greater theme is before our hearts. The Love of Christ. The heart
almost shrinks from attempting to write on the matchless,
unfathomable love of our blessed and adorable Lord. All the Saints
of God who have spoken and written on the Love of Christ have never
told out its fulness and vastness, its heights and its depths. "The
Love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians iii:19). And yet
we _do_ know the Love of Christ. While we cannot fully grasp that
mighty, eternal Love our hearts can enjoy it and we can ever know
more of it. And He Himself whose Love is set upon us wants us to
drink constantly of the ocean of His never-changing Love and receive
new tokens, new glimpses of it. Surely His own blessed Spirit,
though one feels so insufficient for such an object, will guide us
in our meditation. He is with us and in us to glorify Him and take
of the things of Christ to show them unto us. The Love of Christ,
the Holy Spirit ever longs to make known and to impart to our poor
and feeble hearts.

The Love of our Lord is an eternal Love. It is not a thing of time.
It antedates the foundation of the world.

"His gracious eye surveyed us
Ere stars were seen above."

He as the Son of God in the bosom of God was the object of Love.
"Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John xvii:
24). And then He knew us and His Love was even then set upon us,
before we ever were in existence. He knew our sinfulness, our
enmity, our vileness, and in Love which passeth knowledge He looked
forward to the time, when He would manifest this Love to us His
fallen creatures. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is
high I cannot attain unto it" (Psalm cxxxix:6).

It was Love which brought Him down from the Glory, which He had with
God. What Love to come into this dark, sin-cursed world, a world
full of enemies. What Love to leave that bright and glorious home
and appear as man, made of a woman entering this world He had called
into existence. And there was no room for Him in the inn. It passeth
knowledge.

And then that life, which He lived on earth, was lived in that
mighty Love.

"A love that led Thee here below
To tread a lonely path in grace,
To pass through sorrow, grief and woe,
The portion of a ruin'd race."

What Love we see in Him, in every step of that lonely path! What
compassion, what tenderness in every action in every word we
discover, ever new and fresh, in that blessed life of God