ause they want to
feel it and not to believe it. They want to work for it, and with
efforts get hold of it, instead of just quietly sinking down and
believing, "Christ, the living Jesus, He will do _everything_ for us."
That is the second stage. The first stage is that of ignorance, the
second stage is that of unbelief--the doubting heart that cannot take in
the wonderful truth that Jesus lives.

Then comes the third stage--

_The burning heart._

Jesus came to the two disciples, and after He had reproved them and
said: "Oh! fools, and slow of heart to believe," He began to open the
Scriptures to them, and to tell them of all the wonderful things the
prophets had taught. Then their eyes were opened, and they began to
understand the Scriptures. They saw that it was true that it was
prophesied that Christ must rise. As He talked, there came out from
Him--the living risen One--a mighty influence, and it rested upon them,
and they began to feel their hearts burn within them with joy and
gladness.

You still say perhaps: "That is the stage we want to come to." No; God
forbid you should stop there. You may get in that third stage--the
burning heart--and yet something is still wanting--the revelation of
Christ. The disciples had had a blessed experience of His divine powers,
but He had not revealed Himself, and oh! how often it is that at
Conventions and in churches, and in meetings and in blessed fellowship
with God's saints, our hearts burn within us. These are precious
experiences of the working of God's grace and Spirit, and yet there is
something wanting. What is that? Jesus Himself has been working upon us,
and the power of his risen life has touched us, but we cannot say, "I
have met Him. He has made Himself known to me." Oh, the difference
between a burning heart, which becomes cold after a time, which comes by
fits and starts, and the blessed revelation of Jesus Himself as my
Saviour, taking charge of me and blessing me and keeping me every day!
This is the stage of

_The satisfied heart._

Oh my brother, my sister! It is what I ask for you, and it is what I am
sure you ask for yourself. I ask it for myself. Lord Jesus! may we know
Thee in thy divine glory as the risen One, our Jesus, our Beloved and
our mighty One. Oh! if there are any sad ones who cannot take this in,
and who say, "I have never known the joy of religion yet"--listen, we
are going to tell you how you can. All will center round this one thing,