'HE THAT LOVETH NOT KNOWETH NOT GOD'

    By Charles H. Spurgeon

    'He that loveth not knoweth not God.'  1 John 4:8

         The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in the love of Christ,
    and the yielding of his affections to Christ in return.  First, faith sets her seal upon
    the man by enabling the soul to say with the apostle, 'Christ loved me and gave
    Himself for me.'   Then love gives the countersign, and stamps upon the heart
    gratitude and love to Jesus in return.

'We love Him because He first loved us.'

         In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian religion,
    this double mark was clearly to be seen in all believers in Jesus; they were men
    who knew the love of Christ, and rested upon it as a man leaneth upon a staff
    whose trustiness he has tried.

         The love which they felt towards the Lord was not a quiet emotion which they
    hid within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls, and which they only
    spoke of in their private assemblies when they met on the first day of the week,
    and sang hymns in honor of Christ Jesus the crucified, but it was a passion with
    them of such a vehement and all-consuming energy, that it was visible in all their
    actions, spoke in their common talk, and looked out of their eyes even in their
    commonest glances.

         Love to Jesus was a flame which fed upon the core and heart of their being; and,
    therefore, from its own force burned its way into the outer man, and shone there.
    Zeal for the glory of King Jesus was the seal and mark of all genuine Christians.
    Because of their dependence upon Christ's love they dared much, and because of
    their love to Christ they did much, and it is the same now.

         The children of God are ruled in their inmost powers by love --­ the love of Christ
    constraineth them; they rejoice that divine love is set upon them, they feel it shed
    abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto them, and then by
    force of gratitude they love the Saviour with a pure heart, fervently.

My reader, do you love Him?  Ere you sleep, give an honest answer
to a weighty question!
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    Yours in Christ,
   Paul N. F.