;
scarcely power to put up the weapons of revenge against some; and even
to those whom, like the publicans and Pharisees and sinners, we love
because they love us, we have not been able to make an adequate return
for the love they have lavished upon us. Then God teaches us that
there lies in Him the power of enlarging the human affections, and He
enlarges our hearts that we, "being rooted and grounded in love,"--not
only in the experimental realisation of His love to us, but also in the
experimental living out of our love to Him, and to all that He has made
and given us,--are able to "run the way of His commandments." For that
is His new commandment, "that we love one another." Our practical
state will depend on the enlarging of our hearts. We talk of
large-hearted people, but they are not so by nature in the sense God
wishes. It needs a Divine operation and a definite Divine experience
to enable us to live out the law of the New Testament.

Thus to _do_ more, we must first of all _be_ more. This is the Gospel
way all through. God never teaches us that we are to _do_ and
afterwards to _be_. What preachers tell you about dead works means
simply that it is a mistake for us to try to do before we have learned
to be. You may see a little child trying to lift a heavy weight, and
you tell it that it must wait till its muscles are stronger: it must
wait till it has _become_. This was the way at the beginning in
conversion: "dead works" means that in us there does not dwell force or
power to lift the great weight of the commandment or righteousness of
God; hence they are useless or stupid works. When you find in your
heart your inability to fulfil the Divine commandment, and have not the
strength and power you want, though all day trying to lift the heavy
weight, you come to God and say, "It is plain that, as I am, I cannot
live out this righteousness, and I come for a new life to live it out.
I must have Thine own strength." Then we understand our Lord's saying,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

You have lived this out in some way since you were converted; but you
have not realised enough the more blessed life; you know a little of
walking in the way, but running in the way brings you face to face with
something outside your strength and power. It is no use to try and do
work which needs a stronger man, unless we can become stronger men.
Many make a mistake here; they are trying to