gure you into the
beauty of His likeness and put the benediction of His peace upon
this old sin-smitten, tear-stained earth?

Do you ever pray the last prayer recorded in Holy Scripture, the
last prayer of the Holy Apostolic Church?

Listen to it! Listen to it well!

"Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Is this prayer in your heart?

Does it ever come to your lips?

Do you ever genuinely and openly offer it, wishing with all your
heart it might be so, might be answered in your time; or, have you
forgotten it like the Church at large?

Do you feel ashamed or afraid to offer it in public?

When you try to offer it in private or public does unbelief smother
it?

I once heard a boy say to his mother:

"O mother, don't do so much for me; love me more."

I tell you the truth whether you hear or forbear: as preachers and
teachers many of you are doing too much for the Lord. You are busy,
morning, noon and night in His name, running here and there,
tinkering religiously and morally, putting things together and
increasingly active; so busy doing for the Lord that like Martha you
have no time to sit still at His feet as did Mary and hear His Word,
hear what He has to say to you; so busy doing for Him that you are
losing sight of Himself. This was the "somewhat" He had against the
Ephesian Church.

That Church was full of works and labours. They had tested false
doctrines and false teachers. They stood squarely for fundamentals
and were theologically sound; but they had left their "first love,"
love to Himself, love to His person, devotion to His person, a
flaming, outbreaking, overflowing enthusiasm for a personal, a
realistic Saviour and Lord. They were taken up with what they were
doing for Him rather than with Himself. They had got away from the
loving, impelling touch and contact with Himself.

The personal touch with Christ!

That is what He wants from us. Not so much what we are doing for
Him, but what He is to us personally. He wants to be the first and
the last, the chiefest among ten thousands and the one altogether
lovely. This is the definition of true and efficient Christianity
--personal devotion to a living and loving Saviour.

Looking down from heaven He is saying to us, no matter how much we
may be doing for Him, He is saying this to us:

"Love me more."

And until there is this flaming, burning, out-flowing enthusiasm for
and devotion to a personal Lord, to Him for what He is as well as
fo