thee not to count it a thing
to be grasped to be on equality with God but to empty Thyself and
forsaking all the glory of heaven, come down to earth with all its shame
and to take my sins upon Thyself and die in my place upon the cross of
Calvary." But how often do we kneel and say to the Holy Spirit, "Oh, Thou
eternal and infinite Spirit of God, I thank Thee for Thy great love that
led Thee to come into this world of sin and darkness and to seek me out
and to follow me so patiently until Thou didst bring me to see my utter
ruin and need of a Saviour and to reveal to me my Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ, as just the Saviour whom I need." Yet we owe our salvation just as
truly to the love of the Spirit as we do to the love of the Father and the
love of the Son. If it had not been for the love of God the Father looking
down upon me in my utter ruin and providing a perfect atonement for me in
the death of His own Son on the cross of Calvary, I would have been in
hell to-day. If it had not been for the love of Jesus Christ, the eternal
Word of God, looking upon me in my utter ruin and in obedience to the
Father, putting aside all the glory of heaven for all the shame of earth
and taking my place, the place of the curse, upon the cross of Calvary and
pouring out His life utterly for me, I would have been in hell to-day. But
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