make us see how little
there was to take, and how little of that little has been kept for Him?
And yet we _do_ love Him! He knows that! The very mourning and longing to
love Him more proves it. But we want more than that, and so does our
Lord.

He has created us to love. We have a sealed treasure of love, which
either remains sealed, and then gradually dries up and wastes away, or is
unsealed and poured out, and yet is the fuller and not the emptier for
the outpouring. The more love we give, the more we have to give. So far
it is only natural. But when the Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ,
and sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, this natural love is
penetrated with a new principle as it discovers a new Object. Everything
that it beholds in that Object gives it new depth and new colours. As it
sees the holiness, the beauty, and the glory, it takes the deep hues of
conscious sinfulness, unworthiness, and nothingness. As it sees even a
glimpse of the love that passeth knowledge, it takes the glow of wonder
and gratitude. And when it sees that love drawing close to its deepest
need with blood-purchased pardon, it is intensified and stirred, and
there is no more time for weighing and measuring; we must pour it out,
all there is of it, with our tears, at the feet that were pierced for
love of us.

And what then? Has the flow grown gradually slower and shallower? Has our
Lord reason to say, 'My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and
as a stream of brooks they pass away'? It is humiliating to have found
that we could not keep on loving Him, as we loved in that remembered hour
when 'Thy time was the time of love.' We have proved that we were not
able. Let this be only the stepping-stone to proving that He is able!

There will have been a cause, as we shall see if we seek it honestly. It
was not that we really poured out all our treasure, and so it naturally
came to an end. We let it be secretly diverted into other channels. We
began keeping back a little part of the price for something else. We
looked away from, instead of looking away unto Jesus. We did not entrust
Him with our love, and ask Him to keep it for Himself.

And what has He to say to us? Ah, He upbraideth not. Listen! 'Thus saith
the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine
espousals.' Can any words be more tender, more touching, to you, to me?
Forgetting all the sin, all the backsliding, all the coldness, castin