first loves are not uncommon in the church and out of it. The
newly married couple enjoy a warmth of affection that sweetens their
cup of happiness and strews flowers all along their pathway of life.
This pleasure lasts while their love lasts; but when love dies,
happiness dies with it. This accounts for the joyless, pleasureless
life of many married partners. First love, alas! departed; the first
fire all burnt out, leaving naught but the dull ashes of cold
indifference and burning tears. It sometimes goes somewhat the same
way with members coming into the church. They run well for a season,
manifest a deep interest in the things of religion, but when
tribulation or persecution ariseth on account of the Word, directly
they stumble. Entire churches sometimes lose their first love for the
Lord and for one another. This seems to have been true of the church
at Ephesus.

The best way for all is to be sure that the first love is of the right
kind. I have heard of some coming into the church from motives of mere
personal interest. I have heard of one man who confessed, after he had
been expelled, that he got out of the Dunkards all he wanted. Said he:
"They helped me out of debt, and that is what I went in for." That man
never lost HIS first love. His first love was the love of self and the
world, and that is the love he carried with him when he was turned
out. Such examples, however, are rare. As a people we are not often
imposed upon in this way. But some who come in with the best of
motives, desiring to live in the church, to be built up in the church,
and to help build up the church, may, as I have known instances of the
kind, lose these good feelings, become discouraged, and altogether
unhappy. To such, if any of that class are here, I now speak.

At the start I have to say, I have glorious news for you. The Lord
says to us all: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of
good cheer; I have overcome the world." The blessed Savior has
overcome the world for every one of his people. We all have our
tribulations; but some are better able to bear them than others. The
Apostle Paul says: "Confirm the strong, support the weak." It seems
strange to us that any could ever grow weak in his day, when they were
as yet almost in sight of their ascended Lord, and in hearing of the
echo of his voice. But so it was then, and so it will ever be. But God
knows our feeble frame. "As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pi