ndignation they rejected Satan's suggestions. It
was because their hearts were full of love for God; and when they were
asked to {170} dishonour Him, they felt that an indignity had been put
upon them, and they rose up against it with all the force of a nature
made strong and pure by divine grace.

II. _The Bulwark of Love_

At the risk of a digression, we must here consider how we can increase
our love and acquire that quality in our souls which will enable us to
meet with a sense of outrage any persuasion to violate God's will.

The difficulty we experience in repelling Satan points directly to the
duty of practising those things which will give us an increase of love
and loyalty to God. This is to be accomplished by the execution of
some practical resolution which might be framed in this fashion: "I
found it hard to refrain from wounding Him; I know, therefore, that my
love for God is weaker than I thought. I will therefore this day seek
to increase my love in two ways: (1), I will watch for the evidence of
His love for me, and will meditate upon it, and upon my unworthiness of
it; (2), I will, by His help, force opportunity of doing a definite
number of loving acts toward Him and others, that by the practice of
love I may increase my love."

Then if we would secure a sure increase of love, {171} we must permit
no sort of indefiniteness to enter into the fulfilment of our
resolution. It must be carried out with precision.

For our meditation, nothing could be more profitable than to write out
with fulness and care the account of some blessing that has come to us
through God's love; and by the side of it write a like definite account
of some infidelity of ours toward Him. The shame of the contrast, if
our hearts be not wholly bad, cannot but drive us to Him with a fuller
desire, which will win from Him the gift of a renewed and strengthened
love.

The acts, too, must be of the most definite kind. Go out of your way
to speak or do some loving thing, offering it, at the time, to God as
your work of love to Him. Or it may be some simple act of prayer, such
as kneeling with great recollection and deliberation, folding the
hands, and lifting the heart in silence for a moment to God, then
repeating, very reverently and devoutly, the Lord's Prayer, or some
other short devotion. Then, after a pause, add, "Dear Lord, I offer
Thee this, to show Thee that I love Thee, and that I want to love Thee
more"; or some